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The Rise of the American Corporate Security State

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The Rise of the American Corporate Security State

Six Reasons to Be Afraid

Berrett-Koehler,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Government and corporations put ordinary citizens under constant surveillance. Here’s how and why.

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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Controversial
  • Background

Recommendation

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.

Summary

Exploiting a Tragedy

Ever since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks the US government has expanded surveillance, searches and its ability to limit public protest in the claimed interest of protecting national security. Further limitations on constitutional rights followed the 2008 recession, when the US Treasury used billions in taxpayer money to rescue failing private financial institutions.

The US Justice Department and the Treasury Department claim they lack the necessary power to prosecute these private institutions. This stems from a new, powerful relationship between corporations and the government, an alliance that reduces citizens’ constitutional rights. Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, violations of individual rights have manifested as follows:

  • Cooperation has increased between the private sector and the government, including outsourcing of intelligence-related government functions to corporations.
  • More government documents have become classified, including those related to the cost of expanded domestic intelligence gathering and surveillance of US citizens, much of which is unconstitutional. Citizens now pay to be monitored ...

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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