3 new expansions of Surveillance State cloak the powerful in secrecy and make our lives open books

In a post I wrote earlier this week about Jane Mayer's New Yorker article on the Obama administration's war on whistleblowers, I pulled out this passage as a cutline to the Total Information Awareness graphic that illustrated the post: "We are witnessing the bipartisan normalization and legitimization of a national-surveillance state."



Great minds think alike b/c Glenn Greenwald also took this sentence to illustrate a recent post on THREE new expansions of The Surveillance State (now with Bipartisan approval!) that have gone largely unnoticed. The three new expansions are detailed below, and I've included links to the source material so you can read more.

The bottom line to all this is that The New Bipartisan Surveillance State, if allowed to flourish, will surely lead to the destruction of the republic, b/c, as Greenwald notes "The way a republic is supposed to function is that there is transparency for those who wield public power and privacy for private citizens. The National Security State has reversed that dynamic completely, so that the Government (comprised of the consortium of public agencies and their private-sector "partners") knows virtually everything about what citizens do, but citizens know virtually nothing about what they do."

He goes on to say, and I completely agree, that whistleblowers such as Thomas Drake (on 60 Minutes tonite) and Wikileaks are sadly the only instruments we have left to fight this attack on democracy. I did not expect the Obama Administration to carry on the footsteps of Bush Jr., and I'd like to think that he's been forced into this by some nefarious and horrible cabal of super villains, because this is so far afield of what I signed up for with this administration that I can barely believe what I'm reading here.

Because, as you'll see below the new expansions include a feature of secrecy that was so odious during the Bush Administration that it became a rallying cry to put an end to their reign -- I'm talking about the Justice Department claiming the right to make secret laws by refusing to release its legal memos authorizing surveillance and torture policies. Unbelievably, the Obama Administration is now also claiming this power.

Horrifying.

peace -- brook




http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/05/20/surveillance/index.html

The always-expanding bipartisan Surveillance State
BY GLENN GREENWALD


There are three events -- all incredibly from the last 24 hours -- which not only prove how true that is, but vividly highlight how it functions and why it is so odious. First, consider what Democrats and Republicans just jointly did with regard to the Patriot Act, the very naming of which once sent progressives into spasms of vocal protest and which long served as the symbolic shorthand for Bush/Cheney post-9/11 radicalism:


(snip)

Next we have a new proposal from the Obama White House to drastically expand the scope of "National Security Letters" -- the once-controversial and long-abused creation of the Patriot Act that allows the FBI to obtain private records about American citizens without the need for a subpoena or any court approval -- so that it now includes records of your Internet activities:

(snip)

So first they conspire with the GOP to extend the Patriot Act without any reforms, then seek to expand its most controversial and invasive provisions to obtain the Internet activities of American citizens without having to bother with a subpoena or judicial approval -- "they" being the Democratic White House.

... on the very same day that we have an extension of the Patriot Act and a proposal to increase the government's Internet snooping powers, we have this:



What's extraordinary about the Obama DOJ's refusal to release this document is that it does not reveal the eavesdropping activities of the Government but only its legal rationale for why it is ostensibly permitted to engage in those activities. The Bush DOJ's refusal to release its legal memos authorizing its surveillance and torture policies was unquestionably one of the acts that provoked the greatest outrage among Democratic lawyers and transparency advocates (see, for instance, Dawn Johnsen's scathing condemnation of the Bush administration for its refusal to release OLC legal reasoning: "reliance on 'secret law' threatens the effective functioning of American democracy" and "the withholding from Congress and the public of legal interpretations by the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) upsets the system of checks and balances between the executive and legislative branches of government."




(snip)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1127779&mesg_id=1127779

I won't pretend the poll was scientific.

as the next GOP admin uses this intel against citizens, then people will become more concerned.

By which I mean the Alberta Recreation & Parks Association, of course :rofl:

Best spy tool ever invented in the history of mankind.

