NSA Leaks, Edward Snowden: Genuine whistleblower or psy-op?

Re: Prism - Or do you really want to keep your Google Mail and Facebook

From an article in the Otago Daily Times, 29 June 2013. Hank Wolfe is an Associate Professor of Information Science at the University of Otago.

Prof Wolfe is concerned about what effect the mere knowledge of mass surveillance, let alone the use of it, will have on the public.

When people know they are under surveillance it ''changes everything about them'', he says.

''It alters their speech, it alters their behaviour, it alters their association. It alters their plans. Because they are always frightened that at any one of those levels they will be singled out because they have become one of those people the Government doesn't like. So it chills individual thinking. It's a behavioural modification tool that most people don't understand or realise. That's what's going on over there. That's what seems to be the norm."
[. . .]
Wherever mass surveillance is introduced it is usually ''disguised'' as being for the common good, Prof Wolfe says. ''No matter how oppressive it is, it's always for the good of the nation."
[. . .]
Prof Wolfe pauses and looks out the wide windows on a cold but seemingly tranquil world.
''I'm concerned, but I don't have any specific knowledge to base it on,'' he says. ''I just feel the world is what it is, and people are collecting a lot more information on us than we realise. They will claim it is for your protection, for the good of the nation. Prove it. That's my answer to that. Or give me the option to opt out. Because I don't want to be protected by them.''
Full article here:
_http://www.odt.co.nz/lifestyle/magazine/262831/secrets-and-lies
 
Re: Prism - Or do you really want to keep your Google Mail and Facebook

Bingo, it's the psychological result that counts, not whether or not what they're doing is legal or the extent to which they can really know what everyone is thinking before they express it.

And the result is that everyone modifies their own behaviour and the herd is corralled into ever finer levels of control. It therefore becomes easier to predict next time which way the herd will turn, and to adjust your next move accordingly.
 
Re: Prism - Or do you really want to keep your Google Mail and Facebook

Kniall said:
Bingo, it's the psychological result that counts, not whether or not what they're doing is legal or the extent to which they can really know what everyone is thinking before they express it.

And the result is that everyone modifies their own behaviour and the herd is corralled into ever finer levels of control. It therefore becomes easier to predict next time which way the herd will turn, and to adjust your next move accordingly.

I was watching the new Metanoia film 'Counter-Intelligence' and saw an interesting quote by Michel Foucault about the panopticon that I think fits well here. Below is the same quote expanded from an article that discusses panopticism:

As Foucault argued, ‘the major effect of the Panopticon’ was ‘to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power’ (1977, p. 201). As Foucault pointed out there is no need for the inmates to be actually watched; what was important was that they did not know when they were being watched. The result was the internalisation or interiorisation of the watch tower’s gaze, such that the prisoner became his own overseer. Thus, Foucault concluded, ‘it is at once too much and too little that the prisoner should be constantly observed by an inspector: too little, for what matters is that he knows himself to be observed; too much, because he has no need in fact of being so’ (p. 201).

Full article here: _http://w3.unisa.edu.au/hawkeinstitute/publications/foucault-25-years/caluya.pdf

What is the panopticon, from wikipedia:

The Panopticon is a type of institutional building designed by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the late 18th century. The concept of the design is to allow a watchman to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) inmates of an institution without their being able to tell whether they are being watched or not.
The design consists of a circular structure with an “inspection house” at its centre, from which the managers or staff of the institution are able to watch the inmates, who are stationed around the perimeter. Bentham conceived the basic plan as being equally applicable to hospitals, schools, sanatoriums, daycares, and asylums, but he devoted most of his efforts to developing a design for a Panopticon prison, and it is his prison which is most widely understood by the term.
Bentham himself described the Panopticon as “a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example.”[1] Elsewhere, he described the Panopticon prison as “a mill for grinding rogues honest”.[2]
 
Re: Prism - Or do you really want to keep your Google Mail and Facebook

Having been subjected to years of defamation by apparent "agents" followed by a police investigation, now by the FISC, and the atty tells us that there could be still another layer on the agenda, and knowing how much effort, time and probably money has gone into burying SOTT, I have a rather unique view on the situation. I KNOW that "they" can work to destroy a person and their impact in ways that do not make that person a "hero" nor utilize the hero-ization process to terrorize the masses as has been the case with such as Julian Assange/Bradley Manning and now this Snowden character.

