Totally spot on. Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds suggested that the blanket surveillance is used in part as a mechanism to find dirt on people either in power or who are being considered for appointed positions. The vetting process is actually used to find people who can be plied. Politicians know they are being surveilled yet they maintain the infrastructure, likely because they have incentives to say nothing and disincentives to speak out. The criminalization of good will and positive change and the intensification of police state measures will only further entrench a state of disempowerment as we slide into economic and ecological crisis. Wage a global war on terror, and presto, you turn your country into a prison camp.