Now excuse my while I go update my facebook status ;-)

Every educated person is a future enemy.”

- Hermann Goering quote

Zbigniew Brzezinski, one of Obama's main mentors, has stated the same idea, openly warning against allowing Americans getting a college education and thus becoming an uncontrollable force for further democratization.

:puke:

Definitely not wanted now by any political party in the great (& becoming greater every day) US of A!


Is there any doubt as to the reason our education system is deliberately deteriorating --politically led, of course-- moreso now than even under Bu$h?
If there's a better reason as to why this is happening under a Democratically-led White House & Congress, I'd love to hear it!

the whip-hand of a so-called progressive Obama administration. Tyranny and loss of civil liberties know no labels.

So apres cela/cette: le deluge.

And precedent set, we'll have no 'legitimate' argument.


This country is/has been in a sorry state: and it's getting sorrier all the time.
Progression my azz!




Edit: Updated/corrected(?) mon francais.

under this administration. :(

I'm not refuting your point. I just don't understand and
I'm concerned and want to know how the intel is being
used against people?

should assume they're surveilled -- like, any NY prosecutor with an eye to crack down on Wall Street. Any MMJ biz owner. And, sadly, I bet, professors of Arabic/Middle Eastern studies.

...and sad.

They're throwing this net around our personal information--phone calls, emails, internet
activity, physical location, etc. So, of course this information will be used against
people--average, everyday people. Why else would they collect it? It's not like govt
officials like to giggle at our ridiculous phone conversations or want to know what websites
visit.

There has to be a justification for casting this wide a net and dedicating so many resources
toward culling personal information.

Ultimately, it will be used against us.

so many ways to use the data.

also, usually the only light in every cell, had a tiny, round "eye of God" window in the ceiling

So of course the Floating Heavenly Cloud-Being Patriarch had His eye even more often than usual (if possible) trained on the prisoners.

Damn sinners!



As for me, I'm not surprised at all the percentage of those who found this bothersome were so low 'even here'.
This is the new, improved DU;
dare I say it's the NeoDU!

Yay! :patriot:

Unfortunately, people get the level of tyranny that they endorse through their lack of actions (and in some cases active participation in). In a reciprocity-just world, the 'I have nothing to hide, so take my liberty' crowd will be amongst the first to feel the bite of the sheepshears.

by claiming these powers are necessary to prevent terrorist attacks.

The public is strongly conditioned to believe that government officials ALWAYS act in good faith. Thus we are told that the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq was due to faulty intelligence.

Classification procedures are abused to keep the public ignorant.

If I stand against intrusions into the lives and choices of others by complaining about laws that limit choice I get called a libertarian here.

Here on a progressive board I find people willing to throw freedom out the window for the sake of health care costs (trying to control what you eat/smoke/drink/etc), folks who think the government should control and make choices because the average adult can't/won't make the choices those people feel is best for them, etc and so on.

Standing on principles of freedom and such has went out the window.

We won't lose our freedoms - we will give them away with a smile on our face thinking we have saved others from themselves.

"thinking we've saved others from themselves." so true.

I'm as guilty as the next guy of enjoying techno-conveniences, but every so often I'm shocked at myself for paying to carry a tracking-device / bug/ surveillance camera (i.e.- cell phone).

Excellent compilation of disturbing facts & trends, nashville_brook. K&R.

-app

i just ALMOST gave in this last weekend and i'd likely do it happily if it weren't so damn expensive.

truth is, i won't be able to resist the next gen iPhone. i'm worn down.

'Course, if you pay with a card instead of cash, there's really not much difference....

a good Facebook status..

"We won't lose our freedoms - we will give them away with a smile on our face thinking we have saved others from themselves."

You're right about that. We're "giving away" our rights in the form of not fighting for them.

You know what makes me sick? This necon, corporatist cabal of classless clowns is a tiny minority.
We outnumber them 100,000 to 1. And yet we behave as though we're powerless.

It's utterly revolting.

