Big Brother is watching

Obama’s administration bowed to bipartisan pressure yesterday from critics of his drone strike policy, issuing a terse statement saying the president doesn't have power to carry out such a killing on “an American not engaged in combat on American soil.”    Former adviser to President Bush stated, “something that resonates especially strongly on the libertarian right that would say, ‘I don’t want Big Brother to be watching me,’ but also on the left, with people saying, ‘Do I want the FBI to be reading my e-mail?”  Senator Ron Wyden went on to say, “You’re going to start to see the emergence of a checks- and-balances caucus, and that there will be a lot of Democrats in it."
 “As drone use becomes more and more common, it is crucial that the government’s use of these spying machines be transparent and accountable to the American people,” Naomi Gilens of the American Civil Liberties Union wrote in a web posting last week. “We should not have to guess whether our government is using these eyes in the sky to spy on us.”
  So if they did use drones and attack on U.S. soil, do they have the right or does the President have the right to kill a supposed terrorist on U.S. soil?  According to Rothbard, no.  For “reasons of State.” Service to the State is supposed to excuse all actions that would be considered immoral or criminal if committed by “private” citizens.  Libertarians make no exceptions.  Only the government, in society,
is empowered to aggress against the property rights of its subjects, whether to extract revenue, to impose its moral code, or to kill those with whom it disagrees.  So even the use of drones to spy on us would be immoral and an invasion of privacy by the US government and a violation of liberty.  If the government does use drones, not for killing but to spy on the populous, then there would still be an issue of violating privacy rights.  Since Rothbard passed away before the new technology was made available for modern warfare, he should agree that the use of such technology for the better of government would violate liberty.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-08/obama-faces-bipartisan-pressure-on-drone-big-brother-fear.html