'State of Surveillance' with Edward Snowden and Shane Smith (full episode)

[ancianita]

This important video is about our presidency, not our presidents.

If our biggest intelligence organizations can't prevent terrorism on our land, a tough talking president, if s/he's honest, will acknowledge s/he is helpless to make Americans safe from terrorists attacks through mass surveillance.

Shown in May, this year, this HBO'S VICE episode shows that police departments continue a "culture of surveillance" worldwide using IMSI catchers, previously tested in the "war zone" of Yemen, now masquerading in the US and worldwide as cell phone towers to track anyone without warrants.

It claims that, to suppress government opposition anywhere, our third party government still can install spyware on any phone to turn on its microphone, camera, log all typing, record all calls, essentially commandeer complete surveillance through our phones. I know that Android and Samsung are chipped at points of import by the NSA.

All this "golden age of technology" is feloniously lied about by the CIA's Brennan and Clapper to our elected officials on more than one occasion, backed by our secret FISA court.

Beyond his tips about avoiding such surveillance, Edward Snowden's most important point is to flat out deny what Trump will still lie to America about -- that he will make us safe again.

Snowden says Trump cannot. But Trump can turn our technology against us.

The final scene:

Q: What happens [within an intelligence organization] when you have a terrorist attack like that [like the one in Paris]?
A: "...I was working at the NSA during the Boston Marathon bombings investigation. And as it was playing on the news, myself and my colleagues were sitting in the cafeteria, and we turned to each other and said, 'I'll bet you anything we already knew about these guys in the database.

And in Paris I'm certain that the same conversation happened. And this is really the legacy of mass surveillance, is the fact that when you're watching everyone, you know who these individuals are, they're in the banks, you had the information you needed to stop, to prevent even the worst atrocities. But the problem is when you cast the net too wide, when you're collecting everything, you understand nothing.

We know for a fact that it is not effective for stopping terrorist attacks and it never has been.

The White House appointed two independent commissions in the wake of my disclosures in 2013, to review mass surveillance programs and go, alright, do these have value, should they be changed, should they be reformed. They looked at the evidence -- classified evidence -- and they found, wow, despite the fact that this has been going on since 2001, it had never stopped a single terrorist attack in the United States. And that's after monitoring the phone calls of everyone in the country...

Both of these commissions found that these programs should be ended, with 42 points for reform to restrict the use of these power. ... the president only adopted three... because it would restrict executive powers...and when there is a future terrorist attack... of course their political opponents will blame them...even if you trust the government today, what happens when it changes...everyone is vulnerable to this new individual...who says, let's flip this switch to use the full tech capabilities....

"... will we recognize the danger of that and embrace the fact that people should have the space to make mistakes without judgment, to have, sort of, the unconsidered thought or conversation with your friend. But if that was recorded in a database, where, you know, now you say "I think Trump should be kicked off a cliff" -- and Donald Trump becomes president -- and everybody who said that ends up getting thrown off a cliff. That's a very dangerous world. And I think this really is the question our political structures are not yet comfortable even discussing.