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Originally Published on Liberty Nation 

(Editor’s note: Liberty Nation has not provided a link to The Intercept article referenced herein as the documents remain categorized as classified)

During the long years of the Cold War, Americans looked at the Soviet Union as the antithesis of all the United States stood for and fought to protect. One of the most well-known facets of Soviet existence was life without a free press. Conversely, the American media was always considered the Fourth Estate, expected to hold the government accountable while the Soviet press served as the primary government propaganda arm. Highly censored and even watched, journalists in Soviet Russia were expected to further the narratives and act as trumpets in the government orchestra – which never stopped playing trinutes to the State.

For the most part, U.S. citizens never conceived that such censorship could happen on American soil. Perhaps that is no longer the case.

Revelations during the election that many journalists were basically on retainer from the Clinton campaign were met with outrage and disgust, but, sad to say, no real surprise. Corruption is something Americans understand and have even come to expect. This week, however, author Cora Currier laid bare an entire framework of ongoing government surveillance specifically targeting journalists in an article for The Intercept.

It appears that Russia is not the only country with freedom of press issues.

The Intercept published its story in June of 2016 with heavily redacted information; even between the black bars of governmental secrecy, a worrisome picture emerged. The article reveals the Federal Bureau of Investigation, using National Security Letters, regularly spies on journalists in the United States – without a warrant, probable cause, or constitutional authority. This week Intercept republished the story but this time offered the full, un-redacted, still classified documents, showing the entirety of the FBI’s program.

Getting around the standard rules of investigation is relatively simple for FBI officials; they merely need to invoke the phrase “relevant to a national security investigation.” In the name of protecting Americans, it seems any violation of Constitutional rights is permitted.

Don’t believe it? Try getting on a commercial flight without having a host of rights violated by a government agent who, statistically speaking, is poorly educated, poorly trained, and may be looking at how much cash you are carrying. After all, the ATF may have promised the agent a cut of whatever he helps the agency seize.