[pfortuny]

Remember: the great excuse is that the US is at war (albeit not against a country, but "terrorism".) Hence, treason comes very much into place here.

Handling intel to "the enemy"...

[ekianjo]

That's a direct application of 1984 : make the state of war permanent so you can crush all political opposition as treason. Impressive how the US has gone from the most principled, Freedom-loving Democracy to a totalitarian state that does not say its real name in the course of 200 years.

[dllthomas]

It wasn't anything new when Orwell wrote it, either. It's a failure mode of democracy.