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L’Autre Monde 17 avril 2008
60 min / Radio de l’UQAM, CHOQ FM
Pour télécharger, faite un clique droit puis “enregistrer la cible sous…”
– 17 avril 2008: Dernière émission de la saison. De retour le 8 mai 2008. Nous abordons en cette dernière les derniers développements à propos du 9/11 et de l’état policier, état de surveillance et d’espionnage, torture, Taser plus quelques autres nouvelles de l’actualité. Soyez au rendez-vous pour votre dose de lucidité!
Hyperliens vers les sources des informations discutées sur l’émission du 17 avril:
État policier, dictature, espionage, surveillance/ Big Brother, torture et Taser
« Il n’y a que les hommes pour tuer un million d’entre eux pour la victoire d’un chef : des hommes qui ne se connaissent pas s’entre-tuent sur l’ordre de chefs qui se connaissent et ne s’entre-tuent pas, chefs qui signeront la paix en se serrant la main, un verre de champagne dans l’autre ».
L’abbé Pierre
The Suspect Society
The Surveillance Society. The New Authoritarianism. The Age of Paranoid Politics. These are just a few of the ways writers and thinkers describe the age we’re now living in. The signs of anxiety and fear in this post 9-11 era are all around us. School lock-downs are called the new fire-drill. Recently, many schools boards in Canada made rehearsing the lock-down mandatory. The number of security staff in schools is increasing every year. By 2010 for example, there will be more security guards than teachers in American schools. But, the uniforms aren’t just being worn by security staff. More and more American public schools have adopted uniforms for students. Meanwhile the U.S. army is embedding itself in schools – targeting younger and younger students for recruitment. In Canada recruitment comes through video games that inform, entertain and seduce « action-focused males starting at 17 years old ».
Rule by fear or rule by law?
« The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist. » – Winston Churchill, Nov. 21, 1943
Will the Militarized Police State Shock You Into Submission?
The company assures us that being dragged through the bracelet process is a « small inconvenience in order to assure your safe arrival. » In fact, its studies show that most people would « happily opt » for wearing the bracelet to « insure their own security. »
Funny, I don’t recall them asking my opinion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7yJXhxF1mM
The Pentagon’s Pain Compliance and Mind Control Weapons
The U.S. Defense department has tested some spooky weapons, but those involving mind control and telepathic attack may be near the top of the list. A newly declassified 1998 document released under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (download the pdf here), describes potential weapons for crowd control, such as a microwave gun that could beam words directly into people’s ears, and an electromagnetic pulse that causes epilepsy-like seizures.
All that is missing is the branding iron.
http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=5973
NORTHCOM Furthers NAU Police State Agenda
The criminals in the U.S. government are continuing the push for a militarized North American Union police state. According to an announcement on U.S. Northern Command’s web site, an agreement has been signed between U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and Canada Command (CANADACOM) that allows the military from either nation to support the armed forces of the other during a civil emergency.
Canada, U.S. agree to use each other’s troops in civil emergencies
One has to wonder if these so-called « civil emergencies » include the imposition of martial law here in the US, as foreigners will have less angst about being ordered to shoot to kill.
One certainly did not see anything about the signing of this treaty in either most of the major papers, and certainly not on lamestream television news.
1 in every 350 Americans is considered a possible « terrorist »
Almost 1 million people will be put on the « watch list » by years end. This is incredible and utterly insane. How can the government expect us as citizens to believe that 1 in every 350 people need to be watched. When I heard this news all I could think was that 1984 is already here. I am afraid just by writing this and posting it online I will be added to the list.
And here is the real kicker. By having so many people on the terrorist watch list for purely political reasons, it makes the list useless for finding real terrorists (as opposed to the fake ones who pop up when the government needs them).
The School Crotch Inspector
There are two kinds of people in the world: the kind who think it’s perfectly reasonable to strip-search a 13-year-old girl suspected of bringing ibuprofen to school, and the kind who think those people should be kept as far away from children as possible. The first group includes officials at Safford Middle School in Safford, Arizona, who in 2003 forced eighth-grader Savana Redding to prove she was not concealing Advil in her crotch or cleavage.
Doctors Interrogate Children as Informants on Parents’ Behavior
Encouraged by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), pediatricians across the United States have begun questioning children about their parents’ habits, in some cases even filing police reports based on this information, according to an opinion article published in the Boston Herald.
Hitler did the same thing!
Fingertip biometrics at Disney turnstiles: the Mouse does its bit for the police state
Parents fury after police blast schoolgirls as young as 13 with CS gas to break up school fight
Parents hit out at police for ‘putting their children’s lives in danger’ after they blasted 15 schoolgirls with CS gas spray near a busy road.
CS gas is ILLEGAL to use in warfare. And the cops spray the kids with it.
CS = 2-chlorobenzylidène malonitrile
Le 2-chlorobenzylidène malonitrile ou gaz CS ou ortho-chloro-benzal malonitrile est un gaz lacrymogène non létal.
Le gaz CS a été utilisé lors des manifestations de Gênes et il est très employé pour disperser les émeutes et autres troubles de l’ordre public. Il a notamment été déployé lors de l’assaut contre la secte de David Koresh à Waco. D’après certaines analyses, le CS serait à l’origine de l’incendie qui a ravagé la ferme où s’étaient repliés les Davidiens. Le CS est du malotrinile de chlorobenzylidène développé durant les années 1950 au Royaume-Uni par le Chemical Defence Experimental Establishment mais dont la composition chimique remonte à 1928. C’est à cette date que Ben Corson et Roger Stoughton inventent cette substance. Dès 1960, l’armée américaine l’intègre dans son arsenal pour remplacer le gaz CN, chimiquement moins stable et plus dangereux. Le CS se décline en plusieurs versions, le CS1 est une poudre enrobée de silicone qui peut perdurer sur le terrain durant plusieurs semaines. Le CS2 est résistant à l’eau.
Le CS présente des risques pour plusieurs organes. Les voies respiratoires et le système digestif sont les premiers touchés en l’espace de 20 à 60 secondes. Dès l’exposition, on assiste à une activation intense des voies lacrymales, une irritation des voies respiratoires et des nausées accompagnées de vomissements selon la dose. La salivation est accentuée. À forte dose, il peut provoquer des hémorragies internes, des œdèmes pulmonaires et une détresse respiratoire qui peut être fatale. Le foie, le cerveau et les reins sont particulièrement vulnérables. Les substances produites lors de la dégradation du CS par le métabolisme comme le cyanure sont très toxiques. Les effets à long terme sont moins connus mais le CS peut induire des bronchites, de l’asthme, des maladies du foie et des reins ainsi que des troubles neurologiques comme l’épilepsie.
Les effets se dissipent en moins de 30 minutes une fois que la personne contaminée est placée dans un environnement sain avec de l’air frais.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-chlorobenzylid%C3%A8ne_malonitrile
The Age of Criminalizing Children
I remember when I was in school, misbehaving children received a visit to the principal´s office, detention, in-house or off grounds suspension, but now schools have police or « safety » officers on the grounds, quick to view our kids as hardened criminals.
