are we being monitored

After seeing a lot of threads here and being a contributor to some threads and all I have come up with a question for all.

Do you believe we are being monitored by our or some other or multiple government agencies?
If so why would they monitor the ATS forums and for what purpose? What would they gain from monitoring ATS?

Lets see if I can get some lively discussions/opinions about this subject?

It's natural to be concerned about who might be on the boards. After all information is power.

It's reasonable to think some low-level gov't so and so is tasked to troll the threads on ATS just to understand how clear or how cluttered our thinking is. How committed are we to seeking answers? How far would we go? What are we willing to do to support our beliefs? How organized and coherent are we?

I don't mind answering any of these questions. I have nothing to hide. I don't think anyone should limit their ideas or opinions out of fear. (...only if you are a rambling crackpot...LOL!)

It's wise to be cautious...but debilitating to be paranoid. Anyway, the powers-that-be want citizens to be afraid. Afraid of judgement. Afraid of ridicule. Afraid of retaliation. DON"T give them what they want.

Out of curiousity, what made you feel the need to post this thread? Curiousity or concern?

The only reason I can see for it, is to watch out for whistle blowers from within their organizations. Or just out of curiosity.

Honestly I posted this out of curiosity. I read an article on Google news earlier today that major companies were changing their Wikipedia articles and such and it got me thinking if Wal-Mart, Exxon and such monitor Wikipedia to beef up their articles and remove negative content then would someone be watching ATS to see if anyone stumbled upon the truth or if they can trace “Inside Sources” and such. It wasn’t out of any fear of retaliation and such, just plain curiosity.

1) Looking for whistle-blowers
2) Posting disinformation on serious threads
3) Creating silly, outrageous or delusional posts as a distraction
4) Measuring the trend/tone of our discourse as a societal gauge
5) Data mining

All viable reasons why any government or corporation would monitor ATS. I say let them look. That way they will know from which direction the winds of change will blow.

Know thy enemy. I forget right now who first said that, but it applies. We the people are the enemy of a stable, (as in status quo) rule by the powers that be. It would require total blindness to think that those in power were not keeping a finger on the pulse of discontent.

And I doubt that this is as low level a priority as we might think. Here on ATS is one of the greater assemblages of intelligent questioners to be found on the planet. It would be foolish to imagine that we would be overlooked.

And there is little doubt in many minds that certain posts and even threads are the work of agencies that intend to try to sway our opinion. There are indications that even some of the better hoaxes are the work of those people. The job of disinfo is not begging at ATS.

And before any of you ask, no, I have no proof other than rational logic. Having "bought into" RATS, I have found other points to bolster an opinion that I formed on this a while back. No, there is little in the way of a "smoking gun", yet there are many telltale signs.

Why would anyone doubt that the biggest conspiracy site on the web would be immune to they ever present "they"?

I think we're! If we have the ability to use google earth and look at images from all around the world..zoom in to building tops or just looking at some places from across the ocean from a very old satalite image..what makes you think that the govt has no access to a way more advance "system" I have read that they have the tech to even zoom into license plates to read the numbers and letters on it all the way from space

[edit on 17-8-2007 by beilei]

I believe that all internet traffic is closely watched. In the past we've heard of echolon and they seem to scan with certain keywords. I also think this website will be monitored. In the best case scenario it will be only to see what the people know about secret projects in the worst case scenario it will be to spread disinfo and actively act towards whistle blowers.

Juliet

ps. Oh I almost forget.... I'm under the impression that it doesn't have to be only the american government agencies doing this. Some foreign governments might find this website very interesting too.