Our attorney, after reading over the timeline of events respecting the history of SOTT/QFG etc, remarked: "They want to kill you" meaning, of course, "destroy you and what you are doing". And it is obvious that they want to do it quietly and without making me a martyr as has happened to Assange and Snowden.

Why? Because when you make someone a martyr, it makes it appear that they are "on the right track" and that what they have done is a real blow against the PTB. But when you look at the actual effects of what they do, you see that it only serves the agenda of the PTB.

Let's take a look at Protocol 12 just to measure the recent events against it, bearing in mind that you need to translate a bit in your mind. It was written before mass media and global communication existed so is described in archaic terms. But the principles are the same.

Also keep in mind the items that were revealed some years back about the Pentagon's billions budget for cyberwarfare. What we are seeing is, literally, cyberwarfare and people like Assange and Snowden are simply weapons launched in that war according to the rules of Protocol 12.:

See: http://www.sott.net/article/124228-The-Protocols-of-the-Pathocrats

PROTOCOL No. 12

1. The word "freedom," which can be interpreted in various ways, is defined by us as follows -

2. Freedom is the right to do what which the law allows. This interpretation of the word will at the proper time be of service to us, because all freedom will thus be in our hands, since the laws will abolish or create only that which is desirable for us according to the aforesaid program.

3. We shall deal with the press {just substitute "media" for "press" throughout} in the following way: what is the part played by the press to-day? It serves to excite and inflame those passions which are needed for our purpose or else it serves selfish ends of parties. It is often vapid, unjust, mendacious, and the majority of the public have not the slightest idea what ends the press really serves. We shall saddle and bridle it with a tight curb: we shall do the same also with all productions of the printing press, for where would be the sense of getting rid of the attacks of the press if we remain targets for pamphlets and books? The produce of publicity, which nowadays is a source of heavy expense owing to the necessity of censoring it, will be turned by us into a very lucrative source of income to our State: we shall lay on it a special stamp tax and require deposits of caution-money before permitting the establishment of any organ of the press or of printing offices; these will then have to guarantee our government against any kind of attack on the part of the press. For any attempt to attack us, if such still be possible, we shall inflict fines without mercy. Such measures as stamp tax, deposit of caution-money and fines secured by these deposits, will bring in a huge income to the government. It is true that party organs might not spare money for the sake of publicity, but these we shall shut up at the second attack upon us. No one shall with impunity lay a finger on the aureole of our government infallibility. The pretext for stopping any publication will be the alleged plea that it is agitating the public mind without occasion or justification. I BEG YOU TO NOTE THAT AMONG THOSE MAKING ATTACKS UPON US WILL ALSO BE ORGANS ESTABLISHED BY US, BUT THEY WILL ATTACK EXCLUSIVELY POINTS THAT WE HAVE PRE-DETERMINED TO ALTER.

WE CONTROL THE PRESS

4. NOT A SINGLE ANNOUNCEMENT WILL REACH THE PUBLIC WITHOUT OUR CONTROL. Even now this is already being attained by us inasmuch as all news items are received by a few agencies, in whose offices they are focused from all parts of the world. These agencies will then be already entirely ours and will give publicity only to what we dictate to them.

5. If already now we have contrived to possess ourselves of the minds of the GOY {non-pathological} communities to such an extent the they all come near looking upon the events of the world through the colored glasses of those spectacles we are setting astride their noses; if already now there is not a single State where there exist for us any barriers to admittance into what GOY stupidity calls State secrets: what will our positions be then, when we shall be acknowledged supreme lords of the world in the person of our king of all the world ....