Two 4-year-old boys were removed from a preschool class and handcuffed by the school safety officer for refusing to take a nap. The boys said the officer told them « You know what happens when you don’t go to sleep in there? . . . When you go to jail, you’re not going to have no fun, no TV, no toys. » The parents of the boys are suing the city. New York Post
A 6-year-old girl was arrested on charges of disruption of a school function, battery on school employees (a felony), and resisting arrest for throwing a temper tantrum in class. The child was taken to the county jail, fingerprinted and had a mug shot taken. The chief of police stated, « Those are the normal procedures for anyone who is arrested. » The battered school employee was left with a red mark. Welcome to Pottersville
A 5-year-old boy with speech problems and asthma was handcuffed by a school safety officer for throwing a temper tantrum in class. School officials refused to turn the child over to his baby sitter who had rushed to the scene and sent the boy to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. WCBSTV
The parents of an 11-year-old disabled boy filed notice of claim as a preclude to a lawsuit that their child´s civil rights were violated by a school security guard who handcuffed him on the playground. The boy, who has a rare genetic disorder and has learning issues, had picked up a small stone to add to his collection of « lucky rocks », when his aide told him to put it down. The boy was then thrown to the ground and handcuffed behind his back, dislodging his feeding tube. After the incident, the principal suspended the child for a day for « aggressive behavior toward himself and staff members. » FOX News
An 11-year-old boy spent 72 hours in a juvenile jail for accidentally shooting another student with a slingshot made of a stretchy balloon, a milk cap and rubber bands. The sixth grader was arrested on second-degree felony charges of shooting or throwing a deadly missile. The boy claimed he shot a plastic pellet into his locker and it ricocheted hitting a classmate, leaving a small welt on injured child´s chest. Information Liberation
And if we can stand anymore, a 13-year-old boy was arrested on battery charges for throwing a piece of a broken pencil at children who were calling him names, the intended target ducked and the pencil piece hit another child in the back of the head. TC Palm A 12-year-old boy was arrested and charged with disruption of an educational institution for stomping in a puddle and spraying his classmates. Court TV
A 13-year-old girl was arrested and charged with criminal mischief and the making of graffiti for writing the word « okay » on her school desk. WCBSTV And a 12-year-old autistic boy was arrested and charged with a felony for grabbing a teacher´s arm. FOX Gulf Coast
Welcome to « Fear and Obedience Elementary Education », American style.
FLASHBACK: Pentagon devising scenarios for martial law in US
According to a report published Monday by the Washington Post, the Pentagon has developed its first ever war plans for operations within the continental United States, in which terrorist attacks would be used as the justification for imposing martial law on cities, regions or the entire country.
« This would all be easier if this were a dictatorship, as long as I am the dictator. » — Dubya
Administration Asserts No Fourth Amendment for Domestic Military Operations
While the newly released memo focuses on « asserting that federal laws prohibiting assault, maiming and other crimes did not apply to military interrogators, » it contains a footnote referencing another Administration memo that caught our eye:
… our Office recently concluded that the Fourth Amendment had no application to domestic military operations. See Memorandum for Alberto R. Gonzales, Counsel to the President, and William J. Haynes, II, General Counsel, Department of Defense, from John C. Yoo, Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Robert J. Delahunty, Special Counsel, Re: Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activities Within the United States at 25 (Oct 23, 2001). (emphasis added)
So, with the abandonment of the Bill of Rights and the admission that the spying on Americans is a « Domestic Military Operation » it appears that we are indeed the military dictatorship Bush joked about.
If the President can suspend the Bill of Rights at will, then they are not rights of free citizens, but merely indulgences by a master to favored slaves.
Bush Replaced REX84 With New Martial Law EO
In May 2007, Bush signed executive new orders NSDP51 and HSDP20 to replace REX84. The older order REX84 was an older directive to establish martial law in the event of a national emergency. Everything done in government is done for a reason, and these two new orders are no exception.
These new directives surprised and alarmed many real conservatives and true patriots at the time. These two orders established that the White House administration would take over all local governments under a national state of emergency, instead of Homeland Security.
The Already Big Thing on the Internet: Spying on Users
It’s not paranoia: they really are spying on you.
Bush asserts authority to bypass defense act
President Bush this week declared that he has the power to bypass four laws, including a prohibition against using federal funds to establish permanent US military bases in Iraq, that Congress passed as part of a new defense bill.
« We are above the law. » — Official White Horse Souse
The Emerging Surveillance State
Last month, the House amended the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to expand the government’s ability to monitor our private communications. This measure, if it becomes law, will result in more warrantless government surveillance of innocent American citizens.
Soon U.S. Citizens Must Ask for Government Permission to Fly or Travel
he Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is moving forward to institute a rule that would require all passengers to go through a government review process before boarding any airplane that takes off or lands anywhere with in the United States.
US customs agents can examine, copy data from searched laptops
« Hey, looks like this guy’s company is about to hit the market with a hot new product. Lemme call my broker before you give the guy his laptop back! » — Any one of a million goons
US challenged over laptop seizures
RIGHTS CAMPAIGNERS are suing the US government today after a raft of complaints from travellers who had their electronic gizmos seized by border guards.
US customs officers have been seizing travelers’ laptops, MP3 players, telephones and other electronic devices and searching them for terrorist literature, child pornography and other criminal evidence.
Watch out, you’re being watched
About all I can say is: Wow. Wow that the government now has the ability to detect radiation in a cat inside a car going by at 70 miles per hour. And wow at this world we live in, where we feel compelled to sniff, at random, inside the traffic coming out of Bellingham.
CIA enlists Google’s help for spy work
Agencies such as the National Security Agency have bought servers on which Google-supplied search technology is used to process information gathered by networks of spies around the world.
Google is also providing the search features for a Wikipedia-style site, called Intellipedia, on which agents post information about their targets that can be accessed and appended by colleagues, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The contracts are just a number that have been entered into by Google’s ‘federal government sales team’, that aims to expand the company’s reach beyond its core consumer and enterprise operations.
This means that CIA will start working to influence Google’s consumer services as well. Time to start looking at other search engines.
Bush Plans To Monitor Internet Data
According to the Wall Street Journal, the White House is proposing a six billion dollar secretive system that would monitor Internet traffic and collect personal data.
The proposal from President George Bush would be designed to protect US communications networks from attacks by terrorists, spies and hackers but is stirring controversy and could prove a hard sell to Congress and the American public amid divisiveness about other Government-run surveillance programs.
Hey Bush, monitor THIS!
We spied on 36,000 customers using the internet, admits BT
BT tested secret « spyware » on tens of thousands of its broadband customers without their knowledge, it admitted yesterday.
It carried out covert trials of a system which monitors every internet page a user visits.
Companies can exploit such data to target users with tailored online advertisements.
An investigation into the affair has been started by the Information Commissioner, the personal data watchdog.
ACLU: Military skirting law to spy
The military is using the FBI to skirt legal restrictions on domestic surveillance to obtain private records of Americans’ Internet service providers, financial institutions and telephone companies, the ACLU said Tuesday.
Secret DOJ Memo Says Fourth Amendment Has « No Application » After 9/11
The American Civil Liberties Union has uncovered details pertaining to a secret Justice Department memo from October 2001 that reveals the Bush administration effectively suspended the Fourth Amendment where domestic counter terrorism operations are concerned.
And who is a terror suspect?
According to the FBI, YOU are if you support the Constitution!
