Pour
a bucket of Ice Water over that paranoia, we Americans
will have to get use to the realization that our life is
not private any longer. I'm not sure if being an American
Citizen was ever private (Remember McCarthyism) but
for sure it never will be again.
Americans Are The Most
Spied On People In World History More Spying On Citizens
than in Stasi East Germany
In a radio interview, Wall Street Journal reporter Julia
Angwin (whos been one of the best at covering the
surveillance state in the US) made a simple observation
that puts much of this into context: the US surveillance
regime has more data on the average American than the
Stasi ever did on East Germans.
Indeed, the American government has more information on
the average American than Stalin had on Russians, Hitler
had on German citizens, or any other government has ever
had on its people.
The American government is collecting and storing
virtually every phone call, purchases, email, text
message, internet searches, social media communications,
health information, employment history, travel and
student records, and virtually all other information of
every American.
~~~~~~~~~~~ Stasi The Ministry for
State Security, commonly known as the Stasi, was the
official state security service of the German Democratic
Republic or GDR, colloquially known as East Germany. It
has been described as one of the most effective and
repressive intelligence and secret police agencies to
ever have existed.
One of its main tasks was spying on the population,
mainly through a vast network of citizens turned
informants, and fighting any opposition by overt and
covert measures including hidden psychological
destruction of dissidents (Zersetzung, literally meaning
decomposition). It also worked as an intelligence agency
abroad, the respective division Hauptverwaltung
Aufklärung was responsible for both espionage and for
conducting covert operations in foreign countries. Under
its long-time head Markus Wolf it gained a reputation as
one of the most effective intelligence agencies of the
Cold War. Numerous Stasi officials were prosecuted for
their crimes after 1990. After German reunification, the
surveillance files that the Stasi had maintained for
millions of East Germans were laid open, so that any
citizen could inspect their personal file on request;
these files are now maintained by the Federal
Commissioner for the Stasi Records.
MORE HERE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi
~~~
EXCERPT: Mass hysteria has reared its ugly head
for as long as humans have existed. Adolf Hitler worked
enough people into a frenzy to justify the murder of
millions of Jews. Jesus Christ, known by all as peaceful,
if controversial, was brutally nailed to a cross because
a few high-ranking officials felt threatened by him.
Although one would hope that people would learn a lesson
or two from the mistakes of the past, it seems that
history, as the old cliché goes, is forever doomed to
repeat itself.