Spying on its citizenry reflects one of the most defining police state characteristics. Post-9\/11, America crossed the line.<\/p>\n
Unconstitutional mass surveillance became official US policy. Bush began it. Obama accelerated it. He did so straightaway as president.<\/p>\n
He promised otherwise. He pledged transparency and openness. He promised no more Bush\/Cheney lawlessness. He lied. He exceeded the worst of his predecessors.<\/p>\n
Free societies don\u2019t tolerate these practices. Obama authorized them secretly. He subverted constitutional law. He violated the public trust. He broke a key campaign pledge.<\/p>\n
He declared war on freedom. It\u2019s more illusion than reality. It\u2019s fast disappearing. It may entirely vanish on Obama\u2019s watch. Big Brother is real. It\u2019s no longer fiction. Privacy no longer exists.<\/p>\n
Web site visits are tracked. Cell phones log our movements. Emails and social network communications are monitored and stored. Sweeping warrantless spying is policy.<\/p>\n
Government is shrouded in secrecy. Constitutional protections don\u2019t matter. Police states operate this way. America\u2019s by far the worst. Everyone\u2019s suspect unless proved otherwise. Guilt by accusation is policy.<\/p>\n
Snowden provided a vital service. He did so at great risk. Lots of what he revealed was previously known. Too few people knew it. Many more now do. How they react matters most.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAll I can say right now is the US government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or \u00c3\u201a\u00admurdering me. Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe US government, just as they did with other whistleblowers, immediately and predictably destroyed any possibility of a fair trial at home, openly declaring me guilty of treason and that the disclosure of secret, criminal, and even unconstitutional acts is an unforgivable crime.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not justice, and it would be foolish to volunteer yourself to it if you can do more good outside of prison than in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAsk yourself: If I were a Chinese spy, why wouldn\u2019t I have flown directly to Beijing? I could be living in a palace petting a phoenix by now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
More on what he said below. He\u2019s a marked man. He knows it. He fled America for his safety. He\u2019s in Hong Kong. It provides a \u201ccultural and legal framework to allow me to work without being immediately detained,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll be hounded wherever he goes. His life\u2019s in danger. Washington called him a traitor.<\/p>\n
Bipartisan rogues accused him of espionage. He aided the enemy, they said. A mock show trial was held. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence members did so.<\/p>\n
He represents the worst of rogue governance. He menaces freedom. He supports Washington\u2019s permanent war agenda. He endorses police state lawlessness. He\u2019s against social justice.<\/p>\n
Whatever corporate America wants, he\u2019s for. He\u2019s against government of, by and for everyone.<\/p>\n
He calls openness and transparency threats to national security. Sunshine is \u201cdamaging,\u201d he says. \u201c(I)t paints an inaccurate picture and fosters distrust in government.\u201d<\/p>\n
It gives aid and comfort to America\u2019s enemies, he claims. Snowden\u2019s guilty as charged. Rogers and committee co-conspirators hung him out to dry.<\/p>\n
He committed no crimes. He exposed them. He did what\u2019s vital to do. He revealed US lawlessness. NSA operations harm \u201cmillions of innocent people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He denounced Obama, saying:<\/p>\n
\n\u201c(H)e closed the door on investigating systemic violations of law, deepened and expanded several abusive programs, and refused to spend the political capital to end the kind of human rights violations like we see in Guantanamo, where men still sit without charge.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Dick Cheney duplicitously called him a traitor. Snowden responded, saying:<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt\u2019s important to bear in mind I\u2019m being called a traitor by\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00a6. a man who gave us the warrantless wiretapping scheme as a kind of atrocity warm-up on the way to deceitfully engineering a conflict that has killed over 4,400 and maimed nearly 32,000 Americans, as well as leaving over 100,000 Iraqis dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give an American.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
