We are living in a time of unprecedented surveillance and social control in the US and in many countries worldwide.
Secrecy in law has brought us to a point where people either live in fear of the surveillance state and are afraid to speak their minds, or are naively co-opted into actively harassing activists/whistleblowers/writers in their midst, by Intel agencies working locally through Fusion Centers (via narratives of fabricated “investigations” of these civically-engaged citizens falsely termed “security risks” now needing to be “monitored electronically” 24/7 by the oh-so-concerned State and enrolled covertly in “neuroscience/behavior modification programs” which warrant friendly but un-turndownable “official” requests for community co-operation).
Businesses and communities are openly repressed by Intel agencies using the overreaching powers of state secrecy laws–like Section 215 of the Patriot Act, and the whole Patriot Act, and the facile issue of National Security Letters via secret machinations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and secret sharing of private information, all tools to oppress civilians and groups, and to force a community’s silence through gag orders and threats of incarceration and fines.
Secrecy, Silencing, Surveillance, Censorship: are we Secure yet?
Where does Covert Harassment come from? Has American society always been secretly run by Intel groups?
Acccording to Mike Lofgren (former GOP congressional staff member with Senate and House Budget Committees) in this Bill Moyers episode, the “Deep State” has been hiding in plain sight for years and includes Intel agencies, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley: he collects his thoughts also here in this essay, Anatomy of the Deep State.
Do Secret Services and Spy Agencies have any right whatsoever to covertly harass citizens–and to co-opt others through lies and deceit into also persecuting these citizens?
Or do these actions indicate a tremendous overreach and abuse of their powers?
Harassment today is malicious in the extreme, and involves the covert use of deadly directed-energy neuroweapons (See Human Rights/Covert Criminal Targeting of Activists; more to come); “electronic monitoring” or “electronic surveillance,” which community members consent to engage in, themselves (because they all have cell phones?!), is nothing less than the GPS tracking, targeting, and discharge of deadly directed-energy neuroweapons on citizens (See Human Rights/Classified Weapons Testing; more to come).
The nature of spying in itself is a deterrent to democracy; to understand why. watch the documentary Counter-Intelligence posted online in five parts. See this Popular Resistance interview with filmmaker Scott Noble: Counter-Intelligence: Spying Deters Democracy. Excerpt: “In making the film I set out to explore how these agencies function in the real world. How do they keep secrets? What are some common m.o.’s? What is their ultimate purpose? In a broader sense I wanted to ask whether democracy is even possible when organizations like the CIA exist. We are currently living under a hybrid of plutocracy (from plouto, “wealth”) and cryptocracy (from krypton, “hidden”) that benefits about 1 percent of the human population. It’s no secret we’re ruled by the rich, but there is a relative lack of understanding about just how much information is kept hidden from the public. A 2004 study by Peter Galison at Harvard concluded that “the classified universe is certainly not smaller, and very probably much larger than this unclassified one.””
Watch Counter-Intelligence online.
What was COINTELPRO all about? Who did it target, and doesn’t it seem like it’s quite aggressively active today?
This brief video which excerpts part of the Church Committee findings, shows Walter Mondale and other Senators discussing the unprecedented nature of Covert Harassment they were uncovering: Covert Actions Against Citizens Living in America
Who do Americans listen to today? Are American communities and citizens all too easily swayed by the voice of “Authority”?
How easily can an American be persuaded to act against a fellow citizen, merely by the flashing of a badge? Is this how Intel agencies are running entire communities now, and ensuring their “community involvement/participation” in the harassment of activists/whistleblowers/writers–their own neighbors? Watch this ABC News John Quinone: What Would You Do? video for some absolutely riveting footage that answers just this question.
Other videos on this highly educational site explore COINTELPRO further, and reveal the modern face of Covert Harassment.
Speaking Out Against Secrecy & the Stripping of our Basic Rights
People everywhere today are beginning to speak out about the excessive surveillance, repression, and secrecy we face post 9/11 and the Patriot Act: it’s Time for the Pariot Act to expire, and time for us to speak out against secrecy laws which suppress and do not protect, which oppress and do not secure “national security” much as the latter is used glibly as a mantra to justify pretty much any invasion of privacy, personal sovereignty, and right to free speech.
The Electronic Frontier Fund has set up a site with information and action items–learn more about the undemocratic nature of Section 215 of the Patriot Act, take a small moment to sign a petition, post a link, tweet a note to Congress, or write a letter to Congress–we will never be free of surveillance and repression and the stripping of our basic rights, we will never end the horrors of Covert Harassment by overreaching Intel groups, never end the machinations and depredations of the Deep State if we don’t speak out, now, today, while we have an ounce of freedom left.
Also, do scroll down the previous post here for other links to petitions and letters. Please: act today. Sign them all!
