RECENTLY, A LONGTIME FORMER CONTRIBUTOR to The Herald’s Forum page who has railed ad nauseam against Obama and liberals for years suddenly found himself championing the Big Government excesses of the Obama administration. His volte face only extended to unfettered NSA snooping — but conservatives better keep an eye on him. That could well be the thin end of the wedge.
In his screed, the writer stated that Verizon turned over Americans’ phone records to the NSA. But Verizon was not the only company that did so; AT&T coughed up the records, too. In 2006, this pair, along with a third stooge, BellSouth, secretly turned over their records under the NSA warrantless wiretapping program. This week the Washington Post revealed that the NSA is gathering nearly 5 billion records a day on the location of hundreds of millions of cell phones around the world, enabling the agency to track citizens’ movements and map their relationships in a manner that is almost unimaginable in its intrusion and scope. Presciently, perhaps Hollywood got it right in 1967 with the film “The President’s Analyst,” in which TPC (The Phone Company) knows everything about everyone and is secretly running the whole shootin’ match.
There’s also the Internet, where the Traitorous Nine (AOL, Apple, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Skype, YouTube, PalTalk and Microsoft) also turned over all customer metadata (emails, search histories, contact networks, etc.). Apple alone, under Steve Jobs, told NSA Director James Clapper to “clap off.” Only a year after Steve’s death did Apple finally relent. Microsoft was the first of the high-tech giants to comply — no surprise there. Clapper blatantly lied to Congress by testifying that Americans’ phone records were not being collected. There was no punishment, not even a reprimand, for his perjury.
The local writer bemoaned the double standard of the Guardian newspaper vis-a-vis journalistic “outings” of CIA agents, but he was comparing apples and oranges. CIA operative Valerie Plame was “outed” by the Bush administration as a way to punish her husband, diplomat and former National Security Council Senior Director for African Affairs Joseph Wilson, whose unforgivable sin was to publicly question George Bush’s State of the Union assertion that Saddam Hussein had been seeking yellowcake uranium from Niger as part of his “weapons of mass destruction” program. Wilson had been sent to Niger in 2002 and did the original assessment that contradicted Dubya. It was just one of many of the Bush administration’s whoppers to justify the second Iraq war. The outing of Plame was done at the behest of Vice President Dick Cheney and executed through his chief of staff Scooter Libby and Richard Armitage of the State Department, who tipped reporter and useful idiot Robert Novak. This vindictive use of information to punish political opponents is precisely the type of problem that an above-the-law NSA makes possible. Libby was indicted over the Plame affair and found guilty of perjury. His 30-month sentence was later commuted by Bush. Very neat.
All that is quite different than the “outing” in Pakistan of CIA contractor Raymond Davis, a violent, probably murderous thug — correction, our thug. Pakistan’s spooks, the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), IB (Intelligence Bureau) and MI (Military Intelligence), must have already suspected Davis was a Company Man when he was taken into custody — he wasn’t exactly “blending in” in Pakistan by killing two men during a purported robbery (even this story was challenged; there may not even have been a robbery attempt). $2.3 million of “blood money” was paid to the families of the deceased — chump change from the CIA’s black budget. In the cafés of Islamabad and Lahore, the discussion years later is not about the bin Laden raid, but about the Davis affair and its aftermath. When Davis got back to Colorado, he blended in some more by assaulting a 50-year-old minister in front of his wife and two young daughters over a disputed parking spot, repeatedly hitting him when the minister got up after being knocked to the ground. The minister suffered a broken vertebra. Copping a plea to third-degree misdemeanor assault, Davis was ordered to pay restitution and attend anger-management classes. Your tax dollars at work.
Every Mafia capo, corporate chieftain and local drug dealer has known for years that sensitive discussions are never conducted over an unsecured phone line or the Internet. Face-to-face conversations are de rigeur. It’s a good bet that al Qaeda, the Russians, Chinese, Cubans, North Koreans and the rest of our ennemis du jour have also worked that out by now. So what is the real rationale for this massive snooping effort? Total control of the populace, using technical power that even Orwell could never imagine, and which makes “1984” look like outdated naivete. While they’re at it, the NSA can listen in on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Brazil President Dilma Rousseff. How about the entire population of France? Why not? The sky’s the limit, and the world is not enough.
