Let's cut through the confusion, the subterfuge, the smokescreen, lies, and misinformation: The total information awareness surveillance police state's main function is to control and subjugate the citizenry at the behest of supranational corporations.
It was built for that purpose under the guise of national security and protecting the country against terrorism.
As the implications of the reporting by The Guardian and a few other news media outlets, based on whistle-blower Edward Snowden, begin to sink in, dissenting voices are finally beginning to be raised. The problem is that those voices are ten-plus years too late. The minute the United States of America started torturing people, conducted illegal rendition (kidnapping), trampled on the legal principle of Habeas Corpus, demanded we give up our constitutional rights, and set the proto-fascist legal framework in the form of the Orwellian-named, so-called PATRIOT ACT, that's when those voices needed to be raised.
Unfortunately, once again, we're behind the eight ball... Many of the people who are now expressing opposition to the NSA illegal, unconstitutional, for-profit, corporate-run operation are under the illusion that the abuses can be addressed through our political/governmental system; that now that we know about it, we just need to lean on our public officials in order to make some adjustments, corrections, and rein in the NSA.
That may have been true (if at all) over ten years ago when the neocons proceeded to rapidly put in place the proto-fascist technological and legal infrastructure they've had on the shelf for decades, taking advantage of a fearful and shocked population (made to be so through fear-mongering and manipulation). But not anymore; we're beyond that point.
One way to ascertain whether that is true or not is to pay attention to what the surveillance police state (NSA, HSD) does as the result of the outcry. The massive and secretive data centers are going to continue to be built and operated at full speed; the data collection on all Americans is not only going to continue, it is going to accelerate and become exponentially more detailed and accurate, capable of building granular dossiers on hundreds of millions of citizens.
Here's what's happening, in a nutshell: The perverted capitalist system (vs. true capitalism) based on unbridled consumerism, corruption, cartels, monopolies and oligopolies, government take-over through bribery, and controlled by a tiny ruling elite has hit a wall. The system is based on constant and accelerated growth (each quarter), and as human and natural resources become incapable of keeping up with those "market expectations," the system reflexively looks for profit wherever it can find it. The system's needs then tends towards the subjugation and exploitation of the citizenry (and natural resources).
That point right there is very important because what gets in the way of "subjugation" and "exploitation" of the citizenry are RIGHTS; constitutional rights; civil rights; human rights; workers' rights.
The proto-fascist infrastructure that has been put in place (with an accelerated pace after 2001), which includes a wholesale revamping of our entire legal system designed to undermine constitutional protections (Habeas Corpus, Rights to Privacy, Freedom of The Press, Freedom of Assembly, and many others), and a surveillance police state, have been specifically-designed for that purpose: to subjugate and exploit the population in the name of corporate profits.
Ain't that a bitch? Imagine that; it was all about money! They should have just old us point blank.
For a deeper understanding about how corporate America took over our security/surveillance apparatus, I suggest people read The Center for Media and Democracy report "Dissent Or Terror" (in PDF).
Before I share some gems from that report, I want to point out that I've read hundreds of pages of reference information about this topic, and I noticed a very clear pattern/trajectory: It all started with the purported need to protect us against terrorism. Then the Homeland Security Department was born, and along with it a legal framework was put in place to support its mission. Then the mission morphed into not only protecting against "terrorism" but against all hazards against "critical infrastructure/key resources" (CI/KR)... And boom (pardon the pun), right there, once the words "infrastructure and key resources" were in the mix, that's when the corporations got into the game (of proto-fascism).
Of course, that was going to happen anyways. It was the ultimate goal, to begin with.
There are two primary domestic public-private intelligence sharing partnerships at work at the federal level: Infragard and the Domestic Security Alliance Council (DSAC).
Infragard is a public-private intelligence sharing partnership managed by the FBI Cyber Division Public/Private Alliance Unit (PPAU). As described by the FBI, Infragard is an "association of businesses, academic institutions, state and local law enforcement agencies and other participants dedicated to sharing information and intelligence to prevent hostile acts against the United States." There are 86 Infragard chapters nationwide. These Infragard chapters serve as representatives of private sector "stakeholders" in the many of the nation's fusion centers.
