As we’ve learned from watching events in Egypt over the last three weeks, a call to arms in cyberspace is no less effective than in a town square.
The end result is the same – an embattled dictator gave up power after stubborn refusals to leave a position he’s held for three decades.
Some say President Mubarak would still be in charge if not for the power of social networking. Sites like Facebook and Twitter served as critical tools for protestors seeking to topple the long-time ruler.
Mubarak knew this…and in a typically dictatorial move, the now-ousted president ordered the Internet shuttered and mobile phone services switched off.
It’s the kind of move one would expect of an oppressor – hardly the world’s poster child for freedom and democracy.
Could it happen in America? It’s already started…
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week admonished Mubarak’s government for imposing an Internet blackout, calling it a baseless attempt to limit free speech during a time of social upheaval.
Surprise! President Obama is pressing for a similar law that would give him the power to use an Internet “kill switch?” It would allow the president to block access to the web if an Egypt-style revolt or other unrest occurred in the U.S.
This power-grab is only one example of the U.S. government’s latest incursions on our civil liberties.
Democratic power brokers including the Obama White House and Senators Feinstein and Leahy teamed up with Republican leaders in Congress to extend three provisions in the Bush-era PATRIOT Act that give the government sweeping surveillance powers.
How come the only time we get “bipartisan cooperation” is when they are conspiring against our rights and freedoms?
Obama Wants to Read Your Email
Not to be outdone, Obama’s Department of Justice wants a new law, too. This one would require Internet companies to retain data and records of user activity online.
In doing so, the Obama administration is supporting measures advocated by the Bush administration that pose a grave threat to free speech and freedom of the Internet. The sweeping legislation would cover cell phone service, Internet records, and email.
If this legislation is passed, it would jeopardize the privacy of millions of Americans who use the Internet. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) notes, “A legal obligation to log users’ Internet use… would dangerously expand the government’s ability to surveil its citizens, damage privacy, and chill freedom of expression.”
Once again, congressional Republicans are more than happy to cooperate in passing such a law – anything to go after those awful terrorists… even if it shreds the U.S. Constitution.
Even greater infringements on your privacy
Although they can cite no legal basis for their high-handed actions, the Department of Homeland Security claims that its agents have the right to look though the contents of an international traveler’s electronic devices, including laptops, cameras and cell phones.
If only the injustice stopped there – agents can also keep the devices or copy the contents in order to continue searching them once the traveler has been allowed to enter the U.S., regardless of whether the traveler is suspected of any wrongdoing.
Documents obtained in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for records related to DHS policy reveal that more than 6,600 travelers, nearly half of whom are American citizens, were subjected to electronic device searches at the border between October 1, 2008 and June 2, 2010.
No law authorizes this power nor is there any judicial or congressional body overseeing or regulating what DHS is doing.
And the citizens to whom this is done have no recourse – not even to have their property returned to them.
FBI Run Amok
Another FOIA lawsuit revealed the FBI’s flagrant legal violations included submitting false or inaccurate declarations to courts, using improper evidence to obtain federal grand jury subpoenas and accessing password protected documents without a warrant. In at least one fifth of the cases, specific violations of the U.S. Constitution were cited.
Do you recall the uproar over President George W. Bush’s use of massive telephone and wire tap surveillance after the 9-11 terror.
Surprise! With little notice, Obama’s Department of Justice now asserts that the FBI can obtain your international telephone call records without any formal legal process or court oversight.
The DoJ’s legal position is flawed and creates a potential loophole that could lead to a repeat of FBI abuses that should’ve stopped with a law that was passed in 2006.
The telephone record controversy is leftover from the Bush administration’s war on terror. A hypocritical President Obama is continuing many of those same tactics, which he formerly said he opposed.
One year ago, the Inspector General’s Office issued a lengthy report detailing that the FBI, for the years 2003-2005, had used “National Security Letters” (NSLs) to gather information on thousands of Americans in violation of the law.
Under the PATRIOT Act, NSLs permit the FBI and other federal agencies to obtain all sorts of invasive information from telecoms, Internet and email providers – even health care providers – without any warrants or oversight of any kind.
And if you think this power is being aimed solely at suspected terrorists, think again. No wonder that some Swiss and other offshore banks refuse to discuss by telephone their accounts with Americans.
A Plague on Both Houses
And by that I mean both political parties and both houses of the U.S. Congress – all of which seem to have lost their understanding of American history and an appreciation for the genius of our constitutional system.
editor’s note: Kudos to The Sovereign Society (www.sovereignsociety.com/) and former congressman Bob Bauman for the brilliant article from which this was excerpted.
Now you know why I am concerned that so few of the new Congressmen, including most self-proclaimed patriots and tea partyers, swallowed the party line and passed the frightening, freedom-robbing Patriot Act extension.
Sources: (1) U.S. Energy Information Administration; (2) Wall Street Journal; (3) Bureau of Labor Statistics; (4) Census Bureau; (5) USDA; (6) U.S. Dept. of Labor; (7) FHFA; (8) Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller; (9) RealtyTrac; (10) Heritage Foundation and WSJ; (11) The Conference Board; (12) FDIC; (13) Federal Reserve; (14) U.S. Treasury
As we promised our members, U.S. Border Control is ramping up its online presence to be able to augment its lobbying of the Congress to secure the borders; pass employment verification with jail time for employers who hire illegals; prevent amnesty and convince illegal aliens to deport themselves and apply for citizenship like the rest of the world has to do.
