Empire of Secrets

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As revelations of systemic snooping continue to hit the headlines, who is watching the watchers?

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama promised transparency and open government yet his administration is one of the most closed governments in US history, described as being worse than even the Nixon administration.

The technology and information revolution allows the government to cast its net wider than ever before; collecting data, watching, spying and analysing. As revelations of systemic snooping continue to hit the headlines, Empire asks: who is watching the watchers?

Just when more people open up about their private lives through social media, the government becomes ever more intrusive.

With more than 1,300 government surveillance and monitoring facilities in the United States, Empire looks to understand why so many government programmes are top secret. Why is secrecy and surveillance becoming such big business? And, is a national security state anything new?

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/empire/2013/06/2013629144355832213.html

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