EU citizens demonstrate to take back privacy

We DO know who you are

This is a real television commercial in the USA.

Earth: 2014? Vision of the NWO

"For more than a century, ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents such as my encounter with Castro to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure - one world, if you will. If that is the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it." - David Rockefeller, "Memoirs", (p.405).

Of all the blogs I visit and read, one stands head and shoulders above the rest: Old-Thinker News. The author selects articles and organises information such that one can read or watch videos for hours on a particular subject without leaving the blog.

I like the mountain-top panorama of today's world. It's very scary; but, I would rather look and see then to be hustled hurriedly up the ramp to the abattoir. I often wonder; What will the headlines be one year from now? Or in two years? While no one can see around a corner (usually), we can still predict much if we are paying attention to other sensory data and processing the bits together to form the bigger picture.

That is what Old-thinker news does. This one article on Trends to a New World Order, reprinted below, has a breath taking clarity in focusing attention to the context in which we are travelling together on earth, politically, socially, technologically and ecomonically. Hope you will enjoy it and visit the blog, where many other subjects of great interest are presented.

Trends to a New World Order: Part 1

Transnational Elites and Pernicious Globalisation

Countless people... will hate the new world order... and will die protesting against it... When we attempt to evaluate its promise, we have to bear in mind the distress of a generation or so of malcontents..." - H.G. Wells, The New World Order (1939)

By Daniel Taylor
Source
As we enter the new year of 2008, themes of a "global community" and a "unified global approach" are becoming more prevalent.

When keeping an eye on current events and reading various think tank projections regarding the future of the world, a sobering picture begins to emerge. Forecasts are being made of a world in which a sharp divide exists between the elite and the rest of humanity. Advanced technology offers those who can afford it a means of personalized "auto-evolution". "Pernicious globalization" takes its toll on the world and global elites thrive, leaving the rest of us in the dust. Increasingly open borders, unchecked immigration and trends to world governance cause communal conflict between various groups. The middle class becomes revolutionary as economic hardship hits hard on millions of Americans. Dictators utilize life extension technologies to prolong their reign of terror. A computer simulation offers government agencies and corporations a system to test marketing strategy and psychological operations on a virtual mirror of the real world in real time. "Gen-rich" and "Gen-poor" classes emerge to form a new "biological caste system".

All of this would make for a thrilling Sci-Fi novel, but these trends come not from science fiction - though science fiction has proven to be a prophetic precursor to these developments -, but from present day realities seen by the U.K. Ministry of Defense, the CIA and other prominent individuals in the fields of technology, science and government.

This short two part report will attempt to answer these questions: What impact has globalization had on us and how will it effect us in the future? How do present day trends in technology, globalization, politics and government relate to the prospect of a New World Order?

The New World Order

A "New World Order" has been heralded by global elites for many years. We are told by these elites that trends to a system of world governance are only natural, that national sovereignty must be eliminated. James Paul Warburg, speaking before the US Senate in 1950, stated that, "We shall have World Government, whether or not we like it. The only question is whether World Government will be achieved by conquest or consent."

Globalization and advances in technology have undoubtedly impacted our lifestyles, world-views, and lives dramatically. A "global outlook" has planted itself in our society, but more so among elites. Zbigniew Brzezinski writes of this global outlook in his 1970 book, Between Two Ages: America's Role in the Technetronic Era,

"A global human consciousness is for the first time beginning to manifest itself... we are witnessing the emergence of transnational elites... composed of international businessmen, scholars, professional men and public officials. The ties of these new elites cut across national boundaries, their perspectives are not confined by national traditions..." [1]

The dissemination and injection of globalist ideology into the collective vocabulary and consciousness of society has been a leading goal of such transnational elites. Regional governance in conjunction with regional economic systems inside a world government has also been a long term goal of globalist organizations. In order for these regional systems to operate smoothly and to be generally accepted, think tanks have undertaken projects of social engineering on a massive scale to rid the population of "outdated" ideas of national sovereignty. [2]

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars hosted a conference in 2002 which was dedicated to the development of strategies to overcome such "outdated" ideas. The political, social and economic integration of the United States, Canada, and Mexico into a union similar to the European Union was discussed. America was acknowledged by the conference panelists as being one of the largest obstacles to globalist planning. Expanding the definition of "we", framing integration in a non threatening manner and a "winner at the polls" were some of the suggested social engineering strategies. A summary of the conference states,
"Further economic, political, and social integration will depend on how citizens of the three countries define their national identities and the degree to which they are willing to cede some of their countries’ sovereignty to a larger entity." [3]

"Foreign policy... provides three things for a nation’s citizens: sovereignty, security, and identity. Sovereignty dictates that the state’s citizens and government (“we”) decide policy, identity defines “who we are” as a nation, and security protects a nation’s sovereignty and identity. Governments must convince citizens that the regional project is consistent with these three values by expanding the definition of the “we.” [4]

As we enter the new year of 2008, themes of a "global community" and a "unified global approach" are becoming more prevalent. The United Nations has recently begun an initiative to bring more into agreement with the "global consciousness" with a comic book geared towards children. Marvel Comics has teamed up with the UN to create a comic book that will teach children "...the value of international cooperation." [5] Another example comes from the London based think tank mi2g, which released a statement in late December of 2007 that stated in part,
"One world: The global community of nations is realizing that regardless of the complex global risk we wish to address, we all have to come together. The mantra of a "unified global approach" is becoming essential whether it is countering climate chaos and environmental degradation... advanced technologies -- bio, info, nano, robo & AI -- ... financial systems and systemic risk; or transhumanism and ethics..." [6]

Combating climate change with a "global unified approach" is a concept that Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, is quite familiar with. In an article carried in the Taipei times, Haass writes that sovereignty must become weaker in a globalized world faced with climate change,
"Some governments are prepared to give up elements of sovereignty to address the threat of global climate change..."