D.C. police set to monitor 5,000 cameras
D.C. officials are giving police access to more than 5,000 closed-circuit TV cameras citywide that monitor traffic, schools and public housing — a move that will give the District one of the largest surveillance networks in the country.
Feds Are Seizing Phones, Computers U.S. Agents Seize Travelers’ Devices
Nabila Mango, a therapist and a U.S. citizen who has lived in the country since 1965, had just flown in from Jordan last December when, she said, she was detained at customs and her cellphone was taken from her purse. Her daughter, waiting outside San Francisco International Airport, tried repeatedly to call her during the hour and a half she was questioned. But after her phone was returned, Mango saw that records of her daughter’s calls had been erased.
A few months earlier in the same airport, a tech engineer returning from a business trip to London objected when a federal agent asked him to type his password into his laptop computer. « This laptop doesn’t belong to me, » he remembers protesting. « It belongs to my company. » Eventually, he agreed to log on and stood by as the officer copied the Web sites he had visited, said the engineer, a U.S. citizen who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of calling attention to himself.
Maria Udy, a marketing executive with a global travel management firm in Bethesda, said her company laptop was seized by a federal agent as she was flying from Dulles International Airport to London in December 2006. Udy, a British citizen, said the agent told her he had « a security concern » with her. « I was basically given the option of handing over my laptop or not getting on that flight, » she said.
The seizure of electronics at U.S. borders has prompted protests from travelers who say they now weigh the risk of traveling with sensitive or personal information on their laptops, cameras or cellphones. In some cases, companies have altered their policies to require employees to safeguard corporate secrets by clearing laptop hard drives before international travel.
This is the prudent thing to do. Far from combating terror or crime, Federal agents have a long history (at least as far back as the Seattle APEC scandal) of looting business secrets from Americans to give to cronies or to personally profit from them.
Of course in my own case the bozo with the badge didn’t get any business secrets because he dropped my laptop and wrecked it.
Spy-in-the-sky drone sets sights on Miami
Miami police could soon be the first in the United States to use cutting-edge, spy-in-the-sky technology to beef up their fight against crime.
… or against patriots. – M. R.
Headed for Olympics? Beware of Big Brother
« All visitors should be aware that they have no reasonable expectation of privacy in public or private locations, » the fact sheet says. « All hotel rooms and offices are considered to be subject to on-site or remote technical monitoring at all times. Hotel rooms, residences and offices may be accessed at any time without the occupant’s consent or knowledge. »
No proof airport security makes flying safer-study
Airport security lines can annoy passengers, but there is no evidence that they make flying any safer, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.
A team at the Harvard School of Public Health could not find any studies showing whether the time-consuming process of X-raying carry-on luggage prevents hijackings or attacks.
The time-consuming and humiliating practices at US airports, put in place after 9/11, have never been about security.
They have only been about cowing air passengers with the limitless, and thoroughly thuggish, authority of the State.
IT’S ALL FOR SHOW! Like « Burt the Turtle » and « Duck and cover » you are not really any safer. It’s just a sham to make it LOOK like the government cares about you while it goes off lying about and invading other nations.
HOW TO SUCK MORE MONEY OUT OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
Step 1: Use taxpayer money and additional ticket fees to add tons of security to make airport travel a painful experience.
Step 2: Sell travelers a card to let them go back to boarding planes hassle free like they used to before all the added security.
Net effect? People still get on the planes like they used to, but are now suckered into paying for security systems and paying more to ignore them.
Such a deal!
Woman Told To Remove Nipple Rings For SoCal Flight
A Texas woman who claims she was forced to remove a nipple ring with pliers in order to board an airplane called Thursday for an apology by federal security agents and a civil rights investigation.
FBI posts fake hyperlinks to snare child porn suspects
The FBI has recently adopted a novel investigative technique: posting hyperlinks that purport to be illegal videos of minors having sex, and then raiding the homes of anyone willing to click on them.
Don’t the FBI have real crimes that have actually been committed to investigate? What happens if someone clicks the link out of idle curiosity to see what all the hubbub is about? What if someone uses a malicious forwarder inside an otherwise innocuous looking web page (or even a message posted on a blog) to drive unwary readers’ web browsers to the FBI’s page?
Clicking Is Not a Criminal Offense
The FBI has begun busting people for clicking on links that advertise child pornography. At first blush, that may sound like a good thing, so let me just re-state: The FBI can arrest and convict you based on no other evidence than the fact that your browser visited a Web page.
Still not scared? Let me give you a few examples of how I could easily make your browser visit the wrong site, if I wanted to ruin your life.
TruthNews.us » Blog Archive » Ministry of Homeland Security Developing X-Ray Snoop Device
It might also be used to find weapons entirely legal under the Bill of Rights. If the drift of Congress is any indication — and possibly soon enough the drift of the Supreme Court — what is completely legal today may become illegal and thus subject to confiscation tomorrow. It is not too far out to imagine a Ministry sub-contracted thug from Blackwater with one of these soon-to-be perfected and manufactured devices scanning your home looking for the family shotgun. If you doubt this can happen, remember “deputized” Blackwater goons going door-to-door in New Orleans seizing entirely legal firearms.
New super-cameras mean no hiding for drivers who smoke, eat or use a phone
Digital speed cameras which capture drivers smoking or eating at the wheel are being introduced nationwide in a new move to hammer motorists.
Drivers will also face fines, bans and even jail for infringements such as driving without a seatbelt, using a hand-held mobile phone or overtaking across double white lines.
The hi-tech DVD cameras, which have instant playback, will also be used to provide photographic evidence against those eating sandwiches or rolling-up cigarettes at the wheel.
Roadside cameras that detect BLOOD will catch lone drivers who abuse car-sharing lanes
Motorists will be targeted by a new generation of road cameras which work out how many people are in a car by measuring the amount of bodily fluid it contains.
The latest snooping device on the nation’s roads aims to penalise lone drivers who abuse car-sharing lanes, and is part of a Government effort to combat congestion at busy times.
The cameras work by sending an infrared beam through the windscreen of vehicles which detects the unique make-up of blood and water content in human skin.
Leaked UK government document reveals plan to « coerce » British citizens into national ID register. Yes, they actually advise using « coercion »
Arrested, caged and DNA tested – for using MP3
A commuter was arrested at gunpoint and had his DNA and fingerprints taken simply for listening to his MP3 player while waiting for a bus.
The amazing thing about this story is that apparently, the police were too stupid to realize it was an mp3 player during the entire time he was arrested, transported, fingerprinted, photographed, DNA swabbed, and tossed in a cell.
Police arrest anti-war protester, 80, at mall
An 80-year-old church deacon was removed from the Smith Haven Mall yesterday in a wheelchair and arrested by police for refusing to remove a T-shirt protesting the Iraq War.
White House guts Intelligence Oversight Board
On Friday, the White House issued a new executive order effectively gutting the Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB), “created in 1976 in the wake of widespread abuses by U.S. intelligence agencies.” Under the order, many of the IOB’s investigative powers will now be transfered to DNI Mike McConnell. “Rather than intelligence agencies reporting their activities to the board for review, they will now report them to McConnell,” the AP notes.
