Dear editor:

Re: “A solid surveillance solution,” Dan Nicastro, Ed/Op, Mar. 5, 2008.

Dan Nicastro’s column about wiretapping is so far from the mark of actual fact that it’s surprising his fear mongering doesn’t raise the ire of his fellow students. But then, that’s what you get for reading press releases from the American Civil Liberties Union and citing them without, you know, doing due diligence to check them out.

Nicastro would have the email that Achmed in Damascus sent to Abdul in Baghdad that – coincidentally – gets routed through Hoboken, NJ have the same Fourth Amendment protections as American citizens.

In case Nicastro hasn’t noticed, there’s a war on. Intelligence is a part of that war: By his standards, a listening station in Hawaii in WWII could not have listened to Japanese transmissions because the radio waves went over U.S. territory.

As to the telecoms: The courts have consistently ruled that your phone records are not your property, they are the company’s. They aren’t listening to you and Aunt Matilda, they’re looking for patterns. And the lack of immunity to their helping our government find and stop terrorist attacks is a great big wet kiss to the Trial Lawyers – the Democrats’ biggest contributors.

After 9/11, the left excoriated President Bush for not connecting the dots. Now, the Left wants to keep anyone from even seeing them … until, of course, the next attack when the left will – like clockwork – ask how we didn’t see it coming.

David Hunt Class of 1990