"Globalization thus implies that sovereignty is not only becoming weaker in reality, but that it needs to become weaker. States would be wise to weaken sovereignty in order to protect themselves..." [7]

Climate change "the issue" of 2008

Writing in the Business Spectator, economist Craig James states that climate change is "...expected to be the big issue for 2008, dominating public consciousness..." [8] 2007 saw large amounts of attention on this issue as well, when U.K. Prime minister Gordon Brown called for a "New World Order" to combat climate change. [9]

Impact of globalization and possible future scenarios

Globalization, immigration and integration of countries into larger entities brings with it social and political consequences. The Ministry of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency have produced reports forecasting possible outcomes of globalization and integration. The reports carry a familiar tone between them; advancing technology and globalization causing deep divides between elites and the majority of humanity. The CIA report, "Global Trends 2015", outlines possible scenarios for pernicious globalization. The report states,
"Scenario Two: Pernicious Globalization Global elites thrive, but the majority of the world’s population fails to benefit from globalization... migration becomes a major source of interstate tension... Internal conflicts increase, fueled by frustrated expectations, inequities, and heightened communal tensions..." [1]

The Futurist magazine discussed this CIA report in depth in the May-June 2001 edition. Summarizing trends regarding national and international governance, the magazine states,
"Established governments are likely to lose some control over their borders as migrants, technology, disease, weapons, financial transactions, and information of all kinds move about the world. Corporations and nonprofit organizations will exert more influence on state affairs. Winners and losers in globalization will emerge..." [2]

The European Union has seen many of the forecasts cited above come to pass. Massive immigration throughout the porous EU borders has caused tension and loss of entry level jobs for native citizens of the United Kingdom. The signing of the EU treaty in Britain by Foreign Secretary David Miliband has heightened these tensions. [3]

In a an article released by the UK Daily Mail, it is reported that, "Half a million fewer Britons are in work following the unprecedented influx of migrants from Eastern Europe..." The Daily Mail report cites the independent House of Commons Library for the statistics. The report also states that, "The British Chamber of Com-merce has already warned that a generation of British children is at risk of going 'from school straight to welfare' while migrants fill skills shortages in the economy." [4]

The United States open borders between Mexico and Canada have allowed millions of illegal immigrants to flow in and out of the country. Violent gangs such as the Latino group MS13 - identified by the FBI as the single most dangerous gang in America - are becoming more prevalent.

Perhaps one of the most concerning forecasts comes from the U.K. Ministry of Defense in a report released in early 2007. The report, "DCDC Global Strategic Trends Programme 2007-2036", foresees the middle classes facing increased economic hardship. In response,

"The middle classes could become a revolutionary class, taking the role envisaged for the proletariat by Marx. The globalization of labour markets and reducing levels of national welfare provision and employment could reduce peoples’ attachment to particular states. The growing gap between themselves and a small number of highly visible super-rich individuals might fuel disillusion with meritocracy, while the growing urban under-classes are likely to pose an increasing threat to social order and stability, as the burden of acquired debt and the failure of pension provision begins to bite." [5]

The report also states,

"Economic globalization and indiscriminate migration may lead to levels of international integration that effectively bring interstate warfare to an end; however, it will also result in communities of interest at every level of society that transcend national boundaries and could resort to the use of violence." [6]

As economic crises hit home for millions in America and abroad in 2008 and beyond, feelings of anger and resentment are undoubtedly going to spread. Trends expert Gerald Celente predicts that in 2008,

"Failing banks, busted brokerages, toppled corporate giants, bankrupt cities, states in default, foreign creditors cashing out of US securities … whatever the spark, the stage is set for panic in the streets. When the giant firms fall, they'll crush the man on the street." [7]

Will the "revolutionary middle class" that poses a threat to social order - bitten by burdens of debt, globalization, and economic hardship - become a reality?

Anti-globalists labeled as terrorists

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and Italian President Giorgio Napolitano have both suggested - both vaguely and unmistakably - that anti-globalists are terrorists. While speaking at a conference hosted by AKbank in Istanbul Turkey on May 31, 2007, just prior to the scheduled Bilderberg meeting, Henry Kissinger gave a speech in which he stated,

"What we in America call terrorists are really groups of people that reject the international system..." [1]

In June of 2007, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano stated during a press conference that it is, "...psychological terrorism to suggest the spectre of a European superstate." [2]

H.G. Wells' words echo eerily across time; "Countless people... will hate the new world order... and will die protesting against it..."

Citation:

The New World Order

[1] Brzezinski, Zbigniew. Between Two Ages: America's Role in the Technetronic Era. Penguin books, 1976

[2] "The "North American Consciousness" and "European Identity". Old-thinker news. December 22, 2007.

[3] Heard, Emily, Ed. Toward a North American Community? Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. 2002. page 7. Available online at

[4] Ibid. page 10.

[5] Brewster, Deborah. "U.N. joining forces with Spider-Man". Financial Times. December 27, 2007. Available at

[6] DK Matai. 2008: The Inflexion Year with Positive Outcomes!. December 21, 2007. Available at

[7] Haass, Richard. "State Sovereignty must be altered in globalized era" Taipei Times. February 26, 2007. Available at

[8] James, Craig. "Economic outlook 2008: climate change will dominate". Business Spectator. December 31, 2007. Available at

[9] "Brown wants a 'new world order'". BBC News. January 19, 2007. Available at

Impact of globalization and possible future scenarios

[1] National Intelligence Council/Central Intelligence Agency. "Global Trends 2015: A Dialogue About the Future With Nongovernment Experts". page 83. Available at

[2] "The world in 2015". The Futurist. May-June 2001. Volume 35, No. 3. page 7.

[3] "Miliband signs Britain away". The Sun. December 13, 2007. Available at

[4] Slack, James. "500,000 fewer Britons in work following influx of Eastern Europeans". UK Daily Mail. December 28, 2007.

[5] Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre/Ministry of Defense. "The DCDC Global Strategic Trends Programme 2007-2036". January 2007. page 81.

[6] Ibid. page 84.

[7] "Top Trends 2008" Vol. XV, No. 1. The Trends Research Journal. Available at

Anti-globalists labeled as terrorists

[1] A video of this speech can be seen at 16:00 into this video

[2] Hartley-Brewer, Julia. "Opponents of EU treaty accused of being 'terrorists'". UK Daily Express. June 17, 2007. Available at

Trends to a New World Order: Part 2

The New Age of the Technocratic Elite

Techno-biological tyranny seems to be the best descriptor for what is emerging.

