Finally in Big news

Finally in big news, the countries of the world are finally realizing that they are being spied on by the American government via the NSA. Figured now would be a good time to set up a little bit of a "how long have you been spied on" timeline of sorts, just in case you're not sure how this all happened and came about.

1956 - COINTELPRO

The FBI's counter intelligence program to disrupt the activities of the American communist party. In the 60's they expanded the list to quite a few parties of the "new left" that they wished to disrupt, dis-credit and neutralize. Feminists, anti-war, anti-racism and environmentalist groups were targeted just the same as the KKK, the Black panthers, and the communist party. The COINTELPRO op was disintegrated in 1971 just before the Watergate scandal broke, however the covert domestic operations didn't stop there.

1972 - Watergate scandal

Nixon sends in some lackey's to break in and set up wire taps and take photos in the democratic parties HQ. The money trail is what got the republicans caught, showing that the Nixon administration had the job done. In 1974 the "smoking gun" was found and proved Nixon's involvement and guilt in spying of the democrats, which to Nixon was a matter of "national security". Although there was never a real reason for the break in established, it set up a distrust of the presidency, and scared the people effectively.

1978 - Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

Schemed up by Ted Kennedy, he brought it to President Carter and had nine other senators cosponsor the bill in the wake of some suspicious domestic intelligence activities. This bill allowed for surveillance without court order for one year without judicial consent unless an American citizen was the party of interest, in which case the time frame was 72 hours before a court order was necessary. Ironically enough this bill was created to ensure congressional and judicial oversight to the government's actions (aka Nixon's recklessness). This was left untouched until...

2001- Patriot Act

In the devastating wake of the 9/11 terror attack on the world trade centers the Bush administration refurbished the FISA act and created the Patriot act, made to "strengthen domestic security". What they didn't tell anyone about is the scary amount of power it gave the US government, and how much it infringed on the US citizens civil liberties.

If they wanted to search inside your home while you were out, they legally could without a warrant, and without ever telling you.

The act allows (by court order) officers to intercept and individuals communications regardless of their location. It also allows the government to order files from communications providers for specific details (the internet is no longer safe). This all subject to the delayed notification of search warrants. If they wanted to search inside your home while you were out, they legally could without a warrant, and without ever telling you. The guise it went under was lengthening prison sentences for domestic terrorists, provisions to help banks detect fraud and money laundering, increased funding for border patrols and immigration/customs officials. Say goodbye amendment rights, many of these "sunset clauses" were meant to expire...however...

2006 - The sunset clauses

The sunset clauses on the Patriot Act were put off for several months in 2005, so the Democratic Party could make them permanent, and they succeeded. Three of the act's provisions however, were again made to expire and only last four years, these were; Libraries will no longer be subject to national security letters, allowing roving wiretaps, and FBI seizure of business records. But those didn't stop them from collecting personal information from communications providers.

2013 - The NSA

The NSA under the Obama administration uses the terms in the Patriot act to collect information of international and domestic sources from communications providers with a program called "PRISM". Many of the communication providers deny involvement, and knowing about the PRISM program. Yet they are seriously struggling to convince the masses that they didn't know. Google, Microsoft, Apple and Facebook are all on the alleged offenders list along with Yahoo, Skype, AOL and YouTube. They may not be "directly involved" but each has taken steps to make it MUCH too easy for the NSA to take the information they need. I'd also like to point out that the NSA has said that none of this can be used to intentionally target any US citizen. But I'm pretty sure we all know how much b/s that is.

We're being "1984"-ed here people. It's obvious that history keeps repeating itself. It's up to each and every one of us, to spread this knowledge so we can make some sort of difference. And hey, if you don't believe me, I will always strongly encourage all of my readers, and any reader to find out for yourself and come to your own educated and informed decisions.

Finally in Big news

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