OANN Investigative journalist Pearson Sharp hosted this documentary about the abuses of government surveillance. It originally aired on 7 April 2018. The program was very timely, given the abuse of power and illegal spying by the Obama regime.
The introduction to this documentary is a speech given by Sen. Frank Church on Meet the Press, 17 August 1975. The surveillance programs were already in wide use.
“In the need to develop a capacity to know what the potential enemies are doing, the United States government has perfected a technological capability that enables us to monitor the messages that go through the air. These messages are between ships at sea, between military units in the field. We have a very extensive capability of intercepting messages wherever they may be in the airwaves. Now that is necessary and important to the United States as we look abroad at enemies or potential enemies we must know.
At the same time, that capability at any time could be turned around on the American people. And no American would have any privacy left. Such is the capability to monitor everything; telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. There would be no place to hide if this government ever became a tyranny. If a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny and there will be no way to fight back because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government no matter how privately it was done, is within the reach of the government to know. Such is the capability of this technology.
I don’t want to see this country ever go across the bridge. I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that [the NSA} 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.”
Any power created for clandestine use can be abused. Obama transformed the IRS and the DOJ into political operatives that targeted people and organizations proscribed as the enemy. No, not muslim terrorists; but the conservative, patriotic, Tea Party groups that strongly and loudly objected to the lawlessness of the little black tyrant in the White House.
Properly focused intelligence is a valuable asset to the security of the United States. When it’s abused by intelligence agencies or politicians, it’s a threat to civil liberties.
Food for thought:
Edward “Brill” Lyle: The government’s been in bed with the entire telecommunications industry since the forties. They’ve infected everything. They get into your bank statements, computer files, email, listen to your phone calls… Every wire, every airwave. The more technology used, the easier it is for them to keep tabs on you. It’s a brave new world out there. At least it’d better be.
Thomas Reynolds: We never dealt with domestic. With us, it was always war. We won the war. Now we’re fighting the peace. It’s a lot more volatile. Now we’ve got ten million crackpots out there with sniper scopes, sarin gas and C-4. Ten-year-olds go on the Net, downloading encryption we can barely break, not to mention instructions on how to make a low-yield nuclear device. Privacy’s been dead for years because we can’t risk it. The only privacy that’s left is the inside of your head. Maybe that’s enough. You think we’re the enemy of democracy, you and I? I think we’re democracy’s last hope.
Edward “Brill” Lyle: Fort Meade has 18 acres of mainframe computers underground. You’re talking to your wife on the phone and you use the word “bomb”, “president”, “Allah”, any of a hundred keywords, the computer recognizes it, automatically records it, red-flags it for analysis. That was 20 years ago…… In the old days, we actually had to tap a wire into your phone line. Now with calls bouncing off satellites, they snatch ’em right out of the air.
—-Quotes from the 1998 film Enemy of the State.
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Related posts:
https://sfcmac.com/obamas-nsa-is-collecting-your-phone-records-and-internet-information/
https://sfcmac.com/nsa-mistakenly-intercepted-private-email-and-phone-calls-of-innocent-americans/
https://sfcmac.com/enemies-of-obamas-state/
https://sfcmac.com/when-you-text-make-sure-to-say-hello-to-the-nsa/
https://sfcmac.com/nsa-whistleblower-trump-is-right-about-wiretaps/
https://sfcmac.com/nsa-report-details-surveillance-violated-u-s-citizens-privacy-rights/
https://sfcmac.com/nsa-records-rewinds-and-reviews-all-telephone-calls-of-foreign-countries/