As the world moves toward world governance in a new globalized era, technologies that enable extended life spans, and technologically augmented abilities are being developed. These upgrades for the human body come at a high cost, and are unattainable for a large number of people, causing additional societal conflict and the rise of new aristocratic classes defined by their level of "enhancement". Diseases are mostly eradicated among elites, while a large percentage of the population is left still vulnerable. A high tech overlay of sensors and monitoring devices tracks workers activities. Their heart rates, facial expressions, and overall state are monitored to maintain maximum efficiency. Supercomputers run Sentient World Simulation software designed to enable testing of efficient social management and psychological operations against the population in a virtual world. Artificial Intelligence makes health, political and educational decisions that were once made by human beings. Advancing technology offers miraculous cures, while opening doorways to new forms of tyranny and manipulation unimaginable in the past.

In the hands of a hubris filled, power hungry elite who exercise control over world affairs, advancing technology presents disturbing possibilities. When examining these developments in technology, human nature, and the nature of power are vitally important aspects that must be considered. Utopian ideas are one of the ideologies fueling both trends to world governance and advancing technology. Will these trends benefit the average man, woman and child as we are told they will? Or, will a New World Order be constructed solely for the benefit of a tiny elite? History tells us that the latter is most likely.

Societal control through technology

The perfection and fine tuning of social management utilizing high technology is a theme that permeates science fiction literature. Today, this theme is moving into reality. Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote of "pre-crisis management" in his book Between Two ages,

“Power will gravitate into the hands of those who control information. Our existing institutions will be supplanted by pre-crisis management institutions, the task of which will be to identify in advance likely social crises and to develop programs to cope with them." [1]

The Futurist magazine, in its Outlook 2008 forecast lists an intriguing and disturbing trend for 2008. Educational, health, and financial decisions will be increasingly made by artificial intelligence.

"More decisions will be made by nonhuman entities. Electronically enabled teams in networks, robots with artificial intelligence, and other noncarbon life-forms will make financial, health, educational, and even political decisions for us. Reason: Technologies are increasing the complexity of our lives and human workers' competency is not keeping pace well enough to avoid disasters due to human error." [2]

The Sentient World Simulation, developed by researchers at Perdue University - with the help of DOD funding - can be utilized to do just what The Futurist is projecting, and much more. The SWS program allows for behavior modification and anticipation on a scale unknown at any time prior to its existence. By integrating "nodes" representing every man, woman, and child on earth into a virtual world, propaganda, terrorist attacks and other variables can be launched at the unsuspecting virtual population. SWS was originally designed for fortune 500 companies to aid with strategy. The Department of Defense saw the technology as an opportunity too good to pass up. SWS technology has been "...incorporated into the U.S. Army's recruiting efforts by modeling the population of the U.S. that is eligible for military service, thus allowing recruiting commanders to strategize ways to improve recruiting potential soldiers." [3]

The SWS concept paper describes the program's capabilities in depth. Some of the abilities include military planning, and corporate strategy development.
Planning:

"SWS provides tools to develop, reuse, and compose action plans into playbooks. A playbook database enables planners to recall playbooks."

"Planning tools enable plans to be developed for temporally and spatially fine-grained actions as well as long-term actions and to place combined plans into a single playbook."

Operations:

"Augmenting real-time information with near real-time and faster than real-time simulations allows RCC to develop and test multiple courses of action to anticipate and shape behaviors of adversaries, neutrals, and partners."

Testing:

"SWS provides an environment for testing Psychological Operations (PSYOP) and Civil Affairs activities, capable of illustrating the impact of these activities on populations."

"Commercial users can construct experiments to use proprietary data in a controlled environment." [4]

Simulex inc. provides the SEAS (Synthetic Environments for Analysis and Simulation) technology - which the Sentient World Simulation is based on - to multiple government and private clients. [5]

The list includes:
Government Clients

-United States Department of Defense
-United States Department of Justice
-United States Army Recruiting Command
-United States Joint Forces Command
-Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center
Private Sector Clients

-Eli Lilly
-Lockheed Martin
-Other Fortune 500 companies
Using the SWS system, pharmaceutical companies can test marketing campaigns for new drugs in the virtual world. Military strategists can plan PSYOPS and carry them out against virtual adversaries. As reported by the Register, "...the US Department of Defense (DOD) may already be creating a copy of you in an alternate reality to see how long you can go without food or water, or how you will respond to televised propaganda." [6]

Homeland Security is currently using the technology for a variety of purposes. In a slideshow shown to Homeland Security - presented by the co-author of the SWS concept paper cited previously, Alok Chaturvedi - graphics are shown that describe the uses for the technology. Experimentations with Engineering, Economics, Public policy, Law, Management and Psychology are listed as possible inputs for the virtual population. A graph that displays the emotions for the population reads "Sad," "Content," "Aroused," and "Happy". The "impact of globalization" is also listed as a variable in "modeling an adversaries viewpoint". [7]

Microsoft "monitoring group activities"

The workplace will soon be infiltrated by a technology developed by Microsoft that will, as the Register reports, act as "...some sort of "activity monitoring system" that keeps an eye on worker productivity using various "physiological or environmental sensors." These sensors would track everything from heart rate, respiration rate, body temperature, facial expressions, and blood pressure to brain signals and galvanic skin response."

