Monday, October 28, 2013

It doesn't matter the source, the head or the tail, it only matters that

The fish rots:

Three disclosures this week show that the United States is losing its way in the struggle against terrorism. Sweeping government efforts to stop attacks are backfiring abroad and infringing on basic rights at home.

CIA drone strikes are killing scores of civilians in Pakistan and Yemen.  The National Security Agency is eavesdropping on tens of millions of phone calls worldwide — including those of 35 foreign leaders — in the name of U.S. security.

And the Department of Homeland Security is using algorithms to “prescreen” travelers before they board domestic flights, reviewing government and private databases that include Americans’ tax identification numbers, car registrations and property records.

Will we create a Minority Report-style Department of Precrime next?

Obama administration officials have a duty to protect Americans from terrorism. But out-of-control NSA surveillance, an ever-expanding culture of secrecy and still-classified rules for how and when foreigners and even Americans can be killed by drone strikes are excessive, unnecessary and destructive.

Twelve years after September 11, 2001, the United States’ obsession with al Qaeda is doing more damage to the nation than the terrorist group itself.

6 comments:

Montag said...

Still, The Atlantic and a host of other accepted mainstream outlets simply refuse to acknowledge that this seeming obsession with global terrorism is manufactured, and is intended to create a new threat after the demise of the Soviet Union--and that this started well before 2001.

At one time, one could make the argument that the response was just disproportionate to the threat. Now, it's gone far, far beyond disproportionate. It's become normalized and institutionalized and has become a cash cow for every corporation at the trough. It's become a gross expansion of the old traditional military-industrial complex, from the national level right down to the local cops.

And it won't end well. And not because of terrorism.

Unknown said...

Exactly what Osama bin Laden predicted and intended

Athenawise said...

I'm with you, Bill Ridge. I've said this before: Assuming that bin Laden spent, say, a million bucks on the 9/11 attacks, never did such a small sum produce such enormous profits.

pansypoo said...

honey is not an option.

Anonymous said...

The US lost the war on terror when they passed the ironically named 'Patriot Act' and invaded the Iraq 'cause conservatives wanted to wag their dicks.

Anonymous said...

And now their party is just run by a group of dicks.