6. Let us turn again to the FUTURE OF THE PRINTING PRESS. Every one desirous of being a publisher, librarian, or printer, will be obliged to provide himself with the diploma instituted therefore, which, in case of any fault, will be immediately impounded. With such measures THE INSTRUMENT OF THOUGHT WILL BECOME AN EDUCATIVE MEANS ON THE HANDS OF OUR GOVERNMENT, WHICH WILL NO LONGER ALLOW THE MASS OF THE NATION TO BE LED ASTRAY IN BY-WAYS AND FANTASIES ABOUT THE BLESSINGS OF PROGRESS. Is there any one of us who does not know that these phantom blessings are the direct roads to foolish imaginings which give birth to anarchical relations of men among themselves and towards authority, because progress, or rather the idea of progress, has introduced the conception of every kind of emancipation, but has failed to establish its limits .... All the so-called liberals are anarchists, if not in fact, at any rate in thought. Every one of them in hunting after phantoms of freedom, and falling exclusively into license, that is, into the anarchy of protest for the sake of protest....

FREE PRESS DESTROYED

7. We turn to the periodical press. We shall impose on it, as on all printed matter, stamp taxes per sheet and deposits of caution-money, and books of less than 30 sheets will pay double. We shall reckon them as pamphlets in order, on the one hand, to reduce the number of magazines, which are the worst form of printed poison, and, on the other, in order that this measure may force writers into such lengthy productions that they will be little read, especially as they will be costly. At the same time what we shall publish ourselves to influence mental development in the direction laid down for our profit will be cheap and will be read voraciously. The tax will bring vapid literary ambitions within bounds and the liability to penalties will make literary men dependent upon us. And if there should be any found who are desirous of writing against us, they will not find any person eager to print their productions. Before accepting any production for publication in print, the publisher or printer will have to apply to the authorities for permission to do so. Thus we shall know beforehand of all tricks preparing against us and shall nullify them by getting ahead with explanations on the subject treated of.

8. Literature and journalism are two of the most important educative forces, and therefore our government will become proprietor of the majority of the journals. This will neutralize the injurious influence of the privately-owned press and will put us in possession of a tremendous influence upon the public mind .... If we give permits for ten journals, we shall ourselves found thirty, and so on in the same proportion. This, however, must in no wise be suspected by the public. For which reason all journals published by us will be of the most opposite, in appearance, tendencies and opinions, thereby creating confidence in us and bringing over to us quite unsuspicious opponents, who will thus fall into our trap and be rendered harmless.

9. In the front rank will stand organs of an official character. They will always stand guard over our interests, and therefore their influence will be comparatively insignificant.

10. In the second rank will be the semi-official organs, whose part it will be to attack the tepid and indifferent.

11. In the third rank we shall set up our own, to all appearance, opposition, which, in at least one of its organs, will present what looks like the very antipodes to us. Our real opponents at heart will accept this simulated opposition as their own and will show us their cards.

12. All our newspapers will be of all possible complexions -- aristocratic, republican, revolutionary, even anarchical - for so long, of course, as the constitution exists .... Like the Indian idol "Vishnu" they will have a hundred hands, and every one of them will have a finger on any one of the public opinions as required. When a pulse quickens these hands will lead opinion in the direction of our aims, for an excited patient loses all power of judgment and easily yields to suggestion. Those fools who will think they are repeating the opinion of a newspaper of their own camp will be repeating our opinion or any opinion that seems desirable for us. In the vain belief that they are following the organ of their party they will, in fact, follow the flag which we hang out for them.

13. In order to direct our newspaper militia in this sense we must take special and minute care in organizing this matter. Under the title of central department of the press we shall institute literary gatherings at which our agents will without attracting attention issue the orders and watchwords of the day. By discussing and controverting, but always superficially, without touching the essence of the matter, our organs will carry on a sham fight fusillade with the official newspapers solely for the purpose of giving occasion for us to express ourselves more fully than could well be done from the outset in official announcements, whenever, of course, that is to our advantage.