Now to Glenn Greenwald, Edward Snowden and the rest of the honorable whistleblowers. The former Forum contributor justifies the UK’s detention of Greenwald’s partner David Miranda because Miranda’s laptop reportedly had “58,000 classified UK intelligence documents” on it. Think about this for a minute. What was the probable cause to suspect that before the fact? True, in the UK — Land of Huxley and Orwell — the government doesn’t need probable cause, not having a Fourth Amendment. But how do we even know for a fact that the government’s claim is true? Anything could be “placed” on his laptop once it had been confiscated. If the records on the laptop were in fact “state secrets,” why was Miranda released and allowed to return to Rio de Janeiro? Why have there been no charges brought against him, when the merest suspicion of terrorism is grounds for extraordinary rendition, torture and indefinite detention of Muslims at Guantanamo?
The obvious answer is that the UK authorities had no inkling of what was on the laptop; that Miranda was targeted ahead of time as a way to intimidate and punish Greenwald and the Guardian newspaper for revealing (along with the Washington Post) the dirty secrets of the GCHQ — Government Communications Headquarters (UK’s NSA) — and the NSA.
The ancient Romans queried, “Who will guard the guards?” On Dec. 3, In testimony before the British Parliament, Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger said the paper “would not be put off by intimidation, but nor are we going to behave recklessly.” On the same day, Ben Emmerson, United Nations special rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, announced he was starting an investigation into the surveillance programs operated by GCHQ and the NSA. Emmerson said the organizations reporting the Snowden revelations had disclosed matters of genuine public interest and concern to countries around the world, adding, “The astonishing suggestion that this sort of journalism can be equated with aiding and abetting terrorism needs to be scotched decisively.
“Attacking the Guardian is an attempt to do the bidding of the services themselves, by distracting attention from the real issues.”
The 42 TIME magazine “Person of the Year” candidates for 2013 include both Barack Obama and Edward Snowden. It’s doubtful that TIME’s editors have the guts to select Snowden, but the public is also allowed to weigh in. At last count, when Obama (last year’s winner) and Snowden are placed head-to-head, the public votes 19 percent Obama, 81 percent Snowden. If Snowden is a traitor, as many on both sides of the political spectrum suggest, he’s the most popular traitor in American history.
In “unAmerica,” there is no privacy, nor an expectation of it. The aforementioned Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable search and seizure, has been excised. In unAmerica, as in the former East Germany, half the populace is spying on the other half. In unAmerica, to speak the truth to power, as Edward Snowden did, is treason.
In unAmerica, there is only one amendment, the Second. (Forgotten is that Thomas Jefferson’s intent for the Second Amendment was primarily to guarantee the other nine against a tyrannical government.) Everyone is armed to the teeth, and the “stand your ground” yahoos trump life and liberty. (Over time, this may prove to be a self-correcting problem.)
In unAmerica, one must never ask awkward questions of the government. To challenge excesses that are clearly unconstitutional is treason. In unAmerica, every time someone makes love, someone else files a report. In unAmerica, one is guilty until proven innocent — and even then one may be detained indefinitely as a security risk.
In unAmerica, people have chosen security over liberty — and they deserve neither.
Let’s get the “un” out of America! Instead, folks who truly believe in unAmerica can be given their own state where they can spy on the lives of others to their heart’s content. Maybe Idaho, which could be renamed “Authoritaria.” Yes, please go and leave real Americans to their peace, privacy and the relentless pursuit of happiness.
D.J. Rainer is a trade name developer and resident of Benicia.
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From the article: In his screed, the writer stated that Verizon turned over Americans’ phone records to the NSA. But Verizon was not the only company that did so…
So your issue seems to be not that the writer was wrong (he clearly was not), but that he did not name other names?
Is that the best you can do?
Nice job DJ, welcome to the Forum!
Excellent article. Thanks, Mr. Rainer–
From the above article:
“The ancient Romans queried, “Who will guard the guards?” On Dec. 3, In testimony before the British Parliament, Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger said the paper “would not be put off by intimidation, but nor are we going to behave recklessly.” On the same day, Ben Emmerson, United Nations special rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, announced he was starting an investigation into the surveillance programs operated by GCHQ and the NSA. Emmerson said the organizations reporting the Snowden revelations had disclosed matters of genuine public interest and concern to countries around the world, adding, “The astonishing suggestion that this sort of journalism can be equated with aiding and abetting terrorism needs to be scotched decisively.”
