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Domestic Policies

Safety in the Name of Surveillance

Hey, America, WE’RE AT WAR!!! This is No Ordinary War, but it’s still War just the same! Stop it with your Penny-Anny whining about “Privacy and Civil Liberties” being taken away. It was taken away after 9/11, less we forget. Immediately after we were attacked with the planes diving into buildings, the Bush Administration began wiretapping phone calls and emails because of potential threats from known and unknown al-Qaeda groups.

President Bush authorized a surveillance program in late 2001, allowing the NSA (National Security Agency) to monitor communications between the United States and foreign countries without court oversight when a party is believed to be linked to al-Qaeda. During the 2008 article that revealed President Bush’s tactics, Administration officials had acknowledged that the NSA program was broader, and intelligence sources had described a vast effort to collect and analyze telephone and e-mail communications that were later scrutinized by the government for desired information. Does this Ring A Bell? Fast Forward to Thursday, June 6th.

On Thursday, President Obama was slammed for doing the EXACT SAME THING George Bush did as President, yet Obama is being pummeled by some Right Wingers, some Democrats that seemed to have forgotten what Bush initiated after 9/11, by media outlets like the New York Times and Fox News (No Surprise There) and every day Americans who also have forgotten WE’RE AT WAR!!!

Collection of audio, video, email, photographic and Internet search usage of foreign nationals overseas who use any of the nine major Internet providers, including Microsoft, Google, Apple, Yahoo and others has also taken place.

Thursday was June 6th, the Commemoration of D-Day. On June 6th, 1944, the Great Theater of Battle was the Normandy invasion which was to liberate Europe from the stronghold of Adolf Hitler and the German war machine.

During WWII, we knew what the enemy looked like. Another battle was taking place thousands of miles away in Japan. We saw them coming in Big Ships across the oceans, hundereds of thousands of planes in the air and Tanks across the desert. Today, our enemy lives in caves but has the technological skills of a seasoned IBM’er.

They disguise themselves by blending in like you and me. By going to work everyday, or enrolling in schools, colleges, the Armed Services, they are unnoticed because they adopt our way of life. Then, without warning, the Fort Hood Shooting takes place. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire on his fellow servicemen, killing 13 and injuring 30. Then Sen. Joe Lieberman opined that Hasan was under personal stress and may have turned to Islamic Extremism.

And how about the Boston Marathon Bombers? The brothers, Dzokhar Tsarnaev, 19 and his brother who was killed in a gun battle with police in Boston, 26- year old Tamerlan, killed 3 and injured over 260 with pressure cooker bombs. The purpose of the attack after investigation and interrogation of young Dzokhar, Extreme Islamist beliefs and the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Don’t sleep America! There are many other ‘cell groups’ right here on our soil. And it takes a great deal of surveillance that WE Have No Idea About that HAS to be monitored.

To be sure, Obama didn’t launch the data-mining initiatives, which were started during the Bush administration, though he has expanded them. He had defenders Thursday ranging from California Sen. Feinstein, a liberal Democrat, to South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a conservative Republican. “It’s called protecting America,” Feinstein said.

Obama called it “a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we demand.” Yes, we demand our Freedoms but do we sacrifice Freedom over our Safety?

Senior administration officials defended the programs as critical tools and said the intelligence they yield is among the most valuable data the U.S. collects. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said the Internet program, known as PRISM, can’t be used to intentionally target any Americans or anyone in the U.S, and that data accidentally collected about Americans is kept to a minimum.

At hearing of this story that NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN REPORTED, I asked several Verizon users their thoughts on the whole matter, one being my In-Law. She stated, “ I’ve got Nothing to hide so I’m not concerned”. A golf buddy stated he had concerns of how the government gathers our information but didn’t feel threatened since he was a law-abiding citizen. I always wonder why when it comes to things of this nature, people get all flushed and bothered. If you have Nothing to hide, why does it bother you so much?

In the name of Safety, I want All the Protection my Government can Provide for my family, friends and this Great Country. In the name of Freedom, We have to Allow some Inconveniences along the way.

The enemy has brand new ways of infiltration. We can’t always see them, but thank God we have people working to Cease and Desist ALL perpetrators who would do us harm.

And by the way, the reason I said this story should Never have been reported, it opens the eyes of the Enemy. Now, they have to regroup and change the way they were doing ‘business’. Because our government knew of their actions, their mode of communication, their habits, they too have heard this story. We’re back to square one. In that reporters zealous for getting a story out there, You may have just jeopardized the security of not just Americans, but the World as a Whole…I’m just saying…

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