Everyone is suddenly talking about the Deep State –
the cartels of state security agencies, career bureaucrats, corporate businesses in the military / industrial complex, surveillance contractors, 'opinion makers' and 'philanthropists' whose omnipresence in democratic societies has been brought to light by President Trump’s claims that he was “
wiretapped” by his predecessor, and before that by internet whistleblowers like Manning and Snowden and websites such as Wikileaks.
This blog (and our other publications have been talking about The Deep State, the Shadow Government, The Controllers, call them what you will, since before there was alt_journalism and new media. It's not a new think, in fact the establishment of a political establishment, a cliquish caste of lawyers, scholars, military leaders and money men, was probably one of the first things to happen when humans began to form civilised communities.
Because Trump's opponents got their knickers in a right old twist about this alleged 'wiretapping', let's put things in perspective. Wiretapping is an illegal eavesdropping technique that in its true form is obsolete in this era of digital surveillance and Trumps words could in no way be construed as a suggestion that Obama was personally involved in physically setting up any electronic eavesdropping equipment or software. And we now know that several US Government agencies were certainly surveilling Trump campaign headquarters during the 2016
election campaign.
It was because of his habit of making imprecise statements, as if he is thinking aloud rather than making a well thought out statement when addressing the media which enabled those who cannot accept his victory over Hillary Clinton or the fact that he is now US President to ascribe the surveillance to Barack Obama, and so naturally spokesmen
for the former President had no trouble batting this charge away. But as a former Obama speechwriter
put it:
“I’d be careful about reporting that Obama said there was no wiretapping. Statement just said that neither he nor the [White House]
ordered it.”
And then there’s the word “wiretapping”: this brings to mind the old-fashioned physical “bug” that old fashioned spooks like James Bond used to plant on the phone lines of suspected subversives, installed with tools from a harware store in the dead of night.
But that isn’t how it’s done anymore. As Edward Snowden revealed and as I know from my career in computers and digital networking, the National Security Agency (NSA) in the USA and the UK Government's GCHQ scoop up everyone’s data and metadate, and store it all in a vast, relational database for later retrieval. Loosely-observed “rules” are supposed to make it hard (but not impossible) for the spooks to spy on American citizens, but the reality is that there are plenty of times when such information is scooped up “incidentally,” and in those cases the identities of those spied on must be redacted.
Except not anymore.Cooperation from Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, Google, Facebook, internet service providers and cellular network operators have made possible the sucking up of very detailed information on peoples' movements and activities and building of a reasonable accurate profile of that person.
As the
New York Times reported on January 12:
“In its final days, the Obama administration has expanded the power of the National Security Agency to share globally intercepted personal communications with the government’s 16 other intelligence agencies before applying privacy protections.
“The new rules significantly relax longstanding limits on what the N.S.A. may do with the information gathered by its most powerful surveillance operations, which are largely unregulated by American wiretapping laws. These include collecting satellite transmissions, phone calls and emails that cross network switches abroad, and messages between people abroad that cross domestic network switches.
“The change means that far more officials will be searching through raw data…”
At the same time some White House officials were scrambling to spread disinformation about Russian efforts to undermine the presidential election and about possible contacts between associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump and Russians – across the government.”
And it looks like Obama administration officials were quick to make use of this loosening of regulation after Trump’s victory. As the
Times reported on March 1, after Trump won they were combing through the unredacted
raw data looking for evidence of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign:
Their goal was to leave an audit trail of intelligence for government investigators. So sore were members of the Obama administration that Trump had beaten Hillary Clinton and their tickets on the gravy train had been cancelled, they apparently didn’t wait for the investigation to find the planted data, a stream of reportage about “intercepts” involving Trump associates, such as former National Security Council advisor Michael Flynn communicating with Russian officials, found its way onto the front pages of the nation’s newspapers. The source of this intelligence is the key to understanding what happened. The
Times tells us:
“American allies, including the British and the Dutch, had provided information describing meetings in European cities between Russian officials – and others close to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin – and associates of President-elect Trump, according to three former American officials who requested anonymity in discussing classified intelligence.
“Separately, American intelligence agencies had intercepted communications of Russian officials, some of them within the Kremlin, discussing contacts with Trump associates.”
Forget about looking court records of applications for warrants to spy on Trump & Co.: it wasn’t necessary. Such archaic relics of the free society was the attitude. as warrants had no place in the brave New World of Obamaland. "If we can do it, that makes it OK to do it,"
"Seventeen different government agencies shouldn’t be rooting through Americans’ emails with family members, friends and colleagues, all without ever obtaining a warrant," warned American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Patrick Toomey at the time the rules defining NSA powers and constraints were thrown out.