14. THESE ATTACKS UPON US WILL ALSO SERVE ANOTHER PURPOSE, NAMELY, THAT OUR SUBJECTS WILL BE CONVINCED TO THE EXISTENCE OF FULL FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND SO GIVE OUR AGENTS AN OCCASION TO AFFIRM THAT ALL ORGANS WHICH OPPOSE US ARE EMPTY BABBLERS, since they are incapable of finding any substantial objections to our orders.

ONLY LIES PRINTED

15. Methods of organization like these, imperceptible to the public eye but absolutely sure, are the best calculated to succeed in bringing the attention and the confidence of the public to the side of our government. Thanks to such methods we shall be in a position as from time to time may be required, to excite or to tranquillize the public mind on political questions, to persuade or to confuse, printing now truth, now lies, facts or their contradictions, according as they may be well or ill received, always very cautiously feeling our ground before stepping upon it .... WE SHALL HAVE A SURE TRIUMPH OVER OUR OPPONENTS SINCE THEY WILL NOT HAVE AT THEIR DISPOSITION ORGANS OF THE PRESS IN WHICH THEY CAN GIVE FULL AND FINAL EXPRESSION TO THEIR VIEWS owing to the aforesaid methods of dealing with the press. We shall not even need to refute them except very superficially.

16. Trial shots like these, fired by us in the third rank of our press, in case of need, will be energetically refuted by us in our semi-official organs.

17. Even nowadays, already, to take only the French press, there are forms which reveal masonic solidarity in acting on the watchword: all organs of the press are bound together by professional secrecy; like the augurs of old, not one of their numbers will give away the secret of his sources of information unless it be resolved to make announcement of them. Not one journalist will venture to betray this secret, for not one of them is ever admitted to practice literature unless his whole past has some disgraceful sore or other .... These sores would be immediately revealed. So long as they remain the secret of a few the prestige of the journalist attacks the majority of the country - the mob follow after him with enthusiasm.

18. Our calculations are especially extended to the provinces. It is indispensable for us to inflame there those hopes and impulses with which we could at any moment fall upon the capital, and we shall represent to the capitals that these expressions are the independent hopes and impulses of the provinces. Naturally, the source of them will be always one and the same - ours. WHAT WE NEED IS THAT, UNTIL SUCH TIME AS WE ARE IN THE PLENITUDE POWER, THE CAPITALS SHOULD FIND THEMSELVES STIFLED BY THE PROVINCIAL OPINION OF THE NATIONS, I.E., OF A MAJORITY ARRANGED BY OUR AGENTUR. What we need is that at the psychological moment the capitals should not be in a position to discuss an accomplished fact for the simple reason, if for no other, that it has been accepted by the public opinion of a majority in the provinces.

19. WHEN WE ARE IN THE PERIOD OF THE NEW REGIME TRANSITIONAL TO THAT OF OUR ASSUMPTION OF FULL SOVEREIGNTY WE MUST NOT ADMIT ANY REVELATION BY THE PRESS OF ANY FORM OF PUBLIC DISHONESTY; IT IS NECESSARY THAT THE NEW REGIME SHOULD BE THOUGHT TO HAVE SO PERFECTLY CONTENDED EVERYBODY THAT EVEN CRIMINALITY HAS DISAPPEARED ... Cases of the manifestation of criminality should remain known only to their victims and to chance witnesses - no more.
 
Re: Prism - Or do you really want to keep your Google Mail and Facebook

There is this site : https://prism-break.org/ which take an inventory of free alternatives that can perhaps complicate big brother job.
 
Re: Prism - Or do you really want to keep your Google Mail and Facebook

Ellipse said:
There is this site : https://prism-break.org/ which take an inventory of free alternatives that can perhaps complicate big brother job.

