I spent a big chunk of my book Surveillance Valley looking at how various spy adjacent parts of the U.S. empire have underwritten the international Internet privacy movement, fund popular privacy technologies like Tor and Signal and even bankrolling the activists themselves.
For those who haven't read it, Yasha's Baffler article on Telegram etc was excellent, in my very humble opinion 👇
"...Despite Open Whisper’s continued ties to the U.S. government, leading lights of America’s privacy and crypto community have taken to warning off people from using anything else. That includes Telegram, which deploys a custom-built cryptographic technique designed by Pavel Durov’s brother, Nikolai, a mathematician. Even Snowden has taken it upon himself to shoo people away from Telegram, advising political activists, journalists, dissidents, whistleblowers—in short, everyone—to use Signal or even Facebook’s WhatsApp instead. “By default, it is less safe than @WhatsApp, which makes [it] dangerous for non-experts,” he tweeted in response to a question from a Telegram-curious supporter.
But for an app designed to hide people from the prying eyes of the U.S. government, Signal’s architecture has given some security and crypto experts pause. Its encryption algorithm is supposed to be flawless, but the app’s backend runs as a cloud service on Amazon, which is itself a major CIA contractor. The program also requires that users connect the app to a real mobile phone number and give access to their entire address book—strange behavior for an app that is supposed to hide people’s identities..."
Thank you for writing about this. I stumbled on the encryption story you wrote for The Baffler somewhat recently while trying to clean up my use of technology and support better companies, and it connected a lot of dots for me regarding some of the experiences I've had while trying to report on certain tech topics. I found your blog and subscribed. For the sake of argument, I'd just like to make the point that what gets covered is not entirely up to journalists -- there are gatekeepers, and even if someone tries to write about certain things, those types of pitches often get rejected, or sources that you think will be helpful end up stonewalling or trying to spin it. It's an underlying catch-22 that feels exhausting and it's almost impossible to overcome. But either way, thank you. I'm going to order Surveillance Valley and read it after the holidays.
Thank you - an excellent article and link. Reading it I remembered an alarming detail several years ago:
A news item that Deep State has penetrated and monitor transactions in block-chain systems -- that already resulted in arrests, etc.
I never again read about it but if true all this independency and anonymity claims in block-chain transactions are an illusion. We live in a CONTINUUM.
FBI and Edgar Hoover’s crimes and surveillance === CIA-FBI and St. Obama, Clapper, Brennan, Hayden === SAME despicable dangerous bastards.
Remember unspeakable horrors in Indonesia started shortly after CIA's assassination of JFK.
Unlike Vietnam -- in Indonesia the US victory was total - "The Jakarta Method" is now used globally -- Indonesia's population is terrorized to this day...
And Obama’s mother, as a honey pot to Suharto’s colonel, was a part of this horror…
The Murderous History and Deceitful Function of the CIA
https://youtu.be/ugiIlj_olkg More on weaponized immigrants…this is DOS/USAID/EU funded (in that order) and the whole legend/mythology of Varian Fry and rescuing people like Chagall and Hannah Arendt (I believe you last deprogrammed immigrant has something to do with the Hanna Arendt center) all went through this organization
Once you read detailed reports of the amount of energy spy adjacent/connected organisations deploy, it changes one's view of the world, that's for sure!!!
Definitely gonna check this one out! Have you read David McGowan’s “Understanding the F-Word: American Fascism and the Politics of Illusion”?
On a side note; why is Oliver Stone boosting Ai Weiwei and producing a show about Cuba with all these characters linked to DOS, Open Society, Google/FB and company? Somebody got to tell that man to stick to the script
First I’m seeing it. I like the book McChesney did with Herman, “The Global Media: The New Missionaries of Corporate Capitalism” and “Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy” and some stuff Palast does related to voting. Both them fall for the red baiting/anti communism the way Michael Parenti best described in “The Anti Communist Impulse” “Superpatriotism” and “Blackshirts and Reds” among others
Yasha, I know it's getting a lot more coverage now, but if you had a unique personal 'spin' on the Assange story, I think it might make for enlightening/entertaining reading material.
