US Has Spied On Its Citizens For Years...While Ignoring Many Real Enemies

The NSA, FBI and CIA have been doing this sort of thing as long as they've been in existence. In 1984 while I wrote at CNN, the NSA regularly threatened people about what could be reported. And they ignored knowledge that certain Republicans had loose lips about our missile testing. We were simply told not to report them in the name of National Security. The only way we knew we were being spied on by the NSA was that we would receive a call from time to time, and how else would they have known but by spying on our computers, phone calls or possibly inside agents?

In one such case a Republican Senator at a Washington party divulged… okay, he was bragging about, false missile bursts in Leavenworth that indicated Soviet technology wasn’t what we feared. In fact, according to him, we had on several occasions performed such tests that were designed to see if the Soviets would scramble jets in preparation for missile attack. Apparently, if detected, they would have thought missiles were only minutes away. In most cases they didn’t even notice until our missiles would have landed.

This was clearly sensitive information that at the time needed to remain classified. In other cases we were told not to report things that were simply politically embarrassing. Usually, we ignored these warnings.

FDR ordered similar things too, but with current technology, they are literally harvesting millions of emails and telephone conversations, filtering them for words like "I oppose the war" then putting people on lists. Below is an interesting read of similar things in our nation’s domestic spying history.

History of Domestic Surveillance

Fox News: The Most Trusted News Source In America?

Who's the most trusted poll?

They all suck. Twenty years ago, we polled two equal groups. We asked one "Do you agree with the ERA? The Other we asked, "Do you agree with the following statement: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. The results were opposite.

The first 65% opposed the ERA; The second 65% favored the statement. (For those that still don't get it, they are one in the same.)

Most Americans are functionally illiterate; they don't know where Iraq is on a map, nor can they distinguish Washington from NYC. Do you really think they know what the difference between "trust", "believe" and "choose to watch".

Hell, I choose to eat McDonald's hamburgers more often than Fuddruckers; I guess that means I like them better?

All we like sheep have gone astray... Fox has better marketing than PBS. I don't know anyone that would, after watching both O'Reilly and NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, suggest that Fox is more trustworthy, if they knew the meaning of the word.

I guess it really does go to the core of what most people misconsider as "trust".

Is it "trust" when someone says "I trusted you to do" what I expected or wanted? Or is this "control"?

If you trust your significant other, it is unconditional. You don't say, "I trust you not to have affairs." You just "trust". It's kind of like praying to God to do something specific for you, presuming (a hypothetical, all-knowing) God wouldn't know what to do without your instructions.

For most their use of the word, is aligned with expectations of something other than one's "trustworthiness", but instead their obedience or allegiance. Our founding fathers understood this well, bright men. They suggested an unconditional "In God We Trust" while proclaiming allegiance to the flag.

The problem is, people have no idea what the things they are saying "mean". And without this semantic knowledge, how can one say what they mean, and mean what they say. (My definition of "integrity".)

America's supreme court made a huge mistake in adopting the standard of "Absence of Malice" as applied to journalism. Prior to that, the "Zenger"/Truth defense was the standard. These were the days of fact checkers and honorable journalists. Now, we have "spin doctors" and lawyers checking whether or not something can avoid a lawsuit rather than whether or not it is true. "Trust", no longer; profitable position is the current standard for today's editors.

They Know It's A War; Why Don't We?

Am I becoming schizophrenic, totally losing my sense of reality or do we, in fact, have invaders of the US suggesting that US lawmakers work for them as they demand rights? Can you imagine during the cold war, if 11-Million Russian troops had successfully snuck into the US, began taking jobs from Americans, lowering the income and selling drugs to our youth? Then turning around and protesting that the US government is abusing them for not giving them the same rights as US citizens and legal immigrants.

Randall van der Woning

Let's get this clear, legal immigrants are welcome. We invited them to the party. Illegal ones are criminals, an invading force making life difficult for working Americans and those here legally. It is organized, supported by a foreign government, Mexico primarily, and it is a war. Many of them are killing Americans and others are committing crime at a disproportionate rate to the remainder of the public. Meanwhile, they are lying by saying they are paying their way. They're not. The pay $7-billion/year in taxes while costing the government $50-million/year in services. Meanwhile, we spend an additional $50-thousand/year per prisoner to keep them in our jails. They account for 20% of the total prison population in America. Public education for example suffers a "dumbing down" that ripples across the whole system. As we slow down whole classes to wait for non-English speakers, we forever lose learning opportunity for English speaking US citizens. They don't get this time back. It's gone.

I taught English in LA inner-city schools, and learned first-hand the real reason public education is failing. It is because 30% of LA's student population, illegal immigrants, are demanding content education in Spanish and getting it. There are limited resources, so whatever is spent to accommodate them causes the rest to suffer. I know beyond a doubt, America would have no deficit in public educational performance if not for this hidden statistic. They have bankrupted the LAUSD and are working on the whole state. Hospitals have closed all along the borders for the same reason. Now, the same thing is happening well-inland in Atlanta, Chicago and others.

We cannot continue to equate these illegals with legal immigrants. They are not in the same boat. They are in opposition. I have always favored increasing legal immigration but this is impossible if the government grants amnesty to those who broke in line. I feel in my heart for their suffering in their home countries, but we can't be responsible. We must hold those governments responsible for taking care of their own citizens if the alternative is, the US must.

It may sound drastic, but maybe our military should be used for defense against direct invasions of our nation. I cannot believe this has been framed as anything other than a war. Soon, I fear, Americans are going to start using their right to bear arms to feed a minuteman movement against these invaders as the official military is withheld. However, I wish our government would peaceably remove them, and prosecute the traitors who hire them for what they are doing, "harboring an enemy."