QOTD: building the wrong kind of infrastructure
by digby
Former Ambassador Chas Freeman:
Mr. Snowden has brought home to us that, while we Americans do not yet live in a police state or tyranny, we are well along in building the infrastructure on which either could be instantly erected if our leaders decided to do so. No longer protected by the law, our freedoms now depend on the self-restraint of men and women in authority, many of them in uniform. History protests that if one builds a turnkey totalitarian state, those who hold the keys will eventually turn them.
More about Freeman if you are unfamiliar with him.
He’s not the only one worried about this:
A federal judge has ruled that the “wholesale collection of the phone record metadata” of all U.S. citizens — a program exposed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden — likely violates the 4th Amendment and is unconstitutional.
In the decision, Judge Leon rules that the plaintiffs challenging the bulk collection of U.S. phone records, including legal activist and Judicial Watch founder Larry Klayman, have “demonstrated a substantial likelihood of succession the merits of their Fourth Amendment claims, and that they will suffer irreparable harm absent preliminary injunctive relief.” The decision describes the technology used by the Government as “almost-Orwellian.”
Judge Leon explains “[P]laintiff’s have a very significant expectation of privacy in an aggregated collection of their telephony metadata covering the last five years.” Judge Leon notes that “the Government does not cite a single instance in which analysis of the NSA’s bulk metadata collection stooped an imminent attack, or otherwise aided the Government in achieving any objective that was time-sensitive in nature.” He notes that the “program infringes of ‘that degree of privacy’ that the Founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment.” Judge Leon concludes that “the author of our constitution, James Madison…would be aghast.”
Also too:
The fact is, the NSA would have self-corrected without Snowden. Now excuse me, I’m riding my unicorn to the Great Chocolate Waterfall.
— pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) December 16, 2013
*Annual fundraiser happening right now!
