NetworkWorld had a chance to sit down and interview Mike German, 16-year veteran of the FBI who is now the ALCU's Policy Counsel on National Security, Immigration and Privacy. It was very eye opening to hear what German had to say.
When asked what the most disturbing fact German had uncovered as an agent in the FBI he said,
The most disturbing thing we've uncovered is the scope of domestic intelligence activities taking place today. Domestic spying is now being done by a host of federal agencies (FBI, DOD, DHS, DNI) as well as state and local law enforcement and even private companies. Too often this spying targets political activity and religious practices. We've documented intelligence activities targeting or obstructing First Amendment-protected activity in 33 states and DC.
German went on to say that the surveillance is becoming more and more politically related stating that political activity has the largest growing area of surveillance. He says that currently there is so much information to sift through, most of the credible information can't be responded to in reasonable amount of time.
He finished by saying that the best thing anyone can do to combat the growing government surveillance on U.S. citizens is to let people know how much all of the surveillance systems are costing tax payers and how this information is not helping keep the country any safer.
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