As We Go to Press...
Emerging Outrage, Scandal over Massive Government Spying on People in the U.S.
June 16, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
On June 5, an article by Glenn Greenwald in the British newspaper the Guardian revealed that the FBI and the National Security Agency (NSA) used the PATRIOT Act to obtain a secret warrant ordering Verizon—one of the nation's largest phone networks—to turn over data on every single call that went through its system. As additional exposure comes to light, it is becoming more and more clear that this is just the tip of an iceberg.
The New York Times wrote: "There is every reason to believe the federal government has been collecting every bit of information about every American's phone calls except the words actually exchanged in those calls." And now more revelations, of an almost surreal nature, of government spying on the activities of everyone in the U.S. are coming to light as we go to press. Articles in the Guardian and the Washington Post have already revealed that the NSA is able to capture Internet communication from the servers of nine leading U.S. companies that includes people's search history as well as the content of emails, file transfers, and live chats.
This level of unprecedented invasive spying on every detail of the activity, thinking, associations, and political views—including oppositional politics—of every single person in this country reveals much about the real nature of this society and those who rule it in the name of "protecting the safety of Americans."
What does it tell you about the nature of the democracy that exists in this so-called land of freedom and opportunity that those who rule society feel compelled to micro-monitor every phone call, and apparently millions and millions of emails, web searches, and online associations?
This developing scandal comes on the heels of recent exposures of persecution of government whistle-blowers and reporters. The U.S. government is viciously persecuting Bradley Manning for exposing U.S. war crimes. Obama is upholding his right to kill anyone anywhere on his say-so (supposedly mediated by assurances that this is OK, because he's Barack Obama, not George W. Bush). The U.S. is torturing and force-feeding illegally detained men at Guantánamo. And there is a looming hunger strike against psychologically devastating long-term solitary confinement in California prisons.
All these outrages demand determined political opposition—increasingly connected to a REAL alternative to this system of torturers, murderers, and mega-invasive spying.
Revolution encourages our readers to be in the midst of discussions—online and in the public squares—and protests that break out in relation to the revelations of massive government spying on people's phone calls and Internet activity. Correspond with revolution.reports@yahoo.com, stay tuned to, and spread the word far and wide that people should be checking in frequently at revcom.us for ongoing and developing revolutionary exposure and analysis of this developing situation.
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