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Publicerad den 25 juli 2013
The show must go on - that is the message from American lawmakers who have allowed the National Security Agency to continue spying both at home and abroad. Publicerad den 25 juli 2013
A motion to curb its activities was blocked in the House of Representatives by a narrow margin of only 12 votes. Pete Ashdown, owner of small internet company Xmission who refused to give data to NSA, joins RT studio.
- Despite the size and scope of Edward Snowden's NSA whistleblowing, there's little sign of Washington DC changing its practices, and even less of an indication that any of its European allies will actually hold it to account.
Global Data Industry: A Digital Cartel
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The corporate aspect should not be underrated in terms of its central role in the international digital data trade. Edward Snowden’s PRISM revelations of government controlled NSA wiretapping and data theft are nothing new, as former CIA analyst Russell Tice prove almost a decade ago in 2005 by showing that the NSA were engaged in unlawful and unconstitutional wiretaps on American citizens. But the NSA cannot operate without the partnership of these companies – all of whom have offices and operational hubs in most foreign markets.
The corporate aspect should not be underrated in terms of its central role in the international digital data trade. Edward Snowden’s PRISM revelations of government controlled NSA wiretapping and data theft are nothing new, as former CIA analyst Russell Tice prove almost a decade ago in 2005 by showing that the NSA were engaged in unlawful and unconstitutional wiretaps on American citizens. But the NSA cannot operate without the partnership of these companies – all of whom have offices and operational hubs in most foreign markets.
Herein resides the key aspect in all of this - that in order for
agencies like the NSA and GCHQ to get easy access to all of our
digital communications and data, they still need the cooperation
of corporations to do it. In the US, it’s now known what role
major ISPs and mobile carriers like Verizon and AT&T play in
this equation within US borders, including the existence of
NSA-controlled SG3 collection rooms embedded within the companies
facilities. Shocking enough, but not nearly as shocking if you
consider the role of transnational corporations in enabling the
NSA access to your digital threads.
Internationally, citizens have already signed over most of their
privacy simply by using the digital services of US multinationals
like Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Skype, Yahoo and others.
All of these corporation operate within a ‘profit-first’
ethical vacuum where, in many cases, they are actually charging
the NSA for the privilege of consuming their customers’
communications and data. According to the recent Snowden leaks,
the level of collusion between Microsoft Corp and the NSA is
astonishing, where Microsoft allows the NSA to skirt encryption
protocols on Outlook, Skype video and cloud services, and where
data captured by the NSA is routinely passed on to both the FBI
and the CIA (Guardian July 12, 2013).
The horrible irony here is too obvious to ignore: the US
government, through its NSA, is giving away taxpayer dollars so
these corporations can profit from handing over all of your
personal communications and data.
- Such an unholy alliance between partnering governments and transnational corporations could be defined as fascism, but the global nature of this operation might require a new term to define what means as a global phenomenon.
Amidst the international Snowden media circus, it’s important not
to forget that what has enabled agencies like the NSA and GCHQ to
act with impunity, is the fact that both these governments have
excelled in capitalising on a post-September 11th paranoia that
has hijacked the national consciousness in both the US and the
UK. The entire basis upon which their relentless war-time remit
has been erected can be described in three words: “War on
Terror”.
It’s already clear to the global citizenry that the US federal
government and its NSA are out of control, and should be reined
in as soon as possible in order to preserve any remaining moral
standing for a country which has exhausted nearly all of its
goodwill internationally – as well as domestically.
Judging by Washington’s stoic and unapologetic stance thus far,
goodwill doesn’t seem to be a high priority yet. Until the
problem is properly addressed, there will remain a gaping hole of
moral leadership in the international community.
What political leaders are slow the realize is that when the
goodwill has been exhausted, so has the trust, and that’s a very
slippery slope indeed.
"Show must go on" - NSA fick klartecken att fortsätta sin globala fascistövervakning
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Vidareläsning:
NSA:s övervakning av webben 2013 i sammanfattning - För din egen trygghet
http://undermattans.blogspot.de/2013/06/nsa-overvakningen-som-avslojades-i.htmlhttp://undermattans.blogspot.de/2013/06/microsoft-har-gjort-bakdorrar-till-nsa.html
http://undermattans.blogspot.de/2013/06/usa-och-nsa-sprider-sina-olagligt.html
http://undermattans.blogspot.de/2013/06/overvakning-mainstreammedia-ar-tokiga.html
--Facial recognition and GPS tracking: TrapWire company conducting even more surveillance--
SvaraRaderaMarch 27, 2013
An internationally-spread Orwellian surveillance system uncovered by RT has been linked to a software company that collects the GPS coordinates of cell phone users in over 100 major cities.
The discovery of the TrapWire risk mitigation program last year and its ability to match human faces caught on camera against massive databases of intelligence led to an outcry from privacy advocates around the world. Now once again the burgeoning preponderance of Big Brother is being put into perspective.
In late 2011, members of the loose-knit hacktivist group Anonymous pilfered data from the servers of private intelligence firm Stratfor that were in turn handed over to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks for dissemination. When internal emails alluding to a service called TrapWire surfaced in the leak, an investigation uncovered a program that, according to the company’s founder, “can collect information about people and vehicles that is more accurate than facial recognition.”
TrapWire developers Abraxas later became the subject of several investigative reports by RT and others, and further analysis revealed that that company was acquired in 2010 by technology giants Cubic Corporation of Southern California. Cubic would eventually deny any affiliation ever existed between their San Diego headquarters and the spy-program discussed by Stratfor execs, but links were nevertheless still evident. A Department of Homeland Security website, in fact, all but affirmed that TrapWire was being sold to government agencies as a product of Abraxas as recently as February 2011.
http://rt.com/usa/trapwire-nextbus-surveillance-cubic-932/
-Lawmakers Who Upheld NSA Phone Spying Received Double the Defense Industry Cash-
SvaraRaderaThe numbers tell the story — in votes and dollars. On Wednesday, the house voted 217 to 205 not to rein in the NSA’s phone-spying dragnet. It turns out that those 217 “no” voters received twice as much campaign financing from the defense and intelligence industry as the 205 “yes” voters.
http://www.blacklistednews.com/Lawmakers_Who_Upheld_NSA_Phone_Spying_Received_Double_the_Defense_Industry_Cash/27658/0/38/38/Y/M.html