WASHINGTON D.C. (WTAQ) - Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says fighting homegrown terrorism by monitoring Internet communications. FOX News reports Napolitano saying it's a civil liberties trade-off the U.S. government must make to increase national security.
As terrorists increasingly recruit American citizens, the government needs to constantly walk the fine line between civil rights and privacy with the need to keep people safe, indicates Napolitano.
"The First Amendment protects radical opinions, but we need the legal tools to do things like monitor the recruitment of terrorists via the Internet," Napolitano told a gathering of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy.
These comments suggest the Obama administration making an effort to reach out to its more liberal constituencies to assuage fears that terrorist worries will mean the erosion of civil rights.
Former undersecretary for policy with the Department of Homeland Security Stewart Baker insists it sounds like a maturing of the current administration.
"They now appreciate the risks and the trade-offs much more clearly than when they first arrived, and to their credit, they've adjusted their preconceptions."
Napolitano qualified her statements saying it's wrong to believe that embracing security means liberty is sacrificed.
"We can significantly advance security without having a deleterious impact on individual rights in most instances. At the same time, there are situations where trade-offs are inevitable."
