Did you know that the United States government shares information with security details for dignitaries of other nations? In other words, all the data that the US collects on its citizens, and it is gathering more and more information every day due to social networks and Internet data collection - it makes available to non-US intelligence agencies, security details, and international surveillance groups. As an American I have a problem with this, and I just learned even more information. Okay so, I'd like to talk to you about this for a moment if I might.
Recently, I discovered that the Vaticans Catholic Pope's surveillance detail was working on American soil using information from our fusion centers to detect the possibility of any anti-catholic American traveling to Mexico, or any cross-border threats to the Pope while he was giving a speech in that country. That's interesting isn't it? However I question the legality of it, and as someone who did not appreciate the various molestation cases which were brought forth in the US, the Catholic Church is no longer on my "favorites" or FaceBook "friends" list - still, I wholly believe 100% in freedom of religion in our great nation, that reality here in the US is a breath of fresh air as I travel the globe.
Now then, on March 27, 2012 there was an interesting article in the New York Times titled; "Raul Castro Greets Pope Benedict at Start of Closely Watched Visit," by Rachel Donadio and Victoria Brunett which stated; "Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Cuba on Monday, welcomed by President Raúl Castro, who gripped the pontiff's hands in greeting but did not kiss his ring."
Now then, one should ask if it is right for the US to assist in giving information to the Catholic Church on US citizens, or sharing information in this regard. One could say that we should oblige, and do the right thing by being attempting to identify threats. But the sharing of information is a totally different thing, and once we start doing that, it can lead to all sorts of other unintended consequences in the future. Security details for various nations may want to track our US based corporate executives, or use the information for spying.
This is a slippery slope. It's hard to say what the protocol should actually be, but since this is going on behind the backs of Americans, and since the American taxpayer is paying for all of this, I have a problem with it. The Catholic Church has obviously made some enemies in the United States due to the challenges I mentioned above, even if those unfortunate types of events have no completely ended. Still, how they handled those cases at the onset was troubling, but is that any fault of any American for being upset. It takes a lot to forgive and forget, and not everyone is a devout Catholic able to so readily do that
Okay so, what I asking is this; should the Catholic Church have access to all of the personal information, whereabouts, and online data collected by the US government of every individual that was not exactly pleased with what has gone on previously? I dare to ask the question because I am disturbed by the information sharing with various groups who do not necessarily have the ideals of the United States in their best interests, not the Church, as I am merely using this data sharing event as a launching point for my argument here. Obviously, the Catholic Church wishes to grow and improve on its tattered reputation, and move on to expand and continue its work, which it is doing and has the right to do in our nation that respects all religions.
Nevertheless, anyone in the US who has any animosity towards the Catholic Church could be identified by their surveillance detail as a potential threat to the Pope. It doesn't matter that that is just overboard paranoia, what matters is that our government is working with these folks, and not just the Catholic Church, but surveillance teams of other countries all over the world, even those we may actually be at war with in the future. We need to think about this very hard, and develop strict protocols to protect the American people.
You see, the government's number one job is to protect the American people, but giving away their privacy to foreign actors is not protecting the US citizen or our privacy, thus, I am concerned. There is a fine line between preventing a future crisis, and complete destruction of personal privacy. Not to mention the fact that the NSA Chief recently told Congress that "we are just that far away from becoming a totalitarian state," as he held up his index finger to his thumb. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
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