« We’ll have no more of those pesky NIEs wrecking our war plans, dammit! » — Official White Horse Souse
Bush guarantees attack bigger than 9/11
« I put it on my American Express card! » — Official White Horse Souse
False Flag Prospects, 2008 — Top Three US Target Cities
The easiest way to carry out a false flag attack is by setting up a military exercise that simulates the very attack you want to carry out. As I’ll detail below, this is exactly how government perpetrators in the US and UK handled the 9/11 and 7/7 « terror » attacks, which were in reality government attacks blamed on « terrorists. »
My aim, as a former military intelligence officer who spent five years with the U.S. Army 75th Division conducting military war games, is to convince the American people that the « next 9/11 » — constantly promised by officials and the media — is likely to be carried out under the guise of future military exercises. If the American people are aware of pending exercises and the danger they represent, then the exercises cannot « go live » and effect the very terror events that they are supposed to be rehearsing against.
Germany In 1933: The Easy Slide Into Fascism
Retroactive telecom immunity was passed, 31-67. Roll call here so you can see who the traitors were
Senate OKs immunity for telecoms
With just a few days until a stop-gap surveillance measure expires, the Senate finally seemed ready to acquiesce to President Bush’s demand that telecommunications companies that helped him spy on Americans be let off the hook.
This congress repeatedly just rolls over and plays dead when it comes to giving Bush everything he demands.
Don’t expect much from the house as it considers this bill either.
I will really be surprised if the house version strips telecom immunity out of the bill.
FBI warns of possible Hezbollah revenge in U.S.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security sent a bulletin Friday to state and local law enforcement authorities advising them to watch for potential retaliatory strikes by Hezbollah, one day after the Lebanese militia group vowed to avenge the death of a top commander by attacking Israeli and Jewish targets around the world.
It couldn’t be that this administration is concocting some kind of false flag operation to be ultimately blamed on Iran, could it?
Or are they, predictably, playing the « fear card » because Bush didn’t get the FISA bill he wanted passed by the House before he left for his African trip?
Whistleblower: Cellular carrier giving FBI unfettered access
Pasdar discovered evidence of the backdoor when he was part of a rapid deployment team that was brought in to facilitate a large-scale network security hardware migration for the mobile carrier. During the migration, Pasdar was instructed not to migrate the traffic for one particular DS-3, which was referred to as the « Quantico Circuit » by consultants who worked closely with the carrier (the FBI Academy is based in Quantico, Virginia).
Whistle-Blower: Feds Have a Backdoor Into Wireless Carrier — Congress Reacts
A U.S. government office in Quantico, Virginia, has direct, high-speed access to a major wireless carrier’s systems, exposing customers’ voice calls, data packets and physical movements to uncontrolled surveillance, according to a computer security consultant who says he worked for the carrier in late 2003.
The CIA Eyes the Internet
The next phase in the institution of fascist law enforcement involves cyber-security and the Internet. Media martinets have been making noise about cyber-terrorism lately – similar to the manner in which they raised a good scare over anthrax preceding the mailing of the spores – and the CIA is currently laying the justification for legislation that will permit spying on us via our computers with this story in the current PC World: « CIA Says Hackers Have Cut Power Grid »:
« Several cities outside the U.S. have sustained attacks on utility systems and extortion demands. »
No one but the CIA appears to know anything about the outages and attendant extortion demands, and now the Company – one that trains death squads and put Saddam Hussein in power – is graciously letting us in on it …
If there is going to be a new false-flag attack, the internet will have to shut down by the US Government and Israel because otherwise,m the evidence of another hoax will be global in about fifteen seconds after it happens. No doubt the mainstream media will assure us all that somehow it suits Al Qaeda’s interests to shut down the one and only watchdog on the lies of the US Government.
Washington Prepares for Cyber War Games
The U.S. government will conduct a series of cyber war games throughout next week to test its ability to recover from and respond to digital attacks.
Not to mention screw around with blogs that say things the government does not like.
CIA Monitors YouTube For Intelligence
U.S. spies are looking increasingly online for intelligence and they’ve become major consumers of social media.
British Home Secretary targets internet extremism
British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith urged internet providers on Thursday to remove all al-Qaida and extremist websites in a bid to tackle radicalization among Britain’s Muslims.
Documents prove FBI has national eavesdropping program that tracks IMs, emails and cell phones
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been routinely monitoring the e-mails, instant messages and cell phone calls of suspects across the United States — and has done so, in many cases, without the approval of a court.
agents don’t need a court order to track to track the senders and recipients names, or how long calls or email exchanges lasted. These can be obtained simply by showing it’s « relevant » to a probe.
The right to privacy in the US no longer exists.
ISPs hog rights in fine print
Those documents you agree to — usually without reading — ostensibly allow your ISP to watch how you use the Internet, read your e-mail or keep you from visiting sites it deems inappropriate. Some reserve the right to block traffic and, for any reason, cut off a service that many users now find essential.
The Associated Press reviewed the « Acceptable Use Policies » and « Terms of Service » of the nation’s 10 largest ISPs — in all, 117 pages of contracts that leave few rights for subscribers.
« The network is asserting almost complete control of the users’ ability to use their network as a gateway to the Internet, » said Marvin Ammori, general counsel of Free Press, a Washington-based consumer advocacy group. « They become gatekeepers rather than gateways. »
Memo Shows Bush Administration Says to Hell With Fourth Amendment Rights
News last week of former White House lawyer John Yoo’s recently disclosed 2003 memo positing, among other things, that the president’s authority as commander in chief allows him to override federal laws prohibiting « assault, maiming and other crimes » against suspects in the « war on terror » was followed by a second revelation: an alarming footnote on page 8 referring to another secret memo, written shortly after 9/11, and, in the name of national security, dispensing with the Fourth Amendment.
If our rights can be rescinded on a whim, then we never had any rights. WE had indulgences by a kindly master to favored slaves, easily bestowed and just as easily withdrawn.
The whole point of the Bill of Rights is that these rights are recognized as permanent and irrevocable. A government that refuses to honor those rights is by definition unconstitutional, and therefore illegal.
Homeland Security invokes nuclear bomb, as Bush quietly links cybersecurity program to NSA
Department of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff has dropped the bomb.
At a speech to hundreds of security professionals Wednesday, Chertoff declared that the federal government has created a cyber security « Manhattan Project, » referencing the 1941-1946 project led by the Army Corps of Engineers to develop American’s first atomic bomb.
More airports to use ‘whole body imaging’ machines
Some travelers at key airports in New York and Los Angeles may be put through machines that see through clothing and provide a detailed image of a person’s body beginning later this week.
NSA quietly expands domestic spying program, even as Congress balks
« The central role the NSA has come to occupy in domestic intelligence gathering has never been publicly disclosed, » The Wall Street Journal reports on Monday page ones. « But an inquiry reveals that its efforts have evolved to reach more broadly into data about people’s communications, travel and finances in the U.S. than the domestic surveillance programs brought to light since the 2001 terrorist attacks. »
And of course, the 110th Congress sits there, and does absolutely nothing to stop this, lest they be accused of being « soft on terror »
What they are not afraid of, apparently, is being « soft » on those protections which used to be belong to We the People, courtesy of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
How the spooks took over the news
In his controversial new book, Nick Davies argues that shadowy intelligence agencies are pumping out black propaganda to manipulate public opinion – and that the media simply swallow it wholesale
New York’s Total Snoop Grid Moving Forward
It seems irrational, spending $106 million to catch car thieves. But then the “initiative” is billed as an adventure in “counter-terrorism,” not one to counter car thieves. Of course, there are precious few terrorists of the Osama bin Laden type on Manhattan, or anywhere else outside of the Middle East, but this matters not, as the point is to monitor the masses, not catch mythical terrorists as they exit strip clubs.
