Economic Policy Journal – by Robert Wenzel
In one sense it is good to see so many getting worked up over reports of the spying and data collection being done by the US government, but, on the other hand, I am very suspicious about mainstream media’s current “shock” at the disclosures. Shock doesn’t occur in MSM without at least quiet approval from those behind the scenes.
Anyone paying close attention to the news would have suspected, a long time ago, that something like this type of spying and data collection was going on. Indeed, I regularly commented on such here at EPJ, most recently on May 4, in a post titled, Are All Telephone Calls in the US Recorded by the Government?, I wrote:
I have always suspected that they are. Now, there is evidence this is the case. Glenn Greenwald reports:
The real capabilities and behavior of the US surveillance state are almost entirely unknown to the American public because, like most things of significance done by the US government, it operates behind an impenetrable wall of secrecy. But a seemingly spontaneous admission this week by a former FBI counterterrorism agent provides a rather startling acknowledgment of just how vast and invasive these surveillance activities are.[…]On Wednesday night, Burnett interviewed Tim Clemente, a former FBI counterterrorism agent, about whether the FBI would be able to discover the contents of past telephone conversations between the two. He quite clearly insisted that they could[…]
On Thursday night, Clemente again appeared on CNN, this time with host Carol Costello, and she asked him about those remarks. He reiterated what he said the night before but added expressly that “all digital communications in the past” are recorded and stored.
Notice that the above Greenwald commentary goes beyond his current report that is causing all the focus, his current report being that Verizon provided data to NSA of all phone calls made over its networks during a given period. Thus, it appears we have something of a limited hangout here by USG. The purpose is unkown, though I suspect what may be going on is that the USG may be wanting to use in court cases some of the data they are collecting. BUT in order to do this, they have to acknowledge they have the data in the first place, which may be what the leak to Greenwald is all about (and the leaks to WaPo about USG tracking internet data).
Now that the public is aware this data is collected, Congress will hold hearings, not mind you, resulting in the end of the practice, but to ultimately set “guidelines” on when it can be used.
Let’s see how this all plays out, but now that this data collection is being made public, to me the real danger is that the government is now going to be able to openly use it against its subjects–which may have been the purpose of the leaks in the first place.
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/06/are-data-collection-leaks-just-set-up.html
Boston proved this claim is false. Indeed, I have to wonder, with all the phone calls and internet traffic being monitored since 2006, why aren’t American drug lords being arrested? Why wasn’t the Wall Street Mortgage-backed securities fraud stopped in its tracks? And failing that, why are no Wall Street executives being arrested given that even Wall Street workers admit fraud and criminality are rampant? More people are dying from Wall Street’s crimes than from terror attacks. Why no arrests? Why does the government insist it cannot find the authors of those so-called “Muslim” terror websites? If the government can monitor phone calls to reporters, why aren’t they catching all of the bribery going on on Capitol Hill? Why didn’t the government expose the climategate hoax in 2009 with their superior access to the computer records of those involved? Why did it take private citizens to expose that hoax? We are told there is an epidekic of perverts soliciting children for sex online. That multi-billion dollar total surveillance system doesn’t seem to have put a dent in that problem. The Catholic Church carried out a global campaign of suppression over the pedophile clergy scandal. That multi-billion dollar total surveillance system didn’t expose that for the world to see!
This multi-billion dollar total surveillance system should have brought some of the worst problems afflicting our society to a absolute dead standstill, but has not. It is not only a massive violation of the Constitution, it doesn’t seem to have yet produced any beneficial results at all!
Unless, of course, the government has no interest in stopping drug traffickers, Wall Street and DC corruption, climate hoaxers, pedophile clergy and other perverts, or even the bozos flooding out email boxes with Viagra ads, and this multi-billion dollar total surveillance system exists solely to keep you from complaining about the crimes, the corruption, the hoaxes, etc.
So we are down to a simple choice. Is this multi-billion dollar total surveillance system a complete and utter failure, or is the government on the side of the criminals, the corrupters, the drug lords, the cyber-criminals, etc.? Certainly anyone with access to this treasure trove of personal details on every American is in a position to blackmail anyone, including members of Congress. This might even explain that sudden and dramatic reversal of position by Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts relative to Obamacare!
Take your pick!
So I’ll tell you what the government’s next step will be. They will pull a “poison the well” stunt, in which a fake “leak” is staged, one that can be easily discredited, in order to cast doubt on all the other revelations. This is a very old propaganda trick. It was used during the Jim Garrison trial of Clay Shaw with the “Fingerprint witness”. During the HSCA, it was the umbrella. With 9-11 it was the “no plane at Pentagon”. But this time, we know to expect it, and that means it will not be effective in shutting down public outcry over Floodgate. Indeed the arrogance and lack of respect for the American people revealed by trying such a stunt will simply be another “gate” to add to the already huge pile of USDA Choice Bovine Excrement now enraging the American people!
Mike Revero
From http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2013/06/09/big-brother-obama-is-watching-you/
We posted this as an article yesterday:
http://www.fromthetrenchesworldreport.com/the-multi-billion-dollar-total-surveillance-system-doesnt-seem-to-be-working/46903
“Anyone paying close attention to the news would have suspected, a long time ago, that something like this type of spying and data collection was going on.”
I would be one of those on that (relatively) short list. I’ve never made any secret about it, either.