Year: 2013

President Obama Channels Lord Cromwell: Great Statesmen Tamper with Packets by John Stanton

Glenn Greenwald’s Snowden dossier concerning the American Leviathan’s practice of harvesting, storing and analyzing the information/conversations of its own and the world’s political, military, economic and cultural gate keepers is fascinating. This is so not due to the technological sophistication and global reach of the USA’s intelligence capabilities, but for what it implies about the current state and future of the collective nation-states known as Western Democracies. And it undercuts nearly every ideal in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, leaving the dry, functional and core text of the US Constitution as the last mooring line to—paraphrasing Russell Crowe in the movie the Gladiator—“The dream that was once the United States.” It also challenges the foundations of the “free” market and “free will”: but more on that in a moment.

Critics of surveillance technologies and intelligence gathering–and advocates of the nebulous concept of selfhood and privacy– would do well to school themselves by studying the documents that outline America’s national security strategy. Most all of these are publically available at a collection of websites: DTIC, Cryptome, Public Intelligence, Cryptocomb, and the National Defense University, et al. If critics do not understand their opponents and their thinking—as Sun Tzu once advised—then building a convincing case against the ills of the world is a Vaudevillian exercise. Further, the willful ignorance by proponents and opponents of the history of spying, surveillance and even privacy cripples the thinking of both sides. Absent availing oneself of learning, there can be no meaningful discussion on matters of this import.

It is absolutely vital to visit with the historical literary record as it is critical to understanding the philosophy and foundations of the Western world’s approach to intelligence gathering, surveillance and the role of the state/church, corporation and individual in that process. Brushing off this vast literary goldmine is done at one’s own peril.

Literature to the Rescue!

As authors David Rosen and Aaron Santesso point out in the exceptional The Watchman in Pieces: Surveillance, Literature and Personhood (Yale 2013), the matter of individuality or personhood—and how much “others” (state, society) should legitimately know about that individual–is a centuries old matter dating, at least, back to the Middle Ages. The topic was the subject of some of the Western world’s top practitioners of poetry and prose, along with heavyweight political and cultural philosophers and critics. Among them: Swift, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Richardson (Clarissa), Hume, Mill. James, Adam Smith, Pope, Defoe, Locke, Bentham, Thomas More, Goffman (dramaturgy).

Is President Barack Obama’s—or for that matter G.W. Bush and W.J. Clinton’s–thinking all that different from Cromwell? Is it a surprise that the US Postal Service, Telecoms and ISP’s collect metadata? Sure, the speed of exchange has changed and the human geospatial landscape has altered, but the core thinking remains the same. It is important, of course, not reach-back and pulling forward thoughts that are out of place in the 21^st Century. But, as evolutionary social animals, one core absolute appears to hold: What in the world are other people thinking about me or us? Who is watching?

According to Rosen and Santesso, “For [England’s }Cromwell it had been perfectly clear that a state controlled post ‘might be made the agent in discovering and preventing many wicked designs daily contrived against the piece and welfare of the commonwealth, the intelligence whereof could not be communicated except by letters’…Samuel Moreland in the service of Charles II subsequently helped develop a system of opening , copying and resealing letters passed through the post office…The [Secret Office] ‘had tricks to open letters more skillfully than anywhere in the world…It was not possible to be a great statesman without tampering with packets.” And, as Rosen and Santesso point out, it is to Elizabeth the First’s Francis Walsingham that history turns for “the beginnings of a surveillance bureaucracy ahead of its time.”

It bears repeating. America’s national security apparatus has made very clear its intention—through Military Information Support Operations (MISO)—to favorably shape the civilian consciousness of those who seek to burden America’s national interests as defined though America’s Instruments of National Power (DIMEFLIP). In short there are no other interests in the world except for those that favor the United States of America. And that is stated as plain as day in President Obama’s National Security Strategy of the USA, “The United States will protect its people and advance our prosperity irrespective of the actions of any other nation…”

What clearer statement of audacity or of Empire does one need? With this in mind, the Snowden revelations transmitted through The Guardian (UK), Der Spiegel (Germany) and El Globo (Brazil) do not nearly move to the level of shock and awe. With an informed knowledge of the relevant history, one would expect this activity from the Lord Protector of the United States Republic, President Obama.

