“Digital Blackwater”: The National Security Administration, Telecommunications Companies and State-Corporate Crime

This article examines the National Security Administration's (NSA) couplingwith major telecommunications companies for mass surveillance of Americans'communications as a form of state-facilitated state-corporate crime. Itaddresses the ways that the US surveillance programmes are violating the rightto privacy and are excessively secretive, in violation of international humanrights laws. Furthermore, given that attacking and defaming whistleblowers is ahallmark of state-corporate crime, this article also examines the treatment ofEdward Snowden, the contractor who leaked information about the NSA'sprogrammes to news media. The article also addresses how this widespread andsuspicionless spying is antithetical to democracy, undermining the rule of lawand dissuading critical dialogue about public policy and national security. Weconclude with an examination of why so many Americans are apathetic about theseprivacy violations, focusing on the consumerist ideology that promoteswidespread acceptance of efforts that allegedly result in greater nationalsecurity.