US CIVIL LIBERTIES : A THING OF THE PAST?

 

The recent scandals that have recently hit the White house  bring to our attention a startling phenomenon, to which most seem to have acquiesced without a fight. 

What is at stake, through the unfettered surveillance of the private citizen, and in some cases businesses, is the constant and deep erosion of privacy and civil liberties rights. 

The issue of drones, which will be able to spy and more worryingly, to act upon anyone, although we have been promised it won't be done here, is one that should scare everyone.  There are no individual subpoenas needed when a drone is launched.  The observation of an event could be deemed as purely casual. In other words, the drone was there for other reasons, but it just happened to have full view of your house and all that goes on in it.  

But that's not all.  Just this week, the ability or at least the reasoning that justifies it, to pick up information from email and other social site information, has just been widened.  

Now the government can spy in your house, or business, take pictures, replace things etc. And the scope of use of such machines is not limited to actions aimed at preventing terrorist acts. 

Secret warrants are another problem.  This is a warrant issued by a special court that determines whether there is enough cause for the warrant to be issued if the person requesting the subpoena is claiming some form of terrorism prevention.  

Indefinite detention. This is probably one of the most grevious, in direct violation of the Constitutionally sanctioned right to a 'fair and speedy trial.'

National security inquiries from employers forced to disclose all information on their employees.  

Electronic eavesdropping is again, one of the widest and least regulated forms of spying on citizens.  

Targeting of leakers or whistle blowers.  Both in the business field and the government, whistle blowing has become a crime punishable with indefinite detention or at least some form of judicial reprisal.  

And these are the things we know.  What about the ones we don't know? the secret monitoring programs and data collection that people know zilch about? 

This is a litmus test.  If the citizens do not demand protection of their rights, the government will feel it is well within its right to continue infringing upon them. 

Op-Ed

Partial Source : al Jazeera.  5.21.13