What matters is fear; that people are afraid and abstain from protests and nonviolent actions lest they are singled out. Less important than really checking everybody’s email, web activity and listening to telephone calls is people believing that it is happening. The trick is to do so indiscriminately, not focusing only on suspects but making people feel that anyone is a potential suspect; making them play safe out of fear, turning all potential activists into governable passivists. Leaving politics to the Big Boys, with muscles at home as well as abroad.