Below is my column in this week’s U.S. News & World Report, which is part of a debate over the question: Should Americans Be Worried About the National Security Agency’s Data Collection? On the other side was former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Professor John Yoo who answered the question in a predictable no. I suppose my answer was equally predictable.
The response of the White House and congressional allies to the disclosure of a massive surveillance program of all calls by all Verizon customers is eerily reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 movie “Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.” Various leaders like Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., assured citizens that there is nothing to fear in having the government collect all of your calls, including details like their duration, location, time and your associations. Call it the sequel: “Dr. Obamalove or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love a Police State.” Our leaders are assuring us that such databanks will help them protect us from others, but who will protect us from our protectors?
The disclosure of the secret order for every call by every citizen (domestic or international) comes on the heels of a scandal involving the investigation of reporters by the administration. It came before the disclosure of another massive data-mining program that seized e-mail, photos and other private communications from some of the biggest Internet companies. It is all part of the same growing surveillance system in the United States – a system demanding absolute transparency of reporters and citizens alike.
[Check out our editorial cartoons on President Obama.]
Years ago, civil libertarians raised an outcry over the Total Information Awareness data-mining project, an operation viewed as so dangerous to privacy and civil liberties that it was formally stopped by Congress. It was designed to allow the government to follow citizens in real time by linking massive databanks and electronic systems. While many celebrated an increasingly rare victory for civil liberties, it now appears that the intelligence community merely broke the system into smaller pieces.
Each of these intrusions has been justified as making us safer, but collectively that creates a fishbowl society where privacy is little more than an illusion. We are approaching the tipping point in our system, where liberty is giving way to authoritarian power. While our current leaders may be benign, we are increasingly dependent on their good motivations and discretion for our liberty. It is precisely the system that the framers rejected at our founding. Benjamin Franklin warned of the siren’s call for power by government officials when he observed that “those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
If we allow these officials to strip us of our privacy, we have not failed the Framers. We have failed ourselves.
JONATHAN TURLEY is the Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University
U.S.News & World Report, June 7, 2013
I can see the spin coming….those that oppose or questions the NSA, PRISM, HSA…. Are really supporters of terrorism….. I’ve seen it before, especially in police and military appropriations bills….
America’s Most Anti-Democratic Institution: How the Imperial Presidency Threatens U.S. National Security
It’s evil, lawless and authoritarian. And NSA as leaker Snowden has shown us, its aims are to be all-powerful.
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/executive-branch-threatens-us-national-security?akid=10554.147321.cQa3-F&rd=1&src=newsletter853091&t=3
Editor’s Note: This is the first article of a four-part series by Fred Branfman on the U.S. Executive Branch’s military, police and intelligence agencies which have aggregated far more power, committed far more evil by destroying the lives of countless innocents, and operated far more illegally, than any other governing institution in the world today.
http://www.boozallen.com/media-center/press-releases/48399320/statement-reports-leaked-information-060913
Booz Allen Statement on Reports of Leaked Information
June 11, 2013
(Updated Information Underlined)
Booz Allen can confirm that Edward Snowden, 29, was an employee of our firm for less than 3 months, assigned to a team in Hawaii. Snowden, who had a salary at the rate of $122,000, was terminated June 10, 2013 for violations of the firm’s code of ethics and firm policy. News reports that this individual has claimed to have leaked classified information are shocking, and if accurate, this action represents a grave violation of the code of conduct and core values of our firm. We will work closely with our clients and authorities in their investigation of this matter.
Regarding the FISA Court. In 2012 there were just under 2000 requests made to that court for warrants to further mine the database. One request was denied. I would love to be the rubber stamp salesman for that court.
TIPS (Bush’s domestic program, Terrorism Information and Prevention System) – similar to J. Edgar Hoover’s misuse of the FBI during the 1960s when Hoover hired citizens to spy on neighbors who were political protesters. -Blouise
Similar. But much worse. Much worse. (As I’m sure you know, Blouise.)
