More crackpot thinking from Glenn Greenwald

[JDPriestly]

77. Eventually, someone will take the government to court to find out.

If our government refuses to allow the suit to be heard due to national security concerns, we can assume it is true enough to be a problem even if not absolutely true, even if the eavesdropping is not as extreme as some fear.

If they deny it and produce all records from any agency that might be recording or keeping some sort of electronic data on all this stuff, then we can believe what we want. Because it would be hard for the government to disprove the accusation in some way that people could trust.

In any case, we will probably never know.

But one thing is for certain, we cannot assume that they are not recording everything. I would like to see a lot more openness about what their capacity is in this regard.

One tip: if you need to talk to a lawyer, go to the lawyer's office. Let's say a business deal has gone sour and you don't know what your rights are. It might be something very personal. It might be something that happened that you fear may be illegal. Make sure that big brother is not listening. You need to be able to feel that you are sharing a confidence. The same might be true of a doctor or some other professional with whom you wish to have a confidential discussion. Just be careful. You never know.

Just the claim that the government MIGHT be eavesdropping on all electronic communications chills speech. That is the danger. The public needs to know whether we should watch what we say.

I'm way beyond the time of life in which this could possibly be a problem for me, but the thought has occurred to me that we are approaching a time what with cameras and eavesdropping equipment everywhere that marital infidelity is no longer possible. The scandals we will read about as we approach that point should be pretty juicy. I suppose that the phones of seedy motels would be tapped by this huge program (real or not). Could make for some spicy sounds.

Anyway, knowing human nature as I do, I suspect the guys doing the eavesdropping, sorting through all the junk (most calls are to and from family members or business associates, aren't they? Boring, boring, boring), there will probably be a huge leak of a giant file of pornographic noises and shocking telephone calls. Who knows? It may be the art of the future. Anyway, comedians should have a lot of fun with this.

If the project exists, it is a huge waste of money.