Devil's Pact Between Government and Business

From Bloomberg News:

Thousands of technology, finance and manufacturing companies are working closely with U.S. national security agencies, providing sensitive information and in return receiving benefits that include access to classified intelligence, four people familiar with the process said.

These programs, whose participants are known as trusted partners, extend far beyond what was revealed by Edward Snowden, a computer technician who did work for the National Security Agency. The role of private companies has come under intense scrutiny since his disclosure this month that the NSA is collecting millions of U.S. residents’ telephone records and the computer communications of foreigners from Google Inc (GOOG). and other Internet companies under court order. 

U.S. Senator Would Call for Censorship of All Mail

As if you needed any more evidence that the Republican and Democratic parties represent a grave threat to basic Constitutional rights and liberties, consider the fact that Senator Lindsey Graham now states that if he would support censoring all our mail if he thought it were necessary to protect national security.  From Yahoo:

Sen. Lindsey Graham would propose censoring Americans' "snail" mail if he thought it would help protect national security, the South Carolina Republican said Tuesday. But for now, he says he doesn't think it's necessary.

It is outrageous that a U.S. Senator would so brazenly and casually suggest that the violation of basic rights and liberties in such a casual manner.  The leadership of the Democratic and Republican parties are a threat to the people and Constitution of the United States.  

Mozilla Launches Campaign to End Rampant Digital Surveillance

From the Mozilla Foundation blog:

Last week, media reports emerged that the US government is requiring vast amounts of data from Internet and phone companies via top secret surveillance programs. The revelations, which confirm many of our worst fears, raise serious questions about individual privacy protections, checks on government power and court orders impacting some of the most popular Web services.

Today Mozilla is launching StopWatching.Us — a campaign sponsored by a broad coalition of organizations from across the political and technical spectrum calling on citizens and organizations from around the world to demand a full accounting of the extent to which our online data, communications and interactions are being monitored.

ACLU Files Lawsuit Against NSA Phone Suerveillance

From the ACLU:

In the wake of the past week's revelations about the NSA's unprecedented mass surveillance of phone calls, today the ACLU filed a lawsuit charging that the program violates Americans' constitutional rights of free speech, association, and privacy.

This lawsuit comes a day after we submitted a motion to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) seeking the release of secret court opinions on the Patriot Act's Section 215, which has been interpreted to authorize this warrantless and suspicionless collection of phone records . . .

The ACLU's complaint filed today explains that the dragnet surveillance the government is carrying out under Section 215 infringes upon the ACLU's First Amendment rights, including the twin liberties of free expression and free association. The nature of the ACLU's work—in areas like access to reproductive services, racial discrimination, the rights of immigrants, national security, and more—means that many of the people who call the ACLU wish to keep their contact with the organization confidential. Yet if the government is collecting a vast trove of ACLU phone records—and it has reportedly been doing so for as long as seven years—many people may reasonably think twice before communicating with us.

Enemies of the People?

Since Edward Snowden revealed himself last week as the source of the leaked documents detailing the extent of the National Security Administration's vast spying and surveillance apparatus, ardent supporters of the surveillance society and police state have been out in force, accusing the young analyst and systems administrator of treason and even calling for his execution.  However, it is clearly apparent that those who support the indefinite expansion of the surveillance society and national security police state are the true traitors to the United States Constitution, as they demonstrate with their overt contempt for the Bill of Rights in general and the Fourth Amendment in particular.  As Democrats and Republicans unite in opposition to the right to be secure in one's person, papers and effects against unreasonable search and seizure, it becomes ever clearer who the real enemies of the people and Constitution of the United States are. 

The Bizarro Character of the Surveillance Society

Glenn Greenwald on the current state of the surveillance society being constructed by the Democratic and Republican parties:

The way things are supposed to work is that we're supposed to know virtually everything about what they do: that's why they're called public servants. They're supposed to know virtually nothing about what we do: that's why we're called private individuals.

This dynamic - the hallmark of a healthy and free society - has been radically reversed. Now, they know everything about what we do, and are constantly building systems to know more. Meanwhile, we know less and less about what they do, as they build walls of secrecy behind which they function. That's the imbalance that needs to come to an end. No democracy can be healthy and functional if the most consequential acts of those who wield political power are completely unknown to those to whom they are supposed to be accountable.

New Details Emerge on How Tech Companies Are Forced to Enable Government Sying

From the New York Times:

When government officials came to Silicon Valley to demand easier ways for the world’s largest Internet companies to turn over user data as part of a secret surveillance program, the companies bristled. In the end, though, many cooperated at least a bit. . . .

The negotiations shed a light on how Internet companies, increasingly at the center of people’s personal lives, interact with the spy agencies that look to their vast trove of information — e-mails, videos, online chats, photos and search queries — for intelligence. They illustrate how intricately the government and tech companies work together, and the depth of their behind-the-scenes transactions.