Whistleblower Levels Shocking Allegations at Bush's Spying Programs

http://www.alternet.org/rights/122234/?page=entire

From the article:

"Risen joins the ranks of other top reporters who were reportedly spied on by the Bush administration -- including CNN's Christiane Amanpour and the New Yorker's Lawrence Wright -- but he says he believes that the point of the program was not so much to intimidate journalists who exposed questionable government policies -- "we have a large organization to support us … whistle-blowers don't have that" -- but rather their sources. The effect, he said, is to "frighten people in the government from talking … to have a chilling effect on potential whistle-blowers in the government to make them realize that there's a Big Brother out there that will get them if they step out of line.".............

"Tice said, despite the Bush administration's claims to the contrary, "the National Security Agency had access to *ALL* Americans' communications, faxes, phone calls and their computer communications … and it didn't matter whether you were in Kansas in the middle of the country and you never made any … foreign communications at all. They monitored all communications."..................................................And while Tice said he was not sure what had become of the information that was gathered, he did say that it was probably stored in a database, one that still exists today".

 

Maybe someday people will finally learn that monitoring/spying isn't just for lawbreakers. I've said it so many times it's not even funny. Don't expect anything to change, it isn't going to.

 

I don't see how this is new for the US. It isn't exactly public knowledge, but the NSA/CIA have abused their interception capabilities in the past as well.

It is naive to think that organizations with so much power won't abuse it. Has happened in the past and will happen in the future. Combine power, corruption, incompetence and authority and you have a recipe for disaster.

 

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

 

Yes there have always been abuses. But this is massive and on a level that has never been seen before. It is incredibly dangerous and it is sickening.

 

I noticed you mentioned Israel, their position is a little bit different. While I do not condone unrestricted government (or company for that matter) access to anyone they darn well please, we in the U.S and Europe are not being shelled every single day, and simply because we exist. I'm not running off on a political tangent here, just saying in some places, there's little choice in keeping tabs on everybody. Thank god those places are far and few between, so far at least.

 

The Chinese don't only spy on their own people, they are one of the most active nations spying abroad.

Israel was fairly aggressive in their methods, but I'm not sure how they're doing today. But the fact that they employed backdoors in information-systems of friendly nations and don't mind kidnapping people from them either says enough.

OTOH, they do have a lot to worry about.