This post appeared on the RenounceUScitizenship blog.
Once upon a time in America – Protection of freedom from within
“Freedom and the dignity of the individual have been more available and more assured here than in any other land on earth. The price for this freedom at times has been high, but we have never been unwilling to pay that price. … I do not believe in a fate that will fall us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing.”
Today in America – Freedom is CrimeThink and the citizens live in fear of FormCrime
Must Read!! The Guardian: “Edward Snowden – saving us from the United Stasi of America,” by Daniel Ellsberg http://t.co/O5VGPBqzzo
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) June 12, 2013
U.S. Government admits to spying directly on “foreigners” using PRISM
Interestingly when the Obama spy scandal broke, the President was quick to point out that the U.S. government was only spying on “foreigners”. To be specific: the government through the PRISM program was monitoring the email, chats and photos of “foreigners” that was running through U.S. internet servers. (Note that to be monitored the data must run through U.S. servers. Approximately one week ago I explained why this is driving the growth of “offshore email and internet servers”. I also suggested that it won’t be long before the U.S. forces its citizens to disclose all “offshore email accounts” to the U.S. government – “FEARBar“. But I digress.)
U.S. Government now wants to force “foreign governments” to spy on “foreign citizens” – That’s the FATCA of the matter!
FATCA exists for one purpose. The purpose is for the U.S. to obtain information on bank accounts in other countries. That’s it. No other reason. But, FATCA operates to force “foreign governments” to spy for the U. S. on residents of their countries. Yes, it’s the return of the Stasi – U.S. style.
Hmm, FATCA IGA anyone?
At the same time the U.S. admits that it has been spying on residents of other countries (“foreigners”), it is now asking forcing them to spy on their residents and turn this data over to the IRS. I wonder if the “PRISM Chronicles” will have any effect on the FATCA IGA process.
On this question, listen to the following interview with anti-FATCA advocate and member of European Parliament Sophie in ‘t Veld. She echoes the comments of Canadian Civil Liberties Association Abby Deshman that the U.S. has an insatiable appetite for data. At a minimum the EU is angered by the NSA PRISM program.
And now on to Sophie …
European Union Angered by N.S.A. PRISM Program – The Takeaway http://t.co/1MxQ0BuZ80
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) June 12, 2013
What do you think? Will this slow the IGA process?
@ bubblebustin
I think John Oliver is doing a good job too. I can’t say I agree with everything he says or implies but he makes me laugh so I’ll turn the TV on again tonight. Colbert’s NSA bit was funny too but comedy reverse engineered from an alternative viewpoint confuses me. A lot of things confuse me actually. 🙂
There’s so much out there on the NSA right now (how long will the furor last I wonder) but here’s an article that’s nicely done. It’s almost like an NSA tsunami. How I wish for a FATCA flood someday, the sooner the better.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-11/guest-post-why-surveillance-state-must-be-erased
That’s a great zerohedge post Em, thanks.
Check out this mention of US and spying and US expats:
http://opiniojuris.org/2013/06/12/foreign-intelligence-%E2%89%A0-foreigner-intelligence/
““Foreign Intelligence” ≠ Foreigner Intelligence (Expatriate Americans in PRISM)
by Peter Spiro
The NSA may be collecting data on Americans in the United States. What about Americans abroad?”………
“……….The FISA Amendments Act does bar “intentionally target[ing] a United States person reasonably believed to be located outside the United States.” But there doesn’t seem to be any mechanism to police that constraint or the citizenship determination (or at least not any mechanism that has been publicly disclosed)…..”
“…Under the conventional reading of the Supreme Court’s 1958 decision in Reid v. Covert, constitutional rights are portable to US citizens…”
“…There’s no evidence that anyone in the intelligence apparatus is even trying to stay true to the constitutional rule. Perhaps yet another reason for several million expatriate Americans to feel second class….”
Just in case this hasn’t been mentioned elsewhere:
“Stop Watching Us” online petition: https://optin.stopwatching.us/
Snowden saw what I saw: surveillance criminally subverting the constitution
So we refused to be part of the NSA’s dark blanket. That is why whistleblowers pay the price for being the backstop of democracy
“Once they have determined that you are a “person of interest” and an “enemy of the state”, they want to destroy you, period.”
