# The National Counterterrorism Center: major threat to freedom or overblown? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 13, 2012, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-counterterrorism-center-major-threat-to-freedom-or-overblown/643946 "2012-12-13T19:07:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-counterterrorism-center-major-threat-to-freedom-or-overblown/643946/1 "2012-12-13T19:07:18Z")
[The Wall Street Journal](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324478304578171623040640006.html) has an article on the NCTC, which (as it has been characterized by blogs and other non-professional sources) has the power to get any record they want on any citizen, whether accused or suspected of a crime or not, and store those records for years, without oversight, warrant, or any due process whatsoever. Now, the initial reading concerns me, but I’ve heard cries of wolf before, so here’s the query: how bad is this agency, really? What do you foresee as its future? ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-counterterrorism-center-major-threat-to-freedom-or-overblown/643946/2 "2012-12-13T19:21:44Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > which (as it has been characterized by blogs and other non-professional sources) has the power to get any record they want on any citizen, Any\* **Government** record. So basically, the gov’t can look at records that the gov’t generates about people. I can’t really get too worked up about that. As a practical matter, I’m always kinda sceptical about programs like this. I suspect they generate too many false positives to be useful. But as long as they limit themselves to gov’t records that aren’t otherwise protected by legislation, I don’t have a moral problem with it. \*actually, its says almost any. It doesn’t say what the exceptions are, but I suspect some records are protected by separate legislation. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-counterterrorism-center-major-threat-to-freedom-or-overblown/643946/3 "2012-12-13T19:35:42Z")
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**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-counterterrorism-center-major-threat-to-freedom-or-overblown/643946/4 "2012-12-13T19:41:49Z")
I read it using [this link](http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887324478304578171623040640006-lMyQjAxMTAyMDEwMzExNDMyWj.html?mod=wsj_valettop_email) ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-counterterrorism-center-major-threat-to-freedom-or-overblown/643946/5 "2012-12-13T19:44:28Z")
Threat to freedom? Maybe, maybe not. Huge waste of tax dollars? Probably. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-counterterrorism-center-major-threat-to-freedom-or-overblown/643946/6 "2012-12-13T20:09:40Z")
A major threat to freedom and a huge waste of money we don’t have but worse, another step toward a good citizen/bad citizen division in our country. All they have to do is rename everything they don’t like as “a threat of terrorism” and who’s gonna stop them? It is a sad state of affairs when a government gives itself the right to paw through everyone’s dirty underwear in order to “protect” them. Are we all children? ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-counterterrorism-center-major-threat-to-freedom-or-overblown/643946/7 "2012-12-13T21:50:39Z")
Just read commentary also claims that the Center can freely share this info with anyone they like with no consequence or barrier. Something to think about, if true (again, I’m concerned, but I’ve also seen a lot of wolf-crying and exaggeration that turned out to be less than what was being tossed out). ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-counterterrorism-center-major-threat-to-freedom-or-overblown/643946/8 "2012-12-13T21:59:52Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Just read commentary also claims that the Center can freely share this info with anyone they like with no consequence or barrier. Something to think about, if true (again, I’m concerned, but I’ve also seen a lot of wolf-crying and exaggeration that turned out to be less than what was being tossed out). Commentary from who? If all were doing is “I heard somewhere from someone that…” stuff, then I’d like to add that I heard that they have monitoring message boards like this one and arresting those who talk to mu