NSA bugging phones, e-mails, EVERYTHING
Technology. You can't ever put the genie back in the bottle, can you? Quick-firing cannon, and 20,000,000 war dead in the 20th century. IBM Hollerith punched cards, following each Jew into Auschwitz, and every SS-man into Russia. And now computers. And again, always for the best of reasons, as each society sees it, a loss of personal freedom.
This time, the freedom to communicate in privacy. Since 9/11, the FBI with project Echelon, and the NSA with their taps on Verizon and other cellphone companies. And today, it turns out, the NSA's 'Special Source Operations' group running their Prism operation -- harvesting the internet with the cooperation of all the large companies. See NSA slides below, courtesy of the Washington Post.
The numbers are curious. In the US, we have a 50,000/year body count on our highways. And we don't even blink. That's 500,000 dead during the ten years, compared to 6,000 lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. Terrorist-caused deaths during that period, not just here but around the world... what, maybe 4,000? All up, the wars and terrorists combined are only 10% of the car deaths. And we're not even counting civilian deaths by gunfire, about 12,000/year in the USA.
But. All you need is just one stupid bomb, like Boston, or one stupid hatchet murder, like in London recently, to set off this whole industry of counter-terrorism activity. A lot of people are making a living at this. A very good living. And God forbid anybody suggests breaking their rice bowl, by doing the obvious thing of deporting all young men from the Middle East here as visitors or students, and not letting any more enter our countries. And deporting any other people here as visitors or guests who advocate violent social change.
So maybe the takeaway is that the 'war on terror' is actually propping up our economy, during very rough economic times. Somewhat like how the threat from Germany and Japan got our factories working again during the Depression. But maybe the threat this time around is being artificially amplified... again, for all the best of reasons... like jobs and profits?
Jonathon Donahue, San Diego, California
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