FBI director Comey backs new Feinstein push for decrypt bill
From his perspective as the head of the FBI whose job it is to achieve outcomes within the law, of course Comey advocates encryption backdoors. He would likely also advocate allowing the FBI to suspend the bill of rights for any suspect during the duration of an investigation, and he&#x27;d quite likely prefer that the FBI be legally allowed to torture suspects if extreme techniques were viewed as likely to result in useful information.  To law enforcement, the rights of a suspect are a barrier to many convictions.<p>How did we get to this point?   Nobody would reasonably argue that extreme surveillance measures, patriot act, etc., is necessary to stop the vast majority of crimes from occurring, so why is it so easy for seemingly serious&#x2F;intelligent people to think this nonsense is reasonable?<p>Members of our government are so indoctrinated about stopping &quot;terrorism&quot; that they have lost all sense of perspective.  Terrorism is a political word to describe political enemies of the state, yet the patriot act and surveillance machinery has been used in enforcement of many other kinds of (less serious) crime.<p>I am surprised anyone can still use the word &quot;terrorism&quot; with a straight face anymore after it&#x27;s become so clear that there is no large existential threat (merely the occasional zealot who acts out due to his&#x2F;her own mental health issues).  And in spite of a historically unprecedented global surveillance system there have been no attacks thwarted.<p>Comey is a symptom of the kind of cowardly, authority-respecting society we&#x27;ve become.  I look forward to the day when our FBI director is not someone whose gaffes and judgment calls we read about in the newspaper on a regular basis.