9/11: The day we lost our privacy and power Investigative reporter Duncan Campbell reflects how 9/11 has torpedoed resistance to intrusion and undermined privacy rights born of earlier struggles. It may, irreversibly, have changed the way we think. 9/11 was a savage nightmare that took too long to happen for some in the West. For 12 fallow years, from the fall of the …
Whistleblowers need are the only way the public can turn these tools against the people who abuse them. I actually like the fact that there are systems and people keeping track of extremists (they do exist) to protect the public, but someone needs to watch the watchers, and have protection for flagging abuses of power.
It's not entirely true that we lost our power. We lost our privacy, that's for sure, but we, as in the people, still hold the balance of power and that hasn't changed one bit.
The very nature of a scenario where there are rulers and ruled dictates that the ruled must exceed (in number) the rulers,
Since it is the nature of rulers to extract value from the ruled for as little effort as possible it stands to reason that for a group of rulers to prey on the work output of the ruled they must be numerically inferior, lest the entire ruler/ruled economy collapse under the weight of the predations of the rulers.
The trick is to prey on ruled to the maximum level possible that still leaves the ruled class the ability to survive without noticing that their work value is being siphoned off for the benefit of a ruling class that offers no value in return to society as a whole.
It is usually the extreme greed of the ruling class that is their ultimate downfall.
The middle east riots were not, as the media would have you believe, about citizens wanting to overthrow evil dictators. What they really were about was food shortages and the inability of the citizenry to live with enough of their basic needs fulfilled.
As soon as the ruled group, which is always numerically superior, becomes agitated enough, they will rise up and once they do so in enough numbers the ruling class have no power to stop them.
The ruling class are utterly dependent on the ruled class. Without the ruled class they have no food, power or goods of any type.
Because they have only ever known how to wield power over others to to force them to provide them with life's necessities, once the population at large refuses to do so the rulers have no way of obtaining them by their own work.
They have no skills other than using the threat of force to achieve their ends.
The trouble is that people are not willing to band together to overthrow the parasitical tyrants that leach off the work of the normal working man.
The rulers ensure that this situation remains as the status quo by creating laws that cause conflict, causing groups of people to see other groups of people as their enemies.
Left vs Right politics, anti-discrimination laws and the obscenely biased family courts are just some examples of laws that cause more trouble than they solve.
This is a deliberate policy of our rulers to ensure that we do not see the real enemy (them) and instead expend our anger and frustration on other ruled groups, fighting about small potatoes stuff and ignoring the big picture which is the predations of the ruling class on the majority of free men.
It is no mistake that we are all beholden to befuddling legal system that is incomprehensible to every living man on this planet, even lawyers. It is simply impossible to know every single law that can be possibly broken therefore, by definition, it is impossible to live without accidently breaking a law.
The fact "The Law" requires us to live by a set of rules that cannot be comprehended and that the outcome of any legal proceeding cannot be predicted tells us that the law is not an instrument of justice, but rather an instrument of repression, to be used against citizens that either have value (wealth) that is coveted by the ruling class or is a citizen who has no wealth, but is a threat to the ruling class, through outright agitation or even a simple refusal to submit to the injustices forced on him by our rulers .
The entire western socio-economic-legal-military system is corrupt to the very core and exists entirely to allow a small group of individuals to leach from the work output of the majority. The sooner a large enough group wake up and realise what is going on the better these fuckers can be kicked out and lined up.
And they can stick me in their fucking "agitators database" if they like, because the fact is that if the revolution does come I will be at the front of the pack burning down the corridors of power.
2 months ago, I heard talk about some appliances that will force a MITM attack on SSL connections. Why would someone want to put something like that on their network? Because of "people leaking information". Of course, that means that your company would potentially be reading your bank statements and other stuff they shouldn't be reading. But all in the name of "security"!!!
BTW, the "attack" basically consists on doing a Corleone and asking for the session key; if you don't give it up, your connection's killed. :(
Microsofts threat management gateway sits on your corporate network MITMing your ssl traffic. Your company simply issues a ssl certificate which IE accepts without you noticing(group policy etc) and all your SSL traffic can be monitored by your trustworthy admins.
