The NSA and Global Terror Alerts

Barack Obama On Jay Leno PART 1 – Talks NSA, Trayvon, And Hillary Lunch – President Obama joined Jay Leno on Tuesday night for a wide-ranging interview that touched on everything from his recent lunch with Hillary Clinton to reassurances that the NSA surveillance programs are not as overblown as they’ve been made out to be. He also opened up about the international terror alert the government issued over the weekend…

steroids.  The motto of this regime seems to be “always propagandize in all ways.” [/pullquote]

In recent days, Snowden has been occupying the high ground. The acceptance of his application for sanctuary in Russia was a coup. His further release of the existence of more NSA intelligence programs spiced the achievement. His detractors had to pull one up on him – and now, enter the unspecified, limitless nature of a “global terror alert”, as vapid an expression as it is dangerous.

Back in 2006, Alex Koppelman was examining the nature of such threats in a piece for Salon, in which he pondered the smorgasbord of “bogus terror threats” that populate the language of security. Washington is certainly at the forefront of these orchestrated jabs; when the people get complacent, it is the duty of those on the Hill to get them hysterical about safety. When it comes to such matters, hysteria is often pensioned off as some crude form of vigilance.

Mind you, the suits of the establishment are not the only ones dabbling in such affairs. The faux terrorist threat is irresistible staple. It is spectral, it is contingent, and it resists authentic clarity. It can be planted by groups, as Koppelman notes, more akin to adapting the humour of The Onion than of any genuinely dangerous outfit. While the counter-terrorist regards humour with anathema, his or her disposition is often the one that should be laughed at, mocked with precision.

[pullquote] Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com