The leak to The Interceptdoes not come from Edward Snowden, but from another “source” within the American Services. It is a multi-page instruction manual from the National Counterterrorism Center, which concerns and reveals in all its “glory” the process of monitoring the secret services, on the numerous lists of people suspected of involvement in terrorism. And if you think this concerns “a few” or “Americans” consider the following three very simple things:
a. The watch lists concern both Americans and foreigners
b. The practices of American secret services have been imposed worldwide
c. For 2013 alone, the people who “entered” these lists were approximately 465000
The manual, which The Intercept has uncovered, is confidential, but not classified. It has been distributed to thousands of security personnel in and outside the United States. It schizophrenicly lists the policies that “law enforcement” officers should follow when encountering people on the lists, categorizes the lists by their scope, and reveals the freedom that officials have to move entire populations to different lists.
The way in which terrorism suspects and their immediate or indirect environment are monitored is basically electronic. A person's intention to travel by air, their financial situation, their social network, their activities, their opinions are electronically cross-checked. The access of every security service employee to check whether every person they meet or suspect is on such a list is also electronic. It couldn't be otherwise. How can you keep track of several million people who are on the lists that began to be established in 2001? But the details of the monitoring techniques were revealed in detail by Edward Snowden.
But what does it mean to be on such a list? Very simple things. According to the manual, it means that they may be subjected to a thorough search at the airport. They may not be allowed to fly if they are on a relevant, specialized no-fly list. They may also be prosecuted to the full extent of the law for minor offenses. First-degree relatives or anyone related to them are monitored and checked, too.
And the criteria for being on the watch list? Leafing through the multi-page document, one can understand that the era when justice considered someone innocent until proven guilty is long gone. While on page 48 there is a list of indicative actions that the authorities consider “terrorist” (including the destruction of computers of financial institutions), on one of the first pages, there are other definitions, such as the destruction of property or the action with the intention of forcibly influencing government policy. Members of the security services can even include someone on the lists without having committed any crime. Simply on suspicion of the crime because they belong to a specific ethnic group.
See the full 148-page document, published exclusively by The Intercept, here, while at the end of the article, you can read the interesting comments from readers.
…
P.S. In this post we are not going to talk to you about individual freedoms. Nor will we talk to you about the role that the security services of any country are supposed to have, namely, the protection of the public interest. We will tell you, however, that the term terrorism is a term that has become a “rubber band”, as all the dead Palestinians in the genocide that is currently taking place in Gaza are considered terrorists , just as Aaron Swartz was considered a “terrorist” when he issued his “ Manifesto ” for freedom of information in 2008
We will also tell you that the suppression of terrorism, but also the control of any of us as suspects, or of our families, or of our friends, is based on the completely flexible and very often stupid criteria of people who, behind their uniforms, have proven many times that they do not care at all about the public interest, but about the often stupid orders of a stupid system in the name of the public interest.
They are the people who are paid to collect your selfies and nude photos and post them around the office in the name of security. They are the people who claim that internet piracy is done from a “box”. They are the people who launch chemicals and plastic bullets, or punch cleaning ladies in the back. They are the same people who are now being legalized to bomb a school, or kill 4 children playing soccer on a beach in Gaza.
These people, who decide whether you are a terrorist or not, who don't necessarily have to explain why they decided that, are the same people to whom each of us has entrusted the responsibility of our security. A security that we ourselves need and should defend first and foremost. And from this assignment, such instruction manuals for blacklisting millions of people emerge. Obviously we were wrong. The question is whether each of us will go through the stage of realization and do something about it.
Source: digitallife.gr
