In an effort to help track down hidden Jews, the Schutzstaffel (also known as the SS) would “persuade” business owners to tip them off any time they uncovered information that could lead to an arrest.
I know this because I dated a girl from Göttingen, Germany, while I was in college.
She told me stories about how her grandfather, a local woodworker, would get periodic visits from plainclothes detectives sniffing out leads from other business owners in the region.
Of course, this isn’t necessarily ground-breaking information. Part of the Nazi agenda was facilitated by intimidation and fear of being red flagged as a conspirator. The Soviets did the same thing.
Heck, the United States did the same thing, too. Remember the McCarthy Hearings?
And anyone who thinks the Patriot Act hasn’t resulted in the “new normalcy” of Americans spying on Americans is kidding himself. Quite frankly, I never even thought I’d be sitting here today, writing about the Patriot Act — at least, not in the present tense…
But here we are in 2013 with the Patriot Act still in place, and government thugs hiding behind it while conducting illegal surveillance and illegal searches and seizures on American citizens. And believe it or not, it’s about to get worse.
You WILL Cooperate!
So here’s the deal: As you read this, a government task force is creating a new bill that would give the government the authority to force tech companies to allow law enforcement to tap online communications in real-time.
So for instance, if you use Gmail and the FBI wants to see what you’ve been writing, Google would be required to allow them access to that information — without a warrant and with no questions asked.
And if any of these tech companies don’t cooperate, they’ll pay. Big time.
According to a recent Washington Post investigation, the task force’s proposal would penalize companies that fail to abide by wiretap orders.
The investigation also turned up the following:
Under the draft proposal, a court could levy a series of escalating fines, starting at tens of thousands of dollars, on firms that fail to comply with wiretap orders, according to persons who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. A company that does not comply with an order within a certain period would face an automatic judicial inquiry, which could lead to fines. After 90 days, fines that remain unpaid would double daily.
Boy, I bet Hitler and Stalin would’ve loved to have had access to the Internet…
If Good Men Do Nothing
I honestly don’t know how far this thing could get. But these days, anything is possible. Just look at what went down after the Boston bombings a few weeks ago…
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine lawmakers locking down entire cities in an effort to catch a single suspected terrorist. But sure enough, that’s exactly what happened. And what really blew my mind was that folks were actually cheering these guys on after apprehending one of the men accused of that horrific Boston bombing attack.
Don’t get me wrong; just like anyone, I want justice. But I want justice for all. That means those responsible pay for their crimes, and those innocent of any wrong-doing are not treated like drug kingpins and mob bosses.
I think Ron Paul hit the nail on the head in a recent piece he published on Lew Rockwell’s site. Check it out:
Forced lockdown of a city. Militarized police riding tanks in the streets. Door-to-door armed searches without warrant. Families thrown out of their homes at gunpoint to be searched without probable cause. Businesses forced to close. Transport shut down.
These were not the scenes from a military coup in a far off banana republic, but rather the scenes just over a week ago in Boston as the United States got a taste of martial law. The ostensible reason for the military-style takeover of parts of Boston was that the accused perpetrator of a horrific crime was on the loose. The Boston bombing provided the opportunity for the government to turn what should have been a police investigation into a military-style occupation of an American city. This unprecedented move should frighten us as much or more than the attack itself.
Paul also pointed out that the suspect was discovered by a private citizen, and not by “paramilitary troops terrorizing the public” — something we should keep in mind the next time they try something like this.
And make no mistake about it, it will happen again.
What took place in Boston set a very unsettling precedent because it detailed, for the entire world to see, that in the United States, your Constitutional and civil rights can become irrelevant at any given moment.
And with crowds of Bostonians demonstrating their willingness to have their rights violated in times of crisis — as determined by some group of random bureaucrats — the government got the message that such action is not only acceptable, but desired.
Make no mistake about it; all those folks who have survived brutal communist regimes are looking at this event now as an unsettling reminder of how easy it is to go from free citizen… to commodity slave.
Now, understand I don’t say this in an attempt to scare you or make you feel uneasy. Instead, I write these words in an effort to call your attention to the under-publicized events that are facilitating the end of our once great democracy.
Because as Edmund Burke once said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
My friends, I have no interest in allowing evil to triumph.
Live honorably, live free…
Jeff Siegel for Freedom Watch
P.S. It was long believed that Edmund Burke was responsible for that famous quote. However, thousands of searches have turned up no credible evidence to support that Burke said or wrote those words. The closest I was able to find was an 1867 quote by political economist and philosopher John Stuart Mill, which reads: “Bad men need nothing more to compress their ends than that the good men should look on and do nothing.”
Either way, these words or the words believed to be written by Burke are as relevant today as they were in the 19th and 20th centuries… and if you agree, please take a moment to share today’s issue of Freedom Watch with others.
