Big Brother

Met legale en illegale middelen proberen Westerse autoriteiten de activiteiten van hun burgers in de gaten te houden. Gisteren berichtte de Washington Post onder de kop 'Pushing the Limits of War Time Powers' het volgende: 'In his four-year campaign against al Qaeda, President Bush has turned the U.S. national security apparatus inward to secretly collect information on American citizens on a scale unmatched since the intelligence reforms of the 1970s.The president's emphatic defense yesterday of warrantless eavesdropping on U.S. citizens and residents marked the third time in as many months that the White House has been obliged to defend a departure from previous restraints on domestic surveillance. In each case, the Bush administration concealed the program's dimensions or existence from the public and from most members of Congress. Since October, news accounts have disclosed a burgeoning Pentagon campaign for "detecting, identifying and engaging" internal enemies that included a database with information on peace protesters. A debate has roiled over the FBI's use of national security letters to obtain secret access to the personal records of tens of thousands of Americans. And now come revelations of the National Security Agency's interception of telephone calls and e-mails from the United States -- without notice to the federal court that has held jurisdiction over domestic spying since 1978.' Zie: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/17/AR2005121701233.html?referrer=email&referrer=email