Libertarians Blame Two-Party System
By: Administrative Account | Source: CNSNews.com
May 12, 2006 11:04PM EST

By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Senior Editor
May 12, 2006

(CNSNews.com) - The Libertarian Party says both Republicans and Democrats have failed the country, and it points to the NSA terrorist surveillance program as another example of government abuse.

"It is clear that the NSA's domestic spying program, a program that should not legally exist, is far larger than originally anticipated," said Michael Dixon, chairman of the Libertarian Party.

Dixon was reacting to Thursday's USA Today report, which said the National Security Agency has been secretly gathering the telephone records of tens of millions of Americans and compiling them into a federal database. It's part of an effort to track which numbers call which numbers.

"The fear of terrorism was used to create this database shortly after September 11th, just as it was used to pass the Patriot Act and ignore the rule of law with increased domestic spying," Dixon said.

The Libertarian Party congratulated Quest Communications for refusing to comply with the government's request for its customers' phone records.

"Despite repeated demands and harassment, Qwest remained loyal to its customers and America, failing to cave in to bureaucratic pressure," Dixon said. (AT&T, Verizon, and Bellsouth all complied with the government's request.)

"Under the Bush Administration, the federal government has demonstrated that it has no respect for the inherent rights of Americans, and neither Republican nor Democratic politicians have done a thing to stop this madness despite repeated abuses," Dixon said.

He said the country "needs a change," adding that the Libertarian Party is willing to provide it.

The press release includes a solicitation for funds.

According to USA Today, the secret collection of Americans' phone records may not be unconstitutional, but legal analysts told the newspaper it may violate federal surveillance and telecommunication laws.

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