Elizabeth Murray — Examining the Stasi, Seeing the NSA [and MI5]

For many years, the East German Stasi was viewed as the most totalitarian of intelligence services, relentlessly spying on its citizens during the Cold War. But the Stasi’s capabilities pale in comparison to what the NSA can now do, notes former U.S. intelligence analyst Elizabeth Murray.

Edward Snowden is not the only analyst that saw what was happening and viewed it as the erosion of constitutional democracy in the US and UK.

Consortium News
Examining the Stasi, Seeing the NSA [and MI5]

Elizabeth Murray | formerly Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East in the National Intelligence Council before retiring after a 27-year career in the U.S. government. She is a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).

Henry A. Giroux — Totalitarian Paranoia in the Post-Orwellian Surveillance State

This is a long post but Giroux meticulously combed through the state of affairs and their implications for contemporary life and (formerly) liberal democracy. You've probably read Orwell and probably know all this already, but Giroux sums it up eloquently.

Truthout | Op-Ed
Totalitarian Paranoia in the Post-Orwellian Surveillance
Henry A Giroux

L Michael Hager — Path to Autocracy: Could America Become a Police State?

It is time for Americans to say: "Stop!" Let's stop building a platform and all the related tools that some future autocrat could use to stamp on our faces. If enough of us complain now to our elected representatives, we can overcome the powerful lobbies that would take away our hard-earned civil liberties.

Truthout | Op-Ed
Path to Autocracy: Could America Become a Police State?
L Michael Hager

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell — The arrogance of our vicious guard dogs grows

NSA, for instance, is a secret nation, creating its own laws in secret. These laws are approved by judges in secret, based on secret testimony, and prosecuted and tried in secret with secret evidence....

They are kept secret “for your protection.” Presumably you could be breaking one or more of those secret laws, just by reading this blog. There is no way to know.

Monetary Sovereignty
The arrogance of our vicious guard dogs grows
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

1984 is so 20th century. Now we have the new and improved 1984, and it  is not a novel. Animal Farm, too, has become reality.

John Robb: Every Person Must be Considered a Potential Terrorist (Satire)

Positive versus negative control. Where positive is not positive.

Public Intelligence Blog — The truth at any cost lowers all other costs
John Robb: Every Person Must be Considered a Potential Terrorist — Local to Global Education, News, and Social Media Must be Controlled (Satire)

Husna Haq — NSA revelations trigger a spike in '1984' sales

George Orwell's dystopian classic '1984' has experienced a sales surge since the National Security Agency's surveillance program has been in the headlines.

Christian Science Monitor
NSA revelations trigger a spike in '1984' sales
Husna Haq

Here's a link to a PDF of 1984. Read Orwell's Animal Farm while you are at it.