The immediate threat, as it has been throughout Western history, to the status quo is how to prevent 85 percent of the public from realizing that their collective role amounts to little more than stage hands (voters, consumers) and stunt doubles (soldiers, intelligence operators) that allow the great actors (politicians, military leaders, academics, corporate bosses, legacy journalists) to flit across the global stage armed with the tools of egotistical of noblesse oblige to stop, or start, the next act in human suffering—maybe even one that may involve American lives. These individuals would become cannibals to maintain their respective positions of power. Do we not have enough to fix in the USA? Can we divert at least some small portion of the national security budget to American education, dying cities, hungry and homeless people? Can some of the corporate loopholes be closed?

Pat Buchanan of the very readable American Conservative put it best. “This is thus their [Egypt’s] problem, not ours, most Americans believe, and our influence is receding there, even as that of the British, French and Russians did before us. Let them work it out. Testifying to this truth is the tape of Secretary of State John Kerry inspecting his yacht off Nantucket as the Egyptian regime fell, and Obama, after a brief National Security Council conclave, heading off for the golf course on the July 4 weekend, then on to Camp David.”

Now What? THINK!!!

Assuming the United States national security apparatus can collect and analyze the thoughts, conversations, strategies and tactics of its own leaders/citizens, and nation states, transnational enterprises the world over, what are the implications for Western representative democracies (fragile prospects anyway)? With worldwide anti-austerity protests increasing each year, there is much for yacht owners like John Kerry to worry about. Controlling the citizen rabble by homogenizing them via uniformed dress, divining their thoughts–and potential revolts—and filling their minds with ideological or consumerist propaganda is something that Thomas More thought about long ago in his work Utopia.

Can Western corporate nation states, led by the American national security and money printing machinery, homogenize and reshape citizenry to adapt to a collective and individual life of austerity? As the nation state like the USA is stripped clean of any powers save those of national security and the servicing and protection of commerce, who or what center of gravity holds the States of the Union together? Is the US national and corporate machinery—with the assistance of media, academia and cultural leaders—now in a position to fit an American president with the mask of all seeing divine monarch?

And if the Americans have the dirt and thoughts on everyone in their own country (credit scores, medical procedures, party affiliation, sexual orientation, habits, travel) what is the point of the false dram of elections other than an elaborate charade? Does diplomacy matter anymore? With full spectrum knowledge attained by American’s, what is negotiation, treaty or summit other than a theatrical production? And what becomes of opinion and identity? Who is one really but what one consumes from what society, the “Other”, provides? Just where is that information floating in the electromagnetic spectrum coming from and why is it there?

Fomenting social tyranny in order to get “thinkers” to comply with the narrative of the moment becomes a simple task it seems. One can hear it: “Did you hear about that statement in the court room drama on CNN? Nope, did not. What’s wrong with you, don’t you watch TV? Did you at least see the article in the Post or the Times? Nope, did not. Then how can you know what you are talking about?”

So what could be done with a database that housed the lives of a generation of domestic and foreign citizens, say from age 18-56, and was analyzed some years hence using supercomputing machinery and software programs that would provide predictable pattern analysis for the control of an entire society? Match that treasure trove of information with oncoming revolutions in evolutionary psychology, genetic engineering and pharmaceuticals (on the latter see Insatiability by S. Witkiewicz and Murti-Bing pills) and the formula for the redesign of humanity, and the utopian dream of a managed society, will be realized. That development may be a necessity. The way the human species is destroying itself and the Earth there may likely be no other choice. Living on another planet in current evolutionary form is not an option. Perhaps the human animal is evolution’s idea of a joke.

But wait! This just in!

