A juggling technophile shares personal stories, challenges, humor and perhaps some political commentary.
Can’t believe I forgot about this! I watched this story with great interest in the wayback. This started in 2003 and was publicly outed in 2006:
"the NSA built a special room to receive data streamed through an AT&T Internet room containing “peering links,” or major connections to other telecom providers. The largest of the links delivered 2.5 gigabits of data — the equivalent of one-quarter of the Encyclopedia Britannica’s text — per second,"
Google "Room 641A" for more information.
A California corporation has been awarded has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom) to build the Ministry of Truth. "The project has been likened by web experts to China’s attempts to control and restrict free speech on the internet."
The Centcom contract stipulates that each fake online persona must have a convincing background, history and supporting details, and that up to 50 US-based controllers should be able to operate false identities from their workstations "without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries".
[Source, guardian.co.uk, Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media]
Now, before you grab your tinfoil hat (and mine is shinier than yours), note that "said none of the interventions would be in English, as it would be unlawful to ‘address US audiences’ with such technology"
…any English-language use of social media by Centcom was always clearly attributed. The languages in which the interventions are conducted include Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto.
In his evidence to the Senate committee, Gen Mattis said: "OEV seeks to disrupt recruitment and training of suicide bombers; deny safe havens for our adversaries; and counter extremist ideology and propaganda." He added that Centcom was working with “our coalition partners” to develop new techniques and tactics the US could use "to counter the adversary in the cyber domain".
[Source, guardian.co.uk, Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media]
See also: Inspector General – Information Operations Contracts in Iraq page 9, Operation Earnest Voice (OEV) – online engagement, The man behind Operation Earnest Voice, and Operation Earnest Voice Part III.
Take heed!
The loss of civil rights happen slowly, so we are not supposed to take notice. Once our freedoms are gone, they will not be given back to us. [Source, NetworkWorld, The Stripping of Freedom: EPIC vs. DHS on TSA Body Scanners]
Like the questions surrounding JFK’s assassination, I don’t think we will ever have definitive answers to what happened on September 11, 2001. Scientists, some who have since been released from their university or laboratory jobs, have released a paper "Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe" which will likely have conspiracy theorists once again presenting their arguments that the plane alone could not have destroyed the World Trade Center.
We have discovered distinctive red/gray chips in all the samples we have studied of the dust produced by the destruction of the World Trade Center. Examination of four of these samples, collected from separate sites, is reported in this paper. These red/gray chips show marked similarities in all four samples. One sample was collected by a Manhattan resident about ten minutes after the collapse of the second WTC Tower, two the next day, and a fourth about a week later. … The red portion of these chips is found to be an unreacted thermitic material and highly energetic. [Source, Bentham Open Access,Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe]
For more information on the super-thermite, read The Raw Deal.
Today on Reddit, the question was posed "2,740 Americans died in 9/11, justifying the removal/restrictions of many of our freedoms. How many people died to give us those rights in the first place?" Within the answers, this illuminating comment:
It’s sort of a nationalistic cliche to say that soldiers fight for our freedom but what they really fight for is the sovereignty of our government, which happens to guarantee us certain freedoms.
When we say a soldier died fighting for our freedoms, what we really mean is that he died in a war which threatened the loss of some or all of American sovereignty to a foreign or domestic power which would likely guarantee less rights than the present government.
This distinction is important because in the history of American wars, very few have definitively fallen under that category – and even in those cases, preserving the rights of American citizens was ancillary to sustaining or expanding the sovereign power of the U.S. government.
We now live with a generation that has never known the feeling, the freedoms, we had prior to September 11, 2001. There is a different feeling. I felt more secure! I wish my youngest children could know that feeling and could experience true trust. I have lived with a tension since 9/11 that I had not known prior. The tension is not from a fear of terrorists; they’ve always been around (well, at least from the 1960s First U.S. Aircraft Hijacked, May 1, 1961 and at least 1800BC for the rest of the world). The fear is from my own government! Prior to 9/11 the police were different; now everyone should fear the police.
Question: “The police are here. They want to talk to me. What should I do?”
Answer: “Make no statement to the police under any circumstances.”
– Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson
[Source, Brasscheck TV, Why you should
never talk to cops
without a lawyer]
The point of terrorism is to cause terror, sometimes to further a political goal and sometimes out of sheer hatred. The people terrorists kill are not the targets; they are collateral damage. And blowing up planes, trains, markets or buses is not the goal; those are just tactics.
The real targets of terrorism are the rest of us: the billions of us who are not killed but are terrorized because of the killing. The real point of terrorism is not the act itself, but our reaction to the act.
