Welcome to the United Stasiland of Amerika!

Jun 10, 2013 08:20



What Daniel Ellsberg is calling the “executive coup against the U.S. Constitution” MUST be rolled back now, in light of the magnificently patriotic act of young Mr. Snowden, because, if it is not, we will be acquiescing in the groundwork for World War III:


In the presidential directive, the criteria for offensive cyber operations in the directive is not limited to retaliatory action but vaguely framed as advancing "US national objectives around the world".

The revelation that the US is preparing a specific target list for offensive cyber-action is likely to reignite previously raised concerns of security researchers and academics, several of whom have warned that large-scale cyber operations could easily escalate into full-scale military conflict.



Sean Lawson, assistant professor in the department of communication at the University of Utah, argues: "When militarist cyber rhetoric results in use of offensive cyber attack it is likely that those attacks will escalate into physical, kinetic uses of force."

An intelligence source with extensive knowledge of the National Security Agency's systems told the Guardian the US complaints again China were hypocritical, because America had participated in offensive cyber operations and widespread hacking - breaking into foreign computer systems to mine information.

Provided anonymity to speak critically about classified practices, the source said: "We hack everyone everywhere. We like to make a distinction between us and the others. But we are in almost every country in the world."

The US likes to haul China before the international court of public opinion for "doing what we do every day", the source added.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/07/obama-china-targets-cyber-overseas?guni=Network%20front:network-front%20full-width-1%20bento-box:Bento%20box:Position2:sublinks



What Ellsberg is saying MUST be heeded NOW:

Obviously, the United States is not now a police state. But given the extent of this invasion of people's privacy, we do have the full electronic and legislative infrastructure of such a state. If, for instance, there was now a war that led to a large-scale anti-war movement - like the one we had against the war in Vietnam - or, more likely, if we suffered one more attack on the scale of 9/11, I fear for our democracy. These powers are extremely dangerous.



…What is not legitimate is to use a secrecy system to hide programs that are blatantly unconstitutional in their breadth and potential abuse. Neither the president nor Congress as a whole may by themselves revoke the fourth amendment - and that's why what Snowden has revealed so far was secret from the American people.

In 1975, Senator Frank Church spoke of the National Security Agency in these terms:

"I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return."

The dangerous prospect of which he warned was that America's intelligence gathering capability - which is today beyond any comparison with what existed in his pre-digital era - "at any time could be turned around on the American people and no American would have any privacy left."



That has now happened…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/10/edward-snowden-united-stasi-america?guni=Network%20front:network-front%20full-width-1%20bento-box:Bento%20box:Position1:sublinks
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