‘America has become a gangster state’

‘America has become a gangster state’

TEXT FROM PRESS.TV:

An American political commentator has criticized the US government as “a gangster state,” which serves only certain groups.

“America has become a gangster state,” Anna O’Leary told Press TV on Sunday, adding that the US government serves “powerful private interest groups – the Wall Street, the military and the Israeli lobby.”

Two prominent professors’ research shows that the US is an “oligarchy,” she noted. “Professor Martin Gilens of Princeton University and another professor, professor  Benjamin I Page of Northwestern University, they have been examining the American government and their conclusions are pretty bad for the American people, the conclusion is that the US is an oligarchy ruled by powerful rich private interest groups.”

She also touched on the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs, calling for a halt in the agency’s spying efforts.

“It is unacceptable worldwide that the United States is spying on us and NSA, the National Security Agency for America, is now being revealed that their surveillance needs reform,” O’Leary said..

The NSA has been collecting and storing phone records of both Americans and foreign citizens, something the public would not have known if whistleblower Edward Snowden had not exposed the spying programs in June 2013.

The documents revealed by Snowden also showed that the agency has been spying on some of the European countries’ leaders, including German chancellor Angela Markel.

Under the NSA’s phone records program, the spy agency collects records metadata – who people call, how often and for how long.

O’Leary said “USA Freedom Act has been delayed by the judiciary committee, leaving all of us at risk, especially journalists and human rights advocates.”