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A Global Infrastructure for Mass Surveillance
By Nolan K. Anderson
02/24/06 "ICH"
-- -- Once a government is committed to the principle of
silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go,
and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures,
until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and
creates a country where everyone lives in fear. --Harry S.
Truman
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It
can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote
themselves largess of the public treasury. From that time on the
majority always votes for the candidates promising the most
benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a
democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy,
always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the
world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations
have progressed through this sequence: from bondage to spiritual
faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to
liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to
selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency
to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again
to bondage. --Sir Alex Fraser Tytler (1742-1813) Scottish jurist
and historian
"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing
the voice of opposition . . ." Does this ring a bell? How about
the name Joe Wilson - does that name sound a bell? What about
Valerie Plame - any bells yet? General Shenseki?
Where do Americans find themselves in Sir Alex Tytler's cycle?
The United States can boast a 230-year history so our actions
and the time factor would bring us well into the
"apathy-dependency" stage. If this is true, the return to the
"bondage" stage is not far off - as witnessed by world events -
especially those of the last 5 years. However, the "apathy"
stage of our self-destruction cycle seems to be in "fast
forward". One would have to search American history with an
extremely fine-toothed comb to find a comparable period where
apathy played such a major role in the individual's life and
that of his government. Even if one were to successfully
separate normal political corruption from apathy, he would still
have a hard time finding a comparable era in our history where
the theoretical "opposition party" in the Congress apparently
watches the Executive Branch with "eyes wide open" and still
refuses to acknowledge or act to restrict even the most blatant
abuses of power by the Executive. Congress not only refuses to
acknowledge malfeasance in the actions of the Executive, but
also seems determined to abet whatever excesses the Executive
wants to heap upon the country.
One could argue forever about whether poor education breeds
apathy or apathy breeds poor education. The same can be said of
complacency and apathy. However, the "chicken and the egg"
arguments are not pertinent to the discussion at this point.
These points become a preface to a topic which is now crowding
other subjects "off the radar screen" in all forms of mass
media. American's attention is now being focused on the White
House wire tapping of citizens without regard for the law. The
topic becomes a bonanza for blaring headlines and sniping
between the two political parties. However, the real threat to
Americans lies buried under layers of apathy and total ignorance
of the extent of our government's progress toward TOTAL
surveillance of its citizens within the United States and
through cooperation and coercion of other governments, the
surveillance of Americans and foreigners on a global scale. This
surveillance is not being designed to monitor only citizen
movement on a global scale, but is also being designed to lay
open to the various governments ALL personal and private matters
of finance, health, political affiliation, and religious
preferences, electronic communication and on, and on, and on.
The following information is not something torn from the pages
of Franz Kafka or Orson Well's 1984. The information presented
here is taken from an
April 2005 report made by The International Campaign
Against Mass Surveillance (ICAMS) (Pdf). (Refer
to References and Notes below).
The programs described below were designed before 9/11; since
9/11 these programs have been put on steroids. The world in
which these programs are being constructed is one in which
"individuals are presumed guilty, detained and not told the
charges against them, denied the right to face their accusers,
denied the right to know the evidence against them and the
criteria by which they are being judged and given no legal
recourse and no one to advocate for them". [1] Please note, this
does not refer to the present definition of terrorist or enemy
combatant. These programs apply to AMERICAN CITIZENS as well as
the citizens of the global network of countries being brought
together to form an unparalleled net of surveillance, arrest,
detention, torture and indefinite detention - either with or
without formal charges - and finally death. (This could have
served as an agenda for The New World Order).
For one who sits idly in front of the television and watches the
nightly news- reader tell about another Guantanamo prisoner
(terrorist) being held for an indefinite period without any of
our democratic safeguards, the "news" doesn't even register on
the listener's Richter Scale. Little does the American know that
the prisoner's plight being presented may be merely a prelude to
his own plight under the plans presently being secretly refined
and expanded by the global community under coercion and
intimidation by the United States.
To bring these programs into focus and allow the reader to
glimpse a portion of their scope and the progress being made in
their implementation, signposts of program characteristics will
be shown as well as the myths being created to conceal the
progress of this global cancer. (The following may bring more
meaning to the fact that the KBR arm of Halliburton has recently
been awarded a contract to build a 385 million dollar detention
center to set up temporary detention, processing and deportation
facilities in case of a sudden influx of immigrants!!).
Signposts:
First Signpost: The Registration of Populations. [2]
1. Mass Detentions of Muslim Immigrants and Registration through
NSEERS.
2. US-VISIT and the E.U. Visa Information System a) Biometric
visas. b) Linkage of biometric information to a global web of
databases. c) U.S. acquisition of domestic and foreign
databases.
Second Signpost: The Creation of a Global Registration System.
[3]
Biometric passports.
Third Signpost: The Creation of an Infrastructure for the Global
Surveillance of Movements. [4]
1. U.S. demands for sharing passenger name records (PNR).
2. Surveillance expansion to other transportation systems.
Fourth Signpost: The Creation of an Infrastructure for the
Global Surveillance of Electronic Communications and Financial
Transactions.[5]
1. Mandatory data detention.
2. Expansion of ECHELON.
In 1948, the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand
created a program under which they trawled the world's telephone
communications to spy on each others' countries and to share
information on each others' citizens that could not be obtained
by their own officials under domestic laws. Since the early
1980s, this program has been called ECHELON, and has been
expanded to intercept e-mails, faxes, telexes, electronic
transactions and international telephone calls carried via
satellites.
