Agencies vs. Democracy

"It's the largest database ever assembled in the world," said one person, who, like the others who agreed to talk about the NSA's activities, declined to be identified by name or affiliation. The agency's goal is "to create a database of every call ever made" within the nation's borders, this person added.

For the customers of these companies, it means that the government has detailed records of calls they made - across town or across the country - to family members, co-workers, business contacts and others. (source)

This article is from two years ago but I pass this along because I've followed this topic for a while now and was aware they had this capability. Combined with the admissions by AT&T that information was being handed over to the government, I have little doubt that what this article says is the case. I also have little doubt that the information will be abused as it was in the 1960s with peace activists like Martin Luther King and again in 1975 when "... a congressional
investigation revealed that the NSA had been intercepting, without warrants, international communications for more than 20 years at the behest of the CIA and other agencies."

No one is willing to point out the obvious here: that these "agencies" don't have any faith that democracy will succeed without a microscope held up to it.

Although they probably won't address me personally, I suspect that many in these agencies believe that I am a silly optimist. That I think that there aren't such things as terrorists, bombs, and things that go bump-in-the-night and that a few abuses of power can't compare to preventing another Sept 11. However, I continue to believe that the surveillance of a parent-like state opposes self-determination; you can't get out on your own if you can't ever get out from under your daddy's shadow.