Government Surveillance

I wonder how much longer we will be able to communicate through the Internet.............

Is it inevitable that we must accept constant government surveillance as part of our lives? After all, based on recent actions by this administration it is apparent that Barack Obama and George W. Bush agree on one thing: government spying is good.

On April 3rd, Obama's Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation that seeks to expose illegal spying by the National Security Agency. This lawsuit is based on information from former AT&T telecommunications technician Mark Klein and other inside sources. Klein testified in a sworn affidavit that all of AT&T's Internet traffic in San Francisco runs through a splitter, and that a complete copy of all Internet traffic that flows through AT&T's equipment is sent through a separate fiber-optic cable to a room controlled by the NSA. Reportedly only personnel with NSA clearances have access to that room.But now Obama's administration wants to keep the truth from coming out.

Kevin Bankston, senior attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation expressed the disappointment of many Obama supporters over this turn of events: "Other than being flat wrong, the Obama administration's position is seriously disappointing to those Americans who listened to candidate Obama's promises of a new era of government accountability and transparency."

Obama had criticized the Bush administration on this issue during the campaign, saying that they had "undermined the Constitution."

But now it is the Obama administration that is trying to have this lawsuit dismissed. The Obama administration is invoking the "state secrets" privilege. They say it would damage "national security" to expose the truth.

That sounds exactly like the Bush administration. Absolutely sickening. Instead of reducing the surveillance powers of the government, the Democrats are actually attempting to massively increase them. A shocking new bill would actually give Obama authority to shut down the Internet and access whatever private computer data he wanted in the event of an emergency.

What?

Should we give Obama the power to shut down the Internet whenever he decides that there is an "emergency"? Who came up with this stupid idea?

Well, it was U.S. Senators John Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe.
Hmmm.....Rockefeller.....I think that name rings a bell.

Anyway, these Senators have introduced a bill called "The Cybersecurity Act of 2009" that would establish an "Office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor". This office would have extraordinary power to monitor and "control" Internet traffic.

What most Americans do not realize is that this bill would give Obama the ability to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" and shut down the Internet whenever he wants to. You see, The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 does not define what "a cybersecurity emergency" is. That would be left totally up to the discretion of Obama.

The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 also gives the Secretary of Commerce "access to all relevant data concerning [critical] networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule, or policy restricting such access."

What does that mean?

It means the government can look at whatever it wants on the Internet without telling you or getting your permission.

What, you don't think that this is a good idea?

Source:

FutureStorm