The purpose of this technology, according to the patent, is to enable assistance to be sent to those workers who need it, or assign the task to someone else who is able to complete it. The Register also points out that the information will be stored away in a database for future reference. This enables "...user performance [that] can be readily compared..." [8]

The Microsoft patent states,

"For example, the system can infer through physiological and activity sensing that a user is becoming more frustrated with his current activity and thus could benefit from assistance from another user who has experience with the same or similar activity. This can be accomplished via parameter and/or threshold settings whereby the detection of parameter violations or satisfied thresholds can indicate a particular frustration level or at the very least that the user has become "frustrated" or "stressed"." [9]

Surveillance and anticipatory conformity

In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, surveillance has expanded exponentially. A phenomenon called "anticipatory conformity" is becoming more prevalent as the surveillance society grows. The term, coined in 1988 by Harvard psychologist Shoshana Zuboff, describes a process of self censorship as a result of constant surveillance. Philosopher Jeremy Bentham designed the Panopticon style prison in 1785 which put this principle to use. The prison included a central tower constantly manned by guards that stands in the center of a circular building in which inmates are unsure whether they are being watched. Bentham saw the Panopticon system being used in "...punishing the incorrigible, guarding the insane, reforming the vicious, confining the suspected, employing the idle, maintaining the helpless, curing the sick, instructing the willing in any branch of industry, or training the rising race in the path of education: in a word, whether it be applied to the purposes of perpetual prisons in the room of death, or prisons for confinement before trial, or penitentiary-houses, or houses of correction, or work-houses, or manufactories, or mad-houses, or hospitals, or schools." [emphasis added] [10]

Lynn Duke quotes Soshana Zuboff, coiner of the term anticipatory conformity, in his Washington Post article, Uniqueness lost in surveillance society,
“I think the first level of that is we anticipate surveillance and we conform, and we do that with awareness,” she says. “We know, for example, when we’re going through the security line at the airport not to make jokes about terrorists or we’ll get nailed, and nobody wants to get nailed for cracking a joke. It’s within our awareness to self-censor. And that self-censorship represents a diminution of our freedom." [11]

As surveillance becomes more prevalent, Zuboff says that anticipatory conformity will "become more intense". Zbigniew Brzezinski, again writing in Between two Ages, sees a dictatorship eventually forming in a new technocratic era of electronic surveillance and control,
"This [surveillance and data mining] will encourage tendencies through the next several decades toward a technocratic era, a dictatorship leaving even less room for political procedures as we know them." [12]

Future Eugenics and life extension

The Human Genome Project has given rise to promising developments in the realm of medicine, allowing personalized treatments for disease. The project has also opened a doorway into genetic tinkering with the unborn. Selecting embryos that are disease free has been made possible by genetic screening. Genetic manipulation, unlike screening, may allow in the future a selection of specific traits for an unborn child. Professor Michio Kaku, writing in his 1997 book Visions, warns that there is a danger of a new eugenics emerging from genetic enhancement technology. Kaku states,
"One long-term danger for the far future is that those who are the wealthiest will be able to afford to improve their germ line, while others will not, leaving the rest of society behind, eventually creating a new biological caste system. Gregory Kavka, a philosopher at the University of California at Irvine, says, "Any such move toward genetic enhancement has the potential of reestablishing social inequality, though along new lines. Old aristocracies of birth, color, or gender may dissipate, only to be replaced by a new genetic aristocracy, or 'genotocracy.'"

"The deep fracture lines of society could become chasms if only the wealthy have access to choosing their germ line..." [1]

This scenario of a society divided by advanced genetics was also seen by the U.K. Ministry of Defense strategic trends 2007-2036 report. The report stated,
"The application of advanced genetics could challenge current assumptions about human nature and existence. Initially employed for medical purposes, breakthroughs in these areas could be put to ethically questionable uses, such as the super-enhancement of human attributes, including physical strength and sensory perception. Extreme variation in attributes could arise between individuals, or where enhancement becomes a matter of fashion, between societies, creating additional reasons for conflict." [2]

Many scientists and proponents of genetic enhancement realize that the cost of this technology will be immense. Some of them see the exorbitant cost as a eugenic policy in and of itself, as it would only allow for the "most successful generative lines" to have access to the enhancement. John Campbell of the University of California writes in his paper The Moral Imperative of Our Future Evolution,
"The costs [of genetic enhancement] will be enormous, far beyond what most people could afford. This has kept our democratic society from appreciating that these possibilities will be used and will be important. However, their feasibility cannot be judged from what the average person will be willing to pay to procreate. What matters are the resources that the most successful generative lines will be able to apply to their goals. A million dollars per conception seems a great underestimate to me for the beings who hold evolution's frontier."

"We should not imagine that people will just dabble in their evolution. Another generation will fan autoevolution into the all-consuming endeavor of the intellectuals, scientists and economists. The resources of the world probably will suddenly be shifted to this enterprise. Remaining "humans" will realize that they have been displaced from their former privileged status as the masters of destiny." [3]

Advanced genetics also offers a tool for the creation of subservient workers, though an intent to do so is met with denial. The Times Online reports that, "Aldous Huxley may have got it right. In Brave New World, his classic futuristic novel, the author envisaged a society divided into castes from Alpha at the top to Epsilon at the bottom."

The Times Online reports,

"...experiments conducted on rhesus monkeys have shown for the first time that animal behaviour can be permanently altered, turning the subjects from aggressive to “compliant” creatures."

The scientists did so by blocking the effects of a gene in the brain called D2, which cut off the link between the monkeys’ motivation and perceived reward. Humans have an identical gene. [4]

A doctor working for the project denied any attempt to modify humans into becoming slaves, saying, "Genetically manipulating people to become slaves is not in their interests, but other changes might be."

Life extension

The Ministry of Defense also identified the possible uses of life extension technologies in the aforementioned strategic report. "Dictatorial or despotic rulers" are named as being interested in acquiring such technologies.
"Developments in genetics might allow treatment of the symptoms of ageing and this would result in greatly increased life expectancy for those who could afford it. The divide between those that could afford to ‘buy longevity’ and those that could not, could aggravate perceived global inequality. Dictatorial or despotic rulers could potentially also ‘buy longevity’, prolonging their regimes and international security risks." [5]

The CIA's Global Trends 2015 also discusses life extension, stating, "Biotechnology will drive medical breakthroughs that will enable the
world’s wealthiest people to improve their health and increase their longevity dramatically..." [6]

In summary of parts 1 and 2 of this report, humanity is facing dramatic, challenging, and dire times. Techno-biological tyranny seems to be the best descriptor for what is emerging. As we move full speed ahead into the future, lessons of the past cannot be forgotten. Memories of the slavery and bondage of our ancestors as subjects of royal elites must not fade from our minds.