This is exactly what I was looking for as of this morning. Thank you so much. :D

Edit: Ubuntu's not on the list?! noooooo
 
Re: Prism - Or do you really want to keep your Google Mail and Facebook

whitecoast said:
Edit: Ubuntu's not on the list?! noooooo
Yep, because of the whole Amazon spyware thing. _http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/ubuntu-spyware-what-to-do
 
Re: Prism - Or do you really want to keep your Google Mail and Facebook

Tomek said:
whitecoast said:
Edit: Ubuntu's not on the list?! noooooo
Yep, because of the whole Amazon spyware thing. _http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/ubuntu-spyware-what-to-do

Exactly. Richard Stallman about Ubuntu Spyware: _http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXnfa0H30L4

I'm a happy Debian user since I finally ditched Ubuntu this year.
 
Re: Prism - Or do you really want to keep your Google Mail and Facebook

Thanks for the information regarding Ubuntu. I wonder
if Fedora is the same? I may just do that, install Debian.
 
Re: Prism - Or do you really want to keep your Google Mail and Facebook

dant said:
Thanks for the information regarding Ubuntu. I wonder
if Fedora is the same? I may just do that, install Debian.
I find Mint to be quite pleasant, though it is based on Ubuntu but still doesn't have the amazon integration.
 
Re: Prism - Or do you really want to keep your Google Mail and Facebook

Saieden said:
dant said:
Thanks for the information regarding Ubuntu. I wonder
if Fedora is the same? I may just do that, install Debian.
I find Mint to be quite pleasant, though it is based on Ubuntu but still doesn't have the amazon integration.

Nice, I'll see if I can transplant the packages I want into mint from the Ubuntu repository without including the spyware.
 
Re: Prism - Or do you really want to keep your Google Mail and Facebook

whitecoast said:
Saieden said:
dant said:
Thanks for the information regarding Ubuntu. I wonder
if Fedora is the same? I may just do that, install Debian.
I find Mint to be quite pleasant, though it is based on Ubuntu but still doesn't have the amazon integration.

Nice, I'll see if I can transplant the packages I want into mint from the Ubuntu repository without including the spyware.

There's a lot more to consider than just the choice of PC operating system if you want to maintain your privacy online in the face of government internet surveillance, though in general using Linux instead of NSA sellout Microsoft's Windows is a good idea. But that's just for starters, unfortunately.

(As to which Linux, there are many options. As mentioned, Shuttleworth at Canonical has sold out to Amazon with Ubuntu, which is a shame since it's perhaps the easiest distribution to install quickly. A few others worth considering are Scientific Linux, Centos, Debian, Mint, OpenSuse, and Mageia, as all of those are more or less accessible and quite easy to install, for varying values of 'easy'. YMMV. There are many more listed at http://www.distrowatch.com, but I'd advise sticking with larger ones. I run Mageia (formerly Mandriva, and earlier, Mandrake), but it has been suffering some adolescent growing pains in Mageia3 that affected my ease of upgrading from Mageia2, but it's still my choice.)

Bruce Schneier has written an article published at the Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/05/nsa-how-to-remain-secure-surveillance .

He has also written an opinion piece, also published by the Guardian, that is a frank call to arms for all internet technologists of conscience who are concerned by the dark lowering prospect of fascism, at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/05/government-betrayed-internet-nsa-spying .

Schneier is one of the few well-placed computing technologists and public intellectuals writing about this; both articles are well worth reading.
 
Re: Prism - Or do you really want to keep your Google Mail and Facebook

griffin said:
(As to which Linux, there are many options. As mentioned, Shuttleworth at Canonical has sold out to Amazon with Ubuntu, which is a shame since it's perhaps the easiest distribution to install quickly. A few others worth considering are Scientific Linux, Centos, Debian, Mint, OpenSuse, and Mageia, as all of those are more or less accessible and quite easy to install, for varying values of 'easy'.


