When Security Becomes Insanity

http://watchingamerica.com/News/224506/when-security-becomes-insanity/

This isn't a U.S.-European espionage war; the democracies involved are already waging war against their own citizens.

When Security Becomes Insanity
Zeit Online, Germany
By Josef Joffe
Translated By Ron Argentati
23 October 2013
Edited by Gillian Palmer

Due to its addiction to data, the super-secret U.S. National Security Agency not only spies on its own citizens but on citizens of other nations as well.

~snip~

The British GCHQ intelligence service is doing exactly the same as their American and French counterparts — all with the cooperation of their friends Facebook and others. Unfortunately, Edward Snowden has not yet revealed what the German intelligence service BND is doing. In any event, he also profited from the snooping conglomerate.

Needless to say, they are not the Gestapo, nor the Stasi. They only have our best interests at heart and want to protect us from terrorists. But in so doing, they have removed nearly every democratic safeguard — and not only in America. This isn't a U.S.-European espionage war; the democracies involved are already waging war against their own citizens. War against themselves. And our representatives fail to do anything about it.

It's not exactly comforting to know that even a liberal stalwart like Senator Dianne Feinstein writes that her Senate Intelligence Committee will soon be discussing a template designed to “improve” the anti-terrorism program. How? The courts may have to approve the investigation of telephone contacts. The law may also “limit” how such information may be “harvested, stored and used.”