See the work of Brian Berletic aka The New Atlas. Coincidentally while looking earlier at the US backed Sunflower/Umbrella movements in HK and Taiwan earlier (Ming Sho Ho’s book) anarchist David Graeber was discussed.
Hi Jason...Brian has this article from earlier this year I noticed...do I have the correct guy?
"...Author Brian Berletic, formerly known under his pen name Tony Cartalucci, is Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher, writer and special contributor to 21st Century Wire. See more of his work at Tony’s archive. Over the last decade, his work has been published on a number of popular news and analysis websites, and also on the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”. Also, you can follow him on VK here..."
https://youtu.be/r0jAIdIOxp8 If you check this, it’s one of Brian’s videos about a post Merrill’s Marauder paramilitary outfit making chaos in Myanmar; at 5:38 you can see the sign for the IRC next to USAID, refer to the celebrity video I posted about weaponized immigrants.
And -- this just in:
Biden-Putin Teleconference: Putin Rejects Biden’s Demand That U.S. Take Control Over Negotiations Between Ukraine and Its Former Donbass Region
By Eric Zuesse - December 9, 2021
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/12/09/biden-putin-teleconference-putin-rejects-bidens-demand-that-u-s-take-control-over-negotiations-between-ukraine-and-its-former-donbass-region/
Great stuff Yasha. Much thanks 👍
For those who haven't read it, Yasha's Baffler article on Telegram etc was excellent, in my very humble opinion 👇
"...Despite Open Whisper’s continued ties to the U.S. government, leading lights of America’s privacy and crypto community have taken to warning off people from using anything else. That includes Telegram, which deploys a custom-built cryptographic technique designed by Pavel Durov’s brother, Nikolai, a mathematician. Even Snowden has taken it upon himself to shoo people away from Telegram, advising political activists, journalists, dissidents, whistleblowers—in short, everyone—to use Signal or even Facebook’s WhatsApp instead. “By default, it is less safe than @WhatsApp, which makes [it] dangerous for non-experts,” he tweeted in response to a question from a Telegram-curious supporter.
But for an app designed to hide people from the prying eyes of the U.S. government, Signal’s architecture has given some security and crypto experts pause. Its encryption algorithm is supposed to be flawless, but the app’s backend runs as a cloud service on Amazon, which is itself a major CIA contractor. The program also requires that users connect the app to a real mobile phone number and give access to their entire address book—strange behavior for an app that is supposed to hide people’s identities..."
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-crypto-keepers-levine
Thank you for writing about this. I stumbled on the encryption story you wrote for The Baffler somewhat recently while trying to clean up my use of technology and support better companies, and it connected a lot of dots for me regarding some of the experiences I've had while trying to report on certain tech topics. I found your blog and subscribed. For the sake of argument, I'd just like to make the point that what gets covered is not entirely up to journalists -- there are gatekeepers, and even if someone tries to write about certain things, those types of pitches often get rejected, or sources that you think will be helpful end up stonewalling or trying to spin it. It's an underlying catch-22 that feels exhausting and it's almost impossible to overcome. But either way, thank you. I'm going to order Surveillance Valley and read it after the holidays.
totally. great. point. it's of course not just journalists -- but editors, too.
thanks!
Good piece. Liked.
https://youtu.be/VchYQBGKwbQ Here is one video that relates closely to this post “How the US Runs Taiwan's Government & Why It Must Stop”
An outstanding video - thank you
Sure thing Boris!
Thank you - an excellent article and link. Reading it I remembered an alarming detail several years ago:
A news item that Deep State has penetrated and monitor transactions in block-chain systems -- that already resulted in arrests, etc.