MOCKINGBIRD – The Subversion Of The Free Press By The CIA
« You could get a journalist cheaper than a good call girl, for a couple hundred dollars a month. » – CIA operative discussing with Philip Graham, editor Washington Post, on the availability and prices of journalists willing to peddle CIA propaganda and cover stories. « Katherine The Great, » by Deborah Davis (New York: Sheridan Square Press, 1991)
MI5 seeks powers to trawl records in new terror hunt
Millions of commuters could have their private movements around cities secretly monitored under new counter-terrorism powers being sought by the security services.
School’s homeland security studies get noticed
The nation’s first comprehensive high school homeland security program, a three-year course to help kids land jobs in the growing anti-terrorism industry, is in its infancy in Maryland. But it’s recently been attracting the attention of educators and school districts from as far away as California and Florida.
So we’ve moved from reading, writing, and math as educational necessities to frisking, following, and fascism?
Have I just fallen asleep and awakened in the wrong country?
Steve Tucker served a 10-year prison sentence for selling light bulbs.
In the spring of 1994, the Tucker family received lengthy prison sentences — 10 years for Steve, 16 years for his older brother Gary, and 10 years for his brother’s wife, Joanne — without possibility of parole, for the curiously worded federal crime of « conspiracy to manufacture marijuana. »
Yet federal prosecutors never charged them with buying, selling, growing, transporting, smoking or even possessing marijuana. An 18-month DEA investigation had failed to turn up direct evidence connecting the Tuckers to even a single joint.
Instead, they were locked away for selling the lamps, fertilizer and gardening hardware from the small hydroponic supply shop Gary operated on Buford Highway that enabled their customers to grow pot.
So … do hardware store owners go to jail for selling screwdrivers … which are used to make nuclear weapons?
Film a cop with a camera phone, go to jail
This past October, when Simon Glik used his cell phone to record Boston police officers making what he thought was an overly forceful arrest on Tremont Street, he didn’t think he would be the one who ended up in the back of a police cruiser. But cops saw Glik using his cell phone’s camera with its sound-recording feature, so they arrested him for breaking the Massachusetts law that prohibits secret electronic recording, deemed “wiretapping.”
Gang Members Get Trained in the Army
While hundreds of Mexican soldiers are deserting the army to join drug trafficking gangs, California is facing the opposite problem: A growing number of gang members here have infiltrated the U.S. Armed Forces in order to receive military training.
The numbers speak for themselves: In 2003 there were just 16 incidents of gang members in the U.S. Armed Forces, while in 2006 the total was 10,309, according to the study, « Gang-Related Activity in the U.S. Armed Forces Increasing, » released in 2007 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Twenty-two official entities, including the Los Angeles Police Department, participated in the report.
Anyone feel a draft???
Dead Souls: The Pentagon Plan to Create Remorseless « Warfighters »
The DARPA « war fighter enhancement » programs — an acceleration of bipartisan biotinkering that’s been going on for years — will involve injecting young men and women with hormonal, neurological and genetic concoctions; implanting microchips and electrodes in their bodies to control their internal organs and brain functions; and plying them with drugs that deaden some of their normal human tendencies: the need for sleep, the fear of death, the reluctance to kill their fellow human beings.
And just what happens when the men and women upon whom this regimen has been forced when they return home?
Former Congressman Warns Of Martial Law Camps In America
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRIDNQNsUss
An article co-written by a former Congressman and carried by the San Francisco Chronicle has gained much attention recently as it shines light on a coordinated federal government program to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States.
« Since 9/11, and seemingly without the notice of most Americans, the federal government has assumed the authority to institute martial law, arrest a wide swath of dissidents (citizen and noncitizen alike), and detain people without legal or constitutional recourse in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants in the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs. » write Lewis Seiler and former Congressman Dan Hamburg of the watchdog group Voice of the Environment, Inc.
Voice of the Environment’s mission is to educate the public regarding the transfer of public trust assets into private, mostly corporate, hands.
Judges Say Men at Base are Not « Persons » Under U.S. Law
The US follows the noble precedent set by Adolf Hitler of declaring a whole population as not being « persons. »
Criminals With Badges
The American police have never prevented crimes. In olden days, the police solved crimes by finding the guilty party. No more. In our time, the police create crimes. And that is why the US prison population is twice the size of China’s, an authoritarian country with a population four to five times larger than America’s.
Thug Cop Beats Up Defenseless Handcuffed Woman
ABC
Shocking police station video of an argumentative woman who ended up unconscious in a pool of her own blood with two black eyes, a broken nose and broken teeth did not lead to criminal charges against the cop after officials claimed the woman « fell over. »
ABC: Fired officer claims woman’s ‘fall’ gave her black eyes, broken teeth
Garbarino says that Officer Wiley Willis beat her up after turning off the police video camera. Willis’s attorney insists that Garbarino slipped and fell when Willis tried to prevent her from leaving the room. However, Garbarino says that the extent of her injuries are proof that she was beaten.
From « To Protect And To Serve » to « We Treat You Like a King! »
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/ABC_Was_woman_victim_of_police_0219.html
**** FBI Deputizes Private Contractors With Extraordinary Powers, Including ‘Shoot to Kill’
One business executive, who showed me his InfraGard card, told me they have permission to « shoot to kill » in the event of martial law. InfraGard is « a child of the FBI, » says Michael Hershman, the chairman of the advisory board of the InfraGard National Members Alliance and CEO of the Fairfax Group, an international consulting firm.
So is Wackenhut.
POlice to be given real-time access to spy satellite data.
When you look at Google Earth, you are often looking at images taken many years ago. as one benign example, taking a close look at the Hawaii State Sound Stages on Oahu, the image does not show the new production office complex which was built two years ago. Many other images used to assemble the Google Earth Map are equally out of date. But police are to be given access to a system with up-to-date spy satellite photos of your homes and businesses, to peek at you, and as was the case with the Seattle APEC, steal your business secrets for their own personal profit (when they are not watching the clothing optional beaches).
The FBI Deputizes Business
Today, more than 23,000 representatives of private industry are working quietly with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The members of this rapidly growing group, called InfraGard, receive secret warnings of terrorist threats before the public does—and, at least on one occasion, before elected officials. In return, they provide information to the government, which alarms the ACLU. But there may be more to it than that. One business executive, who showed me his InfraGard card, told me they have permission to “shoot to kill” in the event of martial law.
Call me silly, but the existence of this organization, coupled with the allegation that they are given permission by the DHS to « shoot to kill » in the event of martial law, doesn’t make me feel much more safe.
Britain makes camera that « sees » under clothes
Why don’t we just order everyone to walk around naked and have done with it?
CCTV Busting Infra-Red Headset Makes You Invisible
This is not a production unit, but given that you’d only need a hat, a battery and a few LEDs, you could easily knock one up in the garage.
