America's secrets analyzed under microscope

There is no freedom of speech in the U.S., and its government prosecutes those who dare to expose the unlawful activities of the authorities. This conclusion was made by a group of experts of the international Post Globalization Initiative in the paper "Opaque America: Surveillance, Repression and Government Secrecy in the US." But this is not propaganda in the spirit "the blacks are lynched in America."

The authors of the report wrote that the allegedly "open government" of Barack Obama is now the most closed in the history of the country and actively applies such repressive measures as surveillance and arrests to the media and their informants. The reporters concluded that there is a tendency in the American society to call open coverage of government activities espionage, which in fact contradicts the democratic values ​​of the U.S. The authors suggest that this was contributed by the economic crisis that has exposed many problems of the foreign and domestic policy of the United States and increased the depletion of cash resources. The government that first spoke of social reforms was forced to give them up.

The authors of the paper stated that the U.S. government turned out to be a conservative one. Its primary goal is protection of the interests of the financial capital, and it has largely maintained the course of Bush's government. The authorities could not openly admit it to millions of Americans, they maneuvered, keeping the narrow conservative tasks, and this made the Democrats the most hypocritical government in the history of the United States. This is a somewhat simplified image of the bourgeois electoral system and the American one, in particular, based, as they say in Russia, on the "trust in the good tsar."

"In the past, the U.S. has sometimes been described sardonically - but not inaccurately - as a one-party state: the business party, with two factions called Democrats and Republicans. That is no longer true. The U.S. is still a one-party state, the business party. But it only has one faction: moderate Republicans, now called New Democrats," said Noam Chomsky. The only difference is which financial clan, Rothschild or Rockefeller, (based on political expediency) will put one of its candidates in the presidential chair.

A famous French political scientist Samir Amin said that formally the U.S. had freedom of speech and freedom to organize their own parties. But in fact, this is controlled by monopolistic financial capital, and this influence is very strong, stronger than in any other country. He added that this system came to the boiling point, and under these conditions democracy has lost its legitimacy.

Further, Russian speakers wrote that under the Obama administration propaganda ploys of the Republican administration have been largely retained. Considering the statement above, this is not surprising. The surprising fact is the increased amount spent on its maintenance. During the crisis, in October of 2013, the Obama administration has found 445 million dollars for necessary publications. On the other hand, it tried to shield itself from criticism in 2011, and extended the Patriot Act passed after the September 11 tragedy, and began to actively use the forgotten law "On espionage" adopted in 1917. These documents were the basis for launching surveillance not only of those working for the state, but also journalists and all other citizens.

It is sufficient to classify something as secret in order to bring any citizen, much less a journalist, under an investigation, up to a lie detector test, wiretapping and reading e-mail correspondence. According to the "program to combat insiders" that exists in every department, all federal employees are required to observe the behavior of their colleagues in order to "prevent the unauthorized disclosure of information." This may result in court proceedings, a possible imprisonment, or a "quiet" dismissal. The authors cite the example of a high-profile case of wiretapping employees of a news agency Associated Press in 2013. Obama refused to apologize when the information about the surveillance became public.

It is not surprising that he should have apologized to everyone. Surveillance program Prism that Edward Snowden talked about is only one of the 50 U.S. spy programs monitoring the population. They all collect data for the single database. A "hidden" budget of only sixteen U.S. intelligence agencies in 2013 amounted to over 50 billion dollars, which follows from the NSA document also given by Snowden to the media.

An American human rights activist Irakli Kakabadze said that freedom of speech in the U.S. was only for those who had money and sponsors. If you have money, then there is freedom of speech, like in all liberal world. "It is difficult to publish the truth in such media outlets as the New York Times and Washington Post. Authors who really talk about current events are unlikely to be found in the media. Bloggers, for example, can say what they think in their blogs, but large mainstream newspapers and magazines haves censorship."

But even bloggers get arrested. For example, Barrett Brown was detained in September of 2012 and may be sentenced to a prison term of 105 years. "Brown is accused of distributing links to a hacked classified document. However, the true reason for his persecution is criticism and exposure of the administration. This is precisely what the "open government" of Obama is trying to stop, as they are aware of the ugliness of their work, and their doubtful goals and results in the eyes of the citizens," stated the report.

"American "whistleblowers" are not trying to harm the country, but seek accountability from the Obama's "open government," the authors continued. But they are persecuted, because they have only one effective option to fight for informing the public - anonymous data transmission. This is precisely why such "traitors" as Edward Snowden began to emerge. Professor of Sociology at the University of Albany, an expert of the Post Globalization Initiative Dr. Richard Lachmann is convinced that such seekers of truth will continue to emerge in the United States, but they will carefully plan their escape from the American jurisdiction before revealing their secrets.

He believes that the United States has problems with journalism and that true professional journalists are disappearing. Kakabadse said that the most worrisome fact was that the United States had the only media outlet, The New York Times, with a team of serious foreign observers capable of using resources to support their news bureaus around the world. Other TV stations, major social and political magazines and other American newspapers are no longer investing in it. However, given Kakabadse's statement that it is difficult for the New York Times to speak the truth, this thought does not inspire optimism.

But there is a different point of view. "It is clear where the orders are coming from (for the report of the Russian experts), it is very obvious," told Pravda.Ru Viktor Kremenyuk, deputy director of the Institute of USA and Canada Studies. "Of course they have freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is a complex matter; it is a certain responsibility, and the opportunity to bring their views to the public. Freedom of speech is not Hyde Park, said the expert, but immediately acknowledged that there is censorship in the United States. "There is money censorship and judicial censorship." "This report is propaganda in the spirit "the blacks are lynched in America. In fact, every citizen there knows that they are entitled to their opinion and can express it wherever they want," said Kremeniuk.

Perhaps, but if they are missed by "money censorship," "the judicial censorship" will put them to jail for revealing state secrets.

Lyuba Lulko

Pravda.Ru

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