The “The end of America” is a 2008 documentary adapted from Naomi Wolf’s book “The end of America: Letter or warning to a young patriot”. Primarily, the documentary focuses on the eroding civil rights in America especially after the September 11, 2001 terror attack in America. Further, it explores the federal laws enacted since the terror attack that remain in effect. Consequently, it compares the President Bush’s endeavors to discourage dissent and to exercise an increasingly unchecked power to the events that preceded the 20^th Century dictatorial governments in for 76 days. He as well as that of a Canadian engineer imprisoned for a year and later cleared of terrorism charges. In addition to this, the documentary also delves into the case of a journalist detained for 226 days for refusing to surrender recordings of police cruelty during a protest in 2005.

Within the documentary, The End of America, the assertion is made that to an emerging closing society creates secret prisons where torture takes place. According to Joachim Hagopian, a writer for global research, there are CIA-like locations where people are held without being booked to be beaten with reported scenarios of death (Hagopian). Further, the center for constitutional rights in its website says that America has constructed a confinement structure for those it designates as terrorists where they hold people giving an example of Guantanamo Bay (Center for Constitutional Rights). Finally, David Hicks in his book describes his time in a secret American person where he was held for five years (Hicks). Based on these accounts, there is evidence that indeed America has created secret prisons where people are tortured.

Additionally, the documentary asserts that another sign that a nation is shifting towards a closed society is the setting up of internal surveillance systems. Naomi Wolf in her book claims that the government is closely monitoring e-mails of Americans especially activists (Wolf). Next, according to The New York Times, the American postal service reportedly approved numerous requests from law enforcing agencies to monitor secretly citizens’ mail (Nixon). Moreover, The Guardian in a report stated that America has paid at least 100m Pounds to a UK spy agency to gain access to Britain’s intelligence gathering systems

Next, a nation keen on imposing a closed system of administration controls the press by restricting access to information and what the media reports as asserted by the documentary. As the Constitutional Rights Foundation explains in their website, the American government continues to control what the press releases especially in Iraq where the press is not allowed to interview the soldiers without special permissions (Costly). Moreover, the Committee to Protect Journalists asserts this claim on their website 180 in 2015 down three places from 2014 (Resnikoff). Based on these statements, it is clear that America is curtailing press freedom. This goes to show that America does not want its citizens to know all that is happening thus creating an opportunity for imposing the closed system of governance.

While America continues to refute the existence of secret holding facilities, in recent times, President Obama has renewed his 2008 campaign promise to close one such facility, Guantanamo Bay despite opposition from Congress. government’s agenda to control media freedom seems to be advancing as shown in the declining press freedom index. Nonetheless, Americans are determined to fight for their rights in the seemingly declining democracy.

Works Cited

Hagopian, Joachim. ‘Totalitarian Rule In America: False Flags, Secret Prisons, Extrajudicial Assassinations, Media Censorship, The Rounding Up Of Alleged “Terrorists” …’. Global Research. N.p., 2015. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.

Center for Constitutional Rights,. ‘Faqs: What Are Ghost Detentions And Black Sites | Center For Constitutional Rights’. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.

Hicks, David. Guantanamo. North Sydney, N.S.W.: Random House Australia, 2010. Print.

Wolf, Naomi. The End Of America. White River Junction, Vt.: Chelsea Green Pub., 2007. Print.

Nixon, Ron. ‘Report Reveals Wider Tracking Of Mail In U.S.’. Nytimes.com. N.p., 2014. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.

Borger, Julian, and Nick Hopkins. ‘Exclusive: NSA Pays £100M In Secret Funding For GCHQ’. the Guardian. N.p., 2013. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.

Costly, Andrew. ‘Press Freedom – Constitutional Rights Foundation’. Crf-usa.org. N.p., 2015. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.

Cpj.org,. ‘The Obama Administration And The Press – Committee To Protect Journalists’. N.p., 2013. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.

Resnikoff, Ned. ‘Report: Press Freedom Experienced ‘Drastic Decline’ In 2014 | Al Jazeera America’. America.aljazeera.com. N.p., 2015. Web. 17 Apr. 2015