Posted on 06/13/2013 6:58:59 AM PDT by Kaslin
In a single weekend, Edward Snowden became one of the most famous -- and wanted -- men in the world. This is because last week Snowden, a former contractor technician for the National Security Agency, blew the lid off of a domestic spying program straight from George Orwell’s worst nightmare.
America may never be the same again.
As explained by Glenn Greenwald, the reporter with The Guardianwho worked with Snowden to expose the massive NSA eavesdropping programs, “There is a massive apparatus within the United States government that with complete secrecy has been building this enormous structure that has only one goal, and that is to destroy privacy and anonymity, not just in the United States but around the world.”
For a decade, the political establishment -- Big Government advocates from the Left and the Right -- mocked privacy activists over their warnings about the dangerous rise of a Surveillance State. During this time, I cautioned repeatedly that one day we would wake to find ourselves in the grip of a digital dystopia in which virtually our every electronic communication is subject to surreptitious eavesdropping by government agents. Snowden's revelations confirms this nightmare scenario.
U.S. officials are now scouring the earth looking for this 29-year old geek who many call a hero, and others a traitor. U.S. Rep. Peter King (R-NY), chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, immediately labeled Snowden a "defector," and said he should be extradited at once to the United States to be prosecuted to the "full extent of the law." Meanwhile, privacy activists and other whistleblowers have rallied behind him.
For me, it matters far less whether we demonize or deify this one man, than it does to bring true transparency to what the NSA and other federal agencies are doing to abuse, circumvent, and downright break federal laws designed to limit and control surreptitious snooping by Uncle Sam.
Snowden's revelations far transcend in importance the particulars of the process he employed. The concerns he has raised -- which involve damning evidence of an unchecked, massive program of surreptitious electronic eavesdropping ("SEE") by the NSA, the FBI and other government agencies -- are forcing us to confront the most serious public policy and legal issues we, as a nation of free people, have faced in decades, if ever.
The questions, prompted by leaks from Snowden and others in the last few days, present an existential crisis about what it is to be both free and safe as citizens in the United States.
Our nation was built on the principle of the rule of law; the notion that people are most free if they cede only a minimum of their natural rights to government, limited by a written Constitution, in order to secure liberty.
Yet now we are witnessing a government unbridled by the rule of law, which has become subservient to the whims of its leaders; and based not on the goal of ensuring liberty and justice, but on constructing arbitrary conditions of "security."
In this paradigm, the Fourth Amendment no longer carries any real significance for we are asked to accede to the principle that a president and his administration posses “inherent power” -- superseding any other authority or limitation -- to secretly gather, store, and analyze an infinite amount of information gathered from the private communications of millions of law-abiding citizens.
Distressingly, the failsafe on such unbridled power, supposed to be exercised by the Congress through its oversight responsibilities, has been sorely lacking. Instead, we have the spectacle of senior Senators like Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) defending actions by the NSA as beneficent because -- as we are asked to accept on faith -- they have "kept us safe." We are admonished to resist the urge to limit such extreme power because, in their Orwellian worldview, "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear."
This is the childish solipsism to which our cherished, constitutionally guaranteed rights have been reduced.
A few weeks ago, I wrote that Democrats faced a moral crisis as the Obama Administration turned the liberal vision of Big Government into an omnipotent police state in which citizens' rights are pre-empted by the collective and over-arching need for “security.” However, Republicans, too, face this identity crisis. The people of the United States, for the first time as a result of these leaks, are becoming privy to the true scope of government snooping.
Our country truly is at a crossroad; one defined by philosopher Ayn Rand some seven decades ago, when she correctly observed: “When you take away a man’s privacy, you gain the power to control him absolutely.” "Control" -- that is what this is really all about.
Will we take the "constitutional road" (to use James Madison's description of the form of limited government laid out in the Federalist Papers), and muzzle the humongous, "security" driven Surveillance State that threatens to engulf us? Or, will we meekly succumb to it; complacent in the comfort that comes from a benign but all-powerful federal government? The next few months may very well answer that crucial question. Liberty itself hangs in the balance.
I imagine that “editing” someones text, e-mail or phone calls would be no problem in making someone seem like a threat to national security and being able , then, to make that person disappear—or be fosterized.
just saw King NY being questioned about spying and he was full of B/S who did not like being called out .
He tried to tell us thousands of lives are saved but gave no details on how, he then tried to tell us the NY car bomb was stopped and was told no it was not because of PRISM and he just said he disagrees and then moved on.