Citation:

Societal control through technology

[1] ] Brzezinski, Zbigniew. Between Two Ages: America's Role in the Technetronic Era. Penguin books, 1976

[2] "Outlook 2008". The Futurist. Nov-Dec 2007. Available at

[3] Cupp, John. "USJFCOM teams with Purdue University to add the human factor to war game simulations". United States Joint Forces Command. February 4, 2004. Available at

[4] Chaturvedi, Alok Dr. "Sentient World Simulation (SWS): A Continuously Running Model of the Real World". August 22, 2006.

[5] http://www.simulexinc.com/

[6] Baard, Mark. "Sentient world: war games on the grandest scale". The Register. June 23, 2007. Available at

[7] "Towards a Synthetic Environment for Computational Homeland Security". Available at (requires flash player)

[8] Microsoft Patent #20070300174. Available here

[9] Ibid 8.

[10] Clark, Robert. "The Panopticon". The Literary Encyclopedia. Available at

[11] Duke, Lynn. "Uniqueness lost in surveillance society". Washington Post. December 10, 2007. Available at

[12] Ibid 1.

Future Eugenics and life extension

[1] Kaku, Michio. Visions. New York, New York: Doubleday, 1997. page 257.

[2] Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre/Ministry of Defense. "The DCDC Global Strategic Trends Programme 2007-2036". January 2007. page 80.

[3] Campbell, Thomas. "The Moral Imperative of Our Future Evolution". Available at

[4] Rogers, Lois. "Scientists find way to make us slaves". Times Online. October 17, 2004. Available at

[5] Ibid 2.

[6] National Intelligence Council/Central Intelligence Agency. "Global Trends 2015: A Dialogue About the Future With Nongovernment Experts". page 9.

The Evaporation of Privacy and Freedom

For some time, I have been following the development of surveillance and data collection activities in Europe, the US and other countries. Collating varied articles on this broad topic is a slow process. At some point the information I collect reaches critical mass and I get to connect the dots to see if my guesses have had any semblance to the actual events (published for public consumption). What follows is a mosaic of the future materialising, bit by bit, before our very eyes. It transcends national boundaries.

The horizon of our global future now becomes visible through the dense fog of media. Now is the time to decide if what we see is what we want.

I will update this collection of articles about the legal, technological, and political forces creating a future where surveillance and control are the sole right and privilege of government. Many Americans will be surprised to learn that the DNA from every newborn is now required and stored in a national database.

Europeans may gasp when they realise that details such as their grocery purchases can be freely accessed by the US National Security Agency WITHOUT CAUSE. It is and extra-judicial process now.

The list which connects the web of government data retention (preventive retention of personal data) is indeed horrifying as well as the emerging technological advances to enable this. Hope you enjoy the dots and have a lovely time connecting them. I would enjoy any feedback. Related videos follow the articles.

Update July 12, 2009

The Electronic Police State

The legal perspective: data held for evidence of future crimes

RFID Panopticon

Kurt Nimmo
Truth News
January 26, 2008
It’s sold in the Washington Post — the CIA’s favorite newspaper — as a wonderful world of convenience come true for consumers:

“RFID-enabled refrigerators could warn about expired milk, generate weekly shopping lists, even send signals to your interactive TV, so that you see ‘personalized’ commercials for foods you have a history of buying. Sniffers in your microwave might read a chip-equipped TV dinner and cook it without instruction… Companies say the RFID tags improve supply-chain efficiency, cut theft, and guarantee that brand-name products are authentic, not counterfeit. At a store, RFID doorways could scan your purchases automatically as you leave, eliminating tedious checkouts.”

Excuse me, but I’ll take the tedium.

The problem, critics say, is that microchipped products might very well do a whole lot more. Read more...

"Reality Mining" Inside Big Brother's Control Grid

By Daniel Taylor
Data mining is a practice long used by government agencies and companies like Choicepoint to collect a vast amount of information on individuals, trends, and other fields. Now, with the advent of new technologies, a new form of data collection is rising. This new field is called "reality mining". Social engineers, marketers, as well as government agencies with an interest in learning everything possible about you are eagerly anticipating its widespread use.

Reality mining is one of many facets stemming from a global sensor network that will monitor everything from the environment, subtle variations in human behavior, to everyday objects. It consists of an interconnected network of biometrics, machine vision, radio frequency ID tags, Global Positioning Systems, "geotagging", wireless sensors, "smart dust", and traditional surveillance equipment. This is a "system of systems". In short, everything is to be monitored in a digital real-time mirror of the real world. Read more...

Cyber Tsar to save America

30 May, 2009
President Barack Obama is creating a “Cyber Tsar” to safeguard America's cyber space security. The person who's going to take on the job has yet to be named. He or she will overlook the safety of government and military computer systems which have been subjected to hacker attacks.

Barack Obama says that right now the USA is ill-prepared to deal with any kind of cyber attack. Therefore, the country needs a “cyber superman” to handle such situations. Read more...

The Launching of U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM).
Offensive Operations in Cyberspace

by Tom Burghardt
Global Research
July 1, 2009
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates signed a memorandum on June 23 that announced the launch of U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM). A scheme by securocrats in the works for several years, the order specifies that the new office will be a "subordinate unified command" under U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM).

According to the memorandum, CYBERCOM "will reach initial operating capability (IOC) not later than October 2009 and full operating capability (FOC) not later than October 2010."

Gates has recommended that this new Pentagon domain be led by Lt. General Keith Alexander, the current Director of the ultra-spooky National Security Agency (NSA). Under the proposal, Alexander would receive a fourth star and the new agency would be based at Ft. Meade, Maryland, NSA's headquarters. Read more...

Federal Authority Over the Internet?
The Cybersecurity Act of 2009

Jennifer Granick April 10th, 2009

There's a new bill working its way through Congress that is cause for some alarm: the Cybersecurity Act of 2009 (PDF summary here), introduced by Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME). The bill as it exists now risks giving the federal government unprecedented power over the Internet without necessarily improving security in the ways that matter most. It should be opposed or radically amended.

Essentially, the Act would federalize critical infrastructure security. Since many of our critical infrastructure systems (banks, telecommunications, energy) are in the hands of the private sector, the bill would create a major shift of power away from users and companies to the federal government. This is a potentially dangerous approach that favors the dramatic over the sober response.

