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The Value of Government Surveillance of Citizens
Jacob Hornberger
Campaign
For Liberty
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
It's amusing to watch U.S. officials protest the Chinese government's
surveillance of its own citizens. After all, isn't it the U.S.
government that secretly and illegally conspired with private
telecom companies to record telephone conversations of private
American citizens? And isn't it the U.S. government that secured
both civil and criminal immunity for the telecoms' decision
to sell out the privacy of their customers to the feds?
One of the aspects of the federal government's telecom surveillance
scheme that is rarely mentioned by the mainstream press goes
to the heart of why government surveillance of its citizens
is so valuable -- to provide a means to keep the citizenry subdued
and subservient through an subtle form of blackmail.
Prior to the NSA-telecom scandal, Americans had a reasonable
expectation of privacy with respect to their telephone conversations.
They would feel free to talk about things with friends and relatives
that they would never expect the authorities or the public to
find out.
Some of the things discussed might be illegal in nature but
other things might just be things that would be embarrassing
if the public were to find out.
For example, conversations about the use or purchase of illicit
drugs. Or married people having adulterous affairs. Or business
people engaged in unethical conduct at work. Or hurtful gossip
about friends and acquaintances.
The range of private communications that people would not want
to be made public are endless -- conversations that most everyone
figured were private at the time they were taking place.
But little did everyone know, that wasn't necessarily the case.
As it turns out, the U.S. government, operating through the
NSA in cooperation with U.S. telecoms, was secretly recording
countless telephone conversations of countless Americans for
an extended period of time. The recordings of those conversations
are now in the permanent databases of the NSA and possibly other
government agencies.
What better way to keep an entire populace subdued, subservient,
and obedient? People who are now tempted to, say, join a Tea
Party protest movement now have to factor in their deliberations
the fact that the government potentially has some very incriminating
or embarrassing information that it could use against them in
retaliation.
How could the government use that type of information against
someone? Simple -- by simply leaking it to a favored journalist,
who proceeds to share the gossip with others until it begins
to percolate within society, in much the same way that U.S.
officials ensured that people found out that Valerie Plame worked
for the CIA.
Would U.S. officials do something that dastardly?
Well, sure they would. After all, don't forget that when Qwest
CEO Joseph Nacchio refused to go along with the illegal telecom
surveillance scheme, the feds retaliated with an insider-trading
prosecution against him. Why wouldn't they retaliate against
someone who wasn't playing ball by simply leaking embarrassing
information about him?
Let's not forget what the feds did to Martin Luther King when
he began shaking up the establishment. They secretly recorded
his telephone conversations and then attempted to blackmail
him into ceasing his civil-rights activities by threatening
to release information about extramarital affairs that he was
purportedly having.
Why did they believe that King was having such affairs? Their
secret recordings of his telephone conversations provided them
that information.
To his credit, King refused to succumb to the federal blackmail.
But he paid a big price for it. The feds leaked the evidence
they had acquired in their secret surveillance to some favored
journalist stooges who then made the information public.
Would Americans who have had their private telephone conversations
secretly and illegally recorded by the NSA respond like King
did? Some would. But by the same token, there undoubtedly is
a certain number of Americans who would say, "Not me. Count
me out. I'm keeping my head down. I can't afford to have my
telephone conversations disclosed to my family, my company,
or the public."
"When the people find they can vote themselves
money, that will herald the end of the republic."
- Fall Of The Republic - Buy
the DVD here
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INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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