"Money makes the world go round"; thus runs the old saying. Old it may be, but nonetheless undeniably true. Everything qualifies - from the World Bank, the US Federal Reserve, European Bank, money-laundering for purposes ranging from the international drug trade to international terrorism and so on ad infinitum.
I receive an occasional newsletter from an American called Mike Swanson, and when I am in the mood I read it through as it can provide an interesting background to world affairs. In the latest edition, Mr Swanson makes the following observation:
"Last week was such a news filled week that there are several individual news stories that justify an article of their own that have gotten lost in the shuffle due to the dramatic swings in the stock market. Take NY Governors Elliot Spitzer's resignation over hiring a prostitute for one example. One thing that hasn't been talked about on TV about this is that this scandal would never have broken ten years ago. Spitzer's activities got revealed when the authorities monitored bank transactions of a prostitution ring to build a tax evasion case against them. They caught him talking with the ring and discovered some of his financial transactions as they made their case. This never would have happened ten years ago. But we now live in a total national security state in which the power has been given to the government to monitor any bank transaction and phone call at whim. He just got caught up in this. No one has any privacy anymore. You must consider any transaction, phone call, or email you write as being monitored by the Federal government in the homeland security surveillance state. All it takes is one misstep to get caught up in the criminal justice system."
As terror threats increase across the world (consider the situation in the Netherlands with the imminent release of a controversial short film about the Koran and in Denmark with the "cartoons" and freedom of the press) this kind of surveillance is inevitably bound to increase.
Be careful what you write and think before you speak...
Until the next time
I receive an occasional newsletter from an American called Mike Swanson, and when I am in the mood I read it through as it can provide an interesting background to world affairs. In the latest edition, Mr Swanson makes the following observation:
"Last week was such a news filled week that there are several individual news stories that justify an article of their own that have gotten lost in the shuffle due to the dramatic swings in the stock market. Take NY Governors Elliot Spitzer's resignation over hiring a prostitute for one example. One thing that hasn't been talked about on TV about this is that this scandal would never have broken ten years ago. Spitzer's activities got revealed when the authorities monitored bank transactions of a prostitution ring to build a tax evasion case against them. They caught him talking with the ring and discovered some of his financial transactions as they made their case. This never would have happened ten years ago. But we now live in a total national security state in which the power has been given to the government to monitor any bank transaction and phone call at whim. He just got caught up in this. No one has any privacy anymore. You must consider any transaction, phone call, or email you write as being monitored by the Federal government in the homeland security surveillance state. All it takes is one misstep to get caught up in the criminal justice system."
As terror threats increase across the world (consider the situation in the Netherlands with the imminent release of a controversial short film about the Koran and in Denmark with the "cartoons" and freedom of the press) this kind of surveillance is inevitably bound to increase.
Be careful what you write and think before you speak...
Until the next time
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