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Massive Insecurity And America’s Illegal Surveillance State

Massive Insecurity And America's Illegal Surveillance State

Recently it was revealed that the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) was caught subverting — again — freedom and Democracy when it illegally spied on journalists from the Associated Press (AP), one of the world’s largest News agencies targeting reporters and editors by covertly acquiring records from their home and cell phones to see what the AP staffers knew about the CIA’s operations in Yemen.
Author : Bill Lindner
Given the state of U.S. Democracy since the appointment of George W. Bush to the presidency in 2000 and all the illegal “legislation” — think PATRIOT Act — egregiously implemented since the “terrorist” attacks of 9/11 to allegedly keep us safe and protect us, the despicable acts of Obama’s DoJ are not surprising as the feds have long held an interest in illegally spying on U.S. citizens while eviscerating their rights, freedoms and privacy. The massive insecurity of U.S. citizens resulting from an out-of-control surveillance complex is growing (link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35029.htm).

To understand the massive insecurity and ridiculousness of America’s illegal surveillance state and its misuse by Obama’s Washington, all you need to do is look at the “terrorist” attacks of 9/11 and how the government handled that. There was never any official investigation (link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35064.htm) of what happened that day for obvious reasons on George W. Bush’s part, and all the “evidence” was fabricated or planted by the Feds to make it look like a U.S.-sanctioned terrorist group led by Osama bin Laden did it. The events of that fateful have been used ever since to give the U.S. government incomprehensible authority to destroy the U.S. Constitution and all that it stands for under the disingenuous guise of keeping us safe and protecting us.

A 2010 Washington Post report titled “Top Secret America” (link: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/) highlighted America’s expanding and unaccountable security state which revealed that every day the National Security Agency (NSA) intercepted and stored 1.7 billion emails, phone calls and other types of communications. In modern America, where such media is the primary means of communication for millions of U.S. citizens, the level of illegal invasions of privacy and surveillance is significant. The level of illegal spying on U.S. citizens is unprecedented, unnecessary, and morally reprehensible, especially when there is no supervision, accountability or articulations by the government as to why such spying is even necessary. Citizens need to cherish and guard their personal information and pay attention to what they post on social networks and do online.

EVERYTHING YOU DO ONLINE IS CAPTURED BY THE FEDS

Social media — Facebook, Twitter, etc. — is also heavily monitored by the NSA. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) quietly began contracting with General Dynamics to illegally spy on social media users, though no mention has ever been made as to why it is necessary or what is being done with all the information that is being illegally gathered. The U.S. government should be required to get warrants to search the emails of Google and other email providers but the FBI decided it had the power to illegally circumvent those requirements without specific legal authorization (link: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/05/09/1981681/fbi-ecpa-warrant/). Companies like Facebook and Google may now face monetary fines if they refuse to share data and consent to wiretaps requested by government agencies (link: http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/29/4282680/fines-proposed-for-companies-fail-wiretap-orders).

In fact, a new type of software called “Riot” was developed by defense firm Raytheon (link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/10/software-tracks-social-media-defence) to be used by the government to suck up everything you post of Facebook, Twitter or any other social media network. You think only friends are viewing everything you post, but you can rest assured that it is being soaked in by the government or Raytheon to track you and predict what you are likely to do. There is also a massive 2 billion dollar data collection center being built in Utah — at U.S. taxpayer expense — for storing your online and telephone communications by the NSA once they’re captured. Again, all of this is being done without oversight, accountability or explanation of what exactly will be done with all of your personal info once the government has illegally collected it.

As usual a small group of large corporations has colluded with the U.S. government to illegally spy on U.S. citizens (link: http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/how-americas-national-security-apparatus-partnership-big-corporations-cracked-down). These same corporations are also colluding with the U.S. government to crack down on dissent. 9/11 created the Orwellian phenomenon that is America’s National Security Complex and created unlimited opportunities for large, corrupt multinational corporations to fabricate enemies and terrorists while colluding with the U.S. government to instill false fear and implement a totalitarian militarized police state to allegedly keep us safe.