He and all the other elitist ruling class are being called out on their power grab and spying and hey do ;t like it which is maybe why they want millions of illegals coming in to shore up their own power because they want uneducated sheep to vote for them
“If you are doing nothing wrong, then you shouldn’t fear being closely watched”. I wonder if the government and intelligence community agree with that line of thinking when we are speaking of THEM?
Or do they only believe that THEY are entitled to do the watching? Odd.
exactly
Say one runs a tea party and is outspoken.
He or she now has been put on the list and is spied on. They are followed by road cameras, GPS, phones, calls listened in, texts read, private medical looked at etc etc etc.
Do a few tweaks to the messages, go to a secret court with secret judges who we don’t know who appointed them and then give the secret court only one side of this and which then the secret court with secret judges allows the secret Govt to now go after this guy even more.
Once enough has been changed then he or she is arrested and called a national security threat and the media will just report how the person was a traitor and posed a threat.
5 days later no one ever hears of this person again while they rot in prison
“The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals.
Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them.
One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.”
— Ayn Rand
That means, regardless of claims to the contrary, there isn't any possibility of discovery in order to refute, ascertain and/or validate information presented by the government.
In other words, there is simply no mechanism whatsoever to stop/prevent anyone from entering/submitting data into your records that you yourself did not personally initiate.
Think about that for a few moments. When people claim that others act because they are being blackmailed (eg Roberts), it doesn't necessarily mean they have actually done anything; rather, its the potential to be framed from whole cloth.
We already know the answer to that.
Any agent of the government fears being recorded.
I wonder when people will make the mental leap. It’s common to hear people express that they almost naturally expect that the US Government would murder him extrajudicially, or lock incommunicado him in some torture cell in Crapistan.
When will people begin to see that we are living under the heel of an authoritarian government that is a modern version of the bad ones in history? Death camps are passé when they control every aspect of your existence and can shun you into poverty, job loss, healthcare loss, trumped up criminal charges,,etc.
The Nazis never had it so easy.
well religious freedom has gone due to the homosexuals forcing groups to accept them.
Freedom of speech has nearly gone due to the hate and anti bully laws.
guns and self protection are under threat.
right to privacy under the 4th amendment has been shredded and we have some on our side who defends this WOW.
5th is used by the Govt though to protect themselves and get a paid long vacation.
10th amendment, hell what states besides TX and AZ really fights the feds anymore?
secret program of spying\\
done by the Govt
who goes to a secret court
who has secret judges
who we do not know who appointed them
who then only hears one side to this .
How anyone could trust obama and his Govt right now is stunning
Secret courts, massive internal spying, using government to suppress opposition,,, this sounds really familiar.
The NAZIS would be proud of how this obama Govt has took over media, schools, and is spying while making an enemy list.
secret program of spying\\
done by the Govt
who goes to a secret court
who has secret judges
who we do not know who appointed them
who then only hears one side to this .
and King tried to tell us that it’s a fair court, yea right they approve over 95% of taps and spying and hwo are these judges?
A few years ago, we had a Madoff clone in our area.
This slick operator had two types of friends.
1. Good/honest people with a long background of community involvement and people wanted to serve on boards or be executors for wills/trust because of their honesty. He never tried to fleece/con these people, and they were the last ones to find out about his criminal fleecing. Many defended him until the full story of his wide spread fleecing of others was out in the open. They served unknowingly as his cover and unspoken references.
2. The greedy sheep, he groomed for fleecing. These people were constantly looking how to win in the investment game and wanted more/higher returns for their investments than the group 1. One could describe them as the greedy elite.
A NSA history of phone calls/emails between group 1 and group 2 might have a lot of innocent discussions between the two groups. However, those in Group I might have been labeled as guilty in spite of no proof of guilt except for a history of innocent contact with the greedy sheep and innocent recorded contacts with the Madoff clone.
We owe Snowden a huge debt for firmly and finally exposing the Republican Party as what they really are - collaborators used to keep lovers of liberty quiescent.
Who deserved (and received) the greater punishment: the Wehrmacht officer in charge of occupied Norway, or Vidkun Quisling?
May have nothing to hide... now.
The problem is the “Joe the Plumber” thing:
If Joe knew he was going to meet and question Obama then he may have made different choices in life, and on that day.
But, once it happened, they used Joe’s past actions to attempt to smear him.
I believe that “Privacy Rights” will be one of the major social and political issues of the next decade. We best prepare now.
As if Russia and China haven't been doing it for decades.
You are correct. This is the next logical step.
Also good luck trying to run. They also know who you know based on your phone and internet history.
This is one of the more dangerous aspects of social media. Government and Businesses have lists of our contacts.
Imagine if Hitler had this, no one would have escaped.
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