The sordid revelations from the Obama administration are coming at a
pace that can only be described as, well, fast and furious. So let’s lay
down some markers here, as a sort of road map for the months and years
ahead:
First, if the PRISM program and all the rest of the
government’s surveillance programs were so good and necessary, then why
didn’t the feds catch the Tsarnaev brothers, who earlier this year blew
up the Boston Marathon? Or Major Hassan, the 2009 Fort Hood
mass-murderer? Or the “underwear bomber,” also from 2009, who nearly
succeeded in blowing up the passenger jet flying into Detroit?
Second, if and when everything is revealed about PRISM and
all the rest, it’s likely that we will learn of important and
inculpating connections between the National Security Agency (NSA), on
the one hand, and many civilian agencies, on the other.
I am not just referring to Eric Holder’s Justice Department; I am
also referring to the gleefully gushing leakers and win-at-any-cost
politicos in the White House. And oh yes, let’s not forget the Obama
administration’s partisan allies at the IRS, as well as the Obamacare
overseers at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Moreover, since we know that the IRS was eagerly willing to share secret tax information with favored private groups,
we shouldn’t be surprised, in the end, to learn that NSA/PRISM material
ended up in the hands of Obama friends and allies outside of the
government.
Third, we now know that Silicon Valley, and the
telecommunications industry, are the key to the Obama strategy for total
information awareness. In fact, the internet companies, and the phone
companies, were the spearpoint for PRISM. No, wait, that’s not the
right image. Let’s try this: These communications companies put
peepholes into all of our private lives, through which Uncle Sam could
sneak a peek. Every e-mail, every phone call, every text-message--the
government knows about them all.
It’s now evident that all these wonderful digital services--many of
them, such as Google’s Gmail, given away for free--were, in fact, a kind
of Trojan Horse. That is, on the outside, it all seemed like a good
deal--but then the real truth comes tumbling out, and it’s too late.
Some might recall the rueful lesson of the Trojan War: “Beware of Greeks
bearing gifts.” The rueful lesson of our own time: “Beware of geeks
bearing gifts.'
Yes, Big Brother walks among us now, peeking and snooping into
everything. And we, innocently and unwittingly, invited Big Brother into
our midst.
Aleai Iacta Est
ReplyDeleteI can still hear my mother's voice.