TIA started in the late 90's [was Re: PART II: Oh, Freedom]

[coderman]

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.