“Obama says that the debate over the NSA’s activities is “healthy for our democracy” and a “sign of maturity.” But I think it’s a sign of forgetfulness—of Constitutional amnesia—on the part of Obama and his Attorney General Eric Holder, not to mention the administration’s vaunted intelligence chiefs who want to divert attention from the subject of the leaks, which is their own behavior, onto the leaker. I am hoping Democrats as well as Republicans in Congress remind the administration what the Constitution was designed to do and what the original FISA legislation was meant to do, but judging from the performance of most congressional leaders so far, I am not holding my breath.” From the article.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113424/nsa-snooping-scandal-reveals-our-constitutional-amnesia Blouise, Yep. Here’s an article written by John Judis who was spied on in the sixties.
TIPS (Bush’s domestic program, Terrorism Information and Prevention System) – similar to J. Edgar Hoover’s misuse of the FBI during the 1960s when Hoover hired citizens to spy on neighbors who were political protesters.
Thank you for a great article and your continued writings on this topic. Perhaps some day those who refuse to see any bad from their data being used (because their good and have nothing to fear) will see the danger. Based on the few comments that support the spying on this site, and the other comments one sees on other sites, my optimism is not so high. Perhaps they will change their mind when David Duke is the next president. Only problem is it will be way to0 late then.
I understand the NSA just placed a 3 billion dollar order for 300 million blankets. The label will be marked courtesy NSBA (National Security Blanket Agency) All true Americans are requested to phone the NSBA give them info and information on all your lifes activities and receive a free blanket. They are guaranteed to protect you from ghosts that go bump in your mind. Compliance is strongly recommended. …..of course compliance is not necessary they’ll get your info regardless,….. but then you won’t get a nice blanket. 🙂
There are thousands of people w/ legit access to this data. I would make a ballpark guess at least a couple hundred could be bought.
Ignorance is bliss..and dangerous.
SWM, As I detailed yesterday, I assure you the “abuses” began as soon as this program was enacted. Political operatives getting access, PI’s having friends w/ access or merely “buying” friends. And, you would all be shocked @ how cheap you can buy a govt. official. Foreign intelligence getting access for nothing to do w/ terrorism. This is the holy grail of data and it is being accessed for nefarious reasons daily. That’s the way it works, from someone who has worked 30 years in the getting information biz. 62% of the public have “no problem” w/ this program. If they knew what I know that % would be cut in half.
Are any United States Senators or Congressman standing up to this?
There is a drone flying over George Washington University as we speak.
I find it appalling that so many of my fellow citizens think what the government is doing is OK! It is NOT OK! Please contact your representatives and tell them to repeal the Patriot Act. Please also contact Udall and Wyden and thank them for having the courage to say what they could for the last few years.
GM is right: fraidy-cats don’t have the right to take away MY privacy to make them feel better. Just as I don’t have the right to make anyone stop smoking so I can breath easier.
Security cannot be purchased with loss of freedoms and privacy.
Journalist in US surveillance case: More to come
June 11, 2013 01:49 AM EST
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20130611/as-phone-records-journalist/?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl1|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D326674
HONG KONG — The journalist who exposed classified U.S. surveillance programs leaked by an American defense contractor said Tuesday that there will be more `significant revelations’ to come from the documents.
“We are going to have a lot more significant revelations that have not yet been heard over the next several weeks and months,” said Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian.
You cast the pearls, JT. Let’s see what the policymakers do with them.
Dr Obamalove? Wow! Perhaps you should have an immediate confab with others who speak this way like Senator Cruz. Oh wait!!!! It is a disparaging remark when you suppose ‘Obamalove’ is a reason many people (>50%) do not mind the spying as much as you especially when in fact this all started as Bushlove. Your remark comes in on the heels of you chastising CNN’s Toobin for calling Snowden A “Clown” http://wp.me/p6sYP-h1F
Dredd,
😉
“And someday, the abuses will begin, in all likelihood long before we know about them.” -Emily Bazelon,Slate
The abuses started years ago. Apparently Emily (and many other Americans) have happily been missing out…