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The Jefferson Exchange

Does Our Government See Its People As An Insurgency?

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The use of the term "counterinsurgency" conjures up images of the American fight to get Iraq and Afghanistan under control after the United States invaded. 

Law and political science professor Bernard Harcourt says techniques learned in those counterinsurgencies are being used against the American people.  Here at home.  That is the thesis of his provocative book The Counterrevolution: How Our Government Went to War Against Its Own Citizens.

The author writes of tactics from militarized police forces to bulk collection of electronic communications and beyond, and makes the case that they are used to rule ordinary Americans.  Bernard Harcourt visits with details.  

 

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Geoffrey Riley is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and has hosted the Jefferson Exchange on JPR since 2009. He's been a broadcaster in the Rogue Valley for more than 35 years, working in both television and radio.
April Ehrlich is JPR content partner at Oregon Public Broadcasting. Prior to joining OPB, she was a regional reporter at Jefferson Public Radio where she won a National Edward R. Murrow Award.