George Takei Fears NSA Spying Will Lead to Something Much Worse

[n2doc]

By Jamie Sharpe

George Takei is hardly the only American concerned about the NSA's massive surveillance programs. But unlike most people, his fears are rooted in the memory of the government persecution he suffered firsthand in a Japanese internment camp.

"Due process is a pillar of our American justice system," the Star Trek star told Daily Intelligencer last night at the Eighth Annual Stella by Starlight Benefit Gala. "We were rounded up simply because we happened to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor. And we were put in prison camps with barbed wire and machine guns pointed at us. It was a horrific violation of our Constitution."

Because of that experience, Takei is particularly wary of the government's powers being abused. "We know where this can go," he said. "We have to be ever vigilant against overstepping of the fundamental ideals of our democracy."

Takei understands that President Obama "is a person who has to deal with a lot of issues." But on the NSA spying programs, he says, "I don't agree."

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/06/george-takei-nsa-internment-camp.html

[WillyT]

1. K & R !!!

[Gidney N Cloyd]

2. That's an excellent angle on all this.

[Fumesucker]

3. Take us out of orbit Mr Sulu n/t

[L0oniX]

4. K & R

[ReRe]

5. Thank you, Mr Takei

K&R

... and thank you n2doc. Yes, it happened right here in America. Lord, we can't go down that road again, in any way, shape for form.

[FarCenter]

6. Net privacy won't help if they start rounding up people who look Japanese

Rights cannot be preserved by hiding.

[AsahinaKimi]

7. Wakarimasu.

Watashi wa totemo doi suru. I understand. I totally agree.

[rug]

8. And they took all the Japanese not just the ones they considered potential threats.

[JoeyT]

9. That's actually not what I expected when I clicked the link.

But it's definitely an excellent point.

I thought he'd be worried about a future administration, one not so LGBT friendly, can look back through your call data to find out who might be in the closet.

[dickthegrouch]

10. Guilt by association can go both ways, though /nt

[longship]

11. R&K for George Takei.

Take us out, Mr. Sulu. Warp factor seven!

[LittleBlue]

12. A week ago, Takei and the ACLU were swell folks

Now you watch. Under the bus with these subversives!

[cherokeeprogressive]

17. They were always right wing tools anyway...

Everyone knows that.

[annm4peace]

13. another MN angry at Sen Franken

If fellow citizens don't care that our Government is spying on us, they should at least care of the billions of tax dollars spent on it and that it is private companies that are doing the spying for our government. I hope people are calling Franken's office and telling him he should support our Constitution instead of spying. and by the way Sen Franken, how much is all this "spying' costing the tax payers ?????

Franken's # is 651-221-1016, or in DC 202-224-5641.

[NealK]

14. K&R

[Uncle Joe]

15. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, n2doc.

[Hydra]

16. Lots of people seem to have a short memory about abuses of power

Thanks to a victim of such red flagging it for the more comfortable among us who think there's no threat here.

[suffragette]

18. K&R

[xchrom]

19. Du rec. Nt

[CrispyQ]

20. K&R

[burnodo]

21. under the bus with you Takei!

and your libertarian blog/twitter hippie writers!

[indepat]

22. That American citizens were rounded up and put in prison camps with barbed wire and machine guns

Last edited Thu Jun 13, 2013, 05:03 PM - Edit history (1)

pointed at them in the absence of probable cause was a stark violation of their constitutional rights for which the nation later publicly apologized. If government had so egregiously violated the constitutional rights of tens of thousands of citizens more than seventy years ago solely due to their having the same ethnicity/ancestry as an enemy, why is it so hard for Americans to come to grips with the fact that big brother might again violate their constitutional rights in the wake of a major terraist attack on American soil after which big brother created a climate of mass hysteria, passed the patently unconstitutional The Patriot Act, and launched a pre-emptive war of aggression?