If you use Firefox you'll get a warning about untrusted certificates, but most corporate users aren't allowed to install software.
Bluecoat proxies can do the same.
I've seen this done in banks where data leakage is actually a problem - I've got no problem in principle about doing this on corporate networks. We found people forwarding all their email to gmail, for example. What I really object to is the fact that it wasn't made clear to employees what was going on. Connect to your home network over ssl and the bank can pick up all your passwords. Ditto if you connect to your bank's website. You expect it to be private, but it isn't and there is no warning. Sneaky behaviour and "trust us" don't go together.
Bottom line - don't use someone else's kit or software to connect to your own stuff. A lot of the security guys carry their own personal laptops & 3G connections because we're, well, justifiably paranoid.
> Connect to your home network over ssl and the bank can pick up all your passwords.
My home webserver (which I use for webmail,. predominantly) has an invalid certificate. I signed it, and it's out of date.
If I ever try to connect and *don't* get a warning, I know someone is MITMing me.
If I do get a warning, I check the certificate to make sure it's the one I expect :-)
Vic.
This has been on our network since ISA 2004. As a school we have always monitored "man in the middle" so to speak. Just issue a cert from the domain CA that is trusted throughout the domain. Stops people bypassing the filters via SSL (SSL is stopped then sent through the filters again before going back out as SSL).
Sure ISA 2004 had a more complex ruleset and im sure TMG gets it done a little more seamlessly.
There are even places where the owners ENCOURAGE use of gmail because the existing servers of the primary provided for the company will not handle adequate file sizes. One of the problems with the proliferation of electronic "paper" work is that document sizes have ballooned out enormously. The common means of transfer - email - is gradually losing ground against the shear wordiness of the maximum document sizes. Sharepoint services are gradually becoming much more common. Even gmail will buckle under some loads.
IIRC there is no Corleone involved, just a simple matter of a trusted cert being installed on the device for whatever domain it's intercepting (the recent Belgian CA that was compromised and used to generate 500+ fake "trusted" certs comes to mind) and the only way anyone would ever know (unless they're running Marlinspike's add-on) would be by manually inspecting the certificate and recognizing, for example, that Facebook is presenting a cert from a CA in China instead of whatever CA they really use.
If the certs are trusted by the browser, most users would never... ever notice their traffic is being intercepted.
Ars Technica has a very good primer on MITM and the core concerns around the entire CA system for anyone interested. My apologies, but I don't have the link handy from my mobile or I'd paste it in. I would imagine Marlinspike has plenty on it as well too.
Well it begs the question as why you should be accessing your bank account while you are supposed to be working, however, that is the least of your problems, try using wireshark to monitor your traffic while you are logged in to your secure session with your bank, see where else data your data is being sent to.
Try doing a test using the ssl mitm proxy software available on the net if you want to see the traffic sent.
You can try this at work also (if you are brave/stupid/don't give a toss)
It's not that "we" accept them, but our "elected representatives" (who are supposed to tell Parliament what *we*, their constituents think) usually blindly follow their Party Whips' instructions "this is Party Policy, this is how you will vote".
A few have the courage to stand up and object, but their voices are generally drowned out and even if they manage to get an amendment tabled, it's usually voted down by the rest.
"[...] voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
- Herman Goering
... no, the blame is on those who, when we had the chance to *change* a broken electoral system, decided to believe the FUD spread by the vested interests in politics and the media and *stay* with that broken system after a choice of "FPTP or AV" was foisted upon us instead of us being allowed to decide amongst *ALL* the possible options.
Suppose for a second that we had been offered a choice between first-past-the-post, AV, STV, Party List, Condorcet, IRV, punch-up in a pub car park (it's still fairer than FPTP) and maybe a few other methods.
Since the new voting system most probably would have been chosen by a first-past-the-post ballot, we most probably would have ended up with FPTP anyway -- even if more people had voted for something else.
The PDF linked below might be a bit on the long side at 120 pages and the first 10 or so pages a bit superfluous but the bulk of it is highly recommended.
