The NSA is Spying on Us! What a Surprise!
(Mediapart, France)
"Everyone is entitled to receive this service - not just
suspected terrorists, but good American citizens on their union's territory as
well as abroad. Of course, every non-American on the planet, potential enemies
of the United States because they are not American, is also eavesdropped upon. ...
This flattered our pencil-pushing egos. We aren't as insignificant as we
thought, we said to ourselves, because the NSA is
interested in our full stops and commas, stores them, and computes and analyses
them."
With laudable horror, the Anglo-American press
has recently discovered that the NSA (National
Security Agency, dubbed 'No such Agency') and other American intelligence services
have been spying on telephone communications and Internet messages for several
years at least.
Everyone is entitled to receive this service - not
just suspected terrorists, but good American citizens on American Union territory
as well as abroad. Of course, every non-American on the planet, potential
enemies of the United States because they are not American, is also eavesdropped
upon. This is the PRISM program, put in place by Bush and reintroduced by Obama
last December, which allows these breaches of civil liberty.
Surprise,
surprise ... And such passion!
As for us, for a long time, since the long-lost
days of the Echelon system,
we thought we knew all about the great deeds of the NSA.
This even flattered our pencil-pushing egos. We aren't as insignificant as we
thought, we said to ourselves, because the NSA is interested in our full stops
and commas, stores them, and computes and analyses them. This has been a
subject of our writings for quite some time. See one
of our older reports, dated June, 2006.
It is quite obvious that no one will ever put a
stop to this, whatever the righteous indignation of the mainstream press. The
data mountain being compiled at NSA headquarters,
supplemented by the other data mountains that Google, Facebook,
Amazon and others now hold about us, are very much a part of the genetics of
the "system." When you dominate the digital networks, why deprive
yourself of the data?
But how will this data be used? Has the NSA
prevented harm from a single serious act of terrorism since it engaged in billions
of dollars of investment? If so, it would already be known.
What is likely to happen will be quite different.
As forecast by our friends, the experts in algorithms, all search functions
that now navigate automatically within these programs will from this point on self-activate.
People, whoever they are, you and me perhaps, who are in
no way terrorists, will be reported with the utmost discretion to other
programs responsible for anonymous eradication. A drone, or "special
forces" mercenaries, will take care of any necessary eliminations, and
neighbors will blame the disappearances on sudden bouts of depression. A
general climate of fear (or a landscape of fear) will develop - the kind in
which everyone strives to remain as calm as possible. Most importantly, Obama's
sleep will therefore not be disturbed.
