#EdwardSnowden granted refugee status in Russia, leaves airport http://t.co/TlpPHYj0xj – Guess he has more rights in Russia than in the US
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) August 1, 2013
#Manning verdict leaves 4 big issues http://t.co/69k1jQqUgr – Has the @barackobama land of the free become an #orwellian security state?
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) August 1, 2013
What’s up in the “Land of the free and the home of the brave”?
The above two tweets reference articles in today’s Globe. Note the following from the second article:
Obama’s record on whistleblowing
Since taking office less than six years ago, Mr. Obama has pursued more espionage charges against government employees than all other past presidents combined. It was therefore unsurprising that when Mr. Manning pleaded guilty earlier this year to several lesser offences that would have brought him about 20 years of imprisonment, the government refused to bargain and opted instead to prosecute the most serious charges.
By throwing the book at, and making an example of Mr. Manning, Ed Snowden and all other alleged whistleblowers, the U.S. administration clearly hopes to send an intimidating chill throughout the civil service, and in so doing reduce the incidence of leaking.
Is this strategy, in combination with the imposition of curbs on civil liberties and constitutional rights, transforming the erstwhile land of the free into a something disturbingly Orwellian – a national security state? Not an insignificant query.
This is a good article and provides good opportunity for comment and discussion.
What other behaviour would you expect from a parasite only concerned with its own survival? Once a parasite depletes its host, it must find a new source of energy or die. Look out world.
The fact that Russia would take Snowden is interesting. Perhaps it will not go along with FATCA either.
Under Obama the US is becoming the Land of the Enslaved and the Home of the Paranoid.
Home of the Brave? Land of the Feer.
I’ve been doing a fair bit of reading in the last few months on some of the whistleblowers who have suffered at the hands of Obama’s “Justice” Department (Jesselyn Radack, Thomas Drake, William Binney etc.). Their stories (and YouTube interviews) should be required reading/watching for every American. Also people like Jacob Applebaum who hasn’t been charged with a crime (but may have been implicated under a sealed WikiLeaks indictment that has yet to be released) but is continuously harassed and had his partner wake up in the middle of the night to a room full off night vision goggled “security” personnel. Does anyone wonder why Glenn Greenwald hasn’t traveled to the US since prior to early June?
Sadly, the “Justice” Department has become just another oxymoron. If you cross swords with the Executive Branch they will go for the jugular and make your life a living hell.
Meanwhile, “leaking” continues on a daily basis. In fact, it’s positively encouraged but only as long as it makes the government look good (think Seal Team 6). Those opinion polls must look fantastic when there’s only one opinion allowed to be expressed.
I have been concerned for Mr. Greenwald’s safety at times recently given the way the Obama WH has behaved all along with regard to anyone in the press who leaks any information. Not only has he gone after whistleblowers more than any other president he has been very, very controlling with the press.
@Edelweiss, I have seen all those YT videos and read a lot of the articles you refer to. Things are becoming very controlling in the U.S. Is what happened to Snowden and Manning any better than what the Chinese did to Ai Wei Wei and others? Personally, I don’t think so.
How secure are we that our surfing is not being followed?
Money says: you are not
Surfing? I don’t think that is a crime.
probably won’t stop anyone from breaking your door down
@Money, I share your concern that Isaac Brock could be deemed an extremest site.
@money
We can either be a slave to fear, or we can just not worry about it. Seems that we as humanity can’t evolve past beating each other with sticks and stones, however, it is still better to die free than live as a slave.
If my only remaining freedom becomes freedom of thought I’m not going to toss it away because someone somewhere doesn’t like what I write at Brock. I’m not going to let “THEM” decide when and what will be my last word. Besides, this whole FATCA fiasco has been so taxing to my brain and well being that if I couldn’t vent now and then I’m certain I would descend into madness.
NSA/Prism are recording just about everything said or typed online including emails. They have your searches, they have your chats, they have it all. If you follow Glenn Greewald’s articles as well as a few others you’ll see what they can and do collect. The world ought to be more up in arms over it than they are. The potential for abuse in collecting this much data is enormous.
I’m not going to let it stop me saying what I want to. Free speech may be a thing of the past just like privacy but, I’m not going to cower in fear. The U.S. has made a lot of noise about how restrictive the internet and press can be in China. They are every bit as bad.
There aren’t enough hours in the day to chase down everyone who ever said anything disparaging about the US of A. With recent events, the list is only growing exponentially!
NSA hear this, “F” off you bunch of Nazis!
I’d like to think that there is safety in numbers, and that Brockers (Maple Sandboxers, AmercanFloppers and many other friends) all have each others backs.
So, if one of us gets hurt, the rest of us mosquitoes are gonna buzz even louder.
I’m not meaning to induce paranoia, but I think it would be a wise idea to make sure your kids, spouse and other close people in your life know what you are doing on the internet.
In case anyone is interested in worrying more or being more paranoid, I found a very interesting article on The WSJ that notes Obama’s recent signaling that he plans to push his power/authority to infinity and beyond this term.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324136204578639953580480838.html?mod=trending_now_2
Greenwald is too smart to visit home and he doesn’t have to b/c he has a platform in the UK and I think that individually, for the moment, no one here is in danger but I wouldn’t be surprised if USG probably knows about sites like this and has taken names for future reference.
Look, we can protest and share the truth and be slaughtered, or we can be sheep and bleet quietly to ourselves and be slaughtered anyway. Shit is gonna hit the fan for USC’s and P’s regardless.
@ WhiteKat
Tell your family that you do NOT intend to commit suicide; do NOT plan to go walkabout without returning; and you do NOT have a compulsion to demolish a building, hijack a plane or do any harm to anyone … did I miss anything? Make sure they know the meanings of patsy, false flag and Boston brakes too. @ NSA and CSEC — just kidding. 😉
@Em,
LOL. I already have, but not sure if they believe me.
@YogaGirl,
Yes, you go girl. Shit is hitting the fan, and is going to keep hitting the fan for a while.
Does anyone see the irony in the current “Terror Alert” issued for all the Middle East countries with Americans warned about Traveling, and Consulates and Embassies being closed, and yet the FATCA Round up continues and isn’t suspended for fear of the information falling into Al Qaeda hands?
US closes embassies, issues global travel alert over Al Qaeda threat
The State Department ordered a precautionary closing on Sunday of 21 US embassies and consulates, mainly in the Middle East, without citing a specific threat. But its global travel alert says Al Qaeda may attack ‘between now and the end of August.
The real Terror alert for Americans in the Middle East is “FATCA is coming.”
I still am not convinced that expatriating will offer complete protection from all this, especially if they want to make a point. We’re heading towards Orwellian One-World government. They may in fact not be any easy way to escape except to completely drop out and become a street person or forage in the forest…
This alert was timed to the Russian visa for Snowden. It is to tell the public how effective the NSA program is in sifting through everyone’s emails so that they are able to inform them when they might become t-e-rrrrr-or-ists. If they make the time and geographic windows wide enough they will surely be able to include one incident somewhere in the World to prove to everyone that they are right.
But yeah, I remember finding that Conference in Bahrain where they sent IRS agents to the FATCAnatic symposium in order to teach the compliance mafia how to pick out the Americans’ info in the Islamic banks. (Can’t find it again, it was back in Feb)