I would just like to emphasize here that Mint is every bit as easy to use and install as Ubuntu as well as that just about everything that works on Ubuntu works on Mint, including much of the support documentation if you know your way around, though there's plenty out there for Mint as well. And if you're into customizing your desktop and interface and all that, Mint has a lot of easy to use options for that as well. Though I haven't used other distro's, I've read quite a few comparison articles and would certainly recommend it for Linux beginners.
 
Re: Prism - Or do you really want to keep your Google Mail and Facebook

whitecoast said:
Saieden said:
I find Mint to be quite pleasant, though it is based on Ubuntu but still doesn't have the amazon integration.

Nice, I'll see if I can transplant the packages I want into mint from the Ubuntu repository without including the spyware.

Read here the whole discussion thread on Ubuntu and its derivatives (incl. Mint):

https://github.com/nylira/prism-break/issues/334

As it appears, one should avoid all of them. I am also one of those happy users of Ubuntu and right now had to start thinking which OS then? Will try Debian and see what happens. I am hoping to have no trouble with multimedia (watching docs, movies and listening to music) - this thing was really no hassle with Ubuntu and I loved that, no command line.
 
Re: Prism - Or do you really want to keep your Google Mail and Facebook

Niall said:
Bingo, it's the psychological result that counts, not whether or not what they're doing is legal or the extent to which they can really know what everyone is thinking before they express it.

And the result is that everyone modifies their own behaviour and the herd is corralled into ever finer levels of control. It therefore becomes easier to predict next time which way the herd will turn, and to adjust your next move accordingly.

Mission Accomplished? Snowden 'NSA Leak' had 'chilling effect' that scared people away from learning truth about terrorism

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations on government mass surveillance have apparently scared a significant number of people away from searching for terrorism-related information on Wikipedia, as a new study shows readers are afraid of being investigated.

The conclusions come as the online encyclopedia giant showed a 30-percent drop in searches on terrorism-related topics - the most direct evidence yet of something called the "chilling effect," described by University of Oxford and Toronto's Jonathon Penney as the measure of the negative impact on legal conduct that arises out of the leaks by the former NSA contractor who exposed the PRISM program.

Many in academic circles have been denying that such an effect exists, as well as its potential negative fallout. This prompted Penney to delve deeper into the issue, which has steadily been rising in popularity across academic disciplines.

His findings are published in an upcoming paper in the Berkeley Technology Law Journal. There he analyzes the fall in traffic after taking a look at 48 Wikipedia topics monitored closely by the US government on national security concerns. "Al-Qaeda," "jihad" and related searches top the list compiled by the Department of Homeland Security.

To measure the effect Penney took as his starting point a date 16 months prior to the first revelation in summer 2013. In that period the interest in terrorism had been rising mildly from 2.2 million searches at the low point to 3.0 million just before the NSA leaks. As people woke up to Snowden's revelations, the figure plummeted rapidly back to the average 2.2 million, then further below 2.0, until stabilizing at 2.5 million only in summer 2014, according to Penney's calculations.

"The Article finds not only a statistically significant immediate decline in traffic for these Wikipedia articles after June 2013, but also a change in the overall secular trend in the view count traffic, suggesting not only immediate but also long-term chilling effects resulting from the NSA/PRISM online surveillance revelations," Penney writes.

He also found that the more sensitive a topic was, the more likely it was to cause privacy concerns among the public. Penney established a list of more, and less, 'safe' topics. The safer topics, which presumably reflected only a general interest in US government security forces, retained steady levels of interest.

This is what we said at the time, that the purpose of these 'leaks' was to let people know, or make them think, that they are being watched. This would have the same effect of dampening dissent as the actual terrorism itself: making people fear the authorities.

The very fact that the Chilling Effect is 'controversial' in mainstream academic circles tells us that it's very well understood (and applied) in elite circles: they don't want people to understand why they do what they do.
 
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