The Rise of the American Corporate Security State
Six Reasons to Be Afraid
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Attorney Beatrice Edwards, executive director and international program director at the Government Accountability Project – one of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden’s legal representatives – presents what she sees as crucial background information on a government-corporate alliance of high tech, homeland security and profit-seeking privateers that commit constitutional abuses. How you react to Edwards’s viewpoints and alarms will depend a lot on your take, for good or ill, about Snowden (now avoiding US law enforcement by staying in Russia), Wikileaks and Julian Assange. Public opinion about them runs a passionate gamut from heroic to traitorous. Edwards, an advocate, says the US government and corporations have found a lucrative market screening phone and web traffic for possible terrorism while jeopardizing privacy. She argues that being on a wartime footing provides profit, but little protection of civil rights – particularly since surveillance has become a billion-dollar business post 9/11. She says the FBI, the Justice Department, various unknown intelligence agencies and numerous cooperating companies violate the Constitution and your privacy by collecting online posts, phone calls and web search records. While always politically neutral, getAbstract offers Edwards’s views on government and corporate accountability for your information.
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About the Author
The executive director and the international program director at the Government Accountability Project (GAP), Beatrice Edwards works with government, corporate and financial institution whistle-blowers. She writes about corruption and surveillance for GAP and The Huffington Post.
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