The bad news for those concerned about civil liberties is that Watergate-era reforms are often empty shells -- like the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court (which rubber stamps almost every request for electronic surveillance) and the intelligence committees of Congress, whether chaired by House Republicans or Senate Democrats like Dianne Feinstein, who was quick to denounce Snowden's "act of treason."
The even worse news is that the spies are now propelled by computer power that J. Edgar Hoover would have salivated over.
From inside the belly of Big Brother, Edward Snowden has risked everything to expose some of the latest technological threats to our political and privacy rights. His disclosures have sparked the most intense debate on surveillance and privacy in years. To thank him for his courage, click here.
Jeff Cohen cofounded the online activism group RootsAction.org, and launched the media watch group FAIR in 1986 (partly with settlement funds from the suit against LAPD spying). He is now director of the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College, and author of "Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media."
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