Start at page 11 section 3 "Introduction"
http://www.rossco.org/HumanNature.pdf
http://www.strike-the-root.com/51/ross/ross3.html
I made this argument during the AV debate. Basically, we *don't* actually elect our representatives, because human nature is to vote on minor issues on which the population is roughly evenly split and ignore major issues on which there is broad agreement. A candidate with an unpopular position on a major issue but who makes no pronouncement on a minor issue can get elected by default.
Example:
Candidate A supports beheading cute, fluffy kittens.
Candidate B opposes beheading kittens and supports serving beer in litres instead of pints.
Candidate C opposes beheading kittens and also opposes serving beer in litres.
The following Thursday, candidates B and C each score 33% of the vote. Candidate A scores 34% of the vote and wins. And cute, fluffy kittens end up beheaded, even though most people voted against that.
""[...] voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country." - Herman Goering"
Which is precisely why Bush called it the Patriot Act and promptly said that you were either with us, or against us thus poisoning the debate against anyone who dared to speak out against it...
It is not like it was not going on before that.
Frankly, the article overestimates the role of 9/11. RIPA predates 9/11. So do some of USA surveillance programmes.
if anything, after 9/11 the constant ongoing and relentless intrusion of the government(s) into your private life became more visible. It also allowed to justify efforts that started _BEFORE_ 9/11. In fact, if there was no 9/11 it would have been necessary to organise one to justify them.
"In fact, if there was no 9/11 it would have been necessary to organise one to justify them."
It *was* organized that way, by your friends at Project for a New American Century, whom you may note had a not-so-tenuous connection with the power base of the US, not to mention (for example) the security company in charge of the WTC (Securicor, with a Bush on the executive board), or Ace Elevator (who performed the largest "elevator modernisation" in history in the 9 months prior to 9/11, and whose techs ran like hell as soon as the attacks started), and so on and so forth.....
Add to that, the fact that the three WTC office tower collapses on 9/11/01 were thermodynamically inconsistent with a gravitational collapse (as they left little to no energy to dismember the structure) and they are mechanically inconsistent with fire-initiated collapse (as they all imploded or exploded with remarkable symmetry despite totally asymmetrical damage).
The fundamental problem is that our society is intellectually lazy and unused to determining truth for themselves, on the basis of reasonably objective evidence. If you are prepared to perform physical analyses and to LISTEN to the implications of the physics, the mendacity of the powers that be is undeniable and unmistakable.
NOT AC, because AC is pointless, and to speak the truth anonymously undermines it.
There are certainly total-crock idiotic baseless theories about 9/11 as with anything else (directed energy weapons, etc.) but that does NOT imply the official conspiracy theory is correct.
There are many, MANY serious flaws and downright gaping holes in the official account, which may easily be patched by referring to physical evidence; physical evidence which was POINTEDLY AND DELIBERATELY IGNORED by the "investigators". This includes the nanothermite (which is not an imaginary product of tinfoil-wearing idiots; it's a product of Lawrence Livermore Labs) which was strewn throughout the WTC debris. It includes the fact that the energy released in this "gravitational collapse" is orders of magnitude larger than extremely generous estimates of the towers' gravitational energies. It includes the fact that the only steel-framed highrises IN HISTORY to collapse in this fashion without the aid o high explosives were WTC 1, 2 and 7.
I'm in the "tinfoil brigade"? If so, than God I am not in the deep pit of denial you are in.
And if you want to find my real name, it's published in The Register. Go ahead and find it.
"the only steel-framed highrises IN HISTORY to collapse in this fashion without the aid o high explosives were WTC 1, 2 and 7"
Do you think that this could possibly be related to the fact that two of these neighbouring buildings were the only ones IN HISTORY to be struck at high velocity by heavy passenger jets fully laden with fuel?
And there are "official" conspiracy theories? Who knew??
and the towers were designed to withstand a fully loaded (and fueled) 707. Besides, most of the fuel was 'burnt' upon impact and didn't contribute to heating the steal structures, and even the rest wasn't hot enough to soften the structures. Check the physics.
Only if you consider New England to California 'short haul' - the flights were deliberately selected to have a large amount of fuel on board. And the building withstood the impact very well (as, indeed, would most similar constructions) - the problem was that the impact stripped most of the fireproof covering from the steel, which was then weakened by the subsequent conflagration.
