A Surveillance State Beyond Imagination Is Being Created in One of the World's Freest Countries | Noam Chomsky
June 2014 article by Noam Chomsky on Alternet
In the past several months, we have been provided with instructive
lessons on the nature of state power and the forces that drive state
policy. And on a closely related matter: the subtle, differentiated
concept of transparency.
The source of the instruction, of course, is the trove of documents
about the National Security Agency surveillance system released by the
courageous fighter for freedom Edward J. Snowden, expertly summarized
and analyzed by his collaborator Glenn Greenwald in his new book, "No
Place to Hide."
The documents unveil a remarkable project to expose to state scrutiny
vital information about every person who falls within the grasp of the
colossus - in principle, every person linked to the modern electronic
society.
Nothing so ambitious was imagined by the dystopian prophets of grim totalitarian worlds ahead.
It is of no slight import that the project is being executed in one of
the freest countries in the world, and in radical violation of the U.S.
Constitution's Bill of Rights, which protects citizens from
"unreasonable searches and seizures," and guarantees the privacy of
their "persons, houses, papers and effects."
Much as government lawyers may try, there is no way to reconcile these
principles with the assault on the population revealed in the Snowden
documents.
It is also well to remember that defense of the fundamental right to
privacy helped to spark the American Revolution. In the 18th century,
the tyrant was the British government, which claimed the right to
intrude freely into the homes and personal lives of American colonists.
Today it is American citizens' own government that arrogates to itself
this authority.
