Ah democracy, that illusion that persists in the West, and probably elsewhere in the capitalists world. America, that defender of the free democratic world, has probable moved further from democracy than any other country in the West. And without a doubt is the world's most avid and brutal crusher of any semblance of democratic awakening, any rise of social conscience and co-operation among the people. It is in the eyes of those who can see, the Fourth Reich. In the US of A, the FBI rules, given free reign and unmanageable power after the 9/11 event. America is policed above the beyond the machinations of its legislators and its legal system by the secret uncontrolled power of the FBI.
Extract from an article by John W. Whitehead
------Indeed, with every passing day, the United States government borrows yet another leaf from Nazi Germany’s playbook: Secret police. Secret courts. Secret government agencies. Surveillance. Censorship. Intimidation. Harassment. Torture. Brutality. Widespread corruption. Entrapment. Indoctrination. Indefinite detention.
These are not tactics used by constitutional republics, where the rule of law and the rights of the citizenry reign supreme. Rather, they are the hallmarks of authoritarian regimes, where the only law that counts comes in the form of heavy-handed, unilateral dictates from a supreme ruler who uses a secret police to control the populace.
That danger is now posed by the FBI, whose laundry list of crimes against the American people includes surveillance, disinformation, blackmail, entrapment, intimidation tactics, harassment and indoctrination, governmental overreach, abuse, misconduct, trespassing, enabling criminal activity, and damaging private property, and that’s just based on what we know.
Whether the FBI is planting undercover agents in churches, synagogues and mosques; issuing fake emergency letters to gain access to Americans’ phone records; using intimidation tactics to silence Americans who are critical of the government; recruiting high school students to spy on and report fellow students who show signs of being future terrorists; or persuading impressionable individuals to plot acts of terror and then entrapping them, the overall impression of the nation’s secret police force is that of a well-dressed thug, flexing its muscles and doing the boss’ dirty work of ensuring compliance, keeping tabs on potential dissidents, and punishing those who dare to challenge the status quo.
Whatever minimal restrictions initially kept the FBI’s surveillance activities within the bounds of the law have all but disappeared post-9/11. Since then, the FBI has been transformed into a mammoth federal policing and surveillance agency that largely operates as a power unto itself, beyond the reach of established laws, court rulings and legislative mandates.
Consider the FBI’s far-reaching powers to surveil, detain, interrogate, investigate, prosecute, punish, police and generally act as a law unto themselves—much like their Nazi cousins, the Gestapo—and then try to convince yourself that the United States is still a constitutional republic.-------
Of course we would be rather stupid if we sit back smugly believing that we here in the UK are different, we are a democratic country. In Wales and in Glasgow there are demonstration planned concerning the introduction of a facial recognition system to our over abundant intrusive surveillance CCTV system. It is bad enough to have a photo of your every move taken and recorded for further use, but now your mood, demeanor and attitude to be analysed and assessed by a small group of "specialists" and then catalogued as a "person of interest" to be followed up by further more intrusive surveillance. So you will all be expected to walk in a similar manner and have a similar passive submissive facial expression, or you could become that "person of interest" to the surveillance Mafia.
And let's not forget "Stingray" an electronic method of syphoning up thousands of individuals' mobile phone data at one fell swoop, to be recorded and then sifted through, looking for that "person of interest". All your personal details and text messages and photos examined by that small group of "specialists" trying to see if your are that "person of interest". Then there is social media, FaceBook etc. where you personal data is thrown around like confetti at a wedding. This is democracy western capitalist style. Be afraid, be very afraid, Big Brother is watching you, and empathy is lacking.
