Collect It All: America's Surveillance State

What does it mean to live in a surveillance state? Fault Lines investigates the fallout over the NSA's mass data collection programs in the U.S. and abroad.

What does it mean to live in a surveillance state? Fault Lines investigates the fallout over the NSA’s mass data collection programs by speaking to the people at the center of the story, including journalist Glenn Greenwald and NSA director Keith Alexander.

Greenwald tells Fault Lines how he got the Snowden documents, what the main revelations are, and why people should care. We also speak with William Binney, an NSA whistleblower who tells us the main turning point was 9/11, when the NSA vastly expanded its programs and began collecting the data of Americans, not just foreigners as they had been before.

After 9/11, surveillance also became more pervasive at the local level. We decided to speak to a group of people who definitely know their being spied on. In New York, the NYPD began a program with the help of two former CIA officials, to surveil Muslim life at all levels: mosques, cafes, infiltrating organizations and student groups etc. We speak to a young Muslim student who talks about what it feels like to be under constant surveillance then meet Linda Sarsour, the executive director of a local community organization called the Arab American Association of NY. The NYPD had a plan to infiltrate the board of AAANY, a center that caters to immigrant women, children, etc. She tells us what the implications of the program is for the local Muslim community and discusses the effects. We also speak to law professor Ramzi Kassem who analyzes these policies as well as a psychologist who discusses the psychological effects of mass surveillance.

Finally, we come to Washington DC, where the NSA program is being debated in the halls of Congress. We attend hearings on the hill, where General Keith Alexander and Director James Clapper are being questioned, we hear from members of Congress from across the political spectrum about it and we even get a chance to ask General Alexander questions ourselves.