How To Target Journalists And Politicians
An indication of just how powerful and malevolent "the
Government" is likely to become in the very near future ...
Many journalists and politicians do not yet seem to understand how
the revelations made by Snowden should open their eyes to the fact
that unless the world changes its attitudes towards similar types
of whistle-blowing we are all heading towards the nightmarish
situation commonly described as Big Brother - of the very worst
kind.
As someone who has spent over 35 years programming computers I am
fairly well-acquainted with what they can do, and I have a good
idea about what they will soon be able to do.
what the Americans will do with their spying capabilities
I intend to keep this piece as short as possible, so let me just
head straight into describing what the Americans will do with
their spying capabilities and with their covert invasion of the
social media.
Imagine that Issue X is of significant importance to the
Americans.
They will use their search of metadata and tags to haul up details
of politicians, journalists and bloggers who are popular and/or
influential when it comes to Issue X.
They will soon be able to construct an ordered list of such people
within minutes when it comes to any Issue.
Broadly speaking, they can then do two things to these people.
1. They can get hundreds of their
Social-Media-Agents-Who-Have-Multiple-Online-Identities to post
comments here and there in order to undermine and/or to promote
them.
(They will also have numerous bloggers and 'journalists' on their
payroll who will engage in similar activities.)
2. They can seek - with considerable ease - to hurt them quite
seriously; particularly if they consider them to be a serious
threat.
For example, if a journalist is,
say, threatening an important part of their energy
portfolio by his persistent attacks on, say, oil-drilling, then
some agents might be charged with finding any significant dirt on
him, his friends, or even his relatives, in order to demonise him,
undermine his authority or cause him trouble.
This dirt will be easy to find in most cases given the huge amount
of information that can be gathered by their data-gathering
systems - which are truly extensive - and by employing
highly-sophisticated algorithms that can find, investigate,
collate and analyse this data in order to pass it on to human
brains for final decision-making.
For very powerful organisations and groups such as "the
government", "the military", "the weapons industry", "the energy
industry", "a corporation" etc, small
shifts in policy can mean hundreds of millions of dollars being
won or lost.
even the life of a journalist or a politician is nothing.
For that kind of money and power, even the life of a journalist or
a politician is nothing.
Indeed, you do not need nowadays to be a conspiracy theorist to
find it credible that, say, the recent strange and unlikely deaths
of Michael Hastings and Barnaby Jack were planned by forces
unknown.
Putting it bluntly; if a few journalists or politicians are
preventing someone - or some group - from procuring hundreds of
millions of dollars, or a whole heap of power, then targeting and
undermining them is shortly
going to be very cost effective.
Indeed, when it comes to "America", "American interests" and the
NSA, hundreds of billions of dollars are at stake, and so numerous
powerful subgroups will be beavering away to ensure that they get
the upper hand.
And, very shortly, they will be able to target journalists and
politicians with ease; not only by undermining their public
influence in some way, but also by hurting them in their personal
lives so that they are distracted from what they would normally
say or do.
And, of course, they will also know that the tabloids and the
media will also make a good bit of money out of any scandal that
they can manufacture.
Gathering information, using it, and engineering a coordinated
attack on the basis of it, is now many
million times easier than it would have been even 20
years ago.
As such, already-powerful groups such as governments, big
business, the military etc etc, are becoming far more powerful
than they have ever been in the past.
And any journalist, blogger, politician - or, indeed, anyone - who
threatens them in any significant way is
bound to be heavily targeted and
easily targeted by them.
And, unless this happens to involve violence, it will probably
also be totally legal.
there are no laws in America that say that the NSA cannot use its
data on UK citizens
For example, there are no laws in America that say that the NSA
cannot use its data on UK citizens in order to serve the national
interests of America. And so, of course, the NSA will use its data
on UK citizens to serve the interests of America.
And it can do a great deal with it.
Many millions times more than it could do before.
And please remember that they also kill people in order to serve
their national interests.
They really do kill people - using drones or daggers.
After all, the NSA is not some benevolent news agency. It is
involved in all types of underhand shenanigans - some of which
involve inflicting huge amounts of violence.
My point here is that if they really want to hurt someone badly,
they can do so with relative ease, and they will do so.
But a knock on the door and a warning from a person wearing a dark
hat and a dark coat will often be enough.
And, in the long run, the only journalists or politicians whom
most people will ever hear will be those who are "working" for
Government.
In the longer run, One Government.
END NOTE 1
To those of you who are involved in some significant way with
political issues - or with other 'big' issues, wherein powerful
groups are involved - you are going to be targeted if you are of
any significance - the latter being judged on a cost-effective
basis.
In a statistical sense, the amount and the intensity of the
targeting that you will experience will depend on your influence
and on the importance of the Issue at hand.
Some of you will be 'upped' and some of you will be 'downed' by
the process - depending on your positive or negative value.
And the problem for you is that it is much easier for people to be
'downed'.
(Undermining someone is much cheaper, easier and quicker than is
building them up.)
they will also be able to put material on to your computer without
leaving any trace.
Furthermore, be warned, that they will also be able to put
material on to your computer without leaving any trace.
As such, it is going to become increasingly unwise to challenge
powerful groups.
END NOTE 2
There are some good solutions to this potentially truly horrible
problem.
Assange, Snowden etc.
Please listen carefully to what these kinds of people are
concerned about.
The public and the media are not currently giving these people the
amount of attention and support that they truly deserve.
What they have discovered - Snowden in particular - reveals a
positively enormous shift in the power landscape. A shift that is likely to be decidedly unpleasant
for most people.
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