posted on Jul, 7 2006 @ 11:16 AM
I'm not sure the notion of "classified" has been stretched and twisted so much before.
If the identity of the oil industry leaders meeting with the Vice President is classified, but the name of a CIA operative working on nuclear
proliferation is arbitrarily declassified, don't we have too much subjectivity at work here?
The SWIFT program is public knowledge. Their web site talks about surveillance of unlawful activity. The administraion has previously announced it
would use monitoring of international and domestic financial transactions to catch terrorists. The only entity set up to do that monitoring is
SWIFT.
It's a hair-split of the first order.
More importantly, making an issue of the "leak" distracts from the nature of the information revealed: that there is still more surveillance of US
citzens' activities.
Let me break this "secret" right now: GPS tracking built into many cellphones can be -- and is being -- used to track movements of US citizens.
"Spy satellites" above the US are capturing activities of US citizens.
Face recognition technology in combination with fixed surveillance cameras are in operation in public places in major cities across the US.
Credit card and library card records are being checked for exposure to or consumption of suspicious materials/information.
ISP records and search records of Internet users are routinely scanned to monitor visits to web sites or transmission/receipt of content that is
questionable.
None of these are selective surveillance: they are "fishing expeditions." They are without warrants. They are invasions of privacy. All are being
used outside of the areas appropriate to national security and are being employed to find and prosecute criminals and "criminals."
Use of this type of information nets not only actual criminals -- but also potential criminals. People guilty of "thought crime" by virtue of their
investigations or travels.
If you don't agree that all of this needs to be brought to the public forum and discussed and understood by every citizen, then your idea of America
and mine are quite different.