Government Spying
Rein in the
Surveillance
State!
The U.S. National Security Administration (NSA) has been conducting a massive phone call and internet surveillance dragnet of U.S. citizens and others which the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) calls an abuse of statutory power and a violation of basic 1st and 4th amendment rights. We owe our thanks to former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald for making this criminal activity public.
President Obama tried to defend the illegal spying programs as “transparent” even though the spying is authorized in secret. Talk about Orwellian doublespeak! The location of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) is secret. It’s sessions are closed. The orders that result, where only government lawyers are involved, are classified. When Obama says the massive spying is legal the ACLU says this is what he really means: secret courts immune to scrutiny, secret briefings to a handful of legislators, and an executive branch claiming more and more unchecked powers. (Seemore here http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35347.htm)
The ACLU is planning a lawsuit to stop the illegal spying but we cannot depend on lawyers and the courts alone. Ordinary people need to begin to speak up and demand an end to government spying. Repeal the Patriot Act. (See http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35348.htm)
Daniel Ellsberg, the well-known whistleblower who leaked the “Pentagon Papers” 40 years ago, exposing the U.S. government’s criminal policies of the Vietnam War, has said “There has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden’s release of NSA material.” Despite enormous government efforts to attempt to discredit Snowden, including resurrecting Vice War Criminal in Chief, Dick Cheney, it is important to stand firm and not be deterred. We need to support courageous people who expose U.S. war crimes, people such as Edward Snowden, Marine, Bradley Manning, and Wikileaks, Julian Assange. Their destiny is tied to our own. Thanks to them we now know more of the truth. Ellsberg says “this may be our last chance to rein in the surveillance state… The technical capabilities are in place. With the flip of the switch or another major attack, (real or contrived) we may find ourselves in a dangerous situation in which average citizens, along with Congresspersons, journalists and their sources, even judges, are watched around the clock and are afraid to dissent. The core fixtures of our democracy—the right to protest, the right to live freely in the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness without government intrusion—could be weakened beyond repair.” https://www.aclu.org/secure/stop-spying?Ms=autofire_acluaction_ellsbergspying_130619
Remember the famous quote of Pastor Martin Niemoller in Nazi Germany: “First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Catholic. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.”
Stand Up & Speak Out Before
It’s Too Late!
1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, anti-Hawaiian, etc.
5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.
Phone (808) 966-7622. Email ja@malu-aina.org http://www.malu-aina.org
Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (June 21, 2013– 613th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office