Your right to privacy is not the same as the entitlement to do something stupid with your body and expect others to pick up the tab.

No that it matters in this country, since we don't have much in terms of socialized health care. But part of a social contract in which taxes were to pay for universal health care would involve people making responsible choices. Now, if you decide to opt out and pay for your health care off your own pocket directly, I would assume you would be entitled to all poor health decisions you want. That matter, however, has very little to do with a government spying on people and invading privacy with the objective of squashing dissent.

i'll have to think about that.

until then, i'm off for another cup.

So...don't let them pick up the tab.

If you want the govt to control your life and choices over $$ go right ahead.

an especially raw deal.

i read way too much Topix commentry, and it find it amazing on those forums how conservatives go all-in with the "brothers keeper" bullshit when it comes to weight issues, smoking, and just about everything punative. but bring up healthcare and all of a sudden they're rugged individualists.

totally f'd up.

Big K and R

:kick:

3 ... 2 ... 1.

On the big issues they don't bother to show up. :shrug:

:evilgrin:

While Obama sits at the helm while this country is turning into a Fascist
surveillance state, and our democracy is eroding to dust and the corporations
grow further entrenched and powerfully intertwined in our government---we're
supposed to be happy with Obama because he talked naughty to the banks
in a speech or that he signed the "Make our parks more beautiful" Act.

Do people realize their hypocrisy? When Bush was doing this stuff, we
were aligned against this tyranny. Now that Obama is doing it, we look
the other way.

That's how these bastards will erode our democracy--with a contingent of
cheerleaders backing up "their guy" and ignoring that our Constitution
is being run through a shredder. Both parties count on a contingent of
flibbertigibbets who will look the other way when "their guy" is doing it.

It's wrong when Bush does it. It's wrong when Obama does it. Frickin...PERIOD!

If you can't see that, then your blinded by sparkly things and you're a huge
part of the problem.

Of course, those of us who have *gotten it* are marginalized and categorized as *professional leftists*.

as this op..

Or maybe they died of exhaustion.

:evilgrin:

i'm imagining empty "We Did It!" tshirts strewn about the intern cubicles.

:spray:

photo posts, the posts about some woman on the street gushing about Obama's charisma. There's little difference between an Obama fan and a Justin Beiber fan.

:grr:

One thing I'm fairly certain of. If the Bush administration was doing
any of this crap people here would be running around with their hair on fire.




Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

with our hair on fire when Obama is doing it.

I have complained about this since early on in the Obama administration. Even the ACLU has let us down -- by backing Citizens United, a decision that has the effect of disenfranchising most Americans in the name of "free speech" for inhuman corporations.

Is there a petition against this? People, at least, deserve to know which civil right is being done away with this week.

I would much rather have nation-wide civil disobedience. Of course, Through lack of education, most people have no ides what this means. Others are too busy (during this time of Austerity for the "have-nots", to do anything about it.

Just how "they" like it....

I wish I knew the answer....What will be the final indignity that will cause Americans to fight back?

Peacefully of course, MR./MS. NSA person.....

that, there's one more stop along the way on the PATRIOT Act extensions and that calling your critters was being suggested. I'll see if i can't find that story.

a Constitutional scholar but apparently those studies were only to find weak spots in civil liberties and end around them.

I think you should post this in GD: Programmed.

We were offered two centrist "democrats" in 2010. Obama had a chance to save the country but the window is all but shut and locked now. I'm sad for the generations to come. What we feared during the "Cold War" has overtaken us.

Hubert Flottz

My guess is that Josef Stalin is shucling in his grave now... if he had known, that 50 year after his own death, US wil go the same way as USSR did when USSR was a young nation.. Even tho he might be little angry about the last 20 or so years...

Diclotican

This is like the threatened use of nuclear weapons - TIA, universal surveillance, and profiling aren't going away.

And if disarmament won't come voluntarily, who's going to make them give up this power?

I had hope that a constitutional scholar of national repute would have understood that and worked to reverse it. I now realize that hope was delusional.

