Lawlessness Is Official US PolicyStephen Lendman Its about control. Its to advance Americas imperium. Its political and corporate espionage. Its monitoring truth-tellers. Its targeting constitutional rights. Its eliminating freedom altogether. Its institutionalizing tyranny. It made America a police state. Its coup detat authority. Too few Americans understand. Two few who do challenge it responsibly. Washington lacks constitutional and legal legitimacy, said Paul Craig Roberts. Americans are ruled by usurpers. They claim theyre above the law. George Bush called the Constitution just a goddamned piece of paper. Obama feels the same way. So do key officials around him. Theyre rogues. Theyre unindicted criminals. They do what they want with impunity. Theyre accountable to no one. Theyre unrestrained by checks and balances. Theyre words, not reality. (L)ies and naked force drive policy. So does over-the-top spying. Its lawless. Its sweeping. Its unprecedented. Its worsening as technology advances. Its Big Brother beyond anything Orwell imagined. Its humanitys worst nightmare. If more of what he leaked comes out, itll cause more damage to the US government in a minute alone than anyone else has ever (done) in the history of the United States. He has a huge number of documents that would be very harmful to the US government if they were made public. He gave thousands of documents to several people. They have his entire file. They show global spying is unprecedented in scale and intensity. Whats revealed is just the tip of the iceberg. Whats ongoing wont stop. Plans call for much worse. On July 15, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) headlined Bills Introduced by Congress Fail to Fix Unconstitutional NSA Spying. It doesnt surprise. Congress, the executive and courts conspire against freedom. They spurn rule of law principles. They mock democratic governance. Rogue states operate that way. Bills introduced since early July responded to whats publicly known. NSA conducts unrestrained widespread, sweeping domestic and global spying. It does so covertly. Now its known. It was known years ago. Snowden connected more dots. He did so responsibly. He let millions know everywhere. Four congressional bills address the problem. They fall woefully short. They address DOJs abusive interpretations of (the Patriot Acts) Section 215 apparently approved by the reclusive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA Court) in secret legal opinions. EFF sued DOJ. It demands answers. It wants lawless spying stopped. Its FOIA suit seeks disclosure of FISC opinions and orders. It wants more information on illegal government surveillance. It wants congressional briefings. People have a right to know. Congressional legislation ignores Prism. It gives NSA access to search histories, emails, file transfers and live chats. Its gotten directly from provider servers. Doing so facilitates mass surveillance. Nine or more major online companies are involved. Until Snowdens leak, they did so without customers knowledge. They violate their right to privacy. They do it unapologetically. Theyre misusing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Theyre collecting customer emails and phone calls. Theyre doing it lawlessly. Congress lacks full information on NSAs abuse of power. According to EFF: Congress must find out more about the programs before it can propose fixes. Thats why a coalition of over 100 civil liberties groups and over half a million people are pushing for a special congressional investigatory committee, more transparency, and more accountability. Americas run secretly. Transparency is verboten. Most people have no idea whats going on. Americas Fourth Amendment was gutted. So were other constitutional freedoms. They lie in historys dustbin. EFF and dozens of other civil liberties groups demand action. They want maximum transparency. They want congressional Judiciary Committee meetings. They want them open to the public. They want vital information released. They want secret FISA Court legal opinions published. They want DOJ Office of Legal Counsel ones revealed. Some proposed bills marginally narrow Section 215. They do so by heightening the legal standard for the government to access information. The FBI has access to any tangible thing. It permits anything goes. It destroys personal privacy. EFF et al want reasonable grounds to believe that so-called tangible things are relevant to investigations. They want legislation requiring the FBI to show exactly why information sought is relevant. Less than adequate fixes wont work. They deter unconstitutional spying. Its vital to know precisely how government defines key terms. Bills proposed fall short. They fail to stop bulk records orders. Legislators havent done their homework. Theyre drafting in the dark. Measures proposed show it. They lack a thorough understanding of how government uses key definitions. They ignore how FISA Court judges use and misuse laws abusively, recklessly and illegally. The New York Times discussed it. On July 6, it headlined In Secret, Court Vastly Broadens Powers of NSA, saying: In more than a dozen classified rulings, FISA Court judges created a secret body of law giving (NSA) the power to amass vast