Department of Homeland Security promises to protect your privacy while they intrude into every aspect of your life

© AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster

US citizens' privacy will be protected even as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) prepares additional efforts to counter the "new phase" in the threat of global terrorism, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson told Sputnik on Friday.

"The thing that is the greatest strength in our country is...our values in our privacy, our freedom to associate," Johnson told Sputnik when asked about the agency's planned response to the renewed global terror threat. "Those [values] we have to preserve."

Asked whether the next phase in US counter-terrorism and intelligence efforts would bring increased infringements on US citizens' privacy, Johnson explained that homeland security is a balance between ensuring civil liberties and basic security. "It's striking a balance," he added.

In a Friday speech to aviation experts in Washington, DC Johnson stated that the United States is "in a new phase of the global terrorist threat" which is represented by the recent months' terror attacks in Ottawa, Sydney, and Paris.

The DHS and US intelligence community has begun a process of "vertical intelligence sharing" among state and local law enforcement agencies, Johnson explained. Engaging with state and local law enforcement has become an increased priority of DHS, "given the domestic-based nature" of the terrorist threat to the US homeland, the DHS Secretary said.

The US Department of Homeland Security was created in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and quickly became the third largest federal agency.

Since its inception, DHS has come under scrutiny by US civil liberties organizations like the ACLU, Electronic Privacy Information Center and multiple state-based civil liberties groups for allegedly engaging in domestic surveillance.

Comment: American tax dollars at work - arming and training terrorists, stripping Americans of their freedoms, all while keeping liars like this employed in order to convince us it's legitimate. And most people believe it legitimate to "strike a balance" between freedom and "security" during our all-out global war. Prior to 9/11 this would have been denounced as absolute lunacy. But now it's America's top industry, and we're told we must give just a little bit more. How much more will we give? The answer to that question seems to lie in how much the imperial oligarchs are willing to take. And the answer to that is not looking good.

Also see:

Chomsky: We Are All – Fill in the Blank.

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