-Hoot

cementing the tyranny matrix via the regime he heads.

Like so much about the packaging, it planted the seeds of hope and obscured the hard truth that Obama is not a transformational figure, but is instead an intelligent but conventional Wall Street lawyer.

You know that all sucked me right in. The real shame is the nation was so ready for a transformational leader, I doubt we ever will be that ready again, and certain not in my lifetime.

-Hoot

Uncanny. His "hope and change" candidacy was perfectly timed to coincide with the Wall Street Meltdown and capital flight. Makes one wonder. It really does.

There are several possibilities and all are varying shades of fugly.

Faux Reformer, Someone 'got' to him, ...

:shrug:

The actions don't fit the personality projected.

-Hoot

there's a reason why war must be declared. there's a reason why citizens should not be surveilled. there's a reason why the state must preserve transparency -- and now we're seeing the very beginnings of the reasons why. it will only get uglier from here.

since the undeclared Cold War started the moment that Germany surrendered, and the dreaded "peace dividend' was avoided by the Gulf Wars and our current forever war, the GWOT.

The fact that this is happening under a Democratic PONTUS is a travisty.
This shit should be rolling back, not increasing!
The rot and corruption from the Bush II years seems to be continuing. Tragic.

the trick is to fight them on every proposal to increase power. People that want more government in our lives are just plain wrong. There is always a piper to pay.

large foundational stones under Clinton.

Both the so-called left and so-called right play their roles in the rise of the police state. The key is incrementalism and continuity of agenda. The people who warned of this 15 or 20 years (or more) ago were laughed at, labeled cranks and crackpots. Who's laughing now?

The 1996 Telecommunications Act mandated all cell phones and computers have either GPS trackers and/or government-enabled backdoors.

According to the ACLU, Clinton expanded stealth surveillance of the citizenry far beyond anything seen under any prior administration. Clinton sought to allow the feds to peek at everyone’s bank account, have a key to all private encryption (see clipper chip, etc http://csrc.nist.gov/keyrecovery/clip.txt ) and e-mail, and censor the Internet.

After the Oklahoma City bombing, Clinton signed the draconian Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, expanding the authority of secret courts, unleashing the FBI to investigate First Amendment–protected activities, and allowing the INS to deport American citizens.

Under Clinton, there was a clear violation of the Posse Commitatus Act of 1878 (prohibits US military from being used on US civilians on American soil) with the use of Army troops in the Waco disaster. http://www.dojgov.net/posse_comitatus_act.htm

This laid the foundations for Homeland Security, as well as drawing all local and state police into federal control under the track-trace-database schema.

The NSA Echelon programme also came into being under Clinton.

http://www.fas.org/irp/program/process/echelon.htm

ECHELON is a term associated with a global network of computers that automatically search through millions of intercepted messages for pre-programmed keywords or fax, telex and e-mail addresses. Every word of every message in the frequencies and channels selected at a station is automatically searched.

The processors in the network are known as the ECHELON Dictionaries. ECHELON connects all these computers and allows the individual stations to function as distributed elements an integrated system. An ECHELON station's Dictionary contains not only its parent agency's chosen keywords, but also lists for each of the other four agencies in the UKUSA system

really was. I'd get snippits, and completely put them out of my head, b/c Al Gore was in charge of the Telecom Act, and he wouldn't screw us (that was brain on party programming). it was actually the beginning of all of this.

That, and Promis, but i'm totally not going there :evilgrin:

Yeah, about that...

Now I'm going to be sick.

are taking away our rights incrementally, a little at a time. If they get too outrageous, and take away too much at one time, they totally know that they risk a mass uprising, something that they are very careful to avoid.

One day we will wake up, and it will be 1984 come late. Many will turn off their TVs after an American Idol episode, and wonder how they can pay the bill from Bechtel for their drinking water on what they make due to the national mandatory minimum wage.

