[D66] Report shows NSA tripled its domestic surveillance operations in 2017

[A.O.]

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/05/07/surv-m07.html

Report shows NSA tripled its domestic surveillance operations in 2017
By E.P. Milligan
7 May 2018

A US intelligence agency report released on Friday revealed that the 
National Security Agency (NSA) collected 534 million records of phone 
calls and text messages made by Americans last year, more than triple 
the amount gathered in 2016. The revelations come five years after the 
leaking of documents by whistleblower Edward Snowden, who first revealed 
the US government’s mass electronic surveillance operations.

The sharp increase from 151 million recorded interactions from 2016 
points to deep-seated anxiety amongst the American ruling class over 
historic and ever widening economic inequality, political instability, 
and growing social unrest. As the capitalist state slides deeper and 
deeper into crisis, it increasingly must resort to police state measures 
to maintain its rule. The growth in surveillance occurs within the 
context of the re-emergence of working class resistance to declining 
living standards.

In addition to spying on US citizens, the agency monitored record 
numbers of foreign individuals living outside the United States. The NSA 
targeted these individuals through a warrantless internet surveillance 
program, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance 
Act, renewed by Congress earlier this year. The number of targets 
increased from 106,469 in 2016 to its current level of 129,080. This 
number has risen from 89,139 since 2013, a 45 percent spike.

The NSA’s illegal surveillance operations expanded rapidly after the 
still unexplained events of September 11, 2001 which were used to launch 
illegal wars against Afghanistan and Iraq. The agency first became the 
subject of controversy over illegal wiretapping in 2005 and again in 
2013 when Snowden’s revelations concerning mass electronic surveillance 
sparked major public outcry.

The latest figures prove the fraudulent character of Obama’s so-called 
“reform” of the NSA in 2015, which was presented to the public as a 
measure to curtail the agency’s bulk telephone records spying program. 
The legal modifications by the Obama administration, drafted by and for 
the military-intelligence apparatus, actually served to expand the 
illegal and unconstitutional operations of the NSA.

As a parting gift to the current US President Donald Trump, in the last 
days of his administration Obama announced a further expansion of the 
spying power of American intelligence agencies. Under the new rules, the 
NSA was given the ability to share raw bulk data of private 
communications with 16 other intelligence agencies, including the FBI 
and the Department of Homeland Security. Edward Snowden responded to the 
news on Twitter with a warning: “As he hands the White House to Trump, 
Obama just unchained NSA from basic limits on passing raw intercepts to 
others.”

The fact that the expansion of NSA spying was the direct result of 
policies pursued and implemented by Obama once again demonstrates just 
how close the Democratic Party has merged with the military-intelligence 
apparatus.

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