A World Can't Wait Panel at the Left Forum, June 1, 2014

The US government collects billions of bytes of "metadata" on phone calls, emails, bank traffic, text messaging, chats - content, recipients, etc. - storing everything for future use, if not needed immediately. Edward Snowden and others in the field say the amount of data collected doubles every two years. The ramifications of this data collection and storage process goes beyond issues of civil liberties and abstract rights. It leads to how the US ruling interests can control whole populations - in this country and throughout the world - with the threat that whoever you are, if you act, or even think about acting in a way that this or a future government doesn't like, you could be targeted. How can this be countered? How do we organize ourselves to engage in visible protest?

William Binney, NSA whistleblower
Kevin Gosztola, The Dissident @ FireDogLake.com
Abi Hassen, National Lawyers Guild
Ray McGovern, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
Moderator: Debra Sweet, World Can't Wait

Filmed by Cat April Watters