Here is a good one
“Are Prism and other similar programmes aimed only at the data of US citizens and residents, or also – even primarily – at non-US nationals, including EU citizens?”
“We need to step back here and say clearly: mass surveillance is not what we want,” said Jan Philipp Albrecht, a German Green MEP in charge of overhauling the European Union’s outdated data protection laws.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/11/europe-us-privacy
Who benefits from the massive expansion of surveillance?
Is it making all people safer – or certain people richer?
Run the numbers and follow the money.
Run these numbers:
Every year since 1986, about 30,000 people were killed by guns in the US.
In comparison, between 1969 and 2009, (2011 Heritage Foundation study), a total of 5,586 people were killed in terrorist attacks against the US or its interests abroad.
This means that approx. FIVE TIMES many Americans are killed ANNUALLY by guns than the TOTAL killed in terrorist attacks since Richard Nixon took office.
So clearly any effort to significantly improve the personal safety of Americans would begin by addressing the public health risk created by unrestricted access to firearms.
Then… follow this money:
The US spent more than $1 Trillion on homeland security since 9/11.
1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on Top Secret programs related to counter-terrorism, homeland security, and intelligence at over 10,000 locations across the country. Over 850,000 Americans have Top Secret clearances.
Cui bono?
Source for facts noted: Washington Post
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-03-01/opinions/37364660_1_gun-violence-hadiya-pendleton-gun-industry
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/
A former NSA employee was interviewed by RT regarding PRISM several days. A key comment he makes is that the collection of emails, etc. give the USG the “ability to leverage everybody in the country”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVmF15ItshA
EU Parliament non debating Prism. UK looking to lube up the Parliament.
Sophie at about 30:00, the UK puppet dictator follows.
Immediately recognized that the hall is empty, as Sophie mentions.
Described by the Pirate Party of Sweden — he must have been the only person in the audience. Google it yourself.
http://christianengstrom.wordpress.com/2013/06/11/debatt-i-eu-parlamentet-om-prism/
If you haven’t heard this lecture and Q & A at the National Press Club, I would recommend it.
NSA Whistleblower Thomas Drake speaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wp2BGLMqDM
After watching this, you might read his recent editorial at the Guardian
Snowden saw what I saw: surveillance criminally subverting the constitution
So we refused to be part of the NSA’s dark blanket. That is why whistleblowers pay the price for being the backstop of democracy
@just me
No time to watch the lecture right now, but Thomas Drake’s editorial at the Guardian is very moving. I’m now following him 🙂
@Bubblebustin…
It is worth the effort when time allows.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feHbP4k_tdk
DHS turns on its own — she talked about the customs barbeque
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFxijuRjX1U
30 seconds gets you through the check just fine. Maybe it will work in the audit.
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s GOVERNMENT Man
http://danieljmitchell.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/government-man-cartoon.jpg
@Wondering…
Seeing your link to the Washington Post expose, reminds me of the good PBS Frontline documentary that went along with it. It is certainly worth re-watching or watching for the first time…
TOP SECRET AMERICA
@MarkTwain
Thanks for the link to the video, it is certainly true what Drake said,
“Once they have determined that you are a “person of interest” and an “enemy of the state”, they want to destroy you, period.”
An enemy of the state is anyone who points out incompetence or corruption, it would seem. To do that, is to become a Domestic Terrorist. You too could be a recipient of a black hawk helicopter assault, and the visitation of 27 special forces.
BTW, went looking for the video on Amazon, and not there.. 🙂
http://topprioritymovie.com/trailer/
Oh, and speaking of whistle blowers, I see that Julia Davis mentioned the well known story of a Whistle blower, Jeffrey Wigand, and how he was treated when he went public.
Here is the movie trailer, if you have not seen it..
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0140352/
Group behavior. It is an animal characteristic. Gubbermint is a bigger Group with tighter walls. And it contains an army with even tighter walls.
Corporations. Fraternities. Sororities. Sports clubs. Religious Groups. The traits of the Group are all there.
Each country has its own set of symptoms. Succumbing to the norm.
Very true Mark Twain. It is part of the human condition.