Sources report that a new American interstellar space probe known under the code name Lancelot Link Wind (LLW) will be launched in the hopes of defending the Earth from an alien invasion. The spacecraft with its dark matter propulsion system is designed like the black granite monolith in Stanley Kubrick’s movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Inside the monolith lives an aquatic resident cyber database known as Submariner Clapper (SC) and consists of a mix of video, audio, text, and pictures of six billion human beings collected over a ten year period. According to a member of the Beyond the Director of National Intelligence (BDNIC), “We recognize here at BDNIC that there is a chance that LLW [Lancelot Link Wind] may float around in space forever. It may not even make it out of the damn solar system! But we have our EIM {Earth in Mind] here. Do you remember that scene in 2001 when everyone is jumping around the monolith screaming and throwing bones in the air? Well, we figure that if an alien species finds LLW and activates the SC, and listens in, it’ll drive em *&^%#@! crazy and they’ll avoid this watering hole forever. After all, we have no greater mission than the protection of the American people and some other people too.”

John Stanton is a Virginia based writer. Reach him at cioran123@yahoo.com

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The talk going around in Russia is that the government will be reimbursing for the financial loses during the collapse of the Soviet Union. I understand that some people were reimbursed in the past and now the chances are getting better that the rest will be at least somewhat financially better than before…

I understand that 345.5 billion Soviet Rubles were lost after the break-up of the Soviet system. Under the new situation in the works, 4 (four) Russian rubles would be given for every 1 (one) Soviet-era ruble lost.

Hmm…

Seems I remember that a USSR ruble was not that far off in price to the dollar. Like I remember seeing it at .9 to 1 several times. But I know that had to have been on the way to collapse, so probably about .5 to 1 at the time of Soviet collapse…

That means that Russians while are lucky to get some money back. It still does not make up the difference. After I figured out what it would mean to do a direct 1 to 1 payback. I can see why Russia can not do it! We are looking at 30 plus trillion rubles added to the bottom line and that would make a mess of everything…

So on the news the Ministry of Finance has sent a draft law to the Duma, where it requests to return Soviet – era savings by 2021. Or at least a facsimile of those savings…

I guess something is better than nothing and the money is a shot in the arm for all who get it…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

I found the definition for stupid today. I mean real unadulterated stupidity. The kind of stupidity that only can be accomplished by a serious stupid brain fart. The serious kinda of stupid that is equated to governments. Stupidity that is so stupid that the government has forgotten how being stupid is really stupid in the first place. This is the stupid government that runs our country and that makes us stupid also…

WASHINGTON, July 9 (Xinhua) — The White House on Tuesday rejected a Russian claim that the Syrian rebels had used chemical weapons in their fighting against the government troops.

We all know that the terrorists in Syria used the western supplied chemical weapons against the people and are using the ignorant stupid west to permit the fact that they used chemical weapons and blame it on Syria, as a good thing…

I am stupid for allowing my stupid government to continue and since no one seems to see how stupid it is, then I guess I will rant to the wall and hope you see that the US government is stupid…

Unless it is just plain evil and that my friend is a whole other set of very serious issues…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The Russian ambassador to the United Nations says that firsthand evidence shows that militants, and not the Syrian army, have manufactured sarin nerve gas and used it during an attack near the city of Aleppo in March.

On Tuesday, Ambassador ‪‎Vitaly‬ Churkin said that Russian experts collected samples at the site of the attack in the region of Khan al-Assal, where over two dozen people, including 16 Syrian troops, died on March 19.

The samples were examined at a laboratory in Russia which is certified by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), and the results of the analysis prove that a missile fired by the militants was filled with sarin, he stated.

“The results of the analysis clearly indicate that the ordnance used in Khan al-Assal was not industrially manufactured and was filled with sarin… The projectile involved is not a standard one for chemical use. Hexogen, utilized as an opening charge, is not utilized in standard ammunition. Therefore, there is every reason to believe that it was armed opposition fighters who used the chemical weapons in Khan al-Assal,” Churkin said.

