Everything Didn't Change on 9/11
by TChris
It took little time after 9/11 for neocons to start repeating the mantra, "Everything changed after 9/11," a phrase that the traditional media uncritically reported. But many things didn't change: the Constitution and its Bill of Rights, the American values of privacy and liberty, and the need for a governmental system of checks and balances. The LA Times reports on the things that did change:
[Law enforcement and intelligence-gathering authorities] increased the tapping of Americans' phone calls and voice mails. They watched Internet traffic and e-mails as never before. They tailed greater numbers of people and into places previously deemed off-limits, such as mosques.
They clandestinely accessed bank and credit card transactions and school records. They monitored travel. And they entered homes without notice, looking for signs of terrorist activity and copying the contents of entire file cabinets and computer hard drives. ...
In the five years since the attacks, the scope of domestic surveillance has steadily increased, according to interviews with dozens of current and former U.S. officials and privacy experts.
Surveillance of Americans doesn't end with intercepted telephone calls and secret, warrantless intelligence gathering.
The NSA has improved its ability to monitor the entire spectrum of communications, including fiber-optic and wireless transmissions, instant messages, BlackBerry e-mails and voice conversations sent over the Internet, officials and experts say. ... Several congressional officials and privacy experts said they believed the NSA also tracked the movement of "persons of interest" by the electronic signals emitted by their cellphones and the Global Positioning Systems in the vehicles they drive. ...
The U.S. military has a program known as Threat and Local Observation Notice, which compiles reports of suspicious activity in and around military installations. Under TALON, military intelligence squads have monitored American citizens at scores of events, including religious and antiwar protests, and have filed suspicious-action reports, according to records obtained by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.).
Add data mining to the list of surveillance techniques, and the "changes" have affected everyone.
It's time to change back, to acknowledge that freedom, not fear, drives our system of government. It's time to restore checks and balances, and to hold the executive branch of government accountable for its circumvention of the law.
"The White House simply refuses to be straight with us about what they're up to," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who says he has pressed unsuccessfully for answers as a member of the Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence, which entitles him to classified briefings on the subject.
"My sense today is that there is a staggering amount of personal information being collected on millions of Americans," Wyden said. "And how it's accessed and how it's used is at best unclear. What is certain is that there is no real accountability to ensure that a balance is struck between fighting terrorism and protecting privacy."
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