Category Archives: News

Unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock lately, you know that recent revelations of the vast extent of government surveillance of the Internet and users have lit up a world wide firestorm. The brouhaha will doubtless continue, and further revelations are bound to come. Yet already it’s producing vastly more smoke than fire, a huge din but very little hard data. People are concerned as to what information is being collected, who exactly is doing it, why is it being done, how it’s actually being used, and how it might be used in the future. Yet the only information forthcoming is from whistleblowers like Edward Snowden; all our government says is that it’s all very hush-hush and you simply have to trust them. But indications are that there is much more to come. Official reassurances coming from the same bunch that just got caught wasting money on lame Star Trek parodies, and more seriously, possibly criminal State Department sex and drug scandals, not to mention using the tax agency to monitor tax protest groups, may not be particularly comforting. Add that James Clapper, the NSA head, apparently lied to Congress about their current activities, and maybe there is reason to worry. For the history of the government spying on Americans with such infamous programs like as COINTELPRO clearly show that these concerns are not baseless in any way. So what do the feds know? Claims differ, and various programs with … Continue reading →