By Dr.James Hanners http://lnkd.in/TxvmEy
Believe me, when I say, Big Brother- and his NSA- is absolutely watching all of us both domestically and internationally.
Unfortunately,all roads now lead to Washington D.C.
Britain today said eavesdropping by its GCHQ security agency was legal and no threat to privacy but would not confirm or deny reports,that it received data from a secret U.S. intelligence programme (Code for NSA and yes, sharing with IRS and other federal agencies).
British and U.S. newspapers have suggested that the U.S. NSA handed over information on Britons gathered under the PRISM program.
Today, Foreign Secretary William Hague said the two countries did share intelligence but that GCHQ’s work was governed by a very strong legal framework.
“The idea that in GCHQ people are sitting around working out how to circumvent a UK law with another agency in another country is fanciful,” Hague told BBC TV on Sunday.
“It is nonsense”.
Promising to give a statement on the subject to the lower house of Britain’s parliament on Monday, Hague said there was no threat to privacy or people’s civil liberties.
He said he was limited in what he could disclose.”Of course we share a lot of information with the United States,” he said, adding that the two countries enjoyed “an exceptional intelligence sharing relationship”.
“But if information arrives in the UK from the U.S. it’s governed by our laws.”
Britain’s two-party coalition government is under pressure to reveal more details of how Britain and the United States share intelligence after the reports, based on a leak, suggested such cooperation ran much deeper than was previously known.
Critics said this collaboration amounted to a “snoopers’ charter by the back door”, accusing the security services of having much greater access to Britons’ phone and electronic communications than allowed under British law thanks to the clandestine U.S. program.
But Hague said such fears were misplaced.
Douglas Alexander, the opposition Labour party’s spokesman for foreign affairs, welcomed Hague’s promise to address parliament on the subject, but said he needed to be more open.
“I will be asking the Foreign Secretary in the House of Commons tomorrow to clarify the role of his Department in overseeing those legal frameworks,” Alexander said.
“It is vital that the Government now reassures people who are rightly concerned about these reports.”
Britain’s parliamentary intelligence and security committee has demanded a report from GCHQ on the subject. By coincidence, its members are due in Washington on Monday to conduct talks with lawmakers and officials in the U.S. intelligence community.
EUROPEAN CITIZENS FEAR reports about the sophistication and long reach of U.S. surveillance have also caused anxiety in continental Europe, particularly in Germany, where there are memories of the former East Germany’s Stasi intelligence service.
The country’s data commissioner has said he expects the government to put a stop to any American surveillance of German citizens, while worried lawmakers from across the political spectrum have said they want to know more.
“No one has a problem with the USA keeping terrorists under surveillance – that has prevented terrorist attacks in Germany before now too,” Thomas Oppermann, a senior lawmaker from the opposition Social Democrats (SPD).
But..”total surveillance of all citizens by the USA is completely inappropriate. The German government must protect the privacy of Germans from the USA too.”
“This affair looks like it will be one of the biggest scandals in data sharing. Merkel cannot just look away and act like nothing has happened,” Renate Kuenast, a senior Green lawmaker.
In Switzerland, one lawmaker has demanded that Internet giant Google be forced to be more transparent about the user data it retains.The French themselves are preparing to roll out an electronic data gathering system to help investigators.
Until tomorrow,
James
James Bamford on NSA Secrets, Keith Alexander’s Influence & Massive Growth of Surveillance, Cyberwar
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/6/14/james_bamford_on_nsa_secrets_keith
“GEN. KEITH ALEXANDER:…And anybody who would tell you that we’re keeping files or dossiers on the American people know that’s not true. And let me tell you why. First, under our agency, we have a responsibility. Our job is foreign intelligence. We get oversight by Congress, both intel committees and their congressional members and their staffs, so everything we do is auditable by them, by the FISA Court—so the judiciary branch of our government—and by the administration.”
I know what I feel confident a fox will do while guarding the henhouse.
Yes, we scan!
http://www.focus.de/digital/computer/internet-yes-we-scan-netzaktivisten-protestieren-gegen-datenueberwachung_aid_1018638.html
A Conquered People
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aVSluJbVSDI