The Bad Old Days Are Just Around the Corner

Pejman Yousefzadeh has yet another column published over at TCS. That’s two in one week, Pej — don’t you sleep? Insomnia is my gig, and don’t you forget it.

Anyway, Pej supports the new FBI counter-terror guidelines, but with the usual caveat:

It is incumbent on the FBI to act responsibly with its newfound powers so that it can continue to remain a prime actor in the war against terrorism, and so that opponents of the new guidelines will not be given an excuse to argue that they should be changed.

I would worry less if the leash were being taken off some new agency, one without the FBI’s long history of really crappy behavior. FBI agents are among the finest people serving this nation — but they serve an oftentimes wicked institution.