Why this article? Why now?
Because it's been a few months since the movie was first shown.
Because it is of critical importance for you to understand how they operate.
Because it will only get worse.
We won't comment on the movie. We will let a few excerpts speak by themselves. If these small snippets don't scare the living daylights out of you, then you are probably unconscious. Or dead.
You must remember just one thing: this is not fiction, this is realty. Four years ago. Can you imagine where this reality stands today?
Go see the movie. Buy the DVD. Show it to your friends and family. Even if you believe in democracy. It is that revealing. Yes, the situation is that bad.
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What you know as Stellar Wind has grown. SSO, the expanded special source operations that took over Stellar Wind’s share of the pie has spread all over the world to practically include comprehensive coverage of the United States. Disturbingly, the amount of US communications ingested by the NSA is still increasing.
Publicly, we complain that things are going dark, but in fact, their accesses are improving. The truth is that the NSA in its history has never collected more than it does now. I know the location of most domestic interception points, and that the largest telecommunication companies in the US are betraying the trust of their customers, which I can prove.
We are building the greatest weapon for oppression in the history of man, yet its directors exempt themselves from accountability. NSA director Keith Alexander lied to congress, which I can prove.
Billions of US communications are being intercepted. To gather evidence of wrongdoing, I focused on the wronging of the American people. But believe me when I say that the surveillance we live under is the highest privilege compared to how we treat the rest of the world. This I can also prove.
On cyber operations, the government’s public position is that we still lack a policy framework. This too is a lie. There is a detailed policy framework, a kind of Marshall law for cyber operations, created by the White House. It’s called presidential policy 20 and was finalized at the end of last year. This I can also prove.
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The surveillance you've experienced means you've been "selected". A term which will mean more and more to you as you learn about how the modern SIGINT system works.
For now, know that every border you cross, every purchase you make, every call you dial, every cell phone tower you pass, friend you keep, article you write, site you visit, subject line you type, and packet you route is in the hands of a system whose reach is unlimited but whose safeguards are not.
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…Linkability…
Take one piece of data and link it to another piece of data.
…so your bank card is linked to everything you do during the day…
…now they know where you are going when you are making purchases…
…and potentially by linking that data with other people's travel plans they can figure out who you talked to and who you met with…
…when you take you cellphone data, which gives your location...
…you get metadata on aggregate over a person's life…
…and metadata on aggregate is content, it tells a story about you which is made up of facts but it is not necessarily true…
…if somebody has a perception of you having done a thing it will now follow you for the rest of your life…
…so just keep in mind that what happens to you guys for example with fingerprints, retinal scans and photographs that is what is going to happen to people in the future when they resist policy changes and when they try to protest in the totally constitutionally protected way…
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… the modern media has a big focus on personality and I am a little concerned; the more we focus on that the more we are going to use that as a distraction…
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…so for me it all comes down to state power against the people's ability to meaningfully oppose that power…
…every day getting paid to design methods to amplify that state power…
…I am realizing the policy switches, that are the only things that restrain these states were changed... you couldn't meaningfully oppose those changes…
…I am not sure that there is anybody who can oppose all of the offices, all of the bright people, even all the mediocre people out there with all of their tools and their capabilities…
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… it has become an expectation that we are being watched…
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…there is an infrastructure in place in the United States and Worldwide that NSA has built in cooperation with other governments as well, that intercepts basically every digital communication, every radio communication any analogue communication and that it has sensors in place to detect. And with these capabilities basically the vast majority of human and computer to computer communications (device-based communications)… are automatically ingested without targeting. And that allows individuals to retroactively search your communications…
[the system]…will not only go back into the database and go "have I seen anywhere in the past" it will basically put an additional level of scrutiny moving into the future that says "if this is detected now or at any time in the future I want this to go to me immediately and alert me in real time"…
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… I would like to point out that GCHQ [UK] has probably the most invasive network intercept program anywhere in the world. It's called Tempora and it's the world's first full-take and that means content in addition to metadata on everything.
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… as of fiscal year 2011 they can monitor 1 billion telephone or internet sessions simultaneously per one of these devices…
… and they can collect at a rate of 125 Giga-bytes per second…
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…that's fucking ridiculous!...
…there are 1.2 million people on various stages of their watch list…
…that's the population of an entire country…
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Not the end…
HOW DO WE FIGHT THEM?
In a word, you can't. And even if we could, we wouldn't want to. This is so because people are not yet ready to evolve. They believe that they can control the state. This is also Snowden's big failure. He is a true believer in democracy. Giant mistake.
The truth is that these processes of mass surveillance and intrusion will only expand. Current programs may be shut down and the NSA and its "partner" organizations may be damaged, but, rest assured, there are other organizations and other programs ready to take over where these stopped.
Let's be clear. These kinds of systems cannot be stopped and do not have a weak spot. Not within democracy. The only way, the only manner to eliminate them is by hitting them where it counts: money.
Without money they cannot operate. However, as long as governments exist, there will always be money to operate because in ultimate analysis they are control tools and such tools are the holy grail of politicians. Snowden, journalists and other people delude themselves if they believe they can do something within democracy. They can't.
Political evolution or death. It's the only choice.
Get used to it.
CONCLUSION
There is an old saying that goes: "People should not be afraid of their government, governments should be afraid of the people". We don't subscribe to this concept because we believe there should be no government at all but if you do, now you know why control mechanisms such as the "expanded special source operations" are necessary, because governments are indeed afraid of you and a the best defense is a good offense, they become offensive (pun intended). If they can keep you afraid then you will not be plotting their demise by simple lack of cooperation. It is that simple. Control does not necessarily mean that you are a robot, control simply means that you will behave in a specific manner where and when it counts. Fear does that.
We know that you are afraid. We are too. But in the end "somebody has to do something about it". We are not the first but we won't be the last. Over time many more will join our way of thinking. People will evolve. In the meantime, we are here to accelerate the evolution. We hope you are too.
But then again, perhaps you enjoy being "monitored for your own safety". Perhaps you believe that the government has the "sacred duty" to tell you what to do, how to do it and when to do it. Perhaps you enjoy being caged in your very own home and paralyzed by fear. If this is you, we hope you enjoy the feeling of slavery. But then again, we have the suspicion that most people won't. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Note: please see the Glossary if you are unfamiliar with certain words.
Note 2: copyright belongs to their respective owners.
