>I dunno. Disappearing off the street all of a sudden and ending up in a foreign country for "rendition" isn't execution, but it's quite a change from "normal" too.

How many people has that (allegedly) happened to? One? A dozen? A hundred? Stalin killed MILLIONS. End of comparison.

>There were (are) laws on the books implemented after certain irregularities were discovered about FBI/CIA activities years back, when the "threat" was rabble-rousers taking to the streets. Those outlawed activities were serious then but not now?

You lost me on this one.

>Let's assume that there's a law currently on the books that forbids the FBI from collecting information on citizens without a court warrant. The intent of such a law (if there was one) is pretty clear.
>But under the guise of a declaration of war and employing modern MBA techniques of conforming to the LETTER OF THE LAW it could be argued that if they let someone non-governmental do the "collecting" of such information, then the FBI or CIA just purchased it and stored it, they would not be breaking the law.
>Would that be OK with you? I think we have a right to expect our governments to respect the spirit/intent of our laws.

It is. I have a right to expect our government to take whatever measures necessary to defeat out enemies in a time of war.

The fact of the matter is privacy is an illusion in modern-day society. A scary amount of information is captured and made for sale. If the government wants to sift through it to identify possible terrorists, fine. They're going after terrorists, not me. And even if they did come after me, they would need to have all their legal ducks in a row when we went to court.