COMPLETE DISREGARD FOR THE U.S. CONSTITUTION AND RULE OF LAW

President Obama is being deceitfully accused by Republicans in Washington of using federal agencies for personal vendettas, some going so far as comparing him to President Richard M. Nixon (link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/05/22-3). Recent revelations about targeting whistleblowers, journalists, news agencies, corrupt political organizations which connive to purchase our elections and fabricated Benghazi fairy tales are among the accusations, but most of those accusations are based on pernicious fabrications (link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/05/21-1) which conveniently omit a few undeniable truths. Comparing Obama to Nixon, another corrupt President who obsessively protected information while striving to control the political narratives and was eventually impeached for his malfeasance in the Watergate scandal is, for the most part, pure fodder and political theater.

Nixon and Obama aren’t the first sitting presidents who used portions of the federal government for their own personal vendettas. Many sitting presidents have used their delusional powers illegally, but many in Washington seem to forgotten that during his appointed reign, George W. Bush used the IRS, the FBI, the CIA, and the Secret Service to illegally go after opponents (link: http://www.alternet.org/bush-used-irs-fbi-cia-and-secret-service-go-after-opponents-where-was-fox-and-gop-outrage) and none of his egregious malfeasance is ever mentioned. The fodder over Obama’s alleged misconduct reveals an obvious double standard in Washington and just how corrupt our political system has become. Two wrongs do not make a right, but the discrepancy in reactions to Obama’s alleged wrongs reveals how Washington, more often than not, only serves the interests of the political right and the criminals that run it.

The common thread of Obama’s current scandals is the secrecy and general lying involved in the complete disregard for the truth and the brazen willingness of the government to avoid the legal restrictions of the U.S. Constitution coupled with the fallacy that the government can do as it pleases so long as it can get away with it politically (link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34976.htm). The U.S. Constitution — the First Amendment — specifically prohibits the government from violating the speech and expressive activities of Americans as a basis for treating them despairingly, but that hasn’t prevented corrupt politicians, including Nixon, Bush and Obama from doing just that. The President’s first job obligation, according to the U.S. Constitution, is to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, which means preserving America’s freedom first and safety second. Any president that keeps us safe but not free is not doing his job. Trampling personal freedoms, and getting away with it, does not make us safe or free.

When you look at Washington’s hypocrisy and desperation in the prosecution of Bradley Manning (link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35039.htm) for allegedly aiding the enemy by releasing mountains of information to WikiLeaks about the plethora of U.S. government’s war crimes and illegality in the Middle East, you see how far Washington is willing to go to keep their crimes covered up and how low they are willing to go to quash dissent and silence those that protest their malfeasance (link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/05/21-0).

MANIPULATING THE “JUSTICE” SYSTEM AGAINST U.S. CITIZENS

As evidence of Washington’s illegal activities surfaces, President Obama and his DoJ keep trying to do everything they can to prevent the U.S. public from finding out. When the government formally accuses journalists of committing crimes (link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/05/20-3) because the people they have interviewed have spilled the beans on Washington’s malfeasance, you have some major problems and red flags that (link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35039.htm) need to be addressed. Obama and his DoJ’s overreach in trying to make journalists accomplices to alleged crimes not only threatens freedom of the press, it can also be manipulated against every U.S. citizen in ways that could prove uniquely troubling (link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35038.htm).

When you look at Washington’s desperation to keep their crimes covered up, the globalization of hypocrisy (link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35032.htm) becomes glaringly obvious. The damage caused to U.S. citizens by the relentless greed of multinational corporations has helped fuel the massive insecurity of America’s secretive surveillance state which keeps growing. These corporations continue ignoring all the problems they have caused and have no allegiance to anyone. Much of the massive insecurity of America’s surveillance state is due to collusion between Washington’s culture of corruption and fraudulent multinational corporations whose only goal is to pillage and plunder U.S. taxpayers.

Keeping corporations out of politics will go a long way towards securing and ending America’s surveillance state. Until you have accountability and oversight all you have is criminals looking after alleged criminals. Until we make Washington cease and desist its illegal surveillance state, America’s massive insecurity will only grow. You can’t overstate the potential consequences for individual liberty and freedoms and it is up to us to ensure that Washington’s illegal surveillance state becomes a matter of national security at the forefront of urgent public scrutiny and oversight (link: http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/our-govt-turning-surveillance-state-thats-almost-impossible-stop).

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