The Rise of the American Corporate Security State: Six Reasons to Be Afraid [Paperback]

Beatrice Edwards, executive director of the organization representing Edward Snowden and four other NSA whistleblowers, argues that we now live in a Corporate Security State, where the government is more interested in protecting the companies that serve it than the citizens who support it. Hheavy domestic surveillance, political persecution of dissenters, the threat of indefinite detention codified into law—how did we get here? And is there a way out?

Edwards details how intelligence agencies took advantage of 9/11 to illegitimately extend the government’s reach. Corporations, she shows, were only too eager to sell them expensive surveillance technology, as well as share data on customers and employees using the bogus threat of an imminent “cyber war.” This is why the Justice Department isn’t going after the institutions responsible for the financial collapse of 2008—government and business are partners in crime. But Edwards offers a plan to fight back and restore transparency to government, keep private information private, and make democracy a reality once again.Foreword
Preface
PART I: THE NATIONAL SECURITY STATE
Chapter 1: The Government-Corporate Complex: What It Knows About You
Reason to be afraid #1: Average citizens are subject to ever-expanding surveillance and data collection by the government-corporate complex.
Chapter 2: Official Secrets: Absolute Control
Reason to be afraid #2: Control of information by the government-corporate complex is expanding.
Chapter 3: The Constitution Intact; The Bill of Rights Annulled
Reason to be afraid #3: Rights guaranteed by Constitutional Amendments are becoming irrelevant. Reporting a crime may be a crime and informing the public of the truth is treason.
PART II: THE CORPORATE SECURITY COMPLEX
Chapter 4: Zombie Law: The Corporate Security Campaign That Will Not Die
Reason to be afraid #4: The government-corporate surveillance coml#ò