Wandering Into Wisdom

This blog chronicles the knowledge, insight and wisdom I encounter every day as a leadership consultant, executive coach, educator, father, friend and citizen. This site is dedicated to my father, Louis (Jack) Laughlin, who passed on to me an appreciation for wisdom. A special thanks to my friend Isaac Cheifetz, a businessman and journalist, who helped me understand the value of blogs and encouraged me to write one.

Security or Privacy*

There has been considerable criticism of our intelligence agencies in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks but incompetence and interagency politics may not be the only issues. There is speculation that since the terrorists were operating in the U.S. the laws that prevent the NSA from monitoring domestic communications impeded them from telling the FBI what they knew. To avert future lapses President Bush signed an executive order making it legal for the NSA to monitor domestic communications. Privacy groups have screamed about the order but we must ask ourselves, would we have fought this change prior to 9/11 if it would have prevented the attack?