But nobody cared, we live in a scientific age and as far as science is concerned justice is a chimera and the end justifies the means. Ironically Trump and his supporters, generally approve of governments spying on citizens and anything else that wears a “national security” identification badge, they had not raised a stink about what Obama was up to and so deserved to be the first victims. Thus the anti-Trump coup plotters were given carte blance to do their dirty deeds. On January 12 a
New York Times story reported:
“Under the new system, agencies will ask the N.S.A. for access to specific surveillance feeds, making the case that they contain information relevant and useful to their missions. The N.S.A. will grant requests it deems reasonable after considering factors like whether large amounts of Americans’ private information might be included and, if so, how damaging or embarrassing it would be if that information were ‘improperly used or disclosed.’”
All the leakers had to do was run the material gathered by the NSA through a keyword search and cherry-pick what looked incriminating. Maybe there was nothing to find or maybe, due to the typical incompetence of Team Obama members, there was could have been smoking gun or we would surely have known about it by now. But the lack of such was no obstacle to their goal, which was to give the #NeverTrump cause a banner around which to rally the Clintonistas post-election – “The Russians did it!” – and create a dark cloud of suspicion over Trump’s presidency as being somehow illegitimate.
The new rules on disseminating raw NSA intercepts went into effect on January 3, after then Attorney General Loretta Lynch signed on: the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had previously signed on December 12. And if we look at the reportage coming out of the media, that’s when the stories detailing the alleged links between Trump appointees and Russian government officials started hitting fans and front pages.
It’s difficult to see how anyone could deny that the Surveillance State did a number on Trump and tried to derail his presidency (though Obama fans and Clinton supporters will.) Only days after the loosened NSA rules went into effect, the
Washington Post ran a story headlined “
US Intercepts Capture Senior Russian Officials Celebrating Trump Win”:
The Most Shocking Revelation From The CIA-Spying Scandal
Via Simon Black of SovereignMan.com
detailing the agency’s hacking of smart phones, routers, computers, and even televisions. These leaked documents reveal that the CIA can and has hacked devices that were supposedly secure– iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. And that is where the cooperation of Microsoft, Google, Apple et al comes in. The documents further reveal that the CIA is deliberately infecting personal computers with spyware, including Windows, Mac OS/X, Solaris, Linux, and other operating systems.
Security agencies are also hacking WiFi routers to deploy software that monitors Internet activity, and have even figured out how to bypass anti-virus software so that their spyware cannot be detected.
The technical stuff is not that impressive, the government agencies, in spite of or perhaps because of their policy of hiring the most highly qualified 'computer science' graduates from top universities and having almost unlimited budgets are still way behind amateur nerds who have hardly any formal qualifications but spend their lives hunched over computers (rad The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo if you doubt me.) Where government agencies are strong is in propaganda; with the help of friendly mainstream media they persuaded the world to believe that Russian hackers, not the CIA, are behind all this malware and spyware.
US-EU Privacy Shield Data-Sharing Agreement Blasted as Inadequate
The issue arises from the strict EU laws — enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union — to the privacy of citizens personal data. As we all know thanks to the material leaked by Ed Snowden and others the United States National Security Agency (NSA) does not regard anything as private,
New German Government Smartphone Spyware Will Monitor Citizens’ Calls, Typing AND See Through Their Camera Lenses
The German Interior Ministry has revealed a new “Bundestrojaner” or government trojan horse software that will enable security agencies to track the smartphone activities of anyone who downloads it. We understand Chancellor Merkel's government has also adopted an “off the shelf” tool from a company which is said to help authoritarian regimes track their citizens ...
Latest NSA Spying Scandal: White House Spied On US Congress.
During the aftermath of Ed Snowden's NSA snooping revelations which revealed the US had been spying on its closest allies for years, Barack Hussein Obama announced he had banned eavesdropping by U.S. government agencies on leaders of US allies and promised he would begin to curtail the collection of Americans' phone data in a series of limited reforms. Unsurprisingly the president was lying,
Big Data and The Surveillance Society
We kill people based on metadata. – Gen. Michael Hayden, former head of the NSA and CIA.
Bene vixit, bene qui latuit. (To live well is to live concealed) - – Ovid (43 BC - 18 AD)The most sacred thing is to be able to shut your own door. – G.K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936).
