<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<big><big><strong><font size="3"><big><big>Digital Blackwater rules</big></big></font></strong></big></big><br>
By Pepe Escobar<br>
<br>
<small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-03-110613.html">http://www.atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-03-110613.html</a></small></small>
<br>
<br>
The judgment of Daniel "Pentagon Papers" Ellsberg is definitive; "There
has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward
Snowden's release of NSA material". And that includes the release of
the Pentagon Papers themselves. <a
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/jun/09/nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-interview-video">Here
is the 12-minute video</a> by The Guardian where Snowden details his
motives. <br>
<br>
By now, everything swirling around the US National Security Agency
(NSA) points to a black box in a black hole. The black box is the NSA
headquarters itself in Fort Meade, Maryland. The<img
src="cid:part1.05060503.02010407@freedomarchives.org" alt=""
style="width: 0px; height: 0px;" height="0" width="0"> black hole is
an area that would include the suburbs of Virginia's Fairfax County
near the CIA but mostly the intersection of the Baltimore Parkway and
Maryland Route 32. <br>
<br>
There one finds a business park a mile away from the NSA which Michael
Hayden, a former NSA director (1999-2005) told Salon's Tim Shorrock is
"the largest concentration of cyber power on the planet". [1] Hayden
coined it "Digital Blackwater". <br>
<br>
Here is a decent round up of <a
href="http://www.propublica.org/article/nsa-black-hole-5-basic-things-we-still-dont-know-the-governments-snoop">
key questions </a>still not answered about the black hole. But when it
comes to how a 29-year old IT wizard with little formal education has
been able to access a batch of ultra-sensitive secrets of the US
intelligence-national security complex, that's a no-brainer; it's all
about the gung-ho privatization of spying - referred to by a mountain
of euphemisms of the "contractor reliance" kind. In fact the bulk of
the hardware and software used by the dizzying network of 16 US
intelligence agencies is privatized. <br>
<br>
A Washington Post investigation found out that US homeland security,
counter-terror and spy agencies do business with over 1,900 companies.
[2] An obvious consequence of this contractor tsunami - hordes of
"knowledge" high-tech proletarians in taupe cubicles - is their
indiscriminate access to ultra-sensitive security. A systems
administrator like Snowden can have access to practically everything. <br>
<br>
"Revolving door" does not even begin to explain the system. Snowden was
one of 25,000 employees of Booz Allen Hamilton ("We are visionaries")
for the past three months. [3] Over 70% of these employees, according
to the company, have a government security clearance; 49% are top
secret (as in Snowden's case), or higher. The former director of
national intelligence Mike McConnell is now a Booz Allen vice
president. The new director of national intelligence, the
sinister-looking retired general James Clapper, is a former Booz Allen
executive. <br>
<br>
At least US - and world - public opinion may now have a clearer idea of
how a Pashtun girl in Waziristan is obliterated by a "targeted strike".
It's all a matter of this privatized NSA-collected meta-data and matrix
multiplication leading to a "signature". The "terrorist" Pashtun girl
of course may eventually morph in the near future into a dangerous
tree-hugger or a vocal political protester. <br>
<br>
<b>It's all China's fault</b><br>
True to form, as soon as Snowden revealed his identity US corporate
media privileged shooting the messenger instead of poring over the
message. That included everything from <a
href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/10-things-to-know-about-edward-snowden-92491.html?hp=r2">cheap
character assassination</a> to the usual former CIA asset spinning that
in Washington many were looking at Snowden as an agent in a <a
href="http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/06/10/Former-CIA-Officer-Intel-Considering-NSA-Whistleblower-Potential-Chinese-Espionage">potential
Chinese espionage plot</a>. <br>
<br>
Much has also been made of the John Le Carre-esque plot twist of
Snowden leaving his tranquil life in Hawaii and flying to Hong Kong on
May 20, because "they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the
right of political dissent". Hong Kong-based blogger Wen Yunchao
memorably described it as Snowden having "left the tiger's den and
entered the wolf's lair". Yet Snowden's visa stamp at Chek Lap Kok
airport lasts for 90 days - plenty of time to ponder the next move. <br>
