We have been seeing, and we'll continue to see, a full frontal assault on Edward Snowden, in the press, throughout the blogosphere, and certainly here among the hyperpartisans. A large portion of the American public's to the point where attacking the messenger is noted for the true fail that it is. As much as everyone in the U.S. status quo would like to think otherwise, the true story here has little or nothing to do with Snowden. It's about far, far greater truths. For instance, the incredible double-speak that both subverts our news and turns greater realities upside down (even in the past week, I only scratch the surface of this in my brief discussion on four pieces of under-reported news, noted below).
First off, Edward Snowden is not Booz Allen Hamilton's first leak problem. For that matter, even if you've simply been following my posts on our country's ongoing metamorphosis into a full-blown, inverted totalitarian surveillance state, the reality is there have been MANY Edward Snowdens over the past decade.
Taste the latest flavor of McCarthyism that's currently taking hold throughout our federal government. (Kossack marktheshark published an EXCELLENT post on our government's new "Insider Threat Program," from earlier today.)
Look at the America seen by those observers throughout the world that are looking at us now. (Kossack pluto published a brilliant piece in the community that may be the best article, to date, anywhere, concerning how the rest of our planet views our country's extreme behavior these days.)
In recent weeks, at least if you've been paying attention and you understand the full concept of "crisis mode public relations," the reality is that U.S. propaganda has gone completely off the rails.
At this point, it's all about a pyrrhic public relations victory for those very serious people in Washington. But, no matter how hard our government tries to spin matters to the contrary, as the NY Times' editors noted just two weeks ago: "The administration has now lost all credibility on this issue."
(By the time I post this, I'm sure the "news" now circulating in the MSM that Snowden took his brief gig at Booz Allen Hamilton to deliberately expose the details of the nightmare we refer to as our surveillance state will have spread far and wide by the ever obedient MSM. More "faux ammo" as our state escalates its implementation of what is nothing less than its standard operating procedure to shoot the messenger. Did Snowden intend to expose the stories that he's now exposed? Yes.)
So? (I'm waiting for an answer from all the folks that have been claiming greater details regarding the depths of our country's surveillance state are "not new information," within the comments to this story, too. Or, is it "new information" only when it conveniently fits the narrative? These were many of the same folks that were claiming "conspiracy theory" when some of these stories were reported in this community less than two years ago. I know this because I published a lot of those stories! Heh...) Yes. Just more double-speak from the commentariat...on top of much more pertinent double-speak from the elected leaders of our society. Many just haven't been paying (or don't want to pay) attention, IMHO.
Meanwhile, in just the past week, we have seen reality diverge from the spin (virtually across the board) at no less than nuclear proportions. Once one acknowledges the over-arching truth that we live in a society which is run by five corporate gangs (The Military Industrial-Intelligence Complex, Wall Street, Big Pharma, Big Energy, and Big Ag/Big Food/Big Retail), everything that is presented to us by the state and the MSM falls into place.
So, covering just a handful of under-reported (funny how that works) events from the past week, let's play...
WHO'S THE TERRORIST?
The public continues to receive formal confirmation that we live in a society where major financial institutions such as Standard Chartered, HSBC and Wachovia (now Wells Fargo) get the financial equivalent of a parking ticket for laundering a trillion dollars for Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, South American drug cartels and international organized crime, without even a mention by the U.S. DoJ that they would even be making an attempt to prosecute anyone for those crimes.
Meanwhile, this past Tuesday, the case of San Diego cab driver Basaaly Saeed Moalin, who donated $23,800 to Somali terrorists, is twisted into a leading “case history” noted by the FBI and the National Security Agency as those organizations attempted to feebly justify what they’ve been doing with scores of billions of taxpayer dollars per year while our country’s domestic surveillance apparatus has morphed into a state-sponsored enterprise that would make George Orwell blush.
MILITARY DRAWDOWNS VS. WAR WHACK-A-MOLE
We're "told" about our country's military drawdown in Afghanistan. What isn't making headlines: Upon our country's conclusion of military exercises in Jordan last week, we're now being informed that we've just "left behind" 700 more troops on the border between (making for a total of 1,000 soldiers in-country, for the foreseeable future) Syria and Jordan, and we're also "leaving behind" a squadron of "12 to 24" F-16's.
NSA'S CLAIMS REGARDING ITS SURVEILLANCE RESTRICTIONS VS. MILLIONS OF LOCAL, WARRANTLESS WIRETAPS AND A MASSIVE EXPANSION OF LOCAL SURVEILLANCE TECHNOLOGY
NYPD expands surveillance net to fight crime as well as terrorism
By Chris Francescani
Reuters
Fri Jun 21, 2013 11:24am EDT
NEW YORK, June 21
(Reuters) - Having developed one of the most sophisticated surveillance networks in the United States, the New York Police Department is now expanding its use, giving local precinct commanders new powers to fight street crime with high-tech tools previously used only in counterterrorism operations.
"The technology, having been inspired and engineered with a sense of urgency after 9/11, has obvious applications to conventional crime fighting," said Paul Browne, chief NYPD spokesman. "That is in the process of being expanded citywide, for what - after all - is our primary mission, which is to fight crime."
New York is among a handful of big U.S. cities that have been developing extensive surveillance networks in recent years using federal anti-terrorism funding. New York's network was initially modeled after London's so-called 'Ring of Steel,' the most extensive surveillance camera network anywhere.
There are no legal restrictions against using the surveillance network for traditional crime fighting, though much of the network has been built with Homeland Security grants. But the sheer scope and sophistication of the system worries people like Christopher Dunn, associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
"There is no outside monitoring of the use of this system at all...no protections now - none, zero," said Dunn, whose group filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing the police of violating religious freedoms and constitutional guarantees of equality in its monitoring of Muslim communities...
DRONE CLAIMS BY OUR GOVERNMENT VS. DRONE USE AND PLANNING THROUGHOUT OUR SURVEILLANCE STATE
We're "told" that our country won't abuse drones in America. What isn't making headlines was summed-up by outgoing FBI Director Robert Mueller, who acknowledged, in his final official appearance on Capitol Hill, that the FBI is using surveillance drones on U.S. soil.
FBI Director Acknowledges Domestic Use of Surveillance Drones
Meanwhile, various universities and companies have announced over the past year that they’re well into their respective, advanced development phases of various forms of miniature drone technology. Think: The scene with Tom Cruise and the spider-bot drones in Minority Report, but they actually FLY, instead…
Spider-bot Scene From Minority Report:
(We really are only a couple of years away from this being reality.)
CNN: Mini-Drones That Fly In Fleets
So, despite all "assurances" to the contrary, the reality is local law enforcement, the DHS and the FBI are turning much of this "foreign surveillance" manpower and technology inward, to fight "crime." (Not "terrorism," mind you, but "crime.")
And, the villain in all of this is Edward Snowden? Uh, huh...Wrong!