One proposed provision gives the President unfettered authority to shut down Internet traffic in an emergency and disconnect critical infrastructure systems on national security grounds goes too far. Certainly there are times when a network owner must block harmful traffic, but the bill gives no guidance on when or how the President could responsibly pull the kill switch on privately-owned and operated networks. Read more...

Federal cybersecurity director quits, complains of NSA role

Rod Beckstrom quit the post after less than a year

By Jaikumar Vijayan March 8, 2009

Computerworld - In a move that highlights differences over who should be in charge of national cybersecurity efforts, the director of a federal office set up to protect civilian, military and intelligence networks has submitted his resignation after less than a year in the job.

Rod Beckstrom, director of the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC), on Friday said he is quitting because of concerns over what he said is the National Security Agency's (NSA) domination of the nation's cybersecurity efforts. The NCSC was set up within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last year to oversee and coordinate efforts to shore up the nation's defenses and responses to cyberthreats.

Beckstrom was appointed to lead the NCSC in March 2008 and was required to report directly to then-DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff.

In a sharply worded letter to current DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, Beckstrom on Friday noted that the NSA effectively controlled DHS cyberefforts "through detailees, technology insertions" and a proposed move of the National Protection and Programs Directorate and the NCSC to an NSA facility in Fort Meade. His letter, dated March 5, noted that allowing the NSA to control national cybersecurity efforts is a "bad strategy on multiple grounds."
Read more...

New Military Command for Cyberspace

Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander is second from the left

By THOM SHANKER
June 23, 2009
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Tuesday ordered the creation of the military’s first headquarters designed to coordinate Pentagon efforts in the emerging battlefield of cyberspace and computer-network security, officials said.

Pentagon officials said Mr. Gates intends to nominate Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, currently director of the National Security Agency, for a fourth star and to take on the top job at the new organization, to be called Cybercom.

The new command’s mission will be to coordinate the day-to-day operation — and protection — of military and Pentagon computer networks. Currently, the Defense Department operates 15,000 separate computer networks and more than seven million individual computers or information-technology devices, officials said.

The Obama administration has undertaken significant efforts to protect the nation from cyberattack and prepare for potential offensive operations against adversary computer networks. The first step was creating a position of White House director for cybersecurity issues.

But the plans raised concerns that respect for privacy, diplomatic rules and sovereignty may be harmed as the administration accelerates its efforts to detect and attack adversaries on global computer networks that disregard borders. Read more...

NSA Plans Massive
Data Center in Utah

July 5th, 2009
The Salt Lake Tribune

The National Security Agency was so confident that its nearly $2 billion plan for a new data center in Utah would be approved by Congress that it began designing the facility last November.

NSA budgeting documents also indicate that the design of the 1-million-square-foot center should be completed by February, with building to begin in June on a project that could mean thousands of construction jobs for a state that, like many others, has been stuck in a building lull.

President Barack Obama last week signed a spending bill that included $181 million for preparatory construction of the Camp Williams facility and tentatively agreed to two future phases of construction that could cost $800 million each.

The secretive agency released a statement Thursday acknowledging the selection of Camp Williams as a site for the new center and describing it as “a specialized facility that houses computer systems and supporting equipment.”

Budget documents provide a more detailed picture of the facility and its mission. The supercomputers in the center will be part of the NSA’s signal intelligence program, which seeks to “gain a decisive information advantage for the nation and our allies under all circumstances” according to the documents.

The agency is set up to collect intelligence on foreign threats, but it has been accused of also participating in the unwarranted monitoring of the communications of U.S. citizens.

A similar center is being constructed in San Antonio, Texas, and NSA documents indicate that the agency is also expanding its existing intelligence collection facilities in North Yorkshire, England, and Fort Meade, Md. The agency has been seeking to decentralize its operations in an effort to protect assets and find areas with the capacity to satiate the energy appetites of its enormous computer caches.

To that end, the initial phase of the project is expected to include more than $52 million in preparatory electrical work — much of that is likely to be spent connecting two large power corridors that run through Camp Williams to the construction site near the base airstrip. The next phases of the project will include $340 million in electrical work, according to the documents.

About $70 million has been budgeted for security, including vehicle inspection facilities, fencing, surveillance and separate visitor control centers for construction and technical personnel.

All NSA security measures will be in addition to security that the Utah National Guard already provides for the 28,000-acre Camp Williams facility.

“Physical and technical security of the construction site will be assured,” the budget documents promise.

While the project — and the ongoing operation of the center — will bring millions of dollars into the state, the Utah Guard doesn’t stand to make a penny.

Guard spokesman Hank McIntire said the state, which manages Camp Williams, would act as “a benevolent landlord.”

Citizens Education Project director Steve Erickson, who advocates for greater military oversight, was wary.

“If we’re going to be landlords,” he said, “we should act like a good landlord and have some rules that apply to the tenants to make sure they’re behaving.”

Regrettably, he said, that’s not likely to happen when dealing with one of the most secretive government agencies in the world.

“Finally, the Patriot Act has a home,” he sighed.


Here's a lovely little article on the privacy of one's medical history. Note is it written in 2002; no doubt progress has been made since then in its ability to access global personal medical data.

DoD Database Provides Global Tripwire for Bio-Terror

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON
Dec. 17, 2002 – DoD personnel are on the watch for possible bio-terrorism, scanning computer databases featuring outpatient treatment information gathered from more than 300 military hospitals and medical clinics worldwide.

That effort, called the Electronic Surveillance System for Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics, or ESSENCE, is helping DoD to detect both naturally occurring outbreaks of disease -- and potential bio-terrorism attacks, noted Army Dr. (Col.) Patrick W. Kelley. He is an epidemiologist at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Md.

ESSENCE started up in 2000 as a pilot program to monitor the medical health of service members, family members and military retirees living in metropolitan Washington, Kelley explained.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States, he said, ESSENCE was expanded to include outpatient information from 313 Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard medical facilities around the world.

