Americans in the Dark

www.alternet.org...

So what's the real explanation for all the secrecy about the overall structure of the so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program?

The chief reason, especially for the excessive secrecy around the data-mining operations, appears to be Bush's political need to prevent a full debate inside the United States about the security value of these Big Brother-type procedures when weighed against invasions of Americans' privacy.

Bush knows he could run into trouble if he doesn't keep the American people in the dark. In 2002, for instance, when the Bush administration launched a project seeking "total information awareness" on virtually everyone on earth involved in the modern economy, the disclosure was met with public alarm.

The administration cited the terrorist threat to justify the program which involved applying advanced computer technology to analyze trillions of bytes of data on electronic transactions and communications. The goal was to study the electronic footprints left by every person in the developed world during the course of their everyday lives -- from the innocuous to the embarrassing to the potentially significant.

The government could cross-check books borrowed from a library, fertilizer bought at a farm-supply outlet, X-rated movies rented at a video store, prescriptions filled at a pharmacy, sites visited on the Internet, tickets reserved for a plane, borders crossed while traveling, rooms rented at a motel, and countless other examples.

I originally posted this under Alternative Breaking News, but didn't get much feedback.

I'm hopeful that putting it in this forum may lead to a discussion about why exactly the US government wants this information, and why they seem to want to hide this fact.

I've seen quite a few threads about camera's in the UK, but to me this is so much worse - they don't just want to film you breaking a traffic law, or catch people fighting on a saturday night, it appears that they want to know every little detail of your life.

The question is why?

[edit on 7/8/2007 by budski]

why? is such a difficult question to answer. everytime i come up with something, it just leads to another why.

control....obviously. but, why control?

it seems to me that we are meant to live our lives perpetually afraid of getting "in trouble". as though we never left elementary school. it is not the surface fears (such as terrorism) which keep men toiling, but rather, the deeply rooted fears of "getting caught" at doing something "naughty". getting sent to the principal's office: that is the sort of fear of god (dad) that will keep people quietly marching to their graves.

but then: why?

the only answer i can come up with is not related to politics directly. nevertheless, it is the only answer i have.

that there is some form of intelligence in this universe which actually derives its satisfaction by creating displeasure in each of our lives, personally. bloodsucker. misery loves company. the devil? maybe. it is this "form of intelligence" whom is really in charge around these parts.

you just gotta rise above it, bro. stop asking why, and just be happy in spite of it....which raises the next important question: how?