“Attacking the Guardian is an attempt to do the bidding of the services themselves, by distracting attention from the real issues.”
From the article below, more “truth to power” for the community to consider…
“Real journalism is “subversive” of deception that can’t stand the light of day. This is a huge problem for the Obama administration and the many surveillance-state flunkies of both parties in Congress. What they want is fake journalism, deferring to government story-lines and respectful of authority even when it is illegitimate.”
“In motion now, on both sides of the Atlantic, are top-down efforts to quash real journalism when and how it matters most. In the two English-speaking countries that have done the most preaching to the world about “Western values” like freedom of the press, the governments led by President Obama and Prime Minister Cameron are overseeing assaults on real journalism.”
“They’re striving to further normalize fake journalism — largely confined to stenographic services for corporate power, war industries and surveillance agencies. A parallel goal is to harass, intimidate and destroy real journalism. The quest is to maximize the uninformed consent of the governed.”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/12/05/journalism-at-the-crossroads/
Beyond the White House and the cheering Democrats in Congress—
More awkward questions. What is U-3 and U-6? What is Shadow Stats?
From the above article:
“In unAmerica, one must never ask awkward questions of the government.”
From the article below some relevant answers for the community to consider…
“The White House, and most headline writers around the country, are crowing that the November jobless rate of 7.0%, reported Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is the lowest since 2009 when President Obama took office, when it was 7.3% and rising.”
“But is this number really something worth cheering”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/12/09/making-good-news-out-of-bad/
A more detailed analysis of Obama vs.Snowden for the community to consider..
From the above article:
“The 42 TIME magazine “Person of the Year” candidates for 2013 include both Barack Obama and Edward Snowden. It’s doubtful that TIME’s editors have the guts to select Snowden, but the public is also allowed to weigh in. At last count, when Obama (last year’s winner) and Snowden are placed head-to-head, the public votes 19 percent Obama, 81 percent Snowden. If Snowden is a traitor, as many on both sides of the political spectrum suggest, he’s the most popular traitor in American history.”
A key passage from the article below:
“To Obama a whistle blower who puts his oath of loyalty to the Constitution above considerations of legalities applied to keep those violations secret from the public, and who actually exposes criminally unconstitutional conduct that should trump such lesser legalities in a fair court of law, and who thereby also stimulates an essential national debate on the subject sufficient to draw Obama out of his lair to face a press conference for the first time since April, is not a patriot because he has been indicted. Indicted by the constitutional offenders themselves. Is a more technical principle-avoidance argument even possible?”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/08/13/obama-versus-snowden/
Another analysis of Obama vs.Snowden for the community to consider..
From the above article:
“The 42 TIME magazine “Person of the Year” candidates for 2013 include both Barack Obama and
Edward Snowden. It’s doubtful that TIME’s editors have the guts to select Snowden, but the public is also allowed to weigh in. At last count, when Obama (last year’s winner) and Snowden are placed head-to-head, the public votes 19 percent Obama, 81 percent Snowden. If Snowden is a traitor, as many on both sides of the political spectrum suggest, he’s the most popular traitor in American history.”
A key passage from the article below:
“No Contest: Edward Snowden is Person of the Year”
It’s pretty much the same story with the Obama Administration, which until Snowden came along had been issuing blatantly false statements about what the N.S.A. was and wasn’t doing. Who can forget James Clapper, Obama’s director of national intelligence, saying it wasn’t true that the agency collected any data at all on hundreds of millions of Americans, or General Keith Alexander, the head of the N.S.A., denying fourteen times that the agency intercepted any American’s e-mails, texts, and other electronic communications?
Even after Snowden revealed these statements to be bogus, the President continued to obfuscate. In August, he claimed that even before Snowden came forward he had launched a review of the government’s spying programs, and he suggested that the leaker, rather than going to the press, could have utilized the federal protections for whistleblowers. As CNN’s Z. Byron Wolf showed, neither of these claims were accurate. (In an extensively reported story in this week’s issue of the magazine, Ryan Lizza asks why the Administration is so reluctant to rein in the electronic spooks.)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/09/edward-snowden-voted-guardian-person-of-year-2013
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2013/12/no-contest-edward-snowden-is-person-of-the-year.html
More on Mr. Snowden for the community to consider…
From the above article:
“The 42 TIME magazine “Person of the Year” candidates for 2013 include both Barack Obama and Edward Snowden. It’s doubtful that TIME’s editors have the guts to select Snowden, but the public is also allowed to weigh in. At last count, when Obama (last year’s winner) and Snowden are placed head-to-head, the public votes 19 percent Obama, 81 percent Snowden. If Snowden is a traitor, as many on both sides of the political spectrum suggest, he’s the most popular traitor in American history.”
