The Dirty Dozen
by Judge Mark J. Plawecki
“Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give an American.”
— Edward Snowden
The Great Transformation, in just less than twelve years, of the United States from democratic leader of the free world to its laughingstock is nearly complete. June 5’s bombshell of Verizon’s blanket release of millions of customers’ phone records to be combed over by the National Security Agency, an unconstitutional exercise of naked power was, by June 6, the less spectacular of two totalitarian touchdowns by an out-of-control federal apparatus whose roguish spokespeople now unmistakably merely masquerade as representatives of a free people.
The Day Before D-Day revelation, in a scoop by reporter and longtime civil liberties stalwart Glenn Greenwald, showed that “for the first time under the Obama Administration, the communications records of U.S. citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk, regardless of whether they are suspected of wrongdoing.”
One day later, on the 69th anniversary of the Normandy Invasion, the instantly infamous PRISM program was outed, where the NSA, in apparent agreement with nine major internet service providers (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple, YouTube et al), conducts warrantless electronic surveillance on virtually anybody at any NSA analyst’s whim — 97 billion pieces of intelligence were picked up worldwide in March 2013 alone.
The D-Day story leaker was an employee of private contractor Booz Allen Hamilton (owned by the Carlyle Group of George HW Bush and James Baker fame) named Edward Snowden. He was instantly and predictably demonized by the mainstream media in a knee-jerk attempt to shift focus away from the government’s criminality. Forming a phalanx around its comedic congressional compadres, luminaries like MICMAC Mouthpiece Emeritus Tom Brokaw and wholly owned CBS subsidiary Bob Schieffer took to the airwaves to assure Americans “it’s hard to make the case that our freedom has be compromised” (by NSA actions- Brokaw) and that “heroes don’t run to China after putting the nation’s security at risk.” (Schieffer).
Fox trotted out Osama Bin Laden doppelganger Richard Cheney, still frightened to travel outside the U.S. because of an Interpol arrest warrant, who succinctly termed Snowden a “traitor,” and it also helped keep the nation’s attention focused on key issues like whether Snowden’s girlfriend was or was not an actual pole-dancer.
The Ten Percent Approval Rating Congress has weighed in as well. Senator Lindsey “Cracker” Graham stated he was “glad” the NSA was tracking his calls, since he had “nothing to hide” because he wasn’t a terrorist. Senator Diane “I Feel” Feinstein called Snowden’s act one of “treason,” and Mike “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” Rogers echoed Cheney with the Snowden “traitor” moniker. Rogers, who heads the House Intelligence Committee, gave a slightly ill-timed June 16 op-ed to the Detroit Free Press stating PRISM “cannot and does not monitor the communications of U.S. citizens.” It was printed
mere hours after the NSA itself admitted in a classified briefing that its analysts need no court authorization to listen to domestic phone calls or access the content of internet communications. All that’s left for us is to find a nice resting place for the late Fourth Amendment.
Thomas Drake, the decorated Air Force and Navy veteran turned NSA whistleblower who was hounded by the Feds for four years until ten baseless felony charges were dropped against him, states that the illegal surveillance began promptly after 9/11. Known as operation Stellar Wind, the Bush Administration unilaterally decided to begin collecting data without warrants. The program’s questionable legality was never an issue for the Bushies. “We just need the data,” Drake was told by a superior. Bush simply signed a secret order authorizing blanket electronic surveillance. As Tricky Dick Nixon famously said, “When the President does it, that means that it’s not illegal.”
And when the NSA does it, it means that no one else knows about it. Of the individuals helping to destroy any semblance of what once made America the envy of all nations, perhaps none shines more brightly in his brass-buttoned uniform than four-star General Keith Alexander. A virtual law unto himself, Alexander now heads the NSA, U.S. Cyber Command, and the Central Security Service. He also is in charge of the Navy’s 10th Fleet, 24th Air Force, and Second Army.
Though giving straight answers at congressional hearings has never been a high Alexander priority, complete U.S. military domination of cyberspace is. To further this goal, we now pay $30 billion per year to cyber security private contractors who help with the U.S. cyber offensive capabilities. (i.e., the 2006 Stuxnet raid damaging Iran’s nuclear program). Unfortunately, these contractors are not prohibited from selling their expertise to foreign governments and/or front groups for terrorism. Thus, Alex and his minions have unwittingly set off a cyber arms race that puts U.S. infrastructure at greater risk than ever before.
We now classify 92 million documents for 1.4 million pairs of eyes. This is an increase from five million in 1995, eight million in 2001, and 16 million in 2005. Why not simply classify everything? That way, no questions need ever be answered by any government official. Barack “Mr. Transparency” Obama, an altogether worthy successor to Bush II in constitutional obliteration, has in fact received fewer unrehearsed questions from the media than any modern president. But then, such queries were reportedly rare for Rome’s Nero in the (original) 60s, too.
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Judge Mark J. Plawecki serves on the bench of the Wayne County 20th District Court. He is currently updating old Condor columns to be published in a forthcoming book “Notes from Outside the Truman Show.”