He did nothing illegal. \u201cI did not reveal any US operations against legitimate military targets.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI pointed out where the NSA has hacked civilian infrastructure such as universities, hospitals, and private businesses because it is dangerous. These nakedly, aggressively criminal acts are wrong no matter the target.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNSA is running network operations against (the rights of) millions of innocent people. And for what?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n\u201cSo we can have secret access to a computer in a country we\u2019re not even fighting? So we can potentially reveal a potential terrorist with the potential to kill fewer Americans than our own Police?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, the public needs to know the kinds of things a government does in its name, or the \u2018consent of the governed\u2019 is meaningless.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
More information is coming, Snowden said. Lots more needs to be told.<\/p>\n
\n\u201c(T)he reality is (that) if NSA, FBI, CIA, DIA, etc analyst has access to query raw SIGINT databases, they can enter and get results for anything they want,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPhone number(s), email(s), user id(s), cell phone handset id(s) (IMEI), and so on \u2014 it\u2019s all the same. The restrictions against this are policy based, not technically based, and can change at any time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Lawless surveillance is institutionalized. \u201cThe reality is that due to the FISA Amendments Act and its section 702 authorities, Americans\u2019 communications are collected and viewed on a daily basis on the certification of an analyst rather than a warrant.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThey excuse this as \u2018incidental\u2019 collection, but at the end of the day, someone at NSA still has the content of your communications.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEven in the event of \u2018warranted\u2019 intercept, it\u2019s important to understand the intelligence community doesn\u2019t always deal with what you would consider a \u2018real\u2019 warrant like a police department would have to.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe \u2018warrant\u2019 is more of a templated form they fill out and send to a reliable judge with a rubber stamp.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
America\u2019s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) overseas government monitoring requests. More on that below. Out-of-control spying is policy.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s extrajudicial. It\u2019s longstanding policy. Post-9\/11, it accelerated. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) provisions are spurned.<\/p>\n
Bush administration officials lawlessly authorized NSA to compile millions of emails and phone calls into a database for analysis.<\/p>\n
Obama officials claim no court or judge can challenge them. Legal considerations don\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n
Last September, Congress overwhelmingly passed the 2012 FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act. Obama signed it into law. He called doing so a national security priority.<\/p>\n
He lied. It reflects police state harshness. It\u2019s lawless. It extends the 2008 FISA Amendments Act (FAA). It\u2019s for another five years.<\/p>\n
It authorizes warrantless spying. It does so without naming names or probable cause. Fourth Amendment protections are violated. Lawless privacy invasions are permitted.<\/p>\n
Overseas and domestic phone calls, emails, and other communications of US citizens and permanent residents are monitored without court authorization. Anything goes is policy.<\/p>\n
Probable cause isn\u2019t needed. Warrantless electronic eavesdropping is intrusive and lawless. Everyone is vulnerable for any reason or none at all. Vague language allows virtually anything.<\/p>\n
Constitutional protections don\u2019t matter. They\u2019re null and void. What Bush began, Obama accelerated. Things are worse than ever. Diktat authority is policy.<\/p>\n
America\u2019s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) is rubber stamp. It gives kangaroos a bad name. A previous article explained. It approves virtually all government warrant requests.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s longstanding policy. Eleven US district court judges serve staggered terms up to seven years. They\u2019re chosen from at least seven judicial circuits. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts selects them.<\/p>\n
The process is rigged against justice. It doesn\u2019t have a chance. Police state operate this way. Obama lied claiming otherwise. On Charlie Rose<\/a> June 17, he lied. He did so egregiously.<\/div>\nOn the one hand, he said we \u201cdon\u2019t go with a query (without) a pretty good suspicion.\u201d Not so!<\/p>\n
On the other, he claimed few annual FISA warrants are sought. False again! From 1979 through 2004 alone, 18,761 warrants were granted. Five requests were rejected. Some sources say four.<\/p>\n
From 2005 through 2012, another 15,200 were approved. Seven were rejected. It gets worse. Few Americans know about National Security Letters (NSLs). They\u2019re intrusive and lawless.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve been around since the mid-1980s. They involve abusive police state intrusions. Pre-9\/11, they had more limited authority. They were used to secure records and other personal information on alleged terrorists and spies.<\/p>\n