" Governments have now realized that all of their propaganda efforts will never succeed as long as the internet remains an anarchic, free environment. So, now in full force begins the war on the internet."

It's a STASI World

by Jeff Berwick

"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you"

~ Joseph Heller, Catch-22

The surveillance state seems to have kicked into high gear in the last few months. Governments the world over are realizing that they've lost control of "the conversation". Even just a few years ago, a video like "Kony 2012", expertly planted by the global elites to turn the tide in favor of a criminal attack on Uganda would have worked. After all, it only took a few grainy aerial photos of some trucks to garner support for an eight year occupation of Iraq killing up to one million Iraqi men, women and children in the "old days".

Today, despite Congress rushing literally days after the video went viral to pass the "Kony 2012 Resolutions (H.Res. 583/S.Res. 402)" to garner public support for invasion of Uganda, it had already been defeated by the global public to the point of ridicule. With the CIA brainwashing wearing off in the face of the truth, Invisible Children co-founder and director of the "Kony 2012" viral video Jason Russell was seen naked, masturbating and disrupting traffic in San Diego's Pacific Beach neighborhood soon after.

The "alternative media" (read: truthful media) was on this story within seconds and it was a dead issue within hours. It was the fastest anti-propaganda reaction in human history. People such as the excellent DrinkingWithBob was quickly out with the truth. Young girls from Uganda quickly got on YouTube to also fight the propaganda. It was over in a matter of hours.

Other propaganda efforts such as the anti-Iranian propaganda released in October claiming the Iranian Revolutionary Guards were involved in a "plot" to take out the Saudi ambassador to the US and blow up both the Saudi and Israeli embassies were also quickly overturned in the public courts within days. Articles such as "Iranian Terror Plot: Fake, Fake, Fake" at Antiwar.com quickly made the story go away.

Governments have now realized that all of their propaganda efforts will never succeed as long as the internet remains an anarchic, free environment. So, now in full force begins the war on the internet.

The first attempts, PIPA (Protect IP Act) and SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) were cast aside by the hundreds of millions of internet aware youth. But the attacks continue on. In Arizona just as we went to press, they rushed to push another internet censorship law under the guise of an anti-bullying campaign under the name Arizona House Bill 2549. The law would mean that anything communicated or published online that was deemed to be "offensive" by the state, including editorials, illustrations, and even satire could be criminally punished.

The bill is sweepingly broad, and would make it a crime to communicate via electronic means speech that is intended to 'annoy,' 'offend,' 'harass' or 'terrify,' as well as certain sexual speech. Because the bill is not limited to one-to-one communications, H.B. 2549 would apply to the Internet as a whole, thus criminalizing all manner of writing, cartoons, and other protected material the state finds offensive or annoying.

The CIA has admitted its intention to spy on the American populace through webcam enabled internet TVs, refrigerators and other appliances. This, on top of plans already in place to spy on the activities of the public through their power meters.

Massive data collection plans are already in process. The biggest-ever civilian spying data complex, to be completed in Utah in 2013 at a price tag of $2 billion, may take American citizens into a completely new reality where their emails, phone calls, online shopping lists and virtually entire lives will be stored and reviewed.

Other governments worldwide are also waking up to the threat the internet faces to their power and passing all manner of legislation to restrict, censor or intercept internet communications.

The Canadians are, as always, right behind the USSA. Canada's new $880 million electronic spy HQ in Ottawa, which will spy on Americans and the whole world is also in process of being built. At $880 million it is massive in size per capita (Canada has 1/10th the population of the US but the amount spent on their data centre will be nearly half the size). Known as Bill C-30 (the Canadians haven't learned how to use 1984 style newspeak to name their bills) will allow police to monitor email traffic "in order to protect children from internet predators." The incessant, imaginary problem of internet pedophiles being almost constantly used as the reason to take away all rights and privacy away from all humans.

Not to be left behind, in the epicenter of surveillance, under legislation expected in next month's Queen's Speech in the UK, internet companies will be instructed to install hardware enabling GCHQ – the Government's electronic "listening" agency – to examine "on demand" any phone call made, text message and email sent, and website accessed in "real time"

Fascist professionals, the Italian tax authorities are now field testing a new system called 'redditometro', a database that automatically collects and analyzes taxpayers' tax data vs. spending data based on automated collection of credit card and banking information.

Even the old school communists aren't lagging far behind on this one. Already having installed the Great Firewall of China, Chinese police have arrested six people and shut 16 websites after rumors were spread that military vehicles were on the streets of Beijing. The Chinese, still lagging in the naming of their civilian spy operations, had their State Internet Information Office (SIIO) in full force justifying their kidnapping, stating that it was in the public's best interest as the rumors had a "very bad influence on the public".

The message from governments worldwide is clear: privacy is dead. TDV is rushing to help get a completely encrypted desktop to market under the trade name "The Sixth Flag" in response and we still believe the best way to protect yourself from these attacks are to become a citizen of a small, incapable backwater country to give yourself a level or protection from their attacks. The TDV Passports website has just recently gone live in an effort to save citizens of the larger more oppressive countries some semblance of independence.

Link:
http://lewrockwell.com/berwick/berwick41.1.html