All eyes are now on the upcoming American war of aggression against Syria/Iran (they're joined at the hip, dontchaknow) and the NSA Scandal has been all but forgotten. Of course the NSA would have provided all of the necessary signals intelligence for the successful prosecution of this war of aggression because that's what they do, what they're supposed to be doing at any rate, on behalf of the Department of (War)Defense, of which the NSA is a part.
You'd never know any of that from this hysteria over NSA surveillance of you'n'me, for none of that ever entered any of the stories about the agency and its whistleblower, Young Snowden. Of course not.
What the agency is supposed to be doing on behalf of the Department of Defense, of which they are a part, was never at issue. It was all the other things they had the potential to do and sometimes did as an exploit or lark that raised all the libertarian hackles out there. Yes, most of those hackles were libertarian, and most of the story-telling was typical of libertarian propaganda about government, criminal government employees, and potentials for government intrusion into all of our lives, yadda yadda.
I've seen it too many times to count on the internets.
But here we are, literally moments before the launch of yet another war of aggression in the Middle East, and the news cycle will admit of nothing else for the duration.
After Labor Day we will once again enter some vestibule of hell.
Had our attention been focused on the looming new war of aggression, we might have raised a stink about it well before now. But instead, we'll slouch into a killing spree in Syria, which may precipitate further hostilities with Iran, and That Old Man's Hard On may finally find release as he sees yet more brown people blown to smithereens. It's his greatest joy.
"Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran."
Propaganda and its uses have matured since Orwell's day; but the upshot of endless war is the same.
'The NYPD Division of Un-American Activities
ReplyDeleteAfter 9/11, the NYPD built in effect its own CIA—and its Demographics Unit delved deeper into the lives of citizens than did the NSA.'
http://nymag.com/news/features/nypd-demographics-unit-2013-9/
not me, not thee, i reckon, but our brothers and sisters in stardust composition.
Isn't that something?
ReplyDeleteThere are actually more direct and more important domestic surveillance outfits operating throughout the land than the Devil-NSA.
How can that be? Who could have imagined that was even possible? We've spent all summer long fretting and fretting about the Horror of the NSA's Domestic Surveillance, all the while they've been gathering intelligence and preparing the battle space to launch yet another neo-colonial/neo-liberal war of aggression in the Middle East. Who would have thought? How could it be? When everyone knows they're focused on collecting our phone and email records, probing our sex lives, and planning to put us all through Individualized Holy Hell -- just because they can.
Meanwhile, the innumerable domestic surveillance outfits that we've all known about -- or should have known about -- in both the public and private sectors have been in a kind of hyperdrive, all but unnoticed -- except by their victims, victims that number in the millions by now.
But hey, they're mostly poor or young or black or brown, and who the hell cares about them? They're probably all criminals or terrorists anyway, so they probably deserve every bit of grief they get.
Right?
Just like the Wogs that'll be blown to smithereens to satisfy That Old Man's Hard On.
by my reckoning, 'they' didn't need any surveillance to enter into another self-serving faux r2p debacle. pipelines to control, oil to control, another proxy war with russia, against chinese hegemony (booga-booga). africa's nailed down, although it take much since we've been on the wrong side of every genocide on the continent for a long time, if not always.
ReplyDeletething is, you seem to not grant the probability that NYC's own CIA is very linked to NSA data gathering.
and yes, we 'should have known' a lot of this, and have even heard reports about much of it, but snowden's documents were hard evidence. and according to my former blogsite partner, kgb999, cypherpunk, a lot of the new NSA programs are just that: new and expanded. he's watched all of this for years, he says, and seems to know the stuff in his sleep. not i; it's mostly geek to me.
it's typically amerrikan that most unfortunatel react to the revelations as how the spying affects them *personally*, which has allowed so many to proclaim: 'I have nothing to hide, who cares?' they don't for a minute imagine which 'potential domestic terrorists' (people of color, dissenters, et.al.) are already being surveilled, then the info shared with every many of police and security agencies.
they are the same folks who still maintain that the Wikicables dumped by manning were of no consequence, oy veh.
but seriously, the effects of snowden's files are global, and will be more so in the future, and that's good, imo. the realpolitick is changing, and in some nations, the rabble are getting mighty peeved with their corporatist leaders who are in thrall to the us of a. another good thing.
syria: man, have i not wanted a piece of that; i don't believe anything *any* of the news sources claim/propagandize, but listening to kerry, et.al. say one fucking thing about morality and assad's deeds. alleged or otherwise, really sticks in my craw.
well, i'd better scoot. tryin' to cobble together a post on labor, social movements like today's second 2013 March, vis a vis democrat gatekeepers, tra la la...and i'm kinda in the weeds on it. never mind, lol.
cheerio, then. ;~)
Oh, they (the Omnipresent They) need surveillance and analysis all right, or they can't proceed with their nefarious plots and plans. NSA exists to provide that info and analysis. That's its job.
