The Awakening of a Conscience - William Blum on Edward Snowden and US Surveillance

[JDPriestly]

23. I suspect someone of doing what is described in this paragraph

right here on DU.

I have two particular DUers in mind, but since this Snowden thing, several others have become rather suspect in my mind. No harm is done, but it kind of a waste of money and time on the part of our government which, we are told, is so impoverished it has to cut food stamps and Social Security benefits.

Here are the paragraphs I am talking about:

Under CIA manipulation, direction and, usually, their payroll, were past and present presidents of Mexico, Colombia, Uruguay, and Costa Rica, “our minister of labor”, “our vice-president”, “my police”, journalists, labor leaders, student leaders, diplomats, and many others. If the Agency wished to disseminate anti-communist propaganda, cause dissension in leftist ranks, or have Communist embassy personnel expelled, it need only prepare some phoney documents, present them to the appropriate government ministers and journalists, and – presto! – instant scandal.

Agee’s goal in naming all these individuals, quite simply, was to make it as difficult as he could for the CIA to continue doing its dirty work.

A common Agency tactic was writing editorials and phoney news stories to be knowingly published by Latin American media with no indication of the CIA authorship or CIA payment to the media. The propaganda value of such a “news” item might be multiplied by being picked up by other CIA stations in Latin America who would disseminate it through a CIA-owned news agency or a CIA-owned radio station. Some of these stories made their way back to the United States to be read or heard by unknowing North Americans.

Wooing the working class came in for special treatment. Labor organizations by the dozen, sometimes hardly more than names on stationery, were created, altered, combined, liquidated, and new ones created again, in an almost frenzied attempt to find the right combination to compete with existing left-oriented unions and take national leadership away from them.

http://williamblum.org/aer/read/118

This article, if true, confirms my belief that this surveillance state -- or at least the hope to establish it -- started shortly after WWII.

So much for freedom. This definitely changes my mind about being willing to restrict the Second Amendment much. Why should we voluntarily give up any of our rights regardless of the cost.

The Blum article is almost too much to stomach. Especially the parts about industrial espionage. Our companies complain so much about it -- but some of them are doing it. How two-faced can you get.

Wow! I think that America's reputation just took a big blow and rightfully so. This makes me very, very sad, but it explains some strange encounters I have had in my life.