George Takei Fears NSA Spying Will Lead to Something Much Worse

New York Magazine ^ | 6/11/2013 | Jamie Sharpe

[nickcarraway]

George Takei is hardly the only American concerned about the NSA's massive surveillance programs. But unlike most people, his fears are rooted in the memory of the government persecution he suffered firsthand in a Japanese internment camp.

"Due process is a pillar of our American justice system," the Star Trek star told Daily Intelligencer last night at the Eighth Annual Stella by Starlight Benefit Gala. "We were rounded up simply because we happened to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor. And we were put in prison camps with barbed wire and machine guns pointed at us. It was a horrific violation of our Constitution."

Because of that experience, Takei is particularly wary of the government's powers being abused. "We know where this can go," he said. "We have to be ever vigilant against overstepping of the fundamental ideals of our democracy."

Takei understands that President Obama "is a person who has to deal with a lot of issues." But on the NSA spying programs, he says, "I don't agree."

[Puppage]

[dragonblustar]

Maybe more libs will wake up to this, and some so called conservatives too.

[Don Corleone]

First they came for the Jews.......

[null and void]

George? We already know you’re gay. No blackmail possibilities for you on that one.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Do I recall correctly that his parents ended up in a Japanese internment camp?

[Vermont Lt]

a. I think the NSA snooping was horrible.

B. I don’t care what George Takei thinks.

C. I imagine he doesn’t much care for what I think, either.

[Borges]

Takei is hugely popular online. He has over four million followers on Facebook.

[svcw]

Read the article, he is concerned about internment because he has experience with it.

[b4its2late]

[familyop]

Japanese in internment camps lived in fairly comfortable billets and roamed around the Army posts, and only those with evidence of associations with Japanese government officials of the time were interned.

That said, though, anyone in favor of illegal surveillance is mentally ill.

[big'ol_freeper]

Phasers on stun!

[chrisinoc]

George Takei was in the Rhower Internment Camp, same as my mother.

[1rudeboy]

Yeah, apart from that pesky idea of being “free to go,” the internees were ok. /s

[ExGeeEye]

He was with them (born 1937). They went first to a camp in Arkansas, then one in CA (not, IIRC, the famous Manzanar).

[svcw]

I know people who were interned (they were kids then), they were not comfortable.

They were stripped of their property both real and financial (never got it back) but more importantly they were stripped of their freedom.

[Telepathic Intruder]

To go a little off topic, Mr. Sulu isn’t being quite honoest here. People weren’t put into internment camps because they looked Japanese, it’s because they were in fact duel citizens of Japan and the US. They didn’t separate young children from parents however, which is probably why he was included with them.

[MrB]

He’s on the left’s “safe list”... for now.
Nothing to worry about until after the left allows the Muslims to remove Christians from America.

[DTogo]

Japanese in internment camps lived in fairly comfortable billets and roamed around the Army posts

Internment/inprisonment of any American CITIZEN without due process, during wartime or not, is an abomination.

[Obadiah]

Somehow I just cannot imagine that Takei would have had such a polite reply if this had occurred under George Bush.