Snowden Gives the Big Picture
Edward
Snowden wrote yesterday
about mass surveillance by the NSA:
These programs were never about terrorism: they’re about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation. They’re about power.
He’s right.
These Programs Were Never About Terrorism
The
NSA started mass
spying on Americans before 9/11 …
and various
excuses have been used over the years.
The
NSA was already spying on American Senators and prominent Americans
who spoke out against the Vietnam War more than 40
years ago.
There
is no
evidence that mass surveillance has prevented a single terrorist
attack.
And see
thisconfirming opinion by a federal judge. On the contrary, top
counter-terror experts say that mass spyingactually hurts U.S.
counter-terror efforts (more here and here).
If
NSA spying were really focused on terrorism, our allies and
companies wouldn’t
be fighting back so hard against it.
Economic Spying
The
NSA conducts widespread
industrial espionage on our allies, such as the World
Bank, International Monetary Fund, United
Nations, the
Vatican and the Pope, France,
the leaders of Germany, Brazil andMexico,
the European
Union, the European
Parliament, the G20
summit, and at least 35
world leaders.
That
has nothing to do with terrorism. Indeed, a confidential government
memo admits that
the spying didn’t help prevent terrorism:
The memo acknowledges that eavesdropping on the numbers had produced “little reportable intelligence”.
The
top U.S. spy’s justification for
such financial spying is:
“We collect this information for many important reasons: for one, it could provide the United States and our allies early warning of international financial crises which could negatively impact the global economy. It also could provide insight into other countries’ economic policy or behavior which could affect global markets.”
(Top
financial experts say that the NSA and other intelligence agencies
are also using the information toprofit from
this inside information.
And the NSA wants to ramp
up its spying on Wall Street … to “protect” it.)
Diplomatic Manipulation
Spying on allies such as the United Nations,
European Union, the European Parliament, the G20 summit, the Vatican
and the Pope, and at least 35 world leaders is obviously at least
partially aimed at gaining advantage in diplomatic negotiations.
Indeed,
the United States Trade Representative is one of the “customers”
of NSA data.
Social Control
High-level
American government officials have warned
for 40 years that mass surveillance would lead to tyranny.
They’ve warned that the government is using information gained
through mass surveillance in order to go
after anyone they take a dislike to.
A
lieutenant colonel for the Stasi East German’s – based
upon his experience – agrees. And German Chancellor Angela
Merkel – who grew up in Stasi Germany – says the NSA is exactly
the same. Indeed, top American constitutional experts say
that the Obama and Bush administration are not only worse
than Nixon … but worse
than the Stasi
East Germans. They also say that NSA spying is exactly the
type of oppression that the Founding Fathers launched the
Revolutionary War to
stop. And see
this.
The
NSA tracks
users’ porn … to discredit them … just like J. Edgar
Hoover did in the bad old days of the FBI. The NSA shares this
information with a host
of other agencies, such as the Departments of Justice and
Commerce and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
(Indeed
– as previously
reported – all of the information gained by the NSA
through spying is shared
with federal, state and local agencies, and they are using that
information to prosecute petty
crimes such as drugs and taxes. The agencies are instructed
to intentionally
“launder” the information gained through spying, i.e. to
pretend that they got the information in a more legitimate way …
and to hide
that from defense attorneys and judges.)
TechDirt points
out:
It’s important to note here that the “targets” in this case are not US persons, and they all do appear to dislike the US, and some appear to have advocated for jihad against the US. However, as the report notes, most of them are not terrorists or even connected to any terrorist organization. They’re just activists and advocates who have spoken out criticizing the US. In one case, a guy was targeted for claiming that “the U.S. brought the 9/11 attacks upon itself” — an argument that plenty of respectable people have made.The lack of any terrorist connection is actually, stunningly, used againstthese individuals, as one NSA document notes that since they don’t communicate with terrorists it’s worse because it suggests “that the target audience includes individuals who do not yet hold extremist views but who are susceptible to the extremist message.”
A
high-level NSA whistleblower says that the NSA is spying
on – and blackmailing – top government officials and military
officers, including Supreme
Court Justices, high-ranked generals, Colin Powell and other State
Department personnel, and many other top officials. And see this:
He says the NSA started spying on President Obama when he was a candidate for Senate:
Another very high-level NSA whistleblower – the head of the NSA’s global intelligence gathering operation – says that the NSA targeted CIA chief Petraeus.And the main whistleblower on the NSA’s spying 40 years ago thinks that the NSA may be blackmailing its overseers in D.C.And see this.The proof is in the pudding: 2 former presidents, a vice president and a judge all warn that NSA spying is tyrannical.
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