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Watch Salon.com's Glenn Greenwald and Faiza Patel, the director of the Brennan Center for Justice discuss the NYPD Muslim spying scandal on AJE's The Stream. Greenwald wrote about the scandal yesterday, arguing that the controversy is a "microcosm" of post-9/11 US politics.

The discussion touches on McCarthyism, the Red Scare, the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII, and the legality of the NYPD's program. Patel echoes the NYCLU's position, which is that the suspicionless spying breaks the NYPD's own investigations rules. The video is a good back and forth that's worth your time; give it a view.

Greenwald summed up the issues nicely, echoing themes that run through this website: "It's not about safety or national security, it's about having a group that can be identified as the other that keeps fear and hatred levels high and justifies government encroachments into our core liberties. That's always how it's done."