Within days of 9/11, latest documents show, the US government with partners ATT and Verizon, were engaged in deeply illegal monitoring of American voters.
Keep in mind that the presidency had changed hands less than a year earlier in a way that severely challenged the authenticity of that general election. “Our pet goat” was in the White House and the system that guaranteed watchful eyes on the functioning of government, corporate overreach, and the freedom of the American people from corporate and government surveillance, was effectively crippled . That was 2001.
This is now and, however bizarre it may seem, one measure of how seriously we need to take the latest revelations from Edward Snowden is the array of top NYT reporters and headliner whistle blowers working together. They give us further, even more releaving details of a surveillance operation that lasted at least a decade and probably continues unabated.
Since Edward Snowden revealed the first findings in 2013, surveillance has been made more difficult by some companies and by some lower federal court decisions. But the White House has had it pretty easy:
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.. The government has been fighting in court to keep the identities of its telecom partners hidden. In a recent case, a group of AT&T customers claimed that the N.S.A.’s tapping of the Internet violated the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches. This year, a federal judge dismissed key portions of the lawsuit after the Obama administration argued that public discussion of its telecom surveillance efforts would reveal state secrets, damaging national security. …NYT
Same old…
Meanwhile, many of us have regarded Canada as having the more mature, better developed government, and more responsible voters. Now that has changed. An editorial, also in today’s Times, reveals the damage done by (again) a conservative government in that country. Again, information is being reduced to a one-way operation.
Americans have traditionally looked to Canada as a liberal haven, with gun control, universal health care and good public education.
But the nine and half years of Mr. Harper’s tenure have seen the slow-motion erosion of that reputation for open, responsible government. His stance has been a know-nothing conservatism, applied broadly and effectively. He has consistently limited the capacity of the public to understand what its government is doing, cloaking himself and his Conservative Party in an entitled secrecy, and the country in ignorance. …NYT
Conservatives in both countries — when they’re not behaving like clowns — may seem eager to preserve the freedoms of the people. But that misconception deserves the biggest, bitterest laugh of all. Ignorance is the key to the kind of reactionary “conservatism” we and our neighbors have allowed to take over our capitols.
Cross-posted from Prairie Weather
graphic via shutterstock.com