He went on to say that he had also delivered the evidence to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Britain, France, and the United States have accused the Syrian government of using chemical weapons. Damascus has denied the charges, saying it was actually the militants who used chemical weapons on several occasions.

On June 13, US Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes claimed in a White House statement that the Syrian government “has used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin, on a small scale” against the foreign-backed militants “multiple times in the last year.”

In response, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said, “The White House published a statement full of lies about the use of chemical weapons in Syria, based on fabricated information, through which it is trying to hold the Syrian government responsible for such use.”

On June 15, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the materials collected by the Obama administration allegedly proving that Syrian troops used chemical weapons would not meet the requirements of the Hague-based OPCW.

The Syria crisis began in mid-March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of security personnel, have been killed in the violence, and several international human rights organizations say the foreign-sponsored militants have committed war crimes.

The Syrian government says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

I realized today that I am different than most people in the world I grew up in. I do not look at the world as being full of different people, or better people here than there, or my color makes me better than you…

Now I do not claim that I understand why some people are gay, nor why people hate gays, or why some people hate blacks, some people hate American Indians, some people want to be rich, some people want war  and some people hate Muslims. I do not claim to be better than anyone, I just claim to be  lot more tolerant of all kinds of people than most people from the world that I came from. Tolerance is not associated with acceptance…

I also do not claim to write to make you happy, nor make anyone else happy. I also do not care if you do not like what I say…

Just like for example: I tolerate you being gay, but I do not accept it. I am not able to accept it, for I am not able to see it from your shoes. That does not mean that I would not have you as a friend. It means that the fact you are gay makes no sense to me and I think maybe you need help. Don’t take that wrong, I can accept that you are different than me, just don’t think that I accept that you are different from what is truth…

I look at a woman and see beauty, grace, perfection and heaven…

So how could I be expected to look at a man and see the same? A man can be a friend and a buddy, but never beauty, grace, perfection and heaven. Man is just a man and we are not a woman in any aspect or means. A woman is a partner in relationship, love and children and the woman is the number one aspect of that relationship. A woman is a mother, wife and heaven all at once…

No man can match those criteria and no woman can have a mate as another woman and fulfill those criteria. It is biologically impossible and cheating does not count. The propagation of the race requires a man and a woman…

So no I will not condone you being gay anymore than I condone other wrongs. Nor would I condemn you being gay and not condemn many other wrongs at the same time. It is all the same to me. Wrong is wrong and right is right. There is not lessor rights and lessor wrongs…

I definitely do not understand religions and religious wars. I am a believer in god, but I do not believe in what we call religion in most of the known world. The world is run on “Holy Wars” and I use to be fascinated by the “Holy Wars” from the middle ages. We have not changed nor does it seem that we will change. The holy wars are still going on and it looks bad for the world, because a sword is not the same as a nuke in the hand…

I do not understand when a preacher preaches about support for our troops in other peoples lands to help them kill people from other countries. Makes no sense to me. I cringe every time that I am reminded of our military preacher and he would say, “God is with you! He will make your aim true and your heart strong! Go forth and do your job!”  Okay – I watched his head explode one day as he was waving his bible in the heat of a battle. Seems that he pissed God off, I guess, because he died just like you or I would…

The above is from my thoughts and thinking’s. I see life as very black and white. I do not see life as sugar coated and rainbow like. Life is simple to me: You intentionally abort a child at any stage of pregnancy, then you have killed a human being. Being a biology major has a impact on my decisions about such things. Just like I have knowledge’s about procreation and what the difference is between an asexual creature and a sexual creatures. Man is not a asexual creature and you have to have male and female. It is all simple to me and I do not bend the rules to make myself happy and be part of the crowd…

