“What I’ve been basically saying for quite some time, is that the FBI has access to the data collected which is basically the emails of virtually everybody in the country. And the FBI has access to it. All the congressional members are on the surveillance too, no one is excluded. They are all included. So, yes, this can happen to anyone. If they become a target for whatever reason – they are targeted by the government, the government can go in, or the FBI, or other agencies of the government, they can go into their database, pull all that data collected on them over the years, and we analyze it all. So we have to actively analyze everything they’ve done for the last 10 years at least.”
Binney is describing our surveillance state, the structure of government intelligence that has gained incredible power in the claim that it needs this to fight terrorism. As he characterizes it, the FBI has virtually all U.S. internet correspondence stored – not sifted or filter – and available for use if they want to target who they happen to deem an “enemy.”
The Naris device can collect 100 billion 1,000-character emails a day. Though George W. Bush introduced such infamous laws as spelled out in the Patriot Act, Binney claims that Obama is not better.
“The change is it’s getting worse. They are doing more. [Obama] is supporting the building of the Bluffdale facility, which is over two billion dollars they are spending on storage room for data.” The new database would hold 5 zettabytes of data, he estimates.
Binney left his position on account of “The violations of the constitution and any number of laws that existed at the time. That was the part that I could not be associated with. That’s why I left. They were building social networks on who is communicating and with whom inside this country. So that the entire social network of everybody, of every US citizen was being compiled overtime.”
Selling freedom in exchange for comfort is cowardice, and those who opine that innocent people shouldn’t mind losing their privacy are unable to grasp the psychological implications of a living in a surveillance state. Privacy is a necessary part of liberty, and our freedoms are meaningless if we are herded by the State.
Binney has won the Callaway award for civil courage, which, as explained by their website, is “awarded to those, who stand out for constitutional rights and American values at great risk to their personal or professional lives.”