ReplyDeleteSyria has been their primary target all summer. Conveniently, our focus has been on the NSA's domestic meta-data collection, however. As if it were the Most Important Thing In The History of the World.
It's a perfect example of how easy it is to manipulate huge populations -- globally -- to focus their energy and attention on matters they cannot influence, affect or directly control in any way, while TPTB carry out their plots and plans essentially without interference from the Rabble.
The NSA Thing could hardly have been a more perfect example of the tactic. It worked that way regardless of the intentions of Snowden or Greenwald or the Guardian. Whether they were players or not in some Inner Party struggle (which is what I think they are or wish to be) is beside the point. The effect is the same. The public focused on things they can do nothing directly about (Sharks, Missing White Boys) while the preparations for yet another war of aggression in the Middle East went forward without notice or interest.
What I want to see is for people to use critical thinking in all matters, to resist propaganda no matter where it comes from, and to really consider and work on behalf of a better future for us all.
And to do so in the face of an increasingly rigid -- and thus brittle -- Surveillance/Police State.
The PTB love it when we're pissed off about things they control. They hate it when we joint together to build a better future on behalf of one another.
Surely you've noticed that no matter how pissed off about the NSA people got, there is no unity of purpose to change things, not even any mutually agreed notion of what to do.
Funny, that.
"...while the preparations for yet another war of aggression in the Middle East went forward without notice or interest."
ReplyDeleteand for those who did witness and attest to it, how much power/influence did they have to stop it?
but you mean the big 'we', perhaps.
but it is good to know that you are a critical thinker, chePasa, and unswayed by propaganda. perhaps more of us will learn, but surely not in time to save the planet, nor swathes of humanity whose fate lies in our collective hands.
hell, you even understand the meaning of 'epistemic closure'; hell, i dinnae get it even reading at the link you so kindly provided. ;~)
just a largely self-edjicated hippie livin' in bumfuck, co, here.
Who besides those inside the Spookeries and the padded halls of Power knew and could testify to the fact that Syria was next on the neo-liberal target list? Myself, I actually thought it would be Egypt, but the PTB in Cairo took care of that little unpleasantness with the kind of bloody finesse we haven't seen in those parts for some while now. Even the Devil-Mubarak wasn't that bloodthirsty.
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard any huffing or puffing from the usual suspects that Sisi is "killing his own people." Nor even that the coup in Cairo was particularly unfortunate. "Get outa line, the man come and take you away." Permanently.
"Crossing the Red Line" was announced long ago from Washington, of course, as the ultimate justification for whatever might come in Syria, but reports have been circulating for almost as long that elements among the Syrian rebels have been transporting and using chemical and even biological weapons in their quest to overthrow the regime in Damascus. So the Red Line was crossed quite some time back. Trouble was, it was the rebels who did it. And quite a few reports are suggesting the recent attack was perpetrated by the same agents.
The answer? Send them more agitators, more weapons, more aid. And now? The answer is to bomb -- ostensibly Assad "To send him a message" -- but of course like the pre-invasion bombings of Iraq, anybody who is in the way winds up pink misted, while Assad and those who would send him messages are safe and sound.
Make no mistake, I've been very clear all along that domestic surveillance is a serious and perilous issue, but any mention of the truly invasive and pervasive nature of it, who actually does it, and who it effects every day in this country was rigorously denounced and suppressed throughout the summer. That is the essence a propaganda tactic. The story, the ONLY story, was that of the NSA collecting data on everyone everywhere. Whenever the local, regional, and corporate surveillance structure was mentioned, whenever actual harm done was brought forth, whenever anyone suggested that this focus on the NSA was both overwrought and misplaced, given what goes on every day in this country, it was either dismissed out of hand, marginalized or shouted down. The only thing that mattered was what the NSA was doing.
Well, what they were and are doing, primarily, is "shaping the battle space" for the Syrian Operation and whatever comes after it. Their interest in my pathetic little life in Bumfuck, NM is essentially nil. Other agencies, no doubt, keep tabs on that and add to their voluminous files... I wouldn't be at all surprised if Officer Baca of the local polizei pays a surprise visit someday soon, "just checking to make sure everything is all right," smirk, smirk.
[That Stanford Encyclopedia link to "epistemic closure" was supposed to be a joke, btw. I've had plenty of experience with Stanford types and people who use terms like that to demonstrate how brilliant(?) they are, only to discover they're... not. ;-)
Nor am I. I've seen things that's all, plenty of things, too many things, too many times.
And sometimes I learn...
Cheers.