Stumbled on a great article called Welcome to the New Total Security State by John Whitehead, a Constitutional attorney and author, who is the founder of the Rutherford Institute.
"You had to live–did live, from habit that became instinct–in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized."–George Orwell, 1984
“The U.S. government now has at its disposal a technological arsenal so sophisticated and invasive as to render any constitutional protections null and void. And these technologies are being used by the government to invade the privacy of the American people.
Several years ago, government officials acknowledged that the nefarious intelligence gathering entity known as the National Security Agency (NSA) had exceeded its legal authority by eavesdropping on Americans’ private email messages and phone calls. However, these reports barely scratch the surface of what we are coming to recognize as a "security/industrial complex"–a marriage of government, military and corporate interests aimed at keeping Americans under constant surveillance.
The increasingly complex security needs of our massive federal government, especially in the areas of defense, surveillance and data management, have been met within the corporate sector, which has shown itself to be a powerful ally that both depends on and feeds the growth of governmental bureaucracy. For example, USA Today reports that five years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the homeland security business was booming to such an extent that it eclipsed mature enterprises like movie-making and the music industry in annual revenue. This security spending by the government to private corporations is forecast to exceed $1 trillion in the near future.”
Many of us have known this for years. However, recent advances in computer database dissecting and compiling is putting resources that the deep pockets the Federal Government has created this monster that is unstoppable in it’s thirst for our private data.
“In such a climate, everyone is a suspect. And you’re guilty until you can prove yourself innocent. To underscore this shift in how the government now views its citizens, just before leaving office, President Bush granted the FBI wide-ranging authority to investigate individuals or groups, regardless of whether they are suspected of criminal activity.
Here’s what a lot of people fail to understand, however: it’s not just what you say or do that is being monitored, but how you think that is being tracked and targeted. We’ve already seen this play out on the state and federal level with hate crime legislation that cracks down on hateful thoughts and expression in order to discourage so-called hateful behavior.
Total Internet surveillance is merely the next logical step in the government’s attempts to predict and, more importantly, control the populace–and it’s not as far-fetched as you might think. For example, the NSA is now designing an artificial intelligence system that is designed to anticipate your every move. In a nutshell, the NSA will feed vast amounts of the information it collects to a computer system known as Aquaint (the acronym stands for Advanced QUestion Answering for INTelligence), which the computer can then use to detect patterns and predict behavior. No information is sacred or spared. Everything from cell phone recordings and logs, to emails, to text messages, to personal information posted on social networking sites, to credit card statements, to library circulation records, to credit card histories, etc., is collected by the NSA. One NSA researcher actually quit the program, "citing concerns over the dangers in placing such a powerful weapon in the hands of a top-secret agency with little accountability."
We can’t stop this, well we can, though we can’t. Enjoy the net, as it can be flicked off any time the big cheese wants.
While you can’t stop your phone being tapped by the Government, the Comsec C3i II World’s Only Downline Tap Detector is the only one telephone tap detector that will check for those downline taps, the ones that the phone company does at the direction of the government, as well as any other telephone tap.
We will be featuring more of Mr. Whiteheads writings in the future.
Protect your privacy…
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Christopher Winkler
Spy & Surveillance Product Expert
EyeSpyPro.com/ComsecC3iII