3. Mandatory information-gathering and reporting for financial
transactions.
Fifth Signpost: The Convergence of National and International
Databases.[6]
The extent of the characteristics of this signpost is very
extensive and a complete listing is past the scope of this
paper. However, in countries known for their oppressive regimes,
the extent to which an integration of functions and information
sharing with the US has been occurring is probably the greatest.
Countries like Georgia, Indonesia, Egypt, Malaysia and
Uzbekistan are sharing information suspects, and in some cases
intelligence and military operations, with the US.
Sixth Signpost: Data Mining.
The use of computer models to assess masses of data for selected
criteria. The masses of data being scanning make human interface
and interpretation impossible. This amounts to having one's
actions and motives interpreted by a computer.
Seventh Signpost: The Loss of Sovereignty Checks and
Balances.[7]
When all the signposts or initiatives described above are viewed
together, what emerges are the "contours of a vast, increasingly
integrated multinational registration and surveillance system,
with information floating more or less freely between
subsystems.
As this system emerges, the police, security, intelligence and
military operations of many nations are becoming deeply
integrated with US operations. National governments are giving
up sovereignty and throwing aside national checks and balances
in favor of an integrated security system that is largely being
designed and controlled by the US.
Eighth Signpost: The Corporate Security Complex.[8]
For the government security/intelligence community, the "war on
error" offers an unprecedented opportunity to increase its
investigative surveillance powers by tapping into the
possibilities offered by new information technologies.
Ninth Signpost: The Expropriation of the Democratic
Principles.[9]
Governments have been able to make these changes in democracy in
democratic countries by declaring a state of crisis. But, the
"war on terror" is a war without end, so the state of crisis is
permanent, not temporary. As a result, democratic societies are
in grave danger of being turned, over time, into surveillance
societies -- or worse, into police states.
Tenth Signpost: A loss of Moral Compass - Rendition, Torture,
Death.[10]
It is now clear that the U.S. and other countries participating
in the global surveillance project are engaging in torture,
inhumane treatment, and indefinite detention . . . in their own
facilities, as well as sending suspects to third countries where
they face torture, inhumane treatment, and indefinite detention.
The worst that individuals have to fear from the global system
of mass surveillance is something far darker than "mere" loss of
privacy, civil liberties, freedom of movement, or loss of
democratic patrimonies. (They face indefinite detention in a
global gulag).
At this point the reader may be convinced he is reading
something from a science fiction book. But this is not science
fiction. This is what is being planned and constructed in real
time - our time. Of these 10 signposts, the one most
identifiable in today's mass media coverage is Rendition and
Torture. Even the most hardened cynic would be forced to admit
there is at least a coincidental association between the
Rendition and Torture being discussed in the media and that
presented here as a glaring warning signpost to all Americans of
a global trend being sponsored by the United States. For those
who say that "all is well" and we merely need to trust our
government, please take the time to read these ten signposts
again - slowly and carefully. After a second reading, take the
time to read and absorb the following myths about your safety as
an American.
Myth No. 1: We are merely being asked to sacrifice some of our
privacy and conveniences for greater security.
Myth No. 2: These initiatives facilitate travel.
Myth No. 3: If one has nothing to hide, one has nothing to worry
about.
Myth No. 4: The technology being used is objective and reliable.
Myth No. 5: Terrorist watch lists are a reliable product of
international cooperation and consensus.
Myth No. 6: If one is mistakenly caught up in the global
surveillance net, one's government can protect one.
Myth No. 7: Governments want to implement these systems to
protect their citizens from terrorists.
Myth No. 8: Western democracies are defending democracy and
human rights around the world.
Myth No. 9: These initiatives make us safer.
Myth No. 10: Guaranteeing security is the paramount
responsibility of governments.
Myth No. 11: At least, these initiatives are better than doing
nothing.
For any American to have read this far and not have at least a
twinge of unease about the direction and intentions of his
government, is impossible. If any American has even the remotest
contact with or interest in the true condition of today's world,
there has to a twinge of unease by this point. If any one of
these 11 myths is in any degree false, then any global citizen
should be extremely worried and any American should be terrified
because Americans have more to lose than the citizens of any
other country in the world.
Reference:
The International Campaign Against Mass Surveillance (ICAMS) was
founded by the American Civil Liberties Union, Focus on the
Global South, the Friends' Committee on National Legislation,
the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group and
Statewatch.
ICAMS was launched on April 20 2005 in London, Manila, Ottawa
and Washington.
Notes:
Full credit for the information in this article is given to the
April 2005 ICAMS report. References from ICAMS April 2005
Report:
[1] Page 39. [2] Page 5 [3] Page 8 [4] Page 12 [5] Page 14 [6]
Page 18 [7] Page 33 [8] Page 35 [9] Page 38 [10] Page 39
The myths quoted are taken from the same report.
Nolan K. Anderson is a retired engineer and a veteran of Korea
who was once a "conservative" until he found there was nothing
left to conserve and as a veteran hates to see a tour in Korea
go to waste. (He may be reached at
nkanders@bellsouth.net ).
Copyright Nolan K. Anderson
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