Keep on Tracking With GPS Shoes
Cuba demands US gives back Guantanamo Bay
US law sets the precedent where landlords may evict tenants engaged in illegal actions on their property. Hence, with the US engaged in torture and other violations of International Law, there is merit in Cuba’s demand.
It won’t happen, of course, and Cuba risks a war by asking, but they do have a point.
London bombs justify ‘torture’, says Bush
Memo to President Bush; if this country is both utilizing and justifying torture as a normal procedure to garner information under American Law, we should withdraw from any and all human rights treaties this country has ever signed immediately, just to let the world know precisely where we stand.
And where we stand is precisely shoulder to shoulder right now with every repressive, contemptible regime which does this on a routine basis.
We cannot lecture the world about human rights, freedom, human dignity and democracy, and torture at the same time: the resulting mocking laughter is becoming deafening.
White House to veto Senate ban on waterboarding
« This is an extremely valuable interrogation technique which has allowed us to identify many criminals. This soggy fellow right here, for example, has already confessed to shooting down Columbia, Challenger, and the Hindenberg, and this soggy guy here has admitted that he is Jack the Ripper. » — Official White Horse Souse
Justice Dept: Waterboarding not legal
A senior Justice Department official says laws and other limits enacted since three terrorism suspects were waterboarded has eliminated the technique from what is now legally allowed, going a step beyond what CIA Director Michael Hayden has said.
Senate votes to ban waterboarding; Bush vows veto
Joining the House, the Senate has voted to prohibit waterboarding and other harsh methods of interrogation.
Senator McCain voted AGAINST this measure.
Died hanging from wrists and gagged, with over 25 rib fractures
Yes, our tax dollars are paying for this. Hung up by the wrists and beaten so badly that he not only had over 25 separate rib fractures, many slicing into his lungs, he also had a fractured sternum. The thick, solid bone protecting your heart.
This is the image of the United States of America; a man hanging by his wrists with a shattered rib cage, slowly suffocating to death. 2000 years later, we still revile the Romans for a similar form of execution.
Torture
When « enhanced interrogation techniques » get a little too « enhanced, » they can always be outsourced to private contractors like CACI… for the right price.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2hsoadR9q0
The Torture Drawings the Pentagon Doesn’t Want You to See
The outline of Sami’s story should be familiar to readers; last summer AlterNet published a detailed article by Rachel Morris: « Prisoner 345: An Arab Journalist’s Five Years in Guantánamo, » which made clear how Sami was seized because of the erroneous claim that he had interviewed Osama bin Laden, and the disturbing fact that his many interrogations in Guantánamo have focused solely on the administration’s attempts to turn him into an informant against al-Jazeera, to « prove » a connection between the broadcaster and Osama bin Laden that does not exist. As his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith of the legal action charity Reprieve, noted bluntly and accurately in his book Eight O’Clock Ferry to the Windward Side: Seeking Justice in Guantánamo Bay, « Sami was a prisoner in the Bush Administration’s assault on al-Jazeera. »
If the US can torture people anywhere on the planet, it can ….. and will, ultimately…torture people here.
And don’t think it can’t happen; the legal framework has been put into place to make it not only possible, but probable in the not too distant future. – M. R.
Bush says US will waterboard whether legal or not
Which means Bush has just committed us to WW3, because otherwise, he will face international war crimes trials when he leaves office.
Scalia says courts shouldn’t prohibit torture
BBC
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia rejected the notion that US courts have any control over the actions of American troops at Guantanamo Bay, argued that torture of terror detainees is not banned under the US Constitution and insisted that the high court has no obligation to act as a moral beacon for other nations.
Unflipping believable.
People around the world used to appreciate America’s respect for basic human right, but no longer..
And there’s one other thing Justice Scalia might want to think about: we cannot begin to lecture other countries about freedom, human rights, and democracy when we torture.
Lieberman backs waterboarding; ‘It’s not like we’re burning people with hot coals’
Connecticut Post, Press conference
Memo to Senator Joe Lieberman; to paraphrase the American poet, Gertrude Stein, « torture is torture is torture », period, end of discussion, whether it is physical or psychological.
And sir, if you are unclear that this practice is torture, I suggest you volunteer to have the procedure done to yourself at one of the US’s « black sites », or perhaps at Gitmo.
Additionally, this form of torture can lead to death; ask any scholar of the Inquisition. Or the Nazis.
As a final note, the question is not whether waterboarding is torture or not, but whether it is cruel and unusual punishment, which is prohibited by the 8th Amendment to the Constitution. The question is whether forced confessions are self-incrimination, which is prohibited under the 5th Amendment to the Constitution.
Court gags ex-SAS man who made torture claims
A former SAS soldier was served with a high court order yesterday preventing him from making fresh disclosures about how hundreds of Iraqis and Afghans captured by British and American special forces were rendered to prisons where they faced torture.
Former SAS soldier blows apart Miliband denial of UK torture involvement.
This statement was prepared and read by Ben Griffin, ex-SAS soldier, at a press conference on Monday 25 February 2008
UK top cop who led CIA probe found dead
Associated Press
Top UK police chief is found dead
BBC
Michael Todd, the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, disappeared while out walking in Snowdonia, north Wales, on Monday night.
Rescue teams found the 50-year-old’s body on a mountain called Bwlch Glas on Tuesday afternoon.
ANOTHER DEAD BRITISH POLICE OFFICER!
BBC
Police said the body of Insp Neil Munro, 43, was found along Panorama Road, nicknamed « Millionaire’s Row », in Sandbanks, at about 0830 GMT.
Brittany Ferries confirmed a foot passenger of the same name had boarded one of their ferries on Wednesday.
Hmmmmmmmmm.
Senior Camilla bodyguard ‘shoots himself’
Sgt Fuller, who was a trained armed response officer with Wiltshire police, is thought to have shot himself with his own shotgun…
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
Police officer’s body washed ashore
Hmmmmmmmmm.
The Iraqi murdered Bishop was a staunch opponent to the US Occupation and denounced President Saddam Hussein’ execution.
Reliable sources in Mosul, asserted today, that the murdered Iraqi Bishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was a staunch opponent to the US occupation of Iraq, denouncing many times and publicly the assassination of the Iraqi legitimate President Saddam Hussein.
The mentioned sources explained that the late Archbishop of Nineveh, Paulos Faraj Rahho was one of the most outspoken Iraqi high graded clerics who rejected publicly and utterly the US’ occupation of Iraq and denounced many a times President Saddam Hussein murder by the US.
Israeli government report admits systematic torture of Palestinians
The Guardian
The Israeli internal security service, Shin Bet, used systematic torture against Palestinians and regularly lied about it, according to an Israeli government report which has been released five years after it was written.
Troops suspected of abusing Palestinian teens
Ynetnews
According to the female soldier, the two Palestinian detainees were beat up while they were handcuffed and after their eyes were covered. The soldier, who witnessed some of the abuse, said that the troops kicked the Palestinians, hit them using hand restraints, and swore at them. The evidence submitted to the court includes a testimony that charges the soldiers with placing a heater against the face of one of the boys.
The IDF indulges in behavior like this all the time: they just hate like hell getting caught at it.
Tasers Don’t Reduce Shootings, Despite Police and Politicians’ Claims
Statistics obtained by the Canadian Press bear out that idea, showing that in some of the cities that have recently adopted Tasers, the number of police shootings has remained fairly consistent and low, while Tasers are being used exponentially more often.