And we’re doing exactly what the terrorists want.
[Source, Bruce Schneier – Security Expert, Refuse to be Terrorized]
Whether the terrible incident of September 11, 2001 was foreign or domestic terrorism, whether it was solely the plane or the plane timed with well placed explosives is irrelevant. Our society has dramatically changed, some say irrevocably. We were a better America when we could trust our government. We were a better America when the police were not the enemy. We were a better America before Civil liberties were taken away.
See also: Timeline of Terrorism dating back to 1800BC and History of Terrorism 70s to 2001.
See also: Professor Says "Cutter Charges" Brought Down WTC Buildings (Issue #18 & 19, May 1 & 8, 2006)
The last man out says there were explosions in the basement.
This is from Rosie.com
Update: A friend on IRC asked, "you seriously questioning the WTC was just planes or not?" From time to time I think of the open questions like Silverman’s insurance policy, the assessment that the towers needed to be torn down and rebuilt but was too costly an endeavor, the demolition style collapse of the buildings instead of toppling, and all the other babble from the conspiracy theorists. Now, I love a good conspiracy theory. Conspiracy for 9/11 almost writes itself. When I write conspiracy, it’s just creative writing often for satirical purposes. The truth of the matter is that 9/11 was the second attempt by terrorist to bring buildings down. The first attempt was with 1500 pounds of explosives in the basement in February 1993. Including explosives in the basement is conceivable for an effort that planned to organize 10 planes and at one point included simultaneous attacks on 2 continents before being scaled back to the 4 plans used on 9/11.
The commission found that the plot originally called for hijacking 10 planes and attacking targets on the eastern and western coasts of the United States.
The plot also called for hijacking and blowing up 12 airliners in Southeast Asia, but al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden scrapped that part of the plan because it was too difficult to coordinate operations on two continents.
Bin Laden scaled back the plot in the United States to the four planes that were eventually used in the attack.
[Source, CNN, 9/11 panel: Al Qaeda planned to hijack 10 planes, 17 June 2004]
I doubt it though. That day was horrible. I watched it broadcast live and as smoke billowed out from the towers I was amazed they were still standing. But like JFK’s assassination, I think people will believe strongly one way or another and that some questions will never be answered. None-the-less, I found Rosie’s video interesting.
Bin Laden wanted oil to be $144 a barrel instead of $11 a barrel.
In a 1998 interview, Osama bin Laden — the terrorist organizer of 9/11 who still roams free — listed as one of his many grievances against the U.S. that Americans "have stolen $36 trillion from Muslims" by purchasing oil from Persian Gulf countries at low prices. The real price of a barrel of oil should be $144, bin Laden demanded. [Source, Think Progress, FLASHBACK: Ten Years Ago, Bin Laden Demanded Barrel Of Oil Should Cost $144]
Seen on Knoxviews.
When you heard that "[a] court had recently found Deborah Jeane Palfrey guilty of money laundering, racketeering and mail fraud in connection with a high-end prostitution ring operating in Washington D.C." [Source, Truemors], didn’t you just immediately wonder which senator was afraid of having his or her super kinky dungeon fantasies revealed?
Suicide notes were found near the body in a small storage shed next to a mobile home…Palfrey, 52, was reportedly staying at the home of her mother…Prosecutors estimated the sentence she would have likely received would have been…about six years…She argued it was a legitimate, legal escort service. [Source, CNN, ‘D.C. Madam’ found dead]
The low budget spy thriller writes itself.
Papers please. Thanks Tom.
3 critical cables mysteriously break and are blamed on ships. Video proves no ships were in the area. Iran loses 100% connectivity to the Internet. Does this sound right?
To me it sounds like AT&T is installing a secret room in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea!
Now for some US/Iran studies: If Iran Were America (And We Were Iran): A Timeline by J.L. Byran.
Update: Now the report says 5 cables have been cut.
Update: The secret room might look like NOAA’s Aquarius Undersea Lab.
All those cameras and now "give us your keys."
People in the UK who encrypt their data are now obliged by law to give up the encryption keys to law enforcement officials…[Source]
Note: I have not confirmed the above against any other sources.
Per capita there are more surveillance cameras in the UK than any other country in the world…
The average city dweller can expect to be captured on film every five minutes…
[Source]
Yup. The United States created Al Qaeda. Note: A commenter, Mark, points out This is from a documentary by Adam Curtis called “The Power of Nightmares” which you can download from www.archive.org
to see it in full.
