War on Terror Turns Inward – NSA Surveillance Will Be Used Against American Citizens

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In time of actual war, great discretionary powers are constantly given to the Executive Magistrate. Constant apprehension of War, has the same tendency to render the head too large for the body. A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people. 

– James Madison, Founding Father and 4th President of these United States

Our founding fathers studied power structures over the millennia and knew exactly what they were doing when solidifying the Bill of Rights into the U.S. Constitution. All it took was a couple hundred years, an extraordinarily ignorant and apathetic American public, and a major terror attack to roll back this multi-generational gift.

For many years, I and countless others have been screaming from the rooftops that a society should never trade civil liberties for security. Life on earth has always been dangerous for us humans, and what has historically separated free and noble civilizations from stunted tyrannies is a willingness to acknowledge such a precarious existence while at the same time demanding and defending one’s dignity and liberty. In the aftermath of the attacks of 9/11 (seemingly carried out by U.S. ally Saudi Arabia), the American public has demonstrated no such strength of character or historical maturity, thus allowing a corrupt, deceptive and lawless government to run roughshod over freedom with very little resistance.

Well now the chickens are coming home to roost. The tyrannical powers granted to government in order to stop foreign terrorists are rapidly being turned inward against an ever servile and apathetic American public.

As Radley Balko at the Washington Post notes:

A while back, we noted a report showing that the “sneak-and-peek” provision of the Patriot Act that was alleged to be used only in national security and terrorism investigations has overwhelmingly been used in narcotics cases. Now the New York Times reports that National Security Agency data will be shared with other intelligence agencies like the FBI without first applying any screens for privacy. The ACLU of Massachusetts blog Privacy SOS explains why this is important:

What does this rule change mean for you? In short, domestic law enforcement officials now have access to huge troves of American communications, obtained without warrants, that they can use to put people in cages. FBI agents don’t need to have any “national security” related reason to plug your name, email address, phone number, or other “selector” into the NSA’s gargantuan data trove. They can simply poke around in your private information in the course of totally routine investigations. And if they find something that suggests, say, involvement in illegal drug activity, they can send that information to local or state police. That means information the NSA collects for purposes of so-called “national security” will be used by police to lock up ordinary Americans for routine crimes. And we don’t have to guess who’s going to suffer this unconstitutional indignity the most brutally. It’ll be Black, Brown, poor, immigrant, Muslim, and dissident Americans: the same people who are always targeted by law enforcement for extra “special” attention.

This basically formalizes what was already happening under the radar. We’ve known for a couple of years now that the Drug Enforcement Administration and the IRS were getting information from the NSA. Because that information was obtained without a warrant, the agencies were instructed to engage in “parallel construction” when explaining to courts and defense attorneys how the information had been obtained. If you think parallel construction just sounds like a bureaucratically sterilized way of saying big stinking lie, well, you wouldn’t be alone. And it certainly isn’t the only time that that national security apparatus has let law enforcement agencies benefit from policies that are supposed to be reserved for terrorism investigations in order to get around the Fourth Amendment, then instructed those law enforcement agencies to misdirect, fudge and outright lie about how they obtained incriminating information — see the Stingray debacle. This isn’t just a few rogue agents. The lying has been a matter of policy. We’re now learning that the feds had these agreements with police agencies all over the country, affecting thousands of cases.

This parallel construction concept is extraordinarily important, and most people are completely unaware of its meaning and usage. To get up to speed, see last year’s post:

How the DEA Uses “Parallel Construction” to Hide Unconstitutional Investigations

Of course, this is just one example of how the “war on terror” is slowly but surely transitioning into a “war on the citizenry.” A war that will only intensify as the public mood toward the status quo deteriorates further.

For example, we recently learned a little bit about how military drones are being used on U.S. soil for domestic non-terrorism related purposes. USA Today reports:

The Pentagon has deployed drones to spy over U.S. territory for non-military missions over the past decade, but the flights have been rare and lawful, according to a new report.

The Pentagon has publicly posted at least a partial list of the drone missions that have flown in non-military airspace over the United States and explains the use of the aircraft. The site lists nine missions flown between 2011 and 2016, largely to assist with search and rescue, floods, fires or National Guard exercises.

