The news that American intelligence agencies were listening to the personal cell phone calls of leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel broke like a thunder clap. It seems surreal, for surely a German head of government, not to mention an American ally, was not suspected of terrorism, right?
But upon reflection, the question is woefully misleading, for it presupposes that surveillance is really tied to terrorism. For unlawful government surveillance has a long history in America: most recently, the COINTELPRO scandal of the 70s, exposed by the famous Church Commission Hearings, chaired by Idaho Senator Frank Church, in Congress. The hearings showed how governments violated criminal law and the Constitution to harass, intimidate, and destroy critics and opponents of the government. What this history teaches is that surveillance is its own reward, and governments will break any law to achieve its objectives.
The surveillance of Chancellor Merkel was designed to do precisely what it did: to snoop into her personal life, to learn all there is to be learned about her—period. And once learned, the U.S. government could manipulate her or even blackmail her to do their bidding. They’ve done this for generations to Americans. Why not to foreigners? James Madison, a signer of the Constitution wrote, in a 1789 letter to Thomas Jefferson,”It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.”
Think 9/11. That date has become the justification for the biggest expansion of surveillance in American history. And under this manic regime, everyone and everything is suspect. World leaders have U.S. spies sniffing through their underwear to make America safe. On 9/11, something mad has been unleashed, and I don’t mean nineteen jihadis. In the name of patriotism, privacy has been criminalized, and the entire world is under surveillance. From in prison nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