[Update 25-Jan-2017]: And so it is happening.
I joke about conspiracy theories a lot. They are fun to make up. But, getting serious for a minute, first the dog food and now the toothpaste! (direct link to toothpaste story) In January of 2005, I noted that The CIA reports that China and India will be world super powers by the year 2020 and the United States will take a backseat
as well as China has forecasted the demise of the United States in reports from the early 1980s and again in 1991 citing the same timeframe that the CIA is now releasing.
The year 2020 is just around the corner! N.B. That also means The Singularity is almost here!
THE latest Central Intelligence Agency report mentioning that India will be a super power by 2020 is more amusing than true. Nevertheless, it should prompt introspection. The CIA’s aim is to prepare the US for future economic challenges from China and India. [emphasis added] The spurt in growth in the two countries is credited to the IMF-World Bank’s reform agenda, which aims to push privatisation, deregulate trade and open up markets. [Source]
Aren’t we currently trying to get the right person in charge of the World Bank? So (here comes some opinionated conspiracy theory) Wolfowitz didn’t want to cooperate with Bush’s agenda of destabilizing the Indian and Chinese economies and got replaced!.
India’s richest man builds 60-storey home [for his 6 person family and their 600 full-time staff]…The Indian economy is soaring: yesterday it posted annual growth of 9.4%. Friends of the Ambanis told the Guardian that the billionaire’s new home was "comparable to those owned by friends such as Lakshmi Mittal". [Source]
Want to read some incredible stuff with quotes like According to some Chinese military authors, the United States already knows China can defeat it in 2020
and the idea that U.S. strength is weakening and that its policies will no longer be effective throughout the world is not new in the 1990s. Using internal Chinese documents, Professor Robert S. Ross has shown it was alleged in the early 1980s
. This document, packed with citations and references to support its data, is sobering in it explanation of what was to come and is happening now.
Another analyst at that time argued that U.S. "position of strength is declining" and U.S. policy will "lead to failure everywhere." [emphasis added] [Source]
What’s this got to do with dog food and toothpaste? Our dog is being wagged! This is the beginning of a play to grow dissension toward the Chinese and sway public opinion to place economic sanctions on China. Decisions by the president of the World Bank will further help to corrupt and destabilize the Chinese economy. China is ahead of the United States in preparing for a digital war as predicted in the National Defense University Press’ January 2000 publication China Debates the Future Security Environment.
China’s military is preparing for electronic warfare by setting up information warfare units that are developing viruses to attack enemy computers and networks, according to the Department of Defense’s annual report to Congress. …the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) has also established tactics to protect its own computer systems and networks and those of friendly states. Since 2005, the PLA has been including offensive network attacks into its exercises… [Source]
General Pan Junfeng states that the United States will not have formed a full information warfare force until the middle of the 21st century. He explains three ways that in future wars American computers can be very vulnerable. "We can make the enemy’s command centers not work by changing their data system. We can cause the enemy’s headquarters to make incorrect judgments by sending disinformation. We can dominate the enemy’s banking system and even its entire social order." [Source]
The moves our government is making match the predictions in the article which references some scary realities.
- The United States barely won the Gulf War.
- Saddam could have won with a better strategy.
- The United States today cannot “contain” Chinese power.
- The United States is unable to execute its military strategy of two major regional contingencies.
- U.S. munitions cannot damage deep underground bunkers (like those in China).
[Source]
Maybe there was really nothing wrong with the dog food and toothpaste. Perhaps dog food and toothpaste was the United States’ first, preemptive, strike in the Chinese war. Blind faith in your leaders, or anything, will get you killed. (Brice Springsteen) [Author: Jack Bungart Date: August 22, 2005 Publication: Times-Herald (Vallejo, CA) Article ID: 2963260 ] How’s your Kanji?
The BBC explains black flag (aka false flag) operations.
Other False Flag ops: The Gulf of Tonkin, Reichstag Fire, Operation Northwoods, 9-11, and to some degree the Lusitania, Gulf I, and Pearl Harbor. We baited the enemy in the latter 3 cases.
Do I believe all of these? Not sure. But the video certainly makes you think about the lies the government makes to justify world policy.
Do you think the government listens to everything? This article on AT&T’s secret room might get you thinking.
In a nondescript building near the junction of Interstates 70 and 270 in Bridgeton, Mo., just outside of St. Louis, lies what appears to be the heart of AT&T’s secret network surveillance on behalf of the U.S. government, former employees of the company said. [Source]
Update: Mark Klein, a former AT&T technician tells his story of the secret room.
