Widespread surveillance by the US National Security Agency (NSA) is the typical trait of a Å“police state” and is Å“destroying the liberties” of Americans, an award-winning American reporter has told Press TV.
Å“Spying is the hallmark of the police state, which is what America has become,” said Sherwood Ross, a columnist at Veterans Today in Philadelphia.
The NSAâ„¢s spying programs, uncovered in 2013 by whistleblower Edward Snowden, has raised widespread concern about the reach of the agency’s operations and its ability to spy into the affairs of private individuals in the United States and abroad as well as the communications of foreign leaders.
The NSA has refused to deny whether it is spying on Congress after receiving a bluntly worded letter on Friday from Senator Bernie Sanders asking whether the NSA has or is Å“spying” on US lawmakers and other elected officials.
On Saturday, the NSA released a statement to Sandersâ„¢ letter saying members of Congress Å“have the same privacy protections as all US persons.”
Senator Sanders is Å“one of the last champions in Congress to speak out against the NSA spying on Americans and spying on people everywhere in the world,” Ross noted.
However, Ross said Å“thereâ„¢s no point in asking an intelligence agency if they are spying, or Congress asking them if they are spying, because these intelligence agencies are Å“habitual liars and will deny it.”
Å“For example the CIA has denied to Congress it numerous crimes and killings around the world,” he said.
Å“I am very sad to say that the American people are not up in arms and marching on Washington for a big non-violent protest against NSA spying on them because our liberties are being destroyed.”
AHT/DB
With permission
Source: Press TV