Surveillance Posing as Counter-Terrorism

Foreward to "The Rise of the American Corporate Security State"

Tuesday, 13 May 2014

By Jesselyn Radack, Berrett-Koehler | Book Excerpt

Truthout - May 13, 2014

Daniel Ellsberg writes of The American Corporate Security State: "Edwards is an extraordinary writer who brilliantly captures the essence of what whistleblowers such as Snowden have sacrificed their careers and jeopardized their personal liberties to convey." Get the book by contributing to Truthout here.

In the pages that follow, Bea Edwards shows the post-9/11 merger of corporate wealth and government power in the United States - beneath a thinning veneer of democracy. The book in your hands explains the way in which this private/public collaboration gives policy-making over to profit-seeking corporate interests, which then become a direct threat to our civil rights and our way of life.
Peace and financial stability are the first casualties. Increasingly, well-connected corporate directors, with their privileged access to military resources and the national treasury, placed the country on a permanent war footing even as they dismantled government regulation of their businesses. They made a series of decisions and actions that the public never considered, debated, or approved, even indirectly.
The Rise of the American Corporate Security State examines the way corporate power behaves when it takes a dominant role in government policy-making and explains the advent of endless war. For profit-seekers, war is desirable for three reasons:

1. It is extremely lucrative for some companies.
2. The withdrawal of civil liberties is simpler in wartime because people are frightened.
3. The public accepts greater official secrecy because the nation is under threat of attack.

War justifies the dragnet electronic surveillance of Americans; the government claims to protect us by searching for the terrorists among us. The government also justifies withholding information about its actions, citing national security.

Read more....