ESSENCE is on the front line of defense in the war against global terrorism, Kelley maintained. Its worldwide reach is important, he emphasized, because "infectious diseases have no borders and an attack on one country with a bio- terrorist agent could well be an attack on the globe."
Read more...

Don't relax if you are in Europe.
The EU is just a bit sneakier than the USA. Who has heard of

European Homeland Security EHSA?


Well, I invite you to visit their webpage.

It's really quite interesting when you investigate the links there.

This one

is, I am sure, a high priority budget item.

Update July 10, 2009

NSA’s cyber-security grab is a
major expansion of web surveillance

By Wayne Madsen
Jun 26, 2009
With Time magazine reporting that President Obama has narrowed his top choice for the White House “cyber security czar” position to former Virginia Republican Representative Tom Davis, a leading backer of the Bush administration’s surveillance powers over the Internet, comes word from WMR’s sources that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been given a green light by the Obama White House to embark on a major effort to establish total surveillance over the Internet.

The decision is somewhat of a consolation prize to NSA director General Keith Alexander who made no secret of his desire to be named as Obama’s cyber security czar. However, it is anticipated that Davis is in lockstep with the NSA in ensuring the eavesdropping agency becomes the de facto lead organization for conducting spying on Internet users worldwide.

The NSA seeks to expand its surveillance powers over the Internet well beyond its current e-mail surveillance capabilities conducted by classified programs like Pinwale, first reported by WMR on December 4, 2005, and reported as an e-mail interception program on September 15, 2008. Using the cover of additional code-word programs, NSA is expanding its surveillance capabilities of the Internet by striking technical agreements with various software developers, hardware vendors, and service providers, including Microsoft, Intel, Google, and social networking services like FaceBook and Twitter. Read more...


VIDEOS

Witness - Security Threat
A really excellent and thorough look at the use of profiling and surveillance technology used to
analyse personal data. Also a bit scary. 36 min


Privacy is dead - Get over it.
The inside scoop from a security expert on our digital footprints (which we leave everywhere). Like having a magician reveal a secret of a magic trick. Captivating. You might feel naked after watching this.

Shape of things to come

I have written on the shape of things to come before here. Disturbing trends are converging at a rapid rate which portend an entirely different future than humans have imagined (except in science-fiction).

Three articles below stand out as huge milestones in the relentless march toward a New World Order: sophisticated human implants, corporation monopolies of food production and the alliance of China and Russia politically. The vehicle of implementing surveillance through implants and DNA collection, could very well be world hunger as corporations have taken over food production.

When I first blogged on these issues, I was alarmed. But finding the ongoing progress of technology to control the masses, I am beginning to fear the road ahead for us. Not that I have a solution - but the first step in definitely being aware.

Saudi 'Killer Chip' Implant Would Track,
Eliminate Undesirables

05-17-2009
Source
It could be the ultimate in political control — but it won't be patented in Germany.

German media outlets reported last week that a Saudi inventor's application to patent a "killer chip," as the Swiss tabloids put it, had been denied.

The basic model would consist of a tiny GPS transceiver placed in a capsule and inserted under a person's skin, so that authorities could track him easily.

Model B would have an extra function — a dose of cyanide to remotely kill the wearer without muss or fuss if authorities deemed he'd become a public threat.

The inventor said the chip could be used to track terrorists, criminals, fugitives, illegal immigrants, political dissidents, domestic servants and foreigners overstaying their visas.

"The invention will probably be found to violate paragraph two of the German Patent Law — which does not allow inventions that transgress public order or good morals," German Patent and Trademark Office spokeswoman Stephanie Krüger told the English-language German-news Web site The Local.
Click to enlarge pic.

The 21st century's bleak harvest

Rising food prices increased the aid dependency of developing countries [GALLO/GETTY]

By Asif Mehdi, development practitioner
Source
As the world staggers from one economic crisis to another, it seems easy to forget the global food crisis that occupied centre stage in 2008.

World prices for essential grains more than doubled between 2006 and 2008.

Rice, the staple food of most of Asia, doubled in price in just seven months. And, despite their commitments to trade liberalisation, a few significant grain-exporting developing countries rushed to protect domestic grain stocks by banning exports.

The poor, who typically spend between 50 and 70 per cent of their meagre incomes on food, were most affected by the crisis.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, the food crisis raised the number of undernourished people from 923 million to more than one billion by this year.

In late 2007 and 2008, the crisis caused food riots in at least 15 countries across the world, from Brazil to Bangladesh, and international media and forums spoke of little else.

Then, as suddenly as it struck, declining prices relegated the food crisis to collective global amnesia.

Causes not addressed

However, while prices for grains and foods have declined in 2009, they are still higher than pre-crisis levels and the fundamental causes of their volatility have not disappeared.

The international economic system has witnessed a dramatic disbanding of trade and investment barriers.

However, the international market for agricultural commodities, the nature of industrial agriculture, changing consumption patterns and international finance all threaten to make food price volatility and food insecurity a recurrent feature of the early 21st century.

Agriculture offers a textbook case of international market distortion. And in this case, the market distortion is created by precisely the developed countries that extol the virtues of free markets.

Double standards

The developed world protects its domestic agriculture with any number of subsidies and technical barriers to trade.

In 2006, for example, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimated that agricultural subsidies in OECD member countries were about $230bn.

In contrast to the magnitude of those subsidies, Official Development Assistance from OECD member states amounted to $120bn (the US alone had a military budget of $600bn in 2007).

The agricultural subsidies cover a host of measures - from domestic price support, to compensation to farmers for maintaining fallow land, to export price subsidies to dumping, some of which is disguised as food aid.

Paradoxically, international trade negotiations and, more importantly, International Monetary Fund (IMF) lending conditions expect developing countries to remove agricultural subsidies and liberalise domestic markets to imported foods.

While these measures allow for the increased availability of food, they have also eroded domestic agriculture and impoverished the rural economy, often in the most economically fragile states.

It was not surprising that the most impoverished countries were unable to meet the international price surge with increased domestic production, or the release of buffer stocks of staple food commodities.

In fact, those countries became ever more aid dependent as governments struggled to find the resources to pay the bills for imported food (and fuel), in the face of sharpened threats of hunger and undernourishment.