But the policy said that any use of military drones for civil authorities had to be approved by the Secretary of Defense or someone delegated by the secretary. The report found that defense secretaries have never delegated that responsibility.

While use thus far apparently has been measured, this is always how it starts. The following paragraphs should make it clear where it’s headed.

The report quoted a military law review article that said “the appetite to use them (spy drones) in the domestic environment to collect airborne imagery continues to grow, as does Congressional and media interest in their deployment.”

Military units that operate drones told the inspector general they would like more opportunities to fly them on domestic missions if for no other reason than to give pilots more experience to improve their skills, the report said. “Multiple units told us that as forces using the UAS capabilities continue to draw down overseas, opportunities for UAS realistic training and use have decreased,” the report said.

Unless there’s significant pushback to the use of military drones domestically, the practice is likely to expand and expand and expand until you can’t go out for a coffee without a camera dangling above your head.

For related articles, see:

More “War on Terror” Abuses – Spying Powers Are Used for Terrorism Only 0.5% of the Time

The Pentagon Admits: The “War on Terror” Will Never End (how convenient)

The “War on Terror” Turns Inward – DHS Report Warns of Right Wing Terror Threat

It’s Official: The FBI Classifies Peaceful American Protestors as “Terrorists”

The BBC is Using Anti-Terror Surveillance to Find Tax Dodgers

“War on Terror” Targets Underwear – Department of Homeland Security Raids Maker of Unlicensed World Series Panties

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

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9 thoughts on “War on Terror Turns Inward – NSA Surveillance Will Be Used Against American Citizens”

  1. And for 15+ years, the average people would not listen to the constant warnings that the government was building a turn-key police state.

    They’re turning the key.

    Reply
    • The people have been living in a fantasy land for a long, long time. The majority will always be oblivious. Has always been and always will.

  2. Mike, you hit a home run again. “Well now the chickens are coming home to roost. The tyrannical powers granted to government in order to stop foreign terrorists are rapidly being turned inward against an ever servile and apathetic American public.” Can Bernie stop this?

    Reply
  3. Saudi Arabia played a part in 9/11, no doubt. But they’re the fall guy in the master plan. The real perpetrators are a combination of US Deep State (Poppy Bush disciples he developed from his lifelong tenure at the CIA) and the ardent Zionists/Mossad (read 1982 Oded Yinon plan to see how long Israel has been planning this Balkanization of their neighbors).

    Reply
  4. Excellent article, with 99% of the points correct, albeit there is one major issue. This is no longer directed at minorities. All individuals of all different colors have been caught up in the illegal dragnets that Stasi-styled laws have created.

    The DHS, FBI and NSA are involved in operations based in great part on the Stasi’s “Zersetzung” operations.

    I have been subject to this program for more than fifteen years now. COINTELPRO – revealed by the Church Committee hearings never died.

    It was re-named, buried and layered with additional classification layers.

    The other point I would like to make is that the government has technology 40 to 50 years in advance of what the general population is aware of. As soon as there is a publication (like the one from MIT this week) which states “We have developed a quantum computing system capable of cracking encryption,” it (the tech) has been around for 2 or 3 decades – conservatively speaking.

    Wait until the general population discovers that US citizens are being irradiated with “Non Lethal” weapons (NLWs) tested in Iraq (Google: “Microwaving Iraq”), and also that technology was developed in the 1960’s and publicly patented in the 1970’s to remotely read brainwave signatures and modify them (human behavior).

    For a peek at this technology, Google: “Patent US 3951134 A”

    For full explanations of all of these illegal operations and advanced technology, you can also reference many of the threads on this Disqus channel:

    https://disqus.com/home/channel/illegalgovernmentsurveillancefbidhsnsa/

    Reply
  5. Once again – excellent article and very well written. Hopefully the author will continue to write and publish pieces which are valuable to the survival of America as we once knew it…

    Reply
  6. If you ran current US Deep State practices through Deep Blue (the IBM supercomputer) and asked game theory outcomes, you would get a completely objective, dispassionate response:

    1) Enough Americans will protest loud enough that the process will have to dialed back, whether in reality or cosmetically;
    2) Scenario 1) will not occur, oppression will intensify and with it, civil disobedience followed by violent resistance;
    3) The outcome of 2) will be either the restructuring of the American government to a truly liberty-centric model (at great cost in lives and social disruption) or total, abject suppression of dissent of any kind, as bad as has every been seen in human societies.

