On Thu, Oct 31, 2013 at 7:47 PM, coderman <coderman@gmail.com> wrote:

... One does not need access to classified documents to see—including in records we will be making public as part of our effort in "Snowden and the Future" over the next two weeks—how the military and strategic thinkers in the United States adapted to the end of the Cold War by planning pervasive surveillance of the world's societies.

In the early 1990's, in documents that are in no way secret, the US strategic and military planners made clear in a range of fora—from the think tanks, the Pentagon, in research reports and conference proceedings—that they foresaw, as indeed we now observe, a world in which the United States had no significant state adversary, and would be instead engaged in a series of "asymmetric conflicts." That was the phrase, meaning "guerrilla wars."

... after the first World Trade Center bombing, after the Africa embassy bombings, after the Cole. The whole pervasive surveillance system, not just the Patriot Act but all the pieces that we now understand surrounded it in the secret world's understanding, were constantly advocated for at the end of the 20th century, and as constantly rebuffed.

And then, as we saw last time, at the opening of the 21st century a US Administration which will go down in history infamous for its tendency to think last and shoot first bought—hook, line, and sinker—the entire "denying sanctuary," pervasive surveillance, "total information awareness" scheme. Within a very short time after January 2002, mostly in secret, they put it all together.

let me state this as plain as possible: total informative awareness, as strategic and policy objective, began years before 9/11. the terrorist attacks merely provided cover for "the greater good" of which those who promote it believe TIA to be.