US Sprawling Surveillance State (by: Glenn Greenwald)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/14/free-speech-libya-drones

So pervasive is the US Surveillance State that even one who follows it extensively can sometimes be surprised by its reach. I recall when a Virginia Tech student, Seung-Hui Cho, went on a campus shooting rampage in 2007, and I noticed this passage that appeared buried in an ABC News report on the incident:

"Some news accounts have suggested that Cho had a history of antidepressant use, but senior federal officials tell ABC News that they can find no record of such medication in the government's files."

I was actually amazed back then to learn that the US government maintains files of all prescription drug usage by all citizens. As it turns out, such "files" are maintained pursuant to a 2005 law which, the government claims, authorizes it to monitor and record all prescription drug use by all citizens via so-called "Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs." 

I had a somewhat similar reaction when I was reading an account in USA Today about a US citizen who was arrested this week at the Los Angeles airport after he was found wearing a bulletproof vest, carrying a smoke grenade, and having items such as body bags, a biohazard suit and leg irons in his checked luggage. What struck me was this passage:

"The Department of Homeland Security has said [the accused] had no criminal record and no derogatory national-security record."

What is a "derogatory national-security record" as distinct from a "criminal record"? How does one compile such a record without committing any crimes? 

Upon reflection, and after asking around, it likely means that the person is not on any designated no fly or watch list – and, more accurately, that the person has not meaningfully opposed the US government and, especially, is not Muslim (the same way that – when an outbreak of mass violence occurs – initial news reports indicating that "there is no evidence of terrorism" really mean: "the attacker does not appear to be Muslim"). 

Whatever this term denotes, the fact that the US government keeps files on people who have never been charged with any crimes, let alone convicted of them, and then deems some of them to have "derogatory national-security records" is creepy indeed. Governments should not be surveilling and storing massive amounts of information about law-abiding citizens, and in free countries, by definition, they do not. But that is exactly what a surveillance state entails.