As has been pointed out by
a reader objecting to the October 14 post on the subject, the Stasi State
of America is not [yet] as oppressive as the East German original which is
brilliantly depicted in the superb film, The
Lives of Others, the viewing of which is recommended to one and all.
The East German regime had one Stasi agent
for every 65 or so citizens. Furthermore, each agent was expected to, and did
have anywhere from a half dozen to a dozen snitches helping him oversee the
lives of their neighbors to enable the regime to quickly snuff out any sign of
opposition.
The response to this objection is that the U.S.
Stasi State, notably, still is a work in progress, one that is under continuing
development. Furthermore, the East
German’s lacked both the modern technology and the multiple agencies – NSA,
IRS, CIA, Secret Service (ironically the SS), FBI, EPA, TSA, HHS, etc. – that
the U.S. can and does unleash in coordinated and disabling attacks against those threatening political opposition to the ruling
regime.
Meanwhile, the powers that be in the U.S. have
been ludicrously inconsistent in their defense of the NSA surveillance
programs.
Their defense began with the mantra that the
programs were key in preventing numerous terrorist attacks. But that defense quickly crumbled once they were called upon to provide specifics and/or asked where all
the thwarted terrorists were or when and
where they had been brought to trial.
Furthermore, neither Fort Hood’s murderous “workplace violence” major
nor the Boston Marathon bombers were thwarted even though they had long engaged
in electronic communications with know radical Islamist leaders in the Middle
East and numerous other advance warnings and warning signs about them.
Then, the mantra was that the NSA tracked
only the existence, duration, and destinations of Americans’ electronic
communications but not the content of those communications. For that we have the assurances of those
involved in the program, which is noteworthy for being headed by an official
who lied about its existence when testifying to congress. So, ignore that every fish rots from the head
and trust the perjurer and his underlings.
Next, we were treated to the President
assuring us that our privacy was safe because surveillance programs were
overseen by the judicial branch through a star chamber ersatz body that is called a court and the
legislative branch through responsible congressional oversight committees.
Oops, two more embarrassing pratfalls.
Members
of the congressional oversight committee promptly came forward to say that numerous
obstacles blocked their ability to effectively oversee the NSA’s surveillance
program, according to this report.
A few days
later, as reported here, the chief judge of the star chamber
faux court that purportedly provides judicial oversight issued a similar statement, pointing out his body’s lack of ability
to meet its supposed responsibilities.
Finally, we
have our golden-throated orator-in-chief coming out to claim that the privacy
of Americans is being protected, preserved, and protected by his administration
and its intelligence apparatus while the NSA, at almost the same time ,was
issuing this report on thousands of instances annually in which privacy of Americans
had been infringed. Most of those
infringements, according to the perjurer-led agency’s internally generated
report, were inadvertent and accidental.
Furthermore, it was claimed that the infringing agency’s investigation
of itself was leading to the establishment of safeguards against further
infringements going forward.
It all sounds
like and is reminiscent of what the pikers in the Nixon administration referred to as a modified
limited hangout.
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