As I travel to another country and I see people. I do not see evil people and I do not try to hunt them down as a goal of mine, just to prove the world wrong. I watch people and I study people. It is what I do. I do not have preconceived notions about these people, because I have learned that 90% of what I have been taught and learned in schools is a lie. I learned that many many years ago and took it upon myself to reteach myself what is right and wrong. I now read constantly and try to shape a new concept in my head, instead of the old concept being the only example that I stay with…

I have personally seen wonderful people all over the world. I have come to Russia and seen a world that my government does not want you to know about in America. That is why I have a website that is attacked a lot by the DHS and TSA computers. My site is an issue because I see a good world and that is against the western philosophy and desires. How can you convince the western people to go along with war on countries that are known to be fantastic, wonderful, safe, beautiful and so on and so on. You can’t and they have to be made into terrible countries and then it is okay to destroy them. For evil must be destroyed – Right?

Sveta and I have made friends all over the world and the one thing that is common amongst people is. They want peace and quiet and to live their lives in harmony with all. That is where the issue lies…

Peace and harmony and quiet do not make money, but War does…

Haters are going to hate and that is that!  I do not have to think like you and I do not have to like you! If I do like you then it is real and not because you have a strange quirk about you that makes me want to have you in my circle of life. I don’t like you because you meet a criteria or you look good in my resume…

I like you because you are you. I am glad that I am different than you and I am glad that I do not want to be you. For that is the world that I grew up in and that world is still going strong. I see that “Keep up with the Joneses!” is still a rule of life…

That is where I differ from many people in the world I grew up in…

That is my thoughts…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

My thoughts today: The stock market is a farce – Snowden is a coverup issue – The west is the reason Syria is the way it is – I have lost all desire to ever travel to Egypt – There is too much coverup on everything in America – NSA stands for Neurotic Stupid Assholes – Israel is worse than America – If Ron Paul had become president they (bankers) would have him killed – Fukushima was a lie and is deadly – Gulf Oil Spill is still leaking and is deadly – Ever noticed that the men guarding Manning are twice his size – America was whipped badly in Afghanistan – US ambassadors in other countries are really stupid – I thought Snowden was looking for a place to go and he has had 4 countries at least offer asylum – Now the Chinese are buying USA individual homes as fast as they can; $12.3 billion dollars and counting – Western media sucks – Get rid of those Ben Laden files – Glonass is better than GPS – Russia has a new battle tank; Armata – Been there and seen it; Guantanamo Bay is an evil place – Thank the IRS for giving out your Social Security Number – Flight 214 had a trainee flying it; so where the hell was the real pilot; sleeping – Tell me again about Obama change – Gotta love them Irish; refused an arrest warrant for Snowden if he came there – 38 people are running for Moscow Mayor; That is cool – I thought the war was over in Iraq; Nope – Boeing stocks went up after the crash; gotta love lies – Russia and China have been doing a bunch of war exercises together this last few years – Russia had a bad train wreck – Facebook should be banned –  I removed comments and last but not least; I am grouchy as I have to give myself shots for 20 days; shots to help my veins and plaque buildup…

That is it for today…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

I found this interesting:

15,000 Russians who left supposedly forever, have returned to Russia within the first half of 2013. A special program set up on the assumption that 25,000 compatriots will come back to the native land in the year of 2013, said by Igor Slyunyayev, Russian Minister for Regional Development…

http://windowstorussia.com/russians-returning-on-the-voluntary-resettlement-in-russia-of-compatriots-living-abroad.html

http://windowstorussia.com/russian-from-russia-do-you-want-to-come.html

Things are changing in the world and it is a sign of things to come. It took from 2006 to 2012 to get the program out enough and they received 18,000 people during that 6 years. Then the word got out that Russia is helping people who left under duress years ago, to come back home. Most left thinking grass is greener on the other side and found out that grass is dying on the other side…

In fact most of the time they paint the grass to make it look green and when you jump the fence, you get green paint all over you…

Now Russia is making it very easy to come home and helping those people that became stuck in a world that they do not love…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Anna Chapman, the sexy red-haired Russian secret agent who was expelled from the United States in 2010, seized the moment and proposed marriage by Twitter to the CIA leaker Edward Snowden, who is purported to be on the run after disclosing details of a top-secret surveillance program that allegedly targeted millions of Americans and most of the world…

Now it just does not get any better than that…

Update: “I would have married Chapman regardless of the rest. Goddamn, just look at her,” appeared on allegedly Edward Snowden’s Twitter account, which is believed by some journalists and Internet users to be fake. Although, it is considered that the real marriage will help Edward Snowden, former CIA employee, to find a solution to his refuge problem.

