The US government uses scare tactics on the American people in order to sell them its massive spying programs, says Wayne Madsen, American investigative journalist and former National Security Agency (NSA) employee.\n<\/p>\n
On Friday, the US State Department issued a global travel alert for US citizens, warning that al-Qaeda might be planning \u00c5\u201cto conduct attacks\u201d by the end of August.\n<\/p>\n
Moreover, the department has announced the single-day closure of 21 embassies across Asia and Africa on Sunday, August 4, 2013, citing a \u00c5\u201ccontinued potential of terrorist attacks\u201d as the reason.\n<\/p>\n
\u00c5\u201cWhat has the Obama administration done is it\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s taken out the al-Qaeda card once again and it\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s saying that there\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s this unspecified threat,\u201d Madsen said in a phone interview with Press TV on Saturday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u00c5\u201cClosing embassies and issuing a worldwide travel alert is absolutely to scare the traveling public, the American people, to convince them all we need is NSA and its massive surveillance program to protect us against terrorists,\u201d Madsen added.<\/p>\n
Such efforts by the US government come despite the fact that \u00c5\u201cthis NSA system did nothing to prevent the Boston Marathon bombing, the so-called underwear bomber on the plane flying from Amsterdam to Detroit, and a number of other so-called terrorist incidents that were really the FBI setting people up in entrapment operations,\u201d he noted.\n<\/p>\n
Documents leaked by American whistleblower Edward Snowden has blown the lid on a number of secret programs run by the US government for collecting data on Americans\u00e2\u201e\u00a2 phone calls and Internet communications of people around the world.\n<\/p>\n
US officials have repeatedly defended the NSA\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s massive surveillance, claiming it protects Americans against \u00c5\u201cterrorist attacks.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
ISH\/HJ\n<\/p>\n