    That’s it, folks. That’s what we’re looking at, wishful thinking not withstanding. If we don’t 1) done RIGHT, and SOON, we will be left with rolling the dice on 2) and 3).

    The hour is late, this election is a harbinger of what is to come. It is not the end of the story. It is the preface.

    Reply
  7. They are doing more than turning the key.
    They also built a federal agency modelled after French committees of terror (1792-4), the Judeo-Bolshevik Cheka and the Nazi Schutzstaffel.
    The purpose of these organs of terror was/is to eliminate dissidents, seize their property, and protect informers.
    This American Schutzstaffel goes by the title, Department of Homeland Security.
    During the French slaughter (1792-4), Judeo-Bolshevik monopolists and money-lenders withheld food from the market; they blamed shopkeepers, peasants (farmers) and hoarders for such shortages, seized their supplies and paraded them before a Revolutionary Tribunal before carting them off to the guillotine. Today “hoarders” are known as “preppers” – those who buy a cabin in the woods, stock up on food, guns and precious metals. All these “hoarders” were accused and delivered to French committees of terror by an army of “watchers” and “listeners”.
    During the Russian mass slaughter, they did the same thing, only with a wider net: hooligans, speculators (those with property worth 10,000 rubles or more), anti-socialists, obstructionists, and saboteurs were added to their lists. Their property was seized, they were paraded before a Revolutionary Tribunal before receiving the shot in the nape of the neck. Here, “watchers” and “listeners” were replaced mainly by an army of Judeo-Bolsheviks.
    In other words, during those slaughters “preppers” were among the first to be targeted.
    You think it’s not likely here? Then, why is the Department of Homeland Security modeled after French committees of terror, the Judeo-Bolshevik Cheka and the Nazi Schutzstaffel?
    What does the DHS plan to do with 2-3 billion rounds of ammo… an amount sufficient to wage an Iraqi War, at its highest rate, for 25 years? Remember, so-called terrorists do not travel as armies; but, rather cells of 5-10… and the DHS needs 2-3 billion rounds of ammo for these tiny cells? Try again.
    And, why is the DHS recruiting, training and protecting an army of “watchers” and “listeners” – commonly known as informers?
    By the act of Congress that established the DHS a system was created by which informers could make false allegations against anyone they please with near-total impunity. Of course, such informers aren’t described as informers; rather they are given the title “submitting person” and the DHS Act provides that their falsehoods will never be examined by any court or legislature or law enforcement agency. The legislation even specifies how this immunity is obtained. The “submitting person” only has to give an “express statement” that his lies were “voluntarily given” and that he expected “protection from disclosure”. (http://redressone.wordpress.com/amss/)
    I’m sorry guys, but silly season is over. Even if you own physical gold, live in a cabin in the woods along with a stash of ammo and AK-47’s, you lose. If you don’t fall to the horde of hungry homeless, you will fall to DHS death squads. All the homeless have to do is to wait until you collapse from lack of sleep (24, 48, 72 hours), then they march in, slit your throat and… let your imagination run wild.
    It seems you’d want better for your family.
    If you own stocks or bonds, guess what: you’re depending on criminal and useless classes to deliver your purchasing power at the moment of their greatest victory. Do you really believe they (Wall Street… foreign or domestic banks… et cetera) will deliver your profits to you? Did I mention something about ‘silly season’?
    If you want to survive – along with your property, you have to combine with others of like mind for the purpose of mutual protection, among other purposes. The big question now is, ‘HOW is this to be done?’ And the quick answer is, ‘You must establish First-Amendment assemblies – the only historically-proven method by which men have made their lives and property secure from rule by thieves.’ (http://redressone.wordpress.com/locate/)
    The American Revolution, for example, was powered by a large network of such assemblies: from town meetings, county meetings, state conventions and, ultimately, to Continental Congresses.
    Let’s be realistic: this solution won’t be easy or quick… unprecedented adventures never are.
    But it’s a much better alternative than waiting for them to smash in your door.

    Reply

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