Industry domination

The opening of developing country markets does not benefit the average farmer in the developed world.

The international agricultural industry is dominated by a few grain, seed, chemicals and oil companies.

Such is their market power that three companies control the global grain trade and one company controls 60 per cent of seed production.

The grain trading conglomerates have unchecked market power to hoard and influence world prices.

Seed companies have employed breakthroughs in biotechnology to produce seeds that are compatible only with certain brands of pesticide or supply patented terminator seeds which germinate just once, and therefore the seed from a harvest cannot be used to grow a second crop.

This last feature of the seed business ensures a seed serfdom for the farmer, who cannot set aside part of the harvest for replanting.

It is no wonder, then, that the profits of the grain traders soared to astronomical heights in 2007, in one case up by 60 per cent over the previous year.

And it is no wonder that small farmers are bankrupted by one crop failure because of their inability to afford to buy or finance the procurement of seed for a new crop.

Industrialised agriculture

The other facet of industrialised agriculture is its energy intensity and reliance on hydrocarbon resources, whether as fertiliser or as fuel.

The poorest were most seriously impacted by rising food prices [GALLO/GETTY]
During the heyday of the Green Revolution, one study noted that between 1945 and 1994 US energy input for agriculture increased four-fold while crop yields only increased three-fold.

Since then, energy input has continued to increase without a corresponding increase in crop yield.

Barring a breakthrough in seed technology, industrial agriculture has reached a point of diminishing marginal returns from energy usage.

In addition, the fact that oil resource availability has peaked suggests that oil prices will be on a long-term increase, thereby increasing the costs of food production.

Given the nature of the financial crisis in developed countries, it is highly doubtful that governments will have the fiscal resources to increase subsidies to the agricultural sector, in order to contain the increase in prices.

For the developing world, fiscal constraints on governments and the likely drying up of development assistance will have the same impact.

Food to fuel

The recent movement in the developed world to produce bio-fuels is yet another factor propelling the price of grains.

A World Bank study, prepared in April 2008, pointed out that a third of US corn production goes to produce ethanol and half the vegetable oils produced in the EU to the production of biodiesel.

This diversion from food to fuel is subsidised extensively, while imports from Brazil (which has had the longest standing and most extensive bio ethanol production) are subjected to tariff barriers that effectively prohibit imports of Brazilian ethanol into these markets.

Commodity speculators, seeing the potential from increased demand for grains in these subsidised programmes, drove up futures commodity prices which in turn raised current prices in grain markets.

The same World Bank study contends that 75 per cent of the food price increase was due to bio-fuels, a figure hotly contested by the Bush administration at the time.

An International Food Policy Research Institute study asserts that the effect was somewhat less, at 30 per cent of the food price increase.

Ideology of the rich

The financial crisis in itself was a cause for the food price hike.

While prices rose steadily through 2006 and 2007, the latter half of 2008 saw a sharp increase in prices, in a so-called price spike.

However, little had changed in the fundamental conditions of supply or demand to cause such dramatic market adjustments.

If the financial crisis reduces aid another food crisis could be devastating[GALLO/GETTY]
By now it is clearly evident that as the unregulated and complex financial sector of the US was facing the unfolding effects of the real estate bubble, trillions of dollars moved across sectors and spaces and invested in food and primary commodities, causing another price bubble, this time of an altogether more serious consequence.

The simultaneous inflation of oil and food futures caused cost increases in the production of food while inflating its trading prices at the same time.

It seems that finance had run out of opportunities for profit, so it turned to the earth as a means of generating speculative profit, whether through real estate or primary commodities and food.

As the more recent financial crisis has shown, there is no regulatory capacity to stop such profiteering from reoccurring.

These are the difficult prospects and consequences of a world run by the ideology of the rich and powerful.

Development lessons

There are development lessons to be learned here.

First, food security is an issue requiring long-term international effort and food security demands that local agriculture be able to supply domestic needs wherever possible and that reserve stocks are garnered for difficult times.

Second, the developing nations are justified in holding out in the Doha Round of trade negotiations until real and tangible concessions are made with regard to trade in agricultural products.

Third, national development efforts need to be replenished with such 'old fashioned' endeavours as investing in rural production, water availability and the empowerment of the small farmer.

Economic history shows us that industrialisation was preceded by agricultural transformations, with the state playing a heavy role.

And economic history is a better guide to policy than the theorising of free marketers serving powerful corporate interests.

Asif Mehdi works in international development with an international intergovernmental organisation and has worked extensively in Asia and Africa during his 29-year career as a development practitioner.

The views expressed by the author are not necessarily those of Al Jazeera.

China's top legislator: China-Russia partnership
enjoys fast growth

05-17-2009
Source
The strategic partnership of cooperation between China and Russia is currently showing all-round momentum and rapid growth as high-level contacts remain frequent, China's top legislator said in Moscow on Wednesday.

Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, made the remark during a meeting with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.

Wu, who arrived in Moscow on Wednesday for an official goodwill visit, said he appreciates the frequent contact between leaders of the two countries.

He said Medvedev's visit to China last year helped lay the foundation for continuous growth of the strategic partnership between the two countries.

Medvedev said that he and Chinese President Hu Jintao held their first meeting this year during the London G20 summit in April. He expressed the wish that they will have more meetings later this year.

The Russian president said he expects Hu to pay a state visit to Russia in June. Medvedev also expects to meet with Hu during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit and the summit of "BRIC" countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India and China, later this year.

China and Russia this year also are to hold a series of activities to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties.

Wu and Medvedev stressed the importance of parliamentary exchanges between the two countries, saying they reflect the high level of development of the China-Russia partnership of strategic cooperation.

Wu said the strong China-Russia partnership is reflected in such areas as frequent contacts between top leaders of the two countries, the staging of "Russian Language Year" in China, the signing of an oil cooperation agreement between the two governments, and exchanges between the NPC and the Russian parliament.

Russia, Medvedev said, places high importance on parliamentary exchanges and cooperation between the two countries.

The Russian president also said Wu's visit reflects the momentum of fast growth in bilateral links.

Source: Xinhua

http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2009-05/14/content_252734.htm