Update: “Virtual matchmaking” would have looked extremely interesting but for one circumstance, namely Internet users doubt the veracity of Edward Snowden’s Twitter account where they saw his tweet about Chapman. In fact, it’s hard to explain why some statements on behalf of Snowden, an American, were written in Russian. However, according to the Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, Edward Snowden does not have Twitter or Facebook accounts. He also adds that the Twitter account under the nickname @EJosephSnowden, that writes tweets on behalf of Edward Snowden, is fake and does not belong to the former CIA employee.

Interesting…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

I was ridiculed and lambasted and called everything but a white boy, over my stance on Nabucco. I have said from the beginning that to play games by the EU over a country like Russia is a financial disaster waiting to happen for the EU. The EU like the USA and like 99% of the western countries are busted, broke, in debt and like no money dude…

“After 11 years of futile efforts, Nabucco’s shareholders led by Austria’s OMV will not keep a failed project afloat, nor continue financing its operating expenses (as Hungary’s MOL had anticipated more than one year ago). Drawing from the consequences of Nabucco-West’s defeat, OMV’s CEO Gerhard Roiss announced: “The Nabucco project is over for us.””

Here is a few articles of mine and there is many more:

http://windowstorussia.com/nabucco-going-bye-bye.html
http://windowstorussia.com/nabucco-a-pipeline-to-nowhere.html
http://windowstorussia.com/nabucco-pipeline-is-gasping-in-death-thralls-hungary-says-no-and-goodbye.html
http://windowstorussia.com/nabucco-going-down-the-drain.html
http://windowstorussia.com/the-nabucco-death-rattles-are-being-heard.html
http://windowstorussia.com/nabucco-pipeline-has-it-been-checkmated.html
http://windowstorussia.com/thumbing-their-nose-at-russia-nabucco.html

I have been busy so I was not able to post sooner about this, but here I am and yes I am glad to be vindicated. I saw the writing on the wall many tears ago and it was sheer foolishness that anyone kept driving a dead mule. If the west would work as hard on poverty and peace, as they did on Nabucco and slamming Russia. The world would be a better place. Billions of dollars down the drain as is normal in the west and her idiosyncrasies…

Strange how the west created this world that has to have money to have power and when the west is broke, they do not like the game anymore. The power of west lies in debt and that debt is soon to come due. Now there will be a war as the repossession man comes a calling and the repo man will get his money or collateral to cover it…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

All the media bluster and folly surrounding whistleblower Edward Snowden is detracting from critical thinking that Americans must engage in and act upon. At this moment, benefits from the Snowden data dump appear to be accruing to the US government and its assorted defense related corporate interests. If the American national security apparatus is to be checked and balanced, structural changes must take place. Substance must be ascendant, form can come later.

The US Constitution and the Bill of Rights have been bypassed by the Cronyism of the Revolving Door. It is an inept practice hardly useful for designing comprehensive national security strategies, policies, operations or tactics (SOCOM stands out though) that protect the American people. The civilian side of the coin is even worse. What has the Cronyism of the Revolving Door produced? The Great Recession of 2008, the destruction of Iraq and Syria, the unleashing of Sunni Takfiri, the decay of America’s education infrastructure and the chasm that separates American leadership from the majority of American citizens.

