Edward Snowden 'leaves Hong Kong on Moscow flight'

[JDPriestly]

137. What if we had simply announced that we were doing the surveillance?

What if we had really bothered to get subpoenas based on probably cause and opened up the FISA court papers so that the world could know what we were doing?

We would not have had to open the FISA court papers immediately. We could have released the FISA court papers, say within three months after filing. That would have been a program that gave notice and the opportunity to innocent people who might be injured by the program to be heard in a court to challenge the allegations in the papers.

This was done in a sneaky way. It might even have been more effective against terrorists had it been more open to review. The focus on terrorism would have been assured.

But no, our NSA likes to be sneaky. Being sneaky makes it feel powerful. The NSA has created an elite of questionable morals to review the transactions and communications of the rest of the world. That is a giant step toward a dictatorship. It's simply wrong.

A conspiracy such as "terrorism" is often used as the excuse for creating a dictatorship to "protect" the people. That the conspiracy of terrorists is used as a cover for creating a dictatorship does not mean that the conspiracy of terrorism does not exist.

Hitler used the conspiracy of communism, a very real threat at the time, as the excuse for creating his dictatorship to protect the German people. He also told them that they were exceptional. They were the superior race, the Germans. In fact, Hitler was creating an elite in the society that put everyone else under surveillance. This story is repeated over and over in history

It is so flattering to feel that you are part of the elite, the people chosen to protect your country and thus to be better than the rest. This is nothing new. Rome had its centurions and its slaves. Great Britain had its lords and serfs. Russia its tsars and their inner circle and then the serfs. Stalin had his KGB and then everyone else.

There is always an elite that is entitled to know more and to be more cruel all in the name of protecting the people. Old hat.

What fools in our NSA to think they could pull this on us. And they will probably succeed because a lot of Republicans are on their side as is Nancy Pelosi among other Democrats.