December 2002 • Vol 2, No. 11 •

Enough Said

By John Ashcroft

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“The Clinton administration’s paranoid and prurient interest in (monitoring) international e-mail is a wholly unhealthy precedent especially given this administration’s track record on FBI files and IRS snooping. Every medium by which people communicate can be subject to exploitation by those with illegal or immoral intentions. Nevertheless, this is no reason to hand Big Brother the keys to unlock our e-mail diaries, open our ATM records or translate our international communications.”

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The words of John Ashcroft, as a U.S. senator, opposing the Clinton administration’s request for broadened authority to eavesdrop on high-tech communications.

From his Aug. 12, 1997 op-ed piece—”Welcoming Big Brother”—in the Washington Times.