<br>
Since 1996, before the British handover to China, an extradition treaty
applies between the tiger and the wolf. [4] The US Department of
Justice is already surveying its options. It's important to remember
that the Hong Kong judicial system is independent from China's -
according to the Deng Xiaoping-conceptualized "one country, two
systems". As much as Washington may go for extraditing Snowden, he may
also apply for political asylum. In both cases he may stay in Hong Kong
for months, in fact years. <br>
<br>
The Hong Kong government cannot extradite anyone claiming he will be
persecuted in his country of origin. And crucially, article 6 of the
treaty stipulates, "a fugitive offender shall not be surrendered if the
offence of which that person is accused or was convicted is an offence
of a political character." Another clause stipulates that a fugitive
shall not be surrendered if that implicates "the defense, foreign
affairs or essential public interest or policy" of - guess who - the
People's Republic of China. <br>
<br>
So then we may have a case of Hong Kong and Beijing having to reach an
agreement. Yet even if they decided to extradite Snowden, he could
argue in court this was "an offence of a political character". The
bottom line - this could drag on for years. And it's too early to tell
how Beijing would play it for maximum leverage. A "win-win" situation
from a Chinese point of view would be to balance its commitment to
absolute non-interference in foreign domestic affairs, its desire not
to rock the fragile bilateral relation boat, but also what non-pivoting
move the US government would offer in return. <br>
<br>
<b>The ultimate Panopticon</b> <br>
The usual rabid right-wingers in the US predictably skip the fact of
how Snowden does not see intelligence analysts - and even the US
government, per se - as inherent "bad guys". [5] What he stressed is
how they all work under a false premise; "If a surveillance program
produces information of value, it legitimizes it ... In one step, we've
managed to justify the operation of the Panopticon". <br>
<br>
Oh yes, make no mistake; Snowden has carefully read his Michel Foucault
(he also stressed his revulsion facing "the capabilities of this
architecture of oppression"). <br>
<br>
Foucault's deconstruction of the Panopticon's architecture is now a
classic (<a href="http://cryptome.org/cartome/panopticon1.htm">see it
here</a> in an excerpt of his 1975 masterpiece <i>Discipline and Punish</i>).
The Panopticon was the ultimate surveillance system, designed by
utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century. The
Panopticon - a tower surrounded by cells, a pre-Orwellian example of
"architecture of oppression" - was not originally conceived for the
surveillance of a prison, but of a factory crammed with landless
peasants on forced labor. <br>
<br>
Oh, but those were rudimentary proto-capitalist days. Welcome to the
(savagely privatized) future, where the NSA black hole, "Digital
Blackwater", lords over all as the ultimate Panopticon. <br>
<br>
<i><b>Notes</b></i>:<br>
1. <a
href="http://www.alternet.org/digital-blackwater-meet-contractors-who-analyze-your-personal-data?paging=off">Digital
Blackwater: Meet the Contractors Who Analyze Your Personal Data</a>,
Alternet, June 10, 2013.<br>
2. <a href="http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/">Top
Secret America</a>, Washington Post, June, 2010.<br>
3. See <a href="http://www.boozallen.com">here</a> for company
website. <br>
4. See <a
href="https://bulk.resource.org/gpo.gov/documents/105/td003.pdf">here</a>
for extradition treaty. <br>
5. <a
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/code-name-verax-snowden-in-exchanges-with-post-reporter-made-clear-he-knew-risks/2013/06/09/c9a25b54-d14c-11e2-9f1a-1a7cdee20287_story_1.html">Code
name 'Verax': Snowden, in exchanges with Post reporter, made clear he
knew risks</a>, Washington Post, June 10, 2013.
<br>
<br>
<i><b>Pepe Escobar</b> is the author of</i> <a
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0978813820/simpleproduction/ref=nosim">Globalistan:
How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War</a> (Nimble
Books, 2007) and <a
href="http://www.amazon.com/Red-Zone-Blues-snapshot-Baghdad/dp/0978813898">Red
Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge</a>. His new book,
just out, is <a
href="http://www.amazon.com/Obama-Does-Globalistan-Pepe-Escobar/dp/1934840831/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233698286&sr=8-1">Obama
does Globalistan</a> (Nimble Books, 2009).
<br>
<br>
<i>He may be reached at</i> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:pepeasia@yahoo.com">pepeasia@yahoo.com</a>.
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>