No one should accept the state's justifications on the basis of terrorism for expanding its surveillance powers. Terrorism from the middle east comes from US im

No one should accept the state's justifications on the basis of terrorism for expanding its surveillance powers. Terrorism from the middle east comes from US imperial intervention there, if they wanted to stop "terrorism" they would stop terrorizing the middle east. Instead, expansions of the police agency powers are probably aimed at surveiling political targets that have become disfavored. The bait and switch the USG loves to use, and in fact all governments love to use, is to point to a (possibly nonexistent) external enemy and use that to scare the population into accepting ever increasing authoritarian measures domestically.