Taser: Police brutality with all the modern improvements.
UK: Now police are told they can use Taser guns on childrenl
The Government scientists were also asked to test whether the weapons could cause a miscarriage if used on a pregnant woman.
While not saying whether police would be allowed to Taser an expectant mother, the Home Office said the DSAC committee had « specifically asked » for computer simulations to be carried out to analyse the effect on « a pregnant female ».
Pregnant women and children need to be protected, not tasered.
We somehow used to understand how to deal with unruly kid behavior without potentially killing them.
A society which decides that it’s OK to potentially kill kids and/or pregnant women is both lost, and doomed not to survive.
Deputy tasers high school student against direct orders
Tasers, Torture and Terror Tactics: America Becomes a Police State
Being an innocent bystander, a model citizen, a Rotarian is not enough to keep you safe from rogue cops, tin-horn sheriffs, or other so-called law enforcement personnel. Who let these dogs out? Who uncorked this evil genie? What Nazi mentality makes a lethal enemy of those who had been sworn to « protect and serve » us?
Teenager Dies After Police In Charlotte Use Taser
Police said an argument escalated between Turner and one of his supervisors at a Food Lion on Prosperity Church Road. Officers said the teen assaulted a store manager by throwing an object after officers arrived on scene.
Police released a statement reading, « [Turner] was highly agitated and refused all verbal commands and began walking toward the officer. » At that point, the officer used his Taser on Turner.
Turner went to Carolinas Medical Center-University, but he died a short time later.
Taser: Police Brutality with all the Modern Improvements.
Video Shows Cop Tasering Already Restrained Disabled Man
Recently uncovered video of a disabled British Columbia man being shocked with a taser by a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer has sparked controversy and once again brought the use of such weapons into the limelight.
Taser: Police brutality with all the modern improvements.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiirafYNdGE
http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/2008/02/tasers-torture-and-terror-tactics.html
Four Hillsborough deputies dump Brian Sterner, a quadriplegic man, out of his wheelchair.
Blackwater contract in Iraq renewed for one year
The US State Department said Friday it is extending its diplomat protection contract for private security firm Blackwater USA, despite the incident last September in which Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians.
Foreign security companies at present are not subject to Iraq law, but at the same time are not governed by US military tribunals, allowing them to operate without any repercussions for their actions.
Imagine my complete (lack of) surprise.
The firm which is answerable to no one, except the state department, gets an extension of its contract.
And it gets this extension even though it has clearly demonstrated a complete lack of restraint in its behavior in Iraq.
Oops: White House spokesman admits telecoms spied
On the eve of a vote to give telephone companies immunity for their alleged participation in the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretap program, White House spokesperson Dana Perino admitted that the companies actually spied.
Because they were patriotic.
Discovery Channel Drops Plans To Air ‘Taxi To The Dark Side’ Because It Is Too ‘Controversial’
Taxi to the Dark Side, a documentary about an innocent Afghan taxi driver tortured to death by U.S. officials at Bagram Air Base, has received wide critical acclaim since its debut in April at the Tribeca Film Festival. The New York Times’s A.O. Scott said, “If recent American history is ever going to be discussed with the necessary clarity and ethical rigor, this film will be essential.”
Apparently, telling the truth about what this country does has become a crime.
So the powers that be will simply make absolutely certain that most of the general public, (which needs to see what is being done in their names and with their tax dollars) will never see this documentary.
Who leaked the details of a CIA-Mossad plot against Iran?
The Bush administration is prolonging the hunting season against journalists. The latest victim is James Risen, The New York Times reporter for national security and intelligence affairs. About three months ago, a federal grand jury issued a subpoena against him, ordering Risen to give evidence in court. A heavy blackout has been imposed on the affair, with the only hint being that it has to do with sensitive matters of « national security. »
Operation Merlin
However, Operation Merlin, which was so creative and original, failed because of CIA bungled planning. The false information inserted into the blueprints were too obvious and too easily detected and the Russian engineer discovered them. As planned, he made contact with the Iranian delegation to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna and handed over to them, also as planned, the blueprints.
But contrary to the CIA’s intention, he added a letter to the blueprints in which he pointed out the mistakes. He did not do this with ill intent or out of a desire to disrupt the operation and harm his operators. On the contrary, he did so out of a deep sense of mission and in order to satisfy his American operators. He hoped that in this way he would simply increase the Iranians’ trust in him and encourage them to make contact with him for the good, of course, of his American operators.
The result was disastrous. Not only did the CIA fail to prevent the Iranians in their efforts to enhance their nuclear program, this operation may also have made it possible for them to get their hands on a plan for assembling a nuclear warhead.
Freedom of the press
Risen is not the first journalist to have been subpoenaed to give evidence before a grand jury and reveal his sources. According to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, some 65 journalists have been summoned for such investigations since 2001. Some agreed, cooperated and testified. Most refused, so that they would not have to reveal their sources. In this way, they exposed themselves to being charged with contempt of court.
Germany prosecuted more than 17,000 thought crimes last year
California Toll Agency Wants Power to Seize Cars
The last official act of any government is to loot its population.
This war on terrorism is bogus
Five years late, the mainstream media finally catches up with the blogs.
Lou Dobbs: New World Order Can Be Defeated
CNN host Lou Dobbs says that the New World Order can be defeated but only if « Americans awaken and soon, » as he attacked the Bush administration’s « shameless » destruction of U.S. sovereignty on a nationally syndicated radio show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irkyi-YWocw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSDoyzMsdg8
In Merry Old England, it is now illegal to take photographs. If you do so in public, the cops will consider you an active member of al-Qaeda.
With friends like these …
Facebook has 59 million users – and 2 million new ones join each week. But you won’t catch Tom Hodgkinson volunteering his personal information – not now that he knows the politics of the people behind the social networking site
The Guardian,
Facebook has 59 million users – and 2 million new ones join each week. But you won’t catch Tom Hodgkinson volunteering his personal information – not now that he knows the politics of the people behind the social networking site
Although the project was initially conceived by media cover star Mark Zuckerberg, the real face behind Facebook is the 40-year-old Silicon Valley venture capitalist and futurist philosopher Peter Thiel. There are only three board members on Facebook, and they are Thiel, Zuckerberg and a third investor called Jim Breyer from a venture capital firm called Accel Partners (more on him later). Thiel invested $500,000 in Facebook when Harvard students Zuckerberg, Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskowitz went to meet him in San Francisco in June 2004, soon after they had launched the site. Thiel now reportedly owns 7% of Facebook, which, at Facebook’s current valuation of $15bn, would be worth more than $1bn. There is much debate on who exactly were the original co-founders of Facebook, but whoever they were, Zuckerberg is the only one left on the board, although Hughes and Moskowitz still work for the company.
Thiel is widely regarded in Silicon Valley and in the US venture capital scene as a libertarian genius. He is the co-founder and CEO of the virtual banking system PayPal, which he sold to Ebay for $1.5bn, taking $55m for himself. He also runs a £3bn hedge fund called Clarium Capital Management and a venture capital fund called Founders Fund. Bloomberg Markets magazine recently called him « one of the most successful hedge fund managers in the country ».