By then, it will be too late to do anything about it. We will be dependent on our not so benevolent neo-liberal Corporate "Socialist" dictatorship for everything destiny, and we will no longer have any recourse or real control over our destinies, neither individually nor collectively.

"If not you, who? If not now, when?"
Hillel

:kick:

:shakeshead:

When a select few get to run things, things will benefit the select few.

Consider the War on Terror: Uncle Sam spies on the Quakers and peace groups, not because they're terrorists, but because they question the state's authority and policies.

Gee. That used to be an American's patriotic duty.

i think.

They had a second hour of "Sixty Minutes" on last night.

The TV report focused on how Thomas Duke, a senior analyst at National Security Agency, is now facing up to thirty years in prison for contacting someone in the Baltimore Newspapers and telling them how very inept our computer systems are over at NSA.

Thirty years for being a whistle blower.

The computer program system that he and two other experts wanted to have the US adopt would cost three million dollars. It would allow the NSA to analyze all the trillions of bytes of info that the NSA receives each day, and which have no where to go. The information is not properly stored, due to lack of proper storage systems. And it is not analyzed.

The computer program system that the head of the NSA got behind cost over one billion, and never became operational!

Pretty unimpeachable sounding guy in the 60 minutes piece, wasn't he?

The OP author had a prior thread on the New Yorker piece:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1137925

Here's the full article. Great read -- impossible to quit once you start:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/23/110523fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=all

No exception for " 'wars' on things that sound really scary" in there.

I am so glad Obama has delivered on this promise..............
or was he talking about the daily lives of Americans being transparent .......... I will have to ask him that

:redbox: :tv:

to make drug arrests etc. Nope.... there's no stopping them. I knew the Patriot Act would be abused...it was only a matter of time. But it does stink that there are NO people on the left in the media complaining.

Instead I am creeped out...

Recced

thanky!

& that obviously includes the racist (to *some*, or a *sub-set*) HATE of our bestest-eva president?? :cry:
Nor to leave out his cabinet & other political picks, which are perfect, pragmatic;
heck, downright simply superlative!

Get with the program, dudette: If a Democrat does it, it's perfectly OK and down-right GOOD for 'Murica! Can't HELP but to be!! :patriot:

Contrariwise, when those EVIL Reprofitcans get back in power, the identical pronouncements/legislation/etc., coming from those lips, will then become, well,
EVIL
again!


You wouldn't want to be thought of as a useless hippie, holding back our Pres, would you?
--Even though you're neither needed nor desired and your vote doesn't count for anything appreciable.
In fact, you should be punched.
By everyone.
That makes REAL Democrats happy!
& that comes from the very top: starting from the White House. Looser (yes, I know it's sic).
***Disclaimer: That's unless the Dem's LOSE. THEN the entire blame is on YOU,
You're a lazy, treasonous, non-voting
(although if you ever DID vote you're most likely a 'Reagan Democrat' or vote straight-ticket Repuglican! You're not fooling anybody you know!)
possibly PUMA, DINO sucka!
You make me want to :puke:!

Or/in addition: you're probably a non-pragmatic, rainbow & pony-wanting cryptofascist Socialist or worse (if possible!)
Commie!1!
(Don't you dare question how you're both a Socialist, a Commie, a cryptofascist and a Reagan Democrat, you probably wouldn't be able to understand cause you take your orders from *guffaw* GLENN GREENWALD! :rofl: )

and besides I'll bet you'd LOVE to see President Pawlenty!

And just stop whining! All or most of this I've
read many times here on DU and they've been allowed to stand so they're not "personal attacks" but sane, reasonable commentary, so don't try to hippie-weasel your way out!

Man, do I want to punch you but good!


...Oh, and take a bath -- if for anything because it's a dead giveaway of what your true "politics" (if you can call it that :rofl:) are...
REAL Democrats have perfect hygiene!















NEED I add :sarcasm:?

Edit: What else? Typo :/

:hug:

i got this by googling "hippie weasels" HA!

:spank: