Snippets I’be been sitting on…
Total Information Awareness went offshore – as per this Washington Post story last year – Ben H. Bell III, was Poindexter’s point man on the eviscerated TIA program
– so he pulled up and moved operations to the Caribbean with the Bahamas-based Global Information Group Ltd whose servers are in the London Docklands area. They’re a customer of "core-isp.net".
The U.S. government uses private, offshore, enterprises, run by "former" intelligence officials, to achieve their surveillance objectives. So that leads to the question. What is George Bush pushing this for? Here is a list of privatised ‘profiling’ companies that could also be tied in to this train of thought.
Have you heard of something called "the president’s management agenda [whitehouse.gov]" that the Bush administration has been touting since it came into office. This president has been seeking to outsource all "non inherently governmental" jobs in the US executive branch for quite some time now. The thinking for this is that private corporations will save the taxpayer’s money by finding efficiencies in doing business that government cannot. "Nearly half of all federal employees perform tasks that are readily available in the commercial marketplace – tasks like data collection, administrative support, and payroll services." Another good quote is "Government should be market-based — we should not be afraid of competition, innovation, and choice. I will open government to the dicipline of competition. GWB". (PDF WARNING)
Tons more on the flip…
Poindexter’s crew ran their Iran/Contra operation offshore, in both Iran and Central America (Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador), as well as around the Caribbean for drug/gun transport, Columbia/Bolivia/Peru for getting the drugs, and in America only to get money and weapons for their modern triangular trade. This kind of stuff is most likely business as usual for them, with the Internet replacing CIA-covered small planes for their brand of global "trade".
One US law professor worries that "it might meet business interests, but not necessarily the public interest." Another states that "he is making a highly controversial program more controversial… doing it offshore and making money off of it."
So that leads to the question. What is George Bush pushing the envelope so hard on this when he most likely has access to the data elsewhere? Is he just taking on the Constitution to try and legally broaden his powers even more?
Empire Burlesque is wondering. I have been compiling an array of articles and video here to try and keep on top of what I am affectionately calling This Is Wire Tap. (spinal anyone?) You may need the latest Macromedia Flash 8 Player Plugin to view these snippets.
Speaking of funny – these are some humourous clips from the wee documentary I put together from the 2004 footage from good old reliable whitehouse.gov (thanks for keeping it online for us Whitehouse!)
Bush Flash video highlights of 2004
– We better coordinate FEMA with state and local officials (pre Katrina) Really? Well – we believe anything that comes out of your mouth now George… If you want to read the BEST article written about Katrina you have to read Floyd’s The Perfect Storm which I have nominated over at the Koufax Blog Awards for best blog post.
– I believe freedom is not America’s gift to the world, I believe that it’s God’s gift… And my god is better than your god.
– We are talking about gettin’ a court order..for wiretaps…. because we value the constitution The clip. You value it do you George?
– Bush .. "One Conscience… One Soul"… Bush gettin’ all spirtyewal’ on us.
– Bush having REAL problems with his earpeace. So obvious. I crack up everytime I see this. Forget the lump on the back conspiracy. This is all the proof I need.
There is a popup link on the This Is Wire Tap page for the snippets I used to throw together the video – and some extras.
Okay on to the next.
Here’s an interesting hypothesis from Democratic Underground – How to turn domestic calls into international calls.
You take a domestic call, and re-route it through Canada or Mexico or somewhere else, with neither the callers or recipients knowledge, and BINGO!!, an international call. You can monitor anyone you want to, without a warrant. And this all came out a couple of years ago in the ATT-Worldcom lawsuit. And lets not forget the relationship WorldCom execs have with the Bush Administration. It is a method that has already been used and documented in court, by WorldCom, and brought up by AT&T in WorldCom’s bankruptcy filing: Route the domestic calls through a second country. Furthermore, in the AT&T suit against WorldCom, AT&T specifically cites the case of a Democratic Congressman’s US-to-US calls being so routed through Canada. A Scrivener’s Lament was the first to drop this bombshell on December 21, as far as I can tell. Some of Kerry’s calls were apparently routed through Canada during the runup to 2004 it seems.
Deep Throat 2005?
Former NSA Intelligence Analyst & Action Officer to Whistleblow to Congress Regarding Unlawful Conduct By NSA. National Security Agency (NSA) official Russ Tice had his top-secret clearance suspended after he reported suspicions that a female co-worker showed signs of being a Chinese spy. Mr. Tice will face an NSA appeal board later this month, and he expects the agency to dismiss him. He allegedly also wrote this letter to Congressman Christopher H. Shays.Tice says there are some 24 other intelligence employees in the NSA who have been blackballed on spurious charges and had their careers wrecked by the removal of their security clearances. Many have grouped together at the National Security Whistleblowers Association. including Sibel Edmonds. There’s a nice breakdown on the cluster of whistleblowers at Lexis Nexus here
Now with all the kerfluffle about Fox Nazis over at Crooks and Liars – I recalled this story I saw a couple of days ago buried at Freerepublic by a Russophobe. It seems Bolton and his UN Brigade were not able to armlock 114 countries around the world to support their attempt to take down this…. er… Anti-Nazi bill which is symbolic more than anything. If you read it the Russian Ministry of Foriegn Affairs press release. I notice the Europeans all abstained. And the EU knew more about those extra-very-unordinary kidnappings it seems. It makes one wonder how far apart the US-Euro axis really is – and how much they want us to think it is.
Russia introduces anti-Nazi resolution at UN – US/Japan vote against it
RBC, 19.12.2005, Moscow 19:03:32.The UN General Assembly has adopted an anti-Nazi resolution, initiated by Russia. Some 114 countries supported the document, with 4 states against and 57 abstentions. The resolution expresses a serious concern about the growing activity of extremist, racist and xenophobic organizations in the world. The Russian Foreign Ministry is concerned that some countries (i.e. the US and Japan) voted against the document, while many countries (all EU members) abstained. States such as Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia abstained as well, although these nations suffered a lot during World War II, the ministry’s information and press department claimed.
There may be some confusion as to who I am – as I post all of Chris Floyd’s work (and some of my own) here. I volunteered to help Chris get his new site online at Empire Burlesque, moving him from a cookie cutter blog at blogspot to something I felt reflected his style and writing a lot more. I have been a big fan of his pennings in the Moscow Times for years and I approached him in mid-August this year about improving his online presence. I was also a journalist for part of my career but I recognized, knowing my own limitations, that I could be far more effective as an activist and communicator by bringing Chris closer to the important blog movement. He currently works at Oxford University in the UK (from Tennessee) as a researcher and editor and pens a weekly column for the Times group in Russia. I build cruising catamarans in Brazil and live in Holland with my wife and kids (back and forth) but come from Canada. And I build websites and communities using open source software when I have time.