This is the stuff of authoritarian regimes. It does not matter whether the form is capitalism, socialism, communism or whatever mix exists between them. Put bluntly, the Cronyism of the Revolving Door is a shitty form of government. And it is not confined to US government leaders. It is the same story in academia, media, industry, and finance. America’s slogan these days is, Who Gives a Shit?

Here are some suggestions for recovery.

First: whistleblowers must provide more substantive information that leads to a complete overhaul of the US civilian and military intelligence apparatus. Publicizing the names of all US intelligence and military operatives/assets working in corporations, financial institutions, academia, media and foreign governments would force a restructure. The names and locations of all college students in the USA and abroad on the US intelligence community payroll (including scholarships) should be publicized. A listing of all government approved secret clearances held by American university and US business personnel and a listing of all Brass Plate organizations should be made public. Information must be dumped rapidly in raw form. The slow-leak practice by the Guardian and Washington Post (Snowden) is all about readership numbers, advertising and profit—nothing more.

Second: substance over form. Asking the right questions is important. The more questions the better. “Shots on Goal”, as the saying goes. Who is the Pentagon-Industry partnership group that runs the NSA and the private defense corporations that design, deploy and operate PRISM-like programs? There are far too many complexities involved in massive data harvesting for one organization, civilian or military, to run global operations. Who are the representatives/senators—and their senior staffs–in the US Congress who oversee the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice? What group is pushing President Obama to put a freeze on national security reporting and ramp up Insider Threat programs in the Departments of Agriculture, Education, Commerce, et al? This is a coordinated effort by many, not one person in the Oval Office.

Third: eliminate the revolving door, stop deifying military. Fundamental changes in the Pentagon, the US Congress, and the Defense Industrial Base are desperately needed. This means wiping away the Strangeloveian Culture that prevails at the highest echelons of America’s ruling class. And let’s face it. There is, indeed, a ruling class in the United States. That extraordinary wealthy, interconnected and influential “class” has particular views about the world and what it should look and think like. All of us are its targets.

The Washington, DC, revolving door that allows retired generals and admirals to move effortlessly from uniformed military assignments to employment with private defense companies, or with defense associations, must be eliminated. The revolving door leads into what is affectionately known as the “Fifth Service” which is another term for America’s defense industry and its assorted non-profit associations, consultants and think tanks like the Institute for Defense Analysis. The Fifth Service also includes US military specific non-profits (the Association of the US Army and Navy League, for example). These are powerful interest groups normally headed by former Flag Officers flush with retirement cash, sort of the One Percent version of the US military. This minority protects its self-interest aggressively whilst those soldiers that engage in the bulk of combat see little rewards. “Only 17 percent of the all-volunteer force serves for 20 years and they are endowed with a lifetime benefit.”

So off they go with their hefty military pensions—healthcare plan in tow–with them to Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, the National Defense Industrial Association or the Aerospace Industries Association. Many end up in lucrative federal government positions or they start their own consulting firms making money off the same people they once commanded.

The same revolving door situation exists in the US Congress. Senators and Representatives retire or are defeated in elections and move on to start lobbying firms or consultancies. Their skills are for sale to corporations and foreign governments alike. Senior national security congressional staffers rotate in and out of the Pentagon and defense industry with ease. Republican and Democrat, Liberal and Conservative national security political appointees seem to always land on their feet as consultants with the mainstream media, association heads (the American Turkish Council, for example) or as scholars at prominent think tanks like the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The revolving door needs to be closed and demolished. Lt. Colonel to Flag Rank officers should be forbidden to rotate to private defense industry or defense non-profits, the latter of which are simply lobbying and meeting planning firms where deal cutting takes place. Former members of congress should be forbidden to lobby for foreign governments or establish consultancies whose primary purpose is to influence the votes of active members of the US Congress (The Cohen Group comes to mind). Staffers and political appointees should be stopped from rotating from the US Congress, to the Pentagon and to defense related corporations. And by all means the deification of military personnel by corporations, politicians and pizza franchises should cease. Most military personnel don’t like the practice and they prefer to remain silent about their efforts.

