Nice Surveillance State Occucard #22 from Occucards Printed Cards Now Available for Mass Distribution! occucards/surveillance-state/ References and external links: theguardian/environment/earth-insight/2013/jun/14/climate-change-energy-shocks-nsa-prism dragnet-searches-your-communications longislandpress/2013/05/14/u-s-military-power-grab-goes-into-effect/ scribd/doc/6163953/US-Army-Strategy-2008-Perpetual-Warfare theguardian/world/2013/jun/09/booz-allen-hamilton-edward-snowden wired/dangerroom/2011/10/army-future-unified-quest/ salon/2013/01/02/the_irony_of_joint_fbi_private_sector_ows_policing/ dailydot/politics/nsa-spy-prgrams-prism-fairview-blarney/ dailydot/politics/nsa-spy-prgrams-prism-fairview-blarney/ ... (Go to the link on top for the full list) In May 2013, whistleblower and former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, Edward Snowden, leaked details of several top-secret U.S. surveillance programs to the British newspaper, The Guardian. The documents Snowden gave to journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras exposed massive U.S. data-mining operations and provided proof for the claims of earlier whistleblowers, such as Thomas Drake, William Binney and Mark Klein, who attempted to work through official channels and were largely ignored (yet still punished). Thanks to Snowden, it is now confirmed that the NSA monitors, collects and stores virtually all domestic electronic communications, including telephone calls, emails and texts, in direct violation of the fourth amendment of the U.S. constitution. For example, under a program called PRISM, the NSA taps directly into the servers of Google, Facebook, Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft and other ISPs, collecting and storing the contents of users’ emails, search histories, live chats and file transfers. According to one NSA document, these data sweeps cover “nearly everything a typical user does on the internet.” Under a program called XKeyscore, NSA analysts and contractors can then search this content using a simple, on-screen form with no prior authorization or court order. Despite the official justification for these programs, the government has failed to provide credible evidence that they have prevented even a single act of terrorism. More likely, such a massive and unprecedented capacity to spy on the domestic population has been implemented in response to growing political protest movements as well as the fears of the elite class that increasing economic inequality and environmental degradation will lead to social unrest. Since the 2008 economic crash, police and security agencies have increasingly spied on political activists, especially environmental and social justice groups, on behalf of corporate interests. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents released in April, 2013 confirm a “systematic effort” by DHS to “surveil and disrupt peaceful demonstrations” linked to Occupy Wall Street, and recently obtained FBI documents describe a “strategic partnership” between the FBI, DHS and the private sector to produce intelligence on domestic protest activity for the “corporate security community.” Perhaps most tellingly, Booz Allen Hamilton, the same NSA contractor that employed Snowden, also oversees the U.S. Army’s annual series of war games known as Unified Quest, where strong emphasis in recent years has been placed on “homeland operations.” Considering that 70% of the $80 billion in the unpublished or “black” portion of the annual defense and intelligence budget goes to private corporations, it is not far-fetched to conclude that the surveillance and security state we now live under has been established not to protect us from terrorists, but to protect corporate interests from us. Mass surveillance and the disruption of popular movements are part of a broader system of social control that also includes the creation of fake terror plots to keep people in fear, the infiltration and provocation of protest groups to get them to commit acts of violence, the establishment of “front” organizations to dilute the movement’s effectiveness, and other dirty tricks honed and perfected over decades. These tactics date at least as far back as the 1960s, when the FBI even resorted to the assassination of political leaders as part of its so-called counterintelligence program (“COINTELPRO”). Such greed and cynicism may appear invincible at times, but it can be defeated if enough people like Edward Snowden let go of their fear and rise up together in individual and collective acts of truth and courage.
Posted on: Sun, 29 Sep 2013 18:29:55 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015