[col. writ. 11/10/13] © ’13 Mumia Abu-Jamal
The news that American intelligence agencies were listening to the personal cell phone calls of leaders like German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, broke like a thunderclap.
It seemed surreal, for surely, a German head of government (not to mention an American ally), was not suspected of terrorism –right?
But upon reflection, the question is woefully misleading, for it presupposes that surveillance is really tied to terrorism. For unlawful government surveillance has a long history in America – most recently the COINTEL scandal of the 1970s – exposed by the famous Church Committee hearings, chaired by Idaho Senator Frank Church.
The hearings showed how governments violated criminal law, and the Constitution, to harass, intimidate, and destroy critics, dissidents and opponents of American government policies.
What this history teaches is that surveillance is its own reward, and governments will break any law to achieve its objectives.
The surveillance of Chancellor Merkel was designed to do precisely what it did; to snoop into her personal life to learn all there is to be found about her. Period.
And, once learned, The U.S. government could manipulate her, or even blackmail her to do their bidding.
They’ve done this for generations to Americans, why not to foreigners?
James Madison, a signer of the Constitution, wrote, in a 1789 letter to Thomas Jefferson, “It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.”
(Think 9/11)
That date has become the justification for the biggest expansion of surveillance to American history. And under this manic regime, everyone and everything is suspect.
World leaders have U.S spies sniffing through their underwear, to make America safe.
On 9/11, something mad was unleashed; and I don’t mean 19 jihadis.
In the name of patriotism, privacy has been criminalized – and the entire world is under surveillance.
–©’13maj