- The crazed obsession with secrecy, security, and ever-increasing
intrusiveness by government policing and intelligence authorities into
the lives of ordinary Americans has continued apace under the Obama administration.
This madness can be illustrated by a case currently before the US Supreme
Court involving the scientists who work at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in Pasadena, California.
-
- The case, which began back in the Bush/Cheney years
when scientists at JPL objected vigorously to a new order that they all
submit to deep background checks in order to receive new identity cards
that would allow them to go to work. They were warned, when they complained
about a security check that would involve looking back all the way to their
college days, into not just arrest records, but student drug use, sexual
histories, political activities, etc., based upon wide-ranging interviews
with past employers, acquaintances, friends, family, etc., that failure
to agree to the investigations would mean they could no longer come to
work.
-
- What made the whole thing ridiculous from the outset
is that NASA is by law a civilian agency. It does not engage in national
security activities. The scientists at JPL run the deep space probes like
Viking, Cassini and the other planetary exploration programs, as well as
other civilian satellite projects. Yet they were being told
that even people who had worked at JPL and NASA for decades, back to the
days of the Apollo Program, would be fired if they refused to submit to
the new security checks.
-
- The JPL scientists rallied against the plan and filed
suit, winning at the district and appellate court levels, and many assumed
that with the arrival of the Obama administration, the whole idea would
be dropped.
-
- No such luck. The Obama administration and the Attorney
General's Office filed an appeal to the US Supreme Court, where arguments
were heard last week, with the New York Times reporting that
the government's attorneys appeared to be getting a sympathetic ear from
the High Court's right-wing majority.
-
- Now it turns out that in its monomaniacal desire to
further intrude into citizens' private lives in the name of anti-terror
security, the Obama Justice Department has even misrepresented its case
to the eight Justices on the Supreme Court. (New court member Justice Elena
Kagan recused herself from hearing this case because she helped develop
the government's position as Solicitor General herself.)...
-
-
- For the rest of this article by DAVE LINDORFF in ThisCantBeHappening!,
the new independent, journalist-run online newspaper, please go to:http:www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/240
|