As far as I am aware, and I am a structural engineer, the building was designed to resist wind and someone did a quick check to see if the impact of a plane would generate larger forces (which it didn't). In any case, the towers survived the impacts. The towers were not designed to survive a multi-story fire in a damaged state, and of course, they didn't. FEMA didn't have time to do the full analysis, but the cause of collapse was probably instability caused by the expansion of the floor plates due to the heat, this explains why the tower that collapsed first was the one that was hit second but lower. The nanothermite is better explained by other explanations, but I don't have time to post the info.
You mean, heating the floorpans so vigourously they turn into micron-sized particles moving horizontally at 100 km/h? Yes, that is what we call the work of explosives. And that is precisely what was observed.
Now, what is your explanation for the nanothermite? Because there is NO REASON for that material to be found there, and it was found in all three buildings' dust — BEFORE the cleanup operations.
The attacks happend so that neocons can get their wet dream by keeping our troops in all muslim nations as to keep them weak so that Israel can do a massive land grab with little or no resistance. Neocons want Israel to land grab so that it fulfills the objective in the Bible.
So any more wars we can not blame muslims. We must blame neocons.
That land is theirs and not Americas. Only time USA should war is in defense of our borders and not for someone elses borders. Proxy wars indeed! Send the troops home.
If you want to war over there then go put on the hat of the UN or the hat of Israel.
Good article.
But you try and broach this subject to colleagues, friends and family and they will consider you a paranoid wingnut, or dismiss it as "too difficult to understand; who won the football last night?"
I'd also posit that the act of you writing, and me commenting positively on, this "seditious" article is enough to flag both of us on a database within GCHQ, and we are now considered "domestic extremists" and will be the first to be arrested when the oil runs out and the s**t hits the fan.
Thats ultimately what this infrastructure is preparing for: 7 billion hungry people with nothing to lose.
"Thats ultimately what this infrastructure is preparing for: 7 billion hungry people with nothing to lose."
After the global cock up that is Wall Street, that is the harsh reality. That too was ""made in the USA". I suspect China will step in soon - after all, they own their asses already many times over.
@John Savard
What makes you think that you and your children aren't going to be part of that 7 Billion? Did you notice I didn't say anything about where those 7 Billion are coming from? That 7 billion are US.
In WW2, the UK had a population of 44 million and was barely able to feed itself using the entire landmass of the UK, with minimal imports due to U-Boats - why do you think we had rationing and Buck Palace's gardens being converted into allotments??
The UK population is now officially 62 million, or really 77 Million - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/city-eye-facts-on-a-plate-our-population-is-at-least-77-million-395428.html.
The only way those 77 million are being fed is through imports, intensively mechanised farming and distribution and artificial, energy intensive nitrogen fertilisers; all of those will not happen without oil.
We will be going back to a WW2 subsistence situation, only with an extra 34 million mouths to feed. All countries will be having the same problem at the same time and will feed themselves first. With no major transport ability we wouldn't be able to import their non-existent exports anyway.
You and your children ARE in that 7 billion.
And don't think we can simply migrate to bio-diesel and it remains all hunky-dory - we either eat or drive, not both, and there's not enough lithium in the world for us to all spin around in electric cars.
Do you know what really triggered most of those Arab Spring uprisings? Food prices, forced up by food crops being replaced with bio-diesel crops. Watch some Al-jazera, read eg Flat Earth News to understand why you haven't been hearing this angle from Western media.
That is the future.
And read this: http://www.energybulletin.net/node/17036
You won't see any national Governments' similar official assessments in public any time soon, even though they do exist as highly classified documents; their populations cannot psychologically handle the news, and the default psychological response is denial - you are an example of this..."it'll never affect me and mine".
Sorry John, but it will.
Why the f* do we have 7bn anyway?
many overlook the simplest, cheapest method of returning to sustainability - ethical population control. It can be done, and the results far more effective than any green wash. It would at least allow us to wean ourselves off oil-based agriculture.
Why do we always think earth does have enough resources to support us...why don't we think the alternative - that perhaps there's too many of us for earth to support? Why is population control so taboo?
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