A key passage from the article below:
“Though snubbed for TIME magazine ‘person-of-the-year’ honors this week, the NSA whistleblower remains the single individual who many regard as the hands-down most important individual when it comes to disrupting the national security state since it converged with the digital revolution in the aftermath of 9/11 and the onset of the so-called ‘global war on terror.”
“At a Wednesday evening reception in Washington, DC, the thirty-year-old former surveillance contractor was honored by Foreign Policy magazine by being placed at the #1 spot on its annual list of 100 Leading Global Thinkers.”
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/12/12-2
Beyond the White House and the cheering Democrats in Congress—
More awkward questions. What is U-3 and U-6? What is Shadow Stats?
From the above article:
“In unAmerica, one must never ask awkward questions of the government.”
From the article below some relevant answers for the community to consider…
“Think about this for a minute. The BLS admits that the US unemployment rate that includes people who have been discouraged about finding a job for less than one year is 13.2%. The official line is that the US economy has been enjoying a recovery since June 2009. How is there a recovery when 13.2% of the population is unemployed?
This question becomes even more pointed when the long-term–more than one year–discouraged workers who cannot find a job are included in the measure of unemployment. The US government does not provide such a measure. However, John Williams (shadowstats.com) does. His estimate produces a 23.2% rate of US unemployment. An increase in the number of long-term discouraged workers is consistent with the drop in the US labor force participation rate from 66% in December 2007 to 63% in November 2013.”
There is no such thing as a recovery with 23.2% unemployment.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/12/11/more-misleading-official-employment-statistics/
So called spying or sharing of info has been going on for years. Try credit reports, rent a place to live, buying a house or other property, checking account, boarding an airplane, entering many buildings, apply for a credit card, apply for a job, comment on-line, write a Forum article, request utility or phone service and many more other things we do in our daily life. I have no fear if someone wants to keep track of my e-mail or phone calls. I do not care if they track what I buy or what I do. It is very simple just obey the laws and do not get in any trouble like physical abuse to others. By the way Idaho is a great state. More should follow their direction. Merry Christman and enjoy the Christmas Tree lighting on First Street tonight.
Mr. Rainer, pay no heed to Dennis Lund (DDL) calling your fine article a “screed.” He casts aspersions on anything articulate coming from anywhere he interprets as to the left of his own views. As for Bobbie Livesay, I’ve never seen evidence of his having read anything significant in his life, unless it bore directly on his late business dealings or personal finance. You need to be aware, if you aren’t already, of Livesay’s long-standing, adamantine and misogynistic grudge against our fine lady Mayor, Elizabeth Patterson. He is totally upside-down and backward about her and almost anything conceivable as “liberal”, democratic or actually intelligent. He’s nothing but a left-over, superannuated, bargain-basement business-man.
RMS stated: Mr. Rainer, pay no heed to Dennis Lund (DDL) calling your fine article a “screed.”
I was quoting Mr. Rainer, not calling his piece a “screed”.
An HTML error (since corrected) led you to that conclusion. But if you had read the piece you would have seen that.
D. J. Rainer’s piece on cyber-spying is certainly lengthy and, in many ways, interesting and even stylistically coherent. He seems not to be your run-of-the-mill progressive, however. I sense there may even be traces of the enlightened Independent here. That’s certainly a refreshing change from the uniformly abusive nonsense that’s too often inundates this particular blog space. In any case, new voices should always be welcome–especially in charming and eccentric old Benicia!.
“Uniformly abusive nonsense that’s too often inundates …” Talk about nonsense. And who is more uniformly abusive than the brain retreaded set of Obama critics published in the Herald?
“who is more uniformly abusive than the brain retreaded set of Obama critics published in the Herald?
I would suggest a mirror so you can see the answer.
Zing! Fourth-grade riposte to accompany your elementary political views?