This week’s explosive release of information from WikiLeaks regarding the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) cavalier use of surveillance techniques are still being unraveled. The release, referred to as “Year Zero,” has so far shown that the intelligence agency exploited vulnerabilities in consumer products without notifying the manufacturer, putting the privacy of millions of customers at risk.
In its release, WikiLeaks asserted:
“The CIA had created, in effect, its “own NSA” with even less accountability and without publicly answering the question as to whether such a massive budgetary spend on duplicating the capacities of a rival agency could be justified.”
Now that the surveillance industrial complex has reared its ugly head, who could have had the clairvoyance to see this coming?
For one, Ron Paul did — 30 years ago! That’s right, nearly three decades ago then-U.S. Rep. Paul warned of the dangers of America’s ever-widening surveillance practices:
Not to be outdone by his own prescience, Paul also remarked on the lack of congressional oversight exercised on the CIA, even going so far as to say the CIA should be abolished altogether:
Today we live in an era where the average consumer has little confidence that his/her right to privacy is being respected by an increasingly unaccountable surveillance apparatus. Maybe more people should have listened to Ron Paul.
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