Nat Hentoff continues to ask, "Where's the Press?" We join him. Check out his new column in the Village Voice explaining the dangers of the proposed Clean Air Act, FBI spyplanes and CAPPS II:

Every time the administration removes another strand of the liberties in the Bill of Rights, we are told it has to be done in the vital interest of our homeland's security against the terrorists. But it is increasingly clear that we the citizens need to be secure from our government—not only where our liberties are concerned but also with regard to our health and our very lives. An astonishing proposal in the Bush-Ashcroft draft of Patriot Act II—hardly reported, if at all, in much of the press—subverts the Clean Air Act so radically that residents in towns and cities around the country could be affected.....

Then there is the issue of the FBI Spyplanes, reported March 15 in the Associated Press:

In the March 15 Daily News, there was an Associated Press report from Washington that more than 80 FBI planes and helicopters are being used to "track and collect intelligence on suspected terrorists and other criminals." Note the key word, "suspected."

Among the FBI's aircraft, the AP story continues, "are several planes, known as Nightstalkers, equipped with infrared devices that allow agents to track people and vehicles in the dark.

"Other aircraft are outfitted with electronic surveillance equipment so agents can access listening devices placed in cars, in buildings, and even along streets, or listen to cell phone calls. . . . All 56 FBI field offices have access to aircraft. . . . [Legally,] no warrants are necessary for the FBI to track cars or people from the air." The good news, as it were, is that the FBI does need warrants to monitor cell-phone calls, even if from a plane.

Hentoff also addresses CAPS II:

A February 27 warning from the ACLU, about which I've seen few follow-ups in the press, begins: "A secretive new system for conducting background checks on all airline passengers threatens to create a bureaucratic machine for destroying Americans' privacy and a government blacklist that will harm innocent Americans."

Hentoff asks, where is the mainstream press follow-up on these stories? We can't speak for the mainstream press, but bloggers have been timely following them. Our continual coverage of Patriot Act II is here and CAPPS II here. We wrote about the the spyplanes here. Other bloggers have too, including Instapundit and Patriot Watch.

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