U.S. Chamber & NSA Have Common Ground

[GoLeft TV]

The following interview originally aired on the June 23rd, 2013 episode of Ring of Fire on Free Speech TV. If you think that the NSA and the big bad government are the only villains in the recent stories about spying on American citizens, then you haven’t been paying attention. YOUR data is being mined by private companies who often abuse their power. Ring of Fire guest host Farron Cousins discusses this with investigative journalist Brad Friedman.

More at Ring of Fire.

[fasttense]

1. These people who say Snowden is a traitor and should be prosecuted but

The spying on ALL Americans by the NSA is a conversation We the People should be having are kind of silly. How the hell were We the People ever going to have this conversation about something the US federal government was trying it's damnest to keep top secret? If Not for someone like Snowden, we would never ever have known about this and we would NOT be having a conversation on illegal spying by the NSA.

If Snowden is such a criminal, then why didn't he sell secrets to China and Russia on the black market. Why didn't he sell info on a Senator's latest whore to a tabloid? Why didn't he sell this very valuable info off? Instead, he merely told the world about the collection of this valuable info on All Americans.

[midnight]

2. Private corporations mining our data, counting our votes, and abusing our privacy.

Is/Was the chamber watching other journalists who are reporting and making public aware of issues they don't want them to know.


We knew this spying was crappy but making it legal does not make this better, because we don't know if this is constitutional and no review per the law. Sen. on Intelligence committee can't get this information reviewed.

[JDPriestly]

3. Arguably, there is no news other than Snowden's revelations.

Why? Because until the government's and the private corporations' capacity to monitor and trace our electronic communications ends, all of the so-called "news" we read or hear is suspect; it is very probably just propaganda. A news reporter has to have privacy in ALL of his/her communications in order to find, investigate and then write and present the news. If the reporter doesn't have that privacy, that freedom, then he is subject to extortion including the threat of losing his/her job or, for example, access to top officials.

There is no news other than Snowden's revelations. The rest is all propaganda until this is completely out in the open.

And there is no democracy as long as these programs and this kind of surveillance whether private or public goes on. We have long suspected that our candidates are chosen not through a democratic process but through something vaguely manipulative that is way above our heads.

Obama needs to end these programs, and Congress needs to prohibit the massing of this kind of metadata in any form unless it is strictly anonymous or collected confidentially for scientific purposes (say a study on obesity or smoking or what causes cancer). And when it is massed in any way, the amassing of it should be reported to the government so that it can be obtained through FOIA procedures.

This is the only story in town right now, but I don't see major media reporting on the real problem this surveillance causes, its incompatibility with a free society or our Constitution.

What? The administration and private corporations have access to this data, but Congress doesn't. And the administration and private corporations can find it out about Congress and members of our judiciary and their staffs, but the Congress and courts are not allowed to know about it? And we aren't allowed to know what is in our own records? Or whether there even is a record on us?