The third board member of Facebook is Jim Breyer. He is a partner in the venture capital firm Accel Partners, who put $12.7m into Facebook in April 2005. On the board of such US giants as Wal-Mart and Marvel Entertainment, he is also a former chairman of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). Now these are the people who are really making things happen in America, because they invest in the new young talent, the Zuckerbergs and the like. Facebook’s most recent round of funding was led by a company called Greylock Venture Capital, who put in the sum of $27.5m. One of Greylock’s senior partners is called Howard Cox, another former chairman of the NVCA, who is also on the board of In-Q-Tel. What’s In-Q-Tel? Well, believe it or not (and check out their website), this is the venture-capital wing of the CIA. After 9/11, the US intelligence community became so excited by the possibilities of new technology and the innovations being made in the private sector, that in 1999 they set up their own venture capital fund, In-Q-Tel, which « identifies and partners with companies developing cutting-edge technologies to help deliver these solutions to the Central Intelligence Agency and the broader US Intelligence Community (IC) to further their missions ».
The US defence department and the CIA love technology because it makes spying easier. « We need to find new ways to deter new adversaries, » defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in 2003. « We need to make the leap into the information age, which is the critical foundation of our transformation efforts. » In-Q-Tel’s first chairman was Gilman Louie, who served on the board of the NVCA with Breyer. Another key figure in the In-Q-Tel team is Anita K Jones, former director of defence research and engineering for the US department of defence, and – with Breyer – board member of BBN Technologies. When she left the US department of defence, Senator Chuck Robb paid her the following tribute: « She brought the technology and operational military communities together to design detailed plans to sustain US dominance on the battlefield into the next century. »
Now even if you don’t buy the idea that Facebook is some kind of extension of the American imperialist programme crossed with a massive information-gathering tool, there is no way of denying that as a business, it is pure mega-genius. Some net nerds have suggsted that its $15bn valuation is excessive, but I would argue that if anything that is too modest. Its scale really is dizzying, and the potential for growth is virtually limitless. « We want everyone to be able to use Facebook, » says the impersonal voice of Big Brother on the website. I’ll bet they do. It is Facebook’s enormous potential that led Microsoft to buy 1.6% for $240m. A recent rumour says that Asian investor Lee Ka-Shing, said to be the ninth richest man in the world, has bought 0.4% of Facebook for $60m.
The creators of the site need do very little bar fiddle with the programme. In the main, they simply sit back and watch as millions of Facebook addicts voluntarily upload their ID details, photographs and lists of their favourite consumer objects. Once in receipt of this vast database of human beings, Facebook then simply has to sell the information back to advertisers, or, as Zuckerberg puts it in a recent blog post, « to try to help people share information with their friends about things they do on the web ». And indeed, this is precisely what’s happening. On November 6 last year, Facebook announced that 12 global brands had climbed on board. They included Coca-Cola, Blockbuster, Verizon, Sony Pictures and Condé Nast. All trained in marketing bullshit of the highest order, their representatives made excited comments along the following lines:
« With Facebook Ads, our brands can become a part of the way users communicate and interact on Facebook, » said Carol Kruse, vice president, global interactive marketing, the Coca-Cola Company.
« We view this as an innovative way to cultivate relationships with millions of Facebook users by enabling them to interact with Blockbuster in convenient, relevant and entertaining ways, » said Jim Keyes, Blockbuster chairman and CEO. « This is beyond creating advertising impressions. This is about Blockbuster participating in the community of the consumer so that, in return, consumers feel motivated to share the benefits of our brand with their friends. »
« Share » is Facebookspeak for « advertise ». Sign up to Facebook and you become a free walking, talking advert for Blockbuster or Coke, extolling the virtues of these brands to your friends. We are seeing the commodification of human relationships, the extraction of capitalistic value from friendships.
Facebook’s privacy policy
Just for fun, try substituting the words ‘Big Brother’ whenever you read the word ‘Facebook’
1 We will advertise at you
« When you use Facebook, you may set up your personal profile, form relationships, send messages, perform searches and queries, form groups, set up events, add applications, and transmit information through various channels. We collect this information so that we can provide you the service and offer personalised features. »
2 You can’t delete anything
« When you update information, we usually keep a backup copy of the prior version for a reasonable period of time to enable reversion to the prior version of that information. »
3 Anyone can glance at your intimate confessions
« … we cannot and do not guarantee that user content you post on the site will not be viewed by unauthorised persons. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the site. You understand and acknowledge that, even after removal, copies of user content may remain viewable in cached and archived pages or if other users have copied or stored your user content. »
4 Our marketing profile of you will be unbeatable
« Facebook may also collect information about you from other sources, such as newspapers, blogs, instant messaging services, and other users of the Facebook service through the operation of the service (eg, photo tags) in order to provide you with more useful information and a more personalised experience. »
5 Opting out doesn’t mean opting out
« Facebook reserves the right to send you notices about your account even if you opt out of all voluntary email notifications. »
6 The CIA may look at the stuff when they feel like it
« By using Facebook, you are consenting to have your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States … We may be required to disclose user information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or in compliance with applicable laws. We do not reveal information until we have a good faith belief that an information request by law enforcement or private litigants meets applicable legal standards. Additionally, we may share account or other information when we believe it is necessary to comply with law, to protect our interests or property, to prevent fraud or other illegal activity perpetrated through the Facebook service or using the Facebook name, or to prevent imminent bodily harm. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, agents or government agencies. »
Update on World War III
The final phase or aftermath of WW III is the destruction of the United States so what remains can be folded into the North American Union. The Iranian response to the Israeli air strike will include the cut off of all oil from the Persian Gulf which should raise the price of oil to $300 or $400 a barrel. That would bankrupt more than 50% of all American families as they would have no means of buying gas to get to work. The destruction of the dollar will make food unaffordable too. »
http://openingmind.blogspot.com/
Ventura Cites 2nd Amendment During Revolution Talk
Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura was able to make some very forceful points amidst the satirical atmosphere of his appearance on The Colbert Report last night, including a reminder that the second amendment was put in the bill of rights to give Americans the ability to rise up against a tyrannical government.
http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=165019
Ludicrous Hit Piece Attacks Ventura On WTC Collapse Comments
An almost unbelievably absurd and weak hit piece against Jesse Ventura’s contention that WTC 7 was deliberately imploded on 9/11 compares a 4-story church that was a stone’s throw away from the twin towers
Search warrants for child porn too slow, say RCMP
Child pornography investigations in Atlantic Canada are being held up by internet service providers who require search warrants before providing customer information, say RCMP.
Heads-up Canadians! Under the rubric of « Child Porn » Canada will now allow warrantless searches of your computers and internet traffic. They may find some child porn (although I am starting to wonder how much child porn is planted by the government to justify the suspension of warrants), but rest assured they will be giving equal if not greater attention to intellectual property theft, and if Canada’s RCMP is anything like the FBI, stealing your business information with which to engage in a little insider trading. – M. R.
–> States quietly buy, mine personal data — including names of your associates and relatives
The government is rounding up your cell phone numbers, insurance claims, credit reports, financial records, and the names of your associates and relatives and sharing them with law enforcement officials nationwide.
But it’s not President George W. Bush, who’s taken fire over his warrantless wiretapping program, or the National Security Agency, which oversaw the interception of Americans’ calls overseas.
It’s your state.
LNI Média 