Surveillance, America’s Pastime

[unhappycamper]

Surveillance, America’s Pastime
by Stephan Salisbury
Published on Monday, October 4, 2010 by TomDispatch.com

~snip~

The Pennsylvania surveillance case, which is just the latest of these glimpses into the secret surveillance world of our ever more powerful national security state, does not directly involve informers (as far as we know). It marks a different point on what FBI Director Robert Mueller has referred to as the “continuum” -- the whole environment of daily life, really, which in the post-9/11 world has been appropriated by law enforcement officials in the name of “terrorism prevention.”

“There is a continuum between those who would express dissent and those who would do a terrorist act,” Mueller said ominously in a 2002 speech. “Somewhere along that continuum we have to begin to investigate. If we do not, we are not doing our job. It is difficult for us to find a path between the two extremes.”

What does that mean? Just last week, FBI agents raided half a dozen homes of anti-war activists in Minneapolis and Chicago, carting away papers, computers, clothing, and other personal effects, all in the name of investigating “material support of terrorism.” The activists, their supporters, and their attorneys have a different view: they see the raids as designed to intimidate and disrupt legitimate political dissent -- points on “the continuum.” It is a virtual certainty that evidence of intrusive surveillance will surface as these cases mature.

In Pennsylvania the continuum has meant, most recently, that the state Office of Homeland Security contracted with a small outfit, the Institute of Terrorism Response and Research, run by a couple of ex-cops, one from York, Pennsylvania, the other raised in Philadelphia and a veteran of Israeli law enforcement. For the past year, the institute has been providing secret intelligence reports via the state Homeland Security Office to Pennsylvania police departments and private companies in order, the reports say, to “support public and private sector, critical infrastructure protection initiatives and strategies.”

Many of these reports focused on groups opposed to Marcellus Shale drilling, which you may not have known was a breeding ground for terrorism. In fact, you may not even know what it is. But particularly in Pennsylvania and New York, Marcellus Shale means big bucks. The shale is part of a 600-mile-long geological formation containing a huge reservoir of natural gas. Energy companies are seeking to exploit that formation in ways that have raised serious and widespread environmental concerns. Ed Rendell, governor of Pennsylvania, facing severe budget problems, wants to impose a tax on the eager drillers. With Marcellus Shale, there’s something for everybody -- except for environmentalists concerned about the impact of drilling on the Chesapeake Bay watershed and the Delaware River basin.



unhappycamper comment: The Police State and the Forever War go hand in hand. We're working our way to fascism.

[leveymg]

1. This sort of surveillance has a long history in America. Since the Red Scare of 1919-20, and

and through the McCarthy era, Army Intelligence (Military Intelligence Division - MID) has been involved in compliling dossiers on Leftists and labor activists and disrupting these groups, usually in cooperation with private corporate security agencies and with the help of the FBI and local police departments.

A seminal figure in organizing this domestic military spring was the World War One commander of MID, Colonel Van Deimen, who after his retirement in 1925 went on to organize privatized domestic political spying on domestic "Reds" through various private and veterans groups, including the American Legion.

Throughout the Cold War and McCarthy era, MID continued to spy on domestic "radicals", including civil rights and anti-war leaders, such as Martin Luther King.

Previously, the pretext was the "Worldwide Communist Conspiracy" and espionage threats, now it's just labeled differently as Counter-Terrorism. Always the same ideologically-motivated focus on groups that might publicly protest big corporations or government policies.

[ThomWV]

2. The most important subject in modern US Government and some asshole has already unrecommended it.