I don't know why people are so keen to put the details of their private lives in public; they forget that invisibility is a superpower. – Banksy (2006)
New IBM software lets banks and retailers spy on Social Media Activities
Last Thursday (May 28) IBM launched 20 new applications with built in predictive analytics capabilities that will make it easier and faster for corporations to repond to what is revealed by your internet browsing habits.
John Kerry Calls For The Internet To Be Placed Under The Authority Of The United Nations
US Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking earlier this week in South Korea, said that the Internet “needs rules to be able to flourish and work properly.” This, according to Kerry, is necessary even for “a technology founded on freedom.” Kerry made his remarks in the context of talking about how international law is applicable to the Internet.
Whistleblower Exposes USA regine's torture of it's citizens
Just a couple of days ago we picked up a story from one of our favourite Whistleblower sites about a US Government Homeland Security site in Chicago where very strage things were going on. Our report compared it to The Ministry Of Love in Gorge Orwell's novel 1984.
We Predicted An Orwellian Nightmare. Now Obama's Ministry Of Love Is Identified
Back in 2008 we predicted pretty accurately how things would turn out under Presdident Barack Obama. We were not totally correct (well we are a British site) but where we erred it was on the side of caution. For example while it was easy enough to be aware that the egomaniacal
Thousands To Make Legal Stand Againt UK & US Government Surveillance.
Human rights organisation launches legal action to halt electronic mass surveillance. You can join them and be one of the names sueing GCHQ and the NSA. Learn how and read the full story of the Privacy International action below.
Secret ‘BADASS’ Intelligence Program Used To Spy On Smartphones.
Oh what a laugh, what a grin, those kool dudes who strut around with their iPhones clamped to their ear to show us that they paid $500 for a phone they could hsve bought for $150 had they been willing to do without the little Apple logo, and those who bought smart phones because, well everybody who is anybody has one, have been well and truly had.
Virtual ID has arrived – why you should resist taking it up
We told you some years ago when our publication appeared under a different name that the then Labour Government's plan for compulsory electronic ID cards was the step that would take us over the line from a seblance of liberal democracy into oligarchic fascism. Labour's plan was derailed by public opposition but now it has been rehashed and is presented with fluffy window dressing. A vote for Labour, Conservative Or Liberal Democrat is a vote for fascism. You have been warned.
Virtual ID has arrived – why you should resist taking it up
We told you some years ago when our publication appeared under a different name that the then Labour Government's plan for compulsory electronic ID cards was the step that would take us over the line from a seblance of liberal democracy into oligarchic fascism. Labour's plan was derailed by public opposition but now it has been rehashed and is presented with fluffy window dressing. A vote for Labour, Conservative Or Liberal Democrat is a vote for fascism. You have been warned.
Big Brother Is Right Behind You And He Knows What you Are Up To
No doubt the smug complacent bourgeois fools will shouth conspiracy theirist and the emotionally needy leftist Sheeple will
bleat "racist bigot" (they always bleat "racist bigot" but it is not alarmist to say the UK is slowly becoming a totalitarian state. What else can we calli our nation if anti - terror laws are being used prosecute people for low-level offences such as Television licence dodging.
Henry Kissinger On The New World Order
OK, let the Politically Correct screechers screech 'conspiracy Theory'. Kissinger has of course been a long time advocate of corporatist global totalitarian government by elitis oligarchs and has himself used the phrase New World Order to describe what he sees as the best hope for the future and what those of us outside his small elitist clique see as fascism
The New World Order And Not A Reptillian Alien In Sight
The phrase New World Order is guaranteed to attract shouts of 'conspiracy theorist' from the useful idiots who think the political elite would be their friends (if only the right political party were in power). But with all parties offering an identical package of policies, isn't it time to explore what this New World Order the elite have been talking about for over a hundred years will mean to us if we let it come into being.
Global Corporatocracy Set To Take Over The World
Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Orwell's '1984' Philip K Dick's Minority Report, which of these do the New World Order plan to use as the model for their corporate - scientific dictatorship? The answer is all of them. Concepts like individual freedom and democracy are anathema to our new unhappy lords and once the infrastructure is in place these inconveniences will be swept aside along with nations, traditional cultures and everything else that binds us to our fellow humans.
Privacy Wrecking Technologies That Are Systematically Transforming America Into A Giant Prison
Some people insisted it was all a conspiracy theory. Even now they know the extent government and corporations are snooping on us via internet and electronic technology they try to insist it is for our wellbeing and there is no sinister hidden agenda. If you find their assurances comforting you really nead to read this article
What's The Use Of Windows That Cannot Be Closed
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