collections of data on Americans while (allegedly) pursuing not only terrorism suspects, but also people possibly involved in nuclear proliferation, espionage and cyberattacks, officials say. Rulings show they expanded their powers extrajudicially. They acted with no public oversight. Current and former officials familiar with their decisions say so. On July 8, the Wall Street Journal headlined Secret Courts Redefinition of Relevant Empowered Vast NSA Data-Gathering, saying: People familiar with (FISA Court) rulings (said) the special nature of national-security and terrorism-prevention cases means relevant can have a broader meaning for those investigations. In other words, laws are twisted to meet policy. Terms are redefined. Anything goes substitutes for accountability. Relevant permits an entire database of records on millions of people, in contrast to a more conservative interpretation widely applied in criminal cases, in which only some of those records would likely be allowed, according to people familiar with the ruling. Relevant now means everything. Its the new standard. Its the new normal. It turns rule of law principles on their head. It replaces them with police state justice. Fourth Amendment protections and others once meant something. No longer. Actions made public strike at the very core of our Constitution, said EFF. Most congressional members arent aware of specific language and legal interpretations used to justify spying. Vital change is needed. Privacy is to important to lose. It cant be held hostage to secrecy. Transparency and accountability are long overdue. Constitutional rights are essential. Societies cant be free without them. Diktat authority runs America. Mass surveillance threatens everyone. Anyone can be targeted any time for any reason or none at all. They can be murdered in cold blood. They can be hunted down ruthlessly and disappeared. They can be charged and prosecuted. They can be denied due process and judicial fairness. They can be pronounced guilty by accusation. They can face long prison terms. They can be tortured in military dungeons. Stalinists once targeted truth-tellers. Washington does so now. Doing the right thing should be its own reward. Now it can be a death sentence or long prison term. Criminals run things. Law-abiding people are threatened. Truth is an endangered species. So is freedom when its most needed. A Final Comment On July 13, the Washington Post headlined The White House is turning up the pressure on Moscow over Snowden. Will it make any difference? He remains stuck in Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport transit zone limbo. Hes a man without a country. He seeks temporary asylum in Russia. Washington shifted strategies. Public comments hardened. They did so from mildly irritated impatience to outraged insistence. State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki accused Moscow of providing (Snowden) a propaganda platform. White House spokesman Jay Carney urge(d Russia) to afford human rights organizations the ability to do their work throughout Russia. Not just at the Moscow transit lounge. Snowdens case isnt just about his legal status any more. Its more than about the public service value of his leaks. Its about the symbolic diplomatic and political value hes increasingly accrued and, at times, cultivated. It could make it harder for Russia to quietly hand him over. The harder Obama pushes, the less likely Putin will comply. Snowdens a pawn on their chessboard. Resolving his status may take time. On July 15, Russia Today headlined Putin: Snowden will leave Russia at earliest opportunity, saying: For now things remain unclear. He is familiar with the conditions of granting political asylum, and judging by the latest statements, is shifting his position, said Putin. Hes trapped in Russia. He arrived on our territory without an invitation. He was not flying to us. He was flying in transit to other countries. But as soon as he got in the air it became known, and our American partners, in fact, blocked his further flight. They scared other countries. No one wants to accept him. Putin repeated conditions for staying in Russia. He must stop leaking classified information. We have certain relations with the United States, and we dont want your activities to harm our relations with the United States. He said no. Youre laughing, but Im serious. He said, I want to carry on with my activities. I want to fight for human rights. I believe that the United States departed from certain legal standards, from international legal standards. It interferes in peoples private lives, and my purpose is to fight this today. We said, go ahead but well keep out. Weve got enough to fight. Eventually, he wants to move to another place of permanent residence. He wants to be a permanent resident in other territory. Asked about whats next for him, Putin said (h)ow should I know? Thats his life, his fate. Russias Migration Office said it hasnt received Snowdens asylum request. It has to be submitted in writing. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.His new book is titled How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War.Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/ linkwithin_text=Related Articles: 