As previously stated, I have no interest in hearing these tapes. But an interesting question comes to mind: should the tapes be released at all?

I believe that legally there is nothing that prevents the release, but is there a moral reason why they shouldn't be released? I think it is wrong of the news outlets to broadcast them without warning, but do you morally believe they should be made available?

(By "you", I mean the "General you", not Tracilicious, whose post this follows)

(And by "General You", I am referring to anybody reading this, not General You)

I haven't heard these, but the story in the Times today stated that only one civilian tape was released, and the rest were all emergency worker communications on the public payroll.

Perhaps some news outlets latched onto that one tape, but it was the only one not considered legally private - because it had been used in court during the Zacharius Mousoui (sp?) trial.

Otherwise, yes - as everyone here seems to be opining - civilian conversations are considered private and have not, according to this rather detailed story, been released.

The "familes" group that sued to get the tapes released is, however, pretty angry that it has taken five years of stonewalling ... and they simply don't believe at this point that there aren't plenty of other tapes, perhaps even more incriminating of the rescue communications (which was atrocious by all accounts), that are still being stashed away.

Is a 911 call made by a private citizen considered private? You hear those all the time on the news.

Just wondering.