The Obama Administration claims it is different from its predecessor, yet it has taken George Bush’s warrantless surveillance to new extremes, Dr. Binoy Kampmark, a lecturer at Australia’s RMIT University told RT.
Amid growing public uproar spurred by the disclosure of two
massive secret US surveillance programs, American intelligence
services confirmed they collect the private messages of
millions of Internet users. However, they insist that the mass
surveillance only targeted “non-US persons” who are outside the
country.
Dr. Kampmark told RT that he believes this explanation is
“nonsense.”
RT: The American intelligence chief claims the data
collections are targeting only “non-US persons” outside the US.
Do you buy into that explanation, that millions of Americans were
not affected?
BK: No, I don’t. I actually think that the point about it
is mass surveillance, the point about it is that the tapping into
— for example through the order as was mentioned in the broadcast
from the foreign intelligence surveillance court — is
that Verizon, for example, full access has been given to
virtually all the messages that are sent.
The idea that there are American citizens or non-citizens being
involved in this is total nonsense. The fact is that all people
are involved. Precisely because a lot of communications involves
American service, they might be taking place in another country.
But that’s irrelevant. The fact and the matter is that the
surveillance establishment that has been created is monitoring
these communications as well.
RT: The spy chief also said that the disclosure of a
secret court document on phone record collection threatened
“irreversible harm.” Do you believe citizens must know of such
sweeping surveillance?
BK: Yes, I certainly do think it’s very important that
citizens do understand where they are when it comes to the
government they have in the country they are in, because, quite
frankly, such particular measures that have been taken are
extraordinary and quite vast. What is very
interesting about the Obama administration is that they, the
officials of the Administration, claim they are quite different
from the Bush administration.
What George Bush Jr. did was essentially a case of warrantless
surveillance: So that was no warrant, it was surveillance taken
en mass. And then, what the Obama administration has done is
taken it effectively to another level, for example, using such
acts as the Protect America Act of 2007 and the FISA [Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance] Amendment Act of 2008. We are talking
about extensive surveillance. And I think citizens should know
exactly what is happening when it comes to these sorts of
things.
RT: Such tactics are allegedly used to
combat terrorism. If it was indeed helping to prevent attacks,
does the end justify the means here?
BK: I don’t really think so. [One of the senators]
connected with the intelligence committee, Dianne Feinstein makes
the point that this is all part of the business, “we need to know
what’s going on there.” Which is fine; that’s not in itself an
objection. But I think it’s fundamental that people do know that
this is what is being done. The very curious remarks that have
been made some of the senators — one of them is Senator [Saxby]
Chambliss — is that no one has made a complaint about what is
being done. But obviously people have not complained because they
absolutely have no idea that the material that they are putting
forth through social media, for example, are actually being
tapped into by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the FBI.
This article originally appeared on: RT