Fourth: set term limits. The record is clear. The longer the term the more likely it is that a US representative or senator will become beholden to moneyed national security interests. Both the House and Senate continue to be populated by those who have little experience studying national security or working within it. They and their staffers are easily mesmerized by gee-whiz technology and a uniform full of ribbons and stars. The only way to minimize the damage to the USA is to limit the time they have in office. The President of the United States should have a term set at six years, the US House at five years and the US Senate at seven years. Campaign financing should be nationalized, Citizen United revoked. It is duty of the American people to find and promote new candidates. Thomas Jefferson commented on just that in the Declaration of Independence. Further, Supreme Court vacancies should be filled by a national referendum, not a rubber stamping Senate Judiciary Committee that, in line with the Cronyism of the Revolving Door, approves its own kind, its own class to a lifetime position. Potential justices should be required to explain their views to the national electorate. And their terms should be limited to a 15 year term.

Fifth, require national service. Americans need to regain their civic pride and contribute to the rebuilding of the America’s infrastructure. Not the critical infrastructure as defined by the national security community, but the reconstitution of decaying cities and communities across the land, the morale of the country, and the educational infrastructure of the USA. National Service programs should be a requirement for all 18-21 year olds males and females. Whirlwind, overseas travel to visit and work in other cultures should be a mandatory component of national service. Exposure to US military culture should be a requirement. Synergistic civilian and military tracks could be designed for those qualified and who want to continue in National Service.

Sixth, ignore US history at your own risk. Was it really that surprising that the USA/Pentagon has been vacuuming up data from networks across the Continents for so long? Below is what Leon Trotsky had to say about the United States in 1922. Viewed through his lenses, the Pentagon is merely following through.

“Nobody believes at present…in the inviolability of frontiers or the stability of regimes…The US progressively gobbles up the shares which will give her control of the human race; assuredly, a great undertaking, but a risky one. The Americans will not be long in convincing themselves of it. This American pacifist program of putting the whole world under her control is not at all a program of peace; on the contrary, it is pregnant with wars, and with the greatest revolutionary convulsions. It is not very likely that the bourgeoisie of all countries will consent to be shoved into the background, to become vassals of America without at least trying to resist. The contradictions are too great, the appetites are too monstrous, the urge to preserve old rulership is too great, the habits of world domination are too powerful…Military conflicts are inevitable. The era of pacifist Americanism that seems to be opening up at this time is only a preparation for new wars of unprecedented scope and unimaginable monstrosity.

The United States, you see, lacks many things of which others have no lack. In this connection American newspapers have published a map showing the distribution of raw materials over the whole globe. They now talk and think in terms of whole continents… Americans think in terms of continents: it simplifies the study of geography, and, what is most important, it provides ample room for robbery. And so, American newspapers have published a map of the world with ten black spots on it, the ten major deficiencies of the US economy in raw materials: rubber, coffee ,nitrates, tin, potash, sisal and other less important raw materials…But American capitalism is no longer self-sufficing. It cannot maintain itself on an internal equilibrium. It needs world equilibrium…In military art there is a saying that whoever moves into the enemy’s rear in order to cut off, is often cut off himself. In economy something analogous takes place: the more the United States puts the whole world under its dependence, all the more does it become dependent upon the whole world, with all its contradiction sand threatening upheavals…

Already today, revolution in Europe means convulsions in Wall Street; tomorrow, when the investments of American capital in European economy have increased, it will mean a profound upheaval…In order to maintain its internal equilibrium the United States requires a larger and larger outlet abroad; but its outlet abroad introduces into its economic order more and more elements of European and Asiatic disorder…We know that when its own skin is at stake, American capitalism will unleash the fiercest energy in the struggle. It is quite possible that all that books and our own experience have taught us about the fight of the privileged classes for their domination will pale before the violence that American capital will try to inflict.”

John Stanton is a Virginia based writer specializing in national security matters. Reach him at cioran123@yahoo.com.

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…