Institutionalized Spying Targets Freedom
Out-of-control spying reflects America's true face. At stake are fundamental rights too important to lose. They're gravely eroded already. They're headed toward disappearing altogether. They may not survive much longer.
Everybody spies on everyone else. America likely does it best of all. It spies on friends and foes alike. In "Animal Farm," Orwell said "All animals are equal but some are more equal than others." As the world's sole superpower, America is most of all.
Expect no policy change. A previous article discussed Senate legislation legitimizing lawless surveillance. Obama wants it and then some.
On November 2, The New York Times headlined "No Morsel Too Minuscule for All-Consuming NSA."
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Mr. Obama and top intelligence officials have defended the agency's role in preventing terrorist attacks. But as the documents make clear, the focus on counterterrorism is a misleadingly narrow sales pitch for an agency with an almost unlimited agenda. Its scale and aggressiveness are breathtaking." No amount spent is too much if "it adds to the agency's global phone book.
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The agency, using a combination of jawboning, stealth and legal force, has turned the nation's Internet and telecommunications companies into collection partners, installing filters in their facilities, serving them with court orders, building back doors into their software and acquiring keys to break their encryption.
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NSA wants nothing escaping scrutiny. Privacy no longer exists. Rule of law principles don't matter. Anything goes is policy. Everything transmitted electronically is fair game for intrusion.