The Atlantic: What a Muslim American Said to Defend His Patriotism

[Pholus]

The Atlantic posted a commentary on that interesting article by Greenwald this morning...

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/07/what-a-muslim-american-said-to-defend-his-patriotism/374137/

We are starting to see that long term surveillance was misapplied and seems to have been used in a similar fashion to the abusive surveillance of civil rights leaders in the 60's -- THAT WAS SUPPOSEDLY FIXED BY LAW.

I think this paragraph about one victim's interview sums up QUITE nicely why dragnet surveillance has always been unamerican and why Democrats SHOULD be outraged about this.

Notice, too, that he correctly perceives that we'll all know what he means when he invokes the characteristics he possesses that would seem to make him less suspicious. The fact that most people internalize these judgments to some degree illustrates how chilling effects work: Americans, especially those who belong to minority groups, formulate a sense of what speech and actions will cast suspicion on or away from them. The mere existence of surveillance thus changes behavior that is Constitutionally protected and in many cases civically valuable. This is a significant cost that I've yet to see any national security official acknowledge.

Update: This was a commentary, not a TL;DR summary