DSAC is a public-private intelligence sharing partnership between the FBI, U.S. DHS I&A and several of the nation's leading corporate/financial interests. Some of these corporate/financial interests comprise the DSAC Leadership Board. The DSAC Leadership Board consists of 29 corporations and banks, including several entities that have been the subject of OWS protests/criticism. Corporate/financial interests active in the DSAC Leadership Board include: Bank of America, MasterCard, Citigroup, American Express, Barclays, RBS Citizens, 3M, Archer Daniels Midland, ConocoPhillips, Time Warner and Wal-Mart. Along with DSAC chairmen from the FBI and U.S. DHS I&A, DSAC is co-chaired by a representative of these private sector interests-- currently Grant Ashley, vice president of global security for pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co.
The emphasis is mine
And speaking about Occupy Wall Street, to get a very detailed account about how an entire State Security Apparatus can turn against people who are exercising constitutionally-protected activities, again, I suggest people read the "Dissent or Terror" PDF report.
As reported by AlterNet ("How America's National Security Apparatus -- in Partnership With Big Corporations -- Cracked Down on Dissent")
Counter-terror police officers collaborated with corporate entities to combat protests. Undercover police officers monitored and tracked the Occupy movement. A right-wing corporate-backed group hired a police officer to help protect a conference. These are some of the details revealed in a new report published by the Center for Media and Democracy’s Beau Hodai, along with DBA Press. The revelations are based on government documents the group obtained.
The report, titled " Dissent or Terror: How the Nation's Counter Terrorism Apparatus, In Partnership With Corporate America, Turned on Occupy Wall Street,” is an eye-opening look into how the U.S. counter-terror apparatus was used to track the Occupy movement in 2011 and 2012 and also help protect the business entities targeted by the movement. The report specifically looks at the activities of “fusion centers,” or law enforcement entities created after 9/11 that transform local police forces into counter-terror units in partnership with federal agencies like the Department of Homeland Security. The fusion centers devoted a lot of time--to the point of “obsession,” the report notes--to monitoring the Occupy movement, particularly for any “threats” to public safety or health and to whether there were “extremists” involved in the movement.
The emphasis is mine
To the point of obsession! But I'm afraid we haven't seen nothing yet. As the proto-fascist surveillance tools become more sophisticated, that obsession with protecting corporate interests is going to increase--exponentially.
How far can this go? Well, let's examine a nifty use of intelligence in Britain, as reported by The Guardian: "Police 'spied on activists for blacklisting agency'"
Police gathered intelligence on trade union activists and passed the information to a clandestine blacklisting agency that unlawfully stored secret files on thousands of workers, according to evidence seen by the Guardian.
Sound familiar? Intelligence gathered on peaceful activists by the security apparatus in order to protect business interests? And what on God's name would they use it for? Well, let's see:
Pooling this information, staff at the association compiled files on more than 3,200 workers in an anonymous office in Droitwich, Worcestershire. When workers applied for jobs, managers contacted the association to check what information was held on them and would then decide whether to give work to them.
The files, some of which were inherited from a predecessor blacklisting agency called the Economic League, contained comments such as "militant ringleader", "agitator", "is a good worker but has proved to be very militant", "do not touch", and "that subject is a very bad troublemaker and would not be re-employed".
Oh wait, sorry, that was in England. Shit like that could not happen here, right? Stay tuned.
Folks, it's here. The Surveillance Police State is here, brand spanking new. It is now in the process of entrenching itself--so far pretty much unmolested.
No one in government is going to do a thing about it (other than huffing and puffing and, putting on a show of Kabuki theater, at the end making very minor changes).
Watch what happens... Intimidation against real journalists trying to expose what's happening is going to continue; the massive and indiscriminate data collection on the entire population is going to continue; sophisticated dossiers on "agitators" (I think I'll choose that for me), "ringleaders," and "troublemakers," is going to continue.
The system will go after them first; and then one day, it will go after you--unless we rise up in massive (peaceful) opposition and resistance.
By now, after having the hair of fire for over a decade trying to warn about this (along with many other people all over the country), I know that there will not be said peaceful uprising at the level that it will take to stop the proto-fascist system from entrenching itself.
So I just keep observing it and writing about it until it becomes too dangerous to do so. The way things are going, that day is fast approaching.
We let it happen; unfortunately.
P.S. I welcome spirited debate about this topic, and I'm especially interested in hearing from people who do not agree with my position. However, I will not engage in discussion with people who write first-person personal insults, or engage in disruptive behavior. I ask other serious people to do the same. To learn more about this subject, please visit the following links: The 15 Rules of Web Disruption / Thirteen Rules for Truth Suppression / Disinformation: How It Works.
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