The Difference Between Fascism and Democracy

I found this older article that outlines the difference between Soviet style fascism and American Democracy when it comes to security. 

The article begins, "In contrast to the United States government...". http://www.russiansabroad.com/russian_history_364.html

In contrast to the United States government, which assigns the functions of domestic counterintelligence and foreign intelligence to separate agencies, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), respectively, the Soviet system combined these functions in a single organization. 

This practice grew out of the ideology of Soviet governance, which made little distinction between external and domestic political threats, claiming that the latter were always foreign inspired. According to that rationale, the same investigative techniques were appropriate for both foreign espionage agents and Soviet citizens who came under official suspicion. For example, the KGB's Seventh Chief Directorate, whose task was to provide personnel and equipment for surveillance operations, was responsible for surveillance of both foreigners and Soviet citizens.

But there is no 'contrast' now. The FBI, CIA, military and your local police have become one giant organism connected by biometric databases and supported by local citizens who have been instructed to report on the neighbors for any odd activity.

The cold war threat that galvanized Americans into spending billions to ward off the deadly dangers of Communism were based on:

"Do YOU want KGB-style spying going on in your neighborhood?"

Guess what people? It looks like America Lost the Cold War- without a shot being fired. 

From this article in the Washington Post:

"Nine years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, the United States is assembling a vast domestic intelligence apparatus to collect information about Americans, using the FBI, local police, state homeland security offices and military criminal investigators.

The system, by far the largest and most technologically sophisticated in the nation's history, collects, stores and analyzes information about thousands of U.S. citizens and residents, many of whom have not been accused of any wrongdoing." 

"...Myra Gray, head of the Defense Department's Biometrics Identity Management Agency, speaking to an industry group recently. "Hopefully in the not-too-distant future," she said, "our relationship with these federal agencies - along with state and local agencies - will be completely symbiotic." 

From the same article:

At the same time that the FBI is expanding its West Virginia database, it is building a vast repository controlled by people who work in a top-secret vault on the fourth floor of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building in Washington. This one stores the profiles of tens of thousands of Americans and legal residents who are not accused of any crime. What they have done is appear to be acting suspiciously to a town sheriff, a traffic cop or even a neighbor.

If the new Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative, or SAR, works as intended, the Guardian database may someday hold files forwarded by all police departments across the country.

The special operations units deployed overseas to kill the al-Qaeda leadership drove technological advances that are now expanding in use across the United States. On the front lines, those advances allowed the rapid fusing of biometric identification, captured computer records and cellphone numbers so troops could launch the next surprise raid.

Here at home, it's the DHS that is enamored with collecting photos, video images and other personal information about U.S. residents 

And the Greatest Feat of Irony of all time is in this:

Napolitano has taken her "See Something, Say Something" (SS?) campaign far beyond the traffic signs that ask drivers coming into the nation's capital for "Terror Tips" and to "Report Suspicious Activity." (report on your neighbor campaigns).

She recently enlisted the help of Wal-Mart, Amtrak, major sports leagues, hotel chains and metro riders. In her speeches, she compares the undertaking to the Cold War fight against communists.

So, will someone please tell me what we were fighting the 'Red Commies' for if it were not to prevent the 'free world' from becoming the same kind of Police State that existed in Soviet Russia? Or considering the SS allegory - Nazi Germany where the Gestapo was formed by:

Göring himself took over the Gestapo in 1934 and urged Hitler to extend the agency's authority throughout Germany. This represented a radical departure from German tradition, which held that law enforcement was (mostly) a Land (state) and local matter. In September 1939 the security and police agencies of Nazi Germany (with the exception of the Orpo) were consolidated into the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), headed by Heydrich.

This is not about democrat vs republican. But the laws that made this possible were designed and put into place in 2001 - the Bush era.

And so I am now posting a link back to that WaPo article and I am putting spaces in so that it does not link back to this page.

Cut and paste it into your browser- remove the spaces. http://projects .washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/monitoring-america /1/