United States: NSA targets whistle blower William Benney

The war on terror has given the U.S. government and agencies such as the National Security Agency vastly increased powers. Anyone who questions or reveals corruption or violation of rights by the government can expect to be harassed and intimidated.

This is what happened to the three people interviewed on "Democracy Now". Jacob Applebaum is an internet security expert who works with Wikileaks and Laura Poitras is an Oscar nominated documentary film maker. However, the video portion I have included is an interview with William Binney.

Binney was a top NSA official. He worked at NSA for 40 years. He resigned because he found that the agency was collecting information about Americans with no judicial oversight. He considered those actions unconstitutional. Notice that he does not seem to worry that the same data collection violated non-Americans privacy rights!

When Binney went to the Senate Intelligence Committee and reported this illegal spying by NSA there was immediate retaliation. FBI agents raids his home--while he was in the shower--They pointed guns at him and warned him he would not do well in prison. Poitras has been searched and interrogated every time she enters the U.S. and had her laptop seized. Applebaum too is stopped and interrogated. None of course have been charged with a crime. They are not even on the no fly list. For more see the full video or here.

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