Issue:What about the next Nixon? - NSA Gave Other U.S. Agencies Information From Surveillance:

Specific:"has been passed on to other government agencies, which cross-check the information with tips and information collected in other databases, current and former administration officials said."

Comment:The surveillance is not so much the concern. It is the logic and reasoning used with the information gathered. It is the competence of those handling the information - this time and in the future. These are items for the debate.

What is the guarantee that information gathered was not used in political objectives? What is/are the guarantee that the information gathered is not used in enabling large corporation to gain advantage in the "flat" world?

In a slightly different issue. There is some discussion about "Attack Prevention". It has been said that the value of this kind of surveillance has been proven, but it would be a violation of national security to make the case. Well, to this old software developer this rings of the old "Zero bug initiative". This is a management technique used to prove to other management, that their house is in order. But it is a paradox and a myth.

The state of having "zero bugs" in a software program cannot exist. "Zero Bugs" is in actuality a social communication. It the sociological mechanism that specifies and limits the uses and confines the environment within which a software application is run. So if an application has zero bugs on an Intel Chip machine, running on XP - is run on old Apple Mac - it will fail. So where is the error? Is that developer didn't design it properly? Is that the Manager allowed the client to run it on an Apple? Is it with the client for actually running where he knew it couldn't run? Many of those answers depend on the cash and power positions of the players. The reality of a state of zero bugs does not exist.

So, translate this to the War on terror. Can we be truly safe? For there will always be terrorist. Terrorism is a tactic and not a ideology. Therefore, those who oppose the war today can be classified as a threat to national security tomorrow, just because the President decides as much.

There will always be people willing to blow up the American people. Some will Americans - like in Oklahoma and others will be non-Americans. Should we give up our rights of governance to any Presidency, to simply protect us? This President is selling "we the people" - the end users of the software system called Democracy - an application that has "zero bugs".

Americans will and do die. They will die at the hands of other people. These future civilian and innocent death will be unjust deaths. They will be tragic. These future deaths are now unavoidable and certain. The only real question is the definition of the bad guy - who is to blame. The questions of when and how are basically irrelevant. History won't care about that. The leader when it happens won't care. They will predictably seek to avoid the blame.

The key is the qualities and nature of those who survive. America and American Democracy can survive for thousands of years. But only if fundamental assumptions can withstand the demands and strains of temporary and short term conditions.

If the War on Terror is allowed to "conquer" and dominate the world in the name of protecting ourselves, oppositional forces will bring it down and eliminate our culture - eventually. President Bush has indicated that Iran, Syria and Korea are an "axis of evil". Evil is to only be conquered. Evil is not something to be tolerated.

Democracy is a religion in that it must be accepted willingly and it cannot be forced on a population. It is an ideal. It is an idea. A democractic "dogma" will cause participants to overlook details and create vulernabilities through which terrorist to exploit.

The truest and most securing long term tactic is the involvement of the individual. Democracy is time consuming. If you fill the time of day of potential terrorist with the activities that motivates them, they will be less inclined to act out.

That's enough for now.

Address:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/31/AR2005123100808.html?nav=hcmodule