I never again read about it but if true all this independency and anonymity claims in block-chain transactions are an illusion. We live in a CONTINUUM.
FBI and Edgar Hoover’s crimes and surveillance === CIA-FBI and St. Obama, Clapper, Brennan, Hayden === SAME despicable dangerous bastards.
Remember unspeakable horrors in Indonesia started shortly after CIA's assassination of JFK.
Unlike Vietnam -- in Indonesia the US victory was total - "The Jakarta Method" is now used globally -- Indonesia's population is terrorized to this day...
And Obama’s mother, as a honey pot to Suharto’s colonel, was a part of this horror…
The Murderous History and Deceitful Function of the CIA
https://youtu.be/BhkxQRsmMQM
https://youtu.be/ugiIlj_olkg More on weaponized immigrants…this is DOS/USAID/EU funded (in that order) and the whole legend/mythology of Varian Fry and rescuing people like Chagall and Hannah Arendt (I believe you last deprogrammed immigrant has something to do with the Hanna Arendt center) all went through this organization
Yes, many years ago I read https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2075.Thy_Will_Be_Done
Once you read detailed reports of the amount of energy spy adjacent/connected organisations deploy, it changes one's view of the world, that's for sure!!!
Definitely gonna check this one out! Have you read David McGowan’s “Understanding the F-Word: American Fascism and the Politics of Illusion”?
On a side note; why is Oliver Stone boosting Ai Weiwei and producing a show about Cuba with all these characters linked to DOS, Open Society, Google/FB and company? Somebody got to tell that man to stick to the script
I will put it on my list.
I can't remember if I mentioned this one a while back? I might have?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/289260.Into_The_Buzzsaw
Not as "door-stop" like as the Colby book, but still worth a skim.
Best of luck to us all 😅
First I’m seeing it. I like the book McChesney did with Herman, “The Global Media: The New Missionaries of Corporate Capitalism” and “Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy” and some stuff Palast does related to voting. Both them fall for the red baiting/anti communism the way Michael Parenti best described in “The Anti Communist Impulse” “Superpatriotism” and “Blackshirts and Reds” among others
Just stumbled on this today: https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-united-arab-emirates-hacking-apple-inc-5f50aa937209f9d72bc1f7bccadfe14c
And this: https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-lifestyle-software-apple-inc-aed3cc628fc602079b100757974c8f01
Yasha, I know it's getting a lot more coverage now, but if you had a unique personal 'spin' on the Assange story, I think it might make for enlightening/entertaining reading material.
See the work of Brian Berletic aka The New Atlas. Coincidentally while looking earlier at the US backed Sunflower/Umbrella movements in HK and Taiwan earlier (Ming Sho Ho’s book) anarchist David Graeber was discussed.
Hi Jason...Brian has this article from earlier this year I noticed...do I have the correct guy?
"...Author Brian Berletic, formerly known under his pen name Tony Cartalucci, is Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher, writer and special contributor to 21st Century Wire. See more of his work at Tony’s archive. Over the last decade, his work has been published on a number of popular news and analysis websites, and also on the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”. Also, you can follow him on VK here..."
https://21stcenturywire.com/2021/06/28/regime-change-inc-names-new-ceo-warmonger-damon-wilson-from-atlantic-council/
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bzf5hXPESLSdbTd0V2dIY3hvVGM/view?resourcekey=0-N5-3_uFBmIR81nmWHnpLnA Also this is an outstanding work by Berletic. There is a paperback under the title “Subverting Syria” as well. A lot of connections with various NGOs and government/paragovernment types can be made I feel with this text. Highly recommended
https://youtu.be/r0jAIdIOxp8 If you check this, it’s one of Brian’s videos about a post Merrill’s Marauder paramilitary outfit making chaos in Myanmar; at 5:38 you can see the sign for the IRC next to USAID, refer to the celebrity video I posted about weaponized immigrants.
Yup. See his YouTube (The New Atlas) as well as newatlas.report
👍