Police, SS, DEA, DOJ, DOD, DHS… Add the IRS to list

[damnedifIknow]

Two days ago, a review of quiet admissions and unauthorized leaks revealed that the NSA branch of the U.S. military had not only been collecting and warehousing nearly every form of electronic communications by innocent everyday people, without warrants, but had been sharing the proceeds of their unconstitutional spying with …

the Drug Enforcement Agency;
local police;
the Secret Service;
the Department of Justice;
the Pentagon;
and the Department of Homeland Security

… for regular, non-terrorism-related government purposes.

Well, now you can add another agency to the list. Reuters reports that the Internal Revenue Service — that’s right, the IRS — has been getting tips for tax investigations by dipping into the database of warrantless intelligence surveillance.

They say all this constitution-squashing is about catching the terrorists, but let’s be real — the danger of an American dying in a terrorist attack is smaller than the danger she or he will die of a hernia. The slowly-emerging secret is that U.S. government agents are using the excuse of terrorism to pry into your life for reasons that are both mundane and none of their business."

http://irregulartimes.com/

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. If they didn't have "terrorists" to "protect" us from they'd invent another bogeyman.

Or, dust off, and poke an old one. They're working on Putin as an alternate.

[Hydra]

2. We have met the enemy

And apparently, it's us...

This can't end well.

[woo me with science]

3. Can you say "totalitarian surveillance state"?

I knew you could.

Wholesale spying and use of that information to target anyone they want, while fabricating the reasons for the targeting. What gets me is that this is exactly the kind of nightmare scenario we used to put forth as an extreme, *hypothetical* example of how corrupt the government could become under a corporate, authoritarian state.

And here we are, with former members of the Stasi commenting on how the NSA would have made them drool.

Here we are.

[damnedifIknow]

4. They said it couldn't happen here

They were wrong.

[bvar22]

5. Well DAMN!!!

Spying on Americans without warrants,
AND turning over that info to the IRS!!!!!!

There goes Republican support for these super secret SPY Programs.

Oddly enough, as someone NOT rich enough to be able to CHEAT on MY taxes,
I find THIS aspect of Spying on Americans to be amusing.

Maybe when the Rich & Powerful find out that the NSA is recording conversations between them and their Brokers, and especially their Offshore Tax havens,
MAYBE then this will come to an end as "UnAmerican".



You will know them by their [font size=3]WORKS.[/font]