[ferdo]

> the war on drugs, civil asset forfeiture, the DEA intelligence program from today, the no-fly list

They're all related. They're all policies and actions of overly zealous bureaucrats with too much power and little to no accountability.

[tptacek]

They're not related. For instance, the problem with civil asset forfeiture is financial incentives; the problem with the war on drugs was a single major public policy error, &c.

[ferdo]

They're related in their origin.

If 4 different terror operations were coming from Al Qaeda affiliated cells, we'd say they were all Al Qaeda related. If 4 different drug dealers were busted that were all being supplied by one source, we'd call it a drug ring.

All of the operations mentioned - the war on drugs, civil asset forfeiture, the DEA intelligence program from today, the TSA - are a ring of government operatives that are terrorizing, robbing and imprisoning Americans.

[fnordfnordfnord]

Asset forfeiture can make it impossible to hire a competent defense atty, investigators, experts, etc.