Pretty straightforward: every tin-hat conspiracy-theorists' evil dream has been fulfilled. The NSA really has been keeping track of everything it could within the borders of the U.S.; email, cellular calls, all kinds of online posting services (Facebook, Google et al), using GPS data to track users and assembling profiles based on their locations, etc., etc.
As this is not an issue that I feel is just Politics as Usual, and as the events have international ramifications, here is what is known at this time. I'm afraid that the situation in Turkey will probably be a lot less visible in the U.S. from now on; this is, after the IRS scandals, a critical moment in U.S. politics.
Huffington Post
New York Times
WSJ
For the Neocons, it's probably a heavy blow, since they put this stuff together in the first place and strong-armed a number of nations into helping them out. For everybody here who hated the Neocons, though, a word of caution: most of the really bad stuff happened after Obama arrived. I'd advise some caution before this degenerates into Left vs. Right name-calling and so forth.
We're still not clear on just how many nations are involved in this, either, but this kind of widespread activity cannot be executed in a vacuum. For example, how many routers and firewalls from countries around the world have been set up to allow this access? Time will tell.
For the Obama Administration, this may be the moment when their legitimacy is completely lost- most of the Left agrees with the Right here, for once.
This is not quite Watergate, but at least in my book, it's worse; widespread use of surveillance methods in dragnet patterns is a fundamental violation of our rights, specifically under the American Constitution, but more importantly, this is the same denial of basic human rights to freedom of expression, privacy and protection against unwarranted government searches that is seen in authoritarian regimes.
We've apparently reached the edge here, and I expect that the politics on this issue will be quite sharp but pretty un-partisan in nature, as the "protect us at any cost" people try to argue their case in the face of what is obviously a fundamental problem.
As this is not an issue that I feel is just Politics as Usual, and as the events have international ramifications, here is what is known at this time. I'm afraid that the situation in Turkey will probably be a lot less visible in the U.S. from now on; this is, after the IRS scandals, a critical moment in U.S. politics.
Huffington Post
New York Times
WSJ
For the Neocons, it's probably a heavy blow, since they put this stuff together in the first place and strong-armed a number of nations into helping them out. For everybody here who hated the Neocons, though, a word of caution: most of the really bad stuff happened after Obama arrived. I'd advise some caution before this degenerates into Left vs. Right name-calling and so forth.
We're still not clear on just how many nations are involved in this, either, but this kind of widespread activity cannot be executed in a vacuum. For example, how many routers and firewalls from countries around the world have been set up to allow this access? Time will tell.
For the Obama Administration, this may be the moment when their legitimacy is completely lost- most of the Left agrees with the Right here, for once.
This is not quite Watergate, but at least in my book, it's worse; widespread use of surveillance methods in dragnet patterns is a fundamental violation of our rights, specifically under the American Constitution, but more importantly, this is the same denial of basic human rights to freedom of expression, privacy and protection against unwarranted government searches that is seen in authoritarian regimes.
We've apparently reached the edge here, and I expect that the politics on this issue will be quite sharp but pretty un-partisan in nature, as the "protect us at any cost" people try to argue their case in the face of what is obviously a fundamental problem.