In a condemnation of the federal government that comes from an unusual source, Hollywood celebrities have joined in a video ripping the National Security Agency for its ubiquitous spying on Americans.
Director Oliver Stone, along with actors Maggie Gyllenhaal, John Cusack, and Will Wheaton, make appearances in a video to stir up interest in a march in Washington, D.C. this weekend. The video, titled, “Stop Watching Us,” also includes a cameo by well-known Democratic Congressman John Conyers as it likens the NSA spying to the Watergate scandal.
Mentions of Barack Obama and George W. Bush are absent from the video, which commences with Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers. After Ellsberg’s intro, successive actors continue the attack on the NSA. It starts with Stone stating,
“Every American is at risk of getting caught up in the NSA dragnet,” followed by Cusack noting that the NSA has lied about its actions as the video replays James Clapper, the U.S. director of national intelligence, lying to Congress.
As the video alludes to Watergate, Cusack adds, “It was wrong then, it’s wrong now … the tools for surveillance have never been more powerful. And the threat to our civil liberties has never been greater.”
The website “Stop Watching Us” is championed by groups as diverse as the ACLU, FreedomWorks. the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Libertarian Party.
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