Glenn Greenwald: on Keith Alexander’s NSA Star Trek “Information Dominance Center”

Glenn Greenwald: on Keith Alexander’s NSA Star Trek “Information Dominance Center”
September 15, 2013
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/15/nsa-mind-keith-alexander-star-trek

A lavish Star Trek room he had built as part of his 'Information Dominance Center' is endlessly revealing

It has been previously reported that the mentality of NSA chief Gen. Keith Alexander is captured by his motto "Collect it All". It's a get-everything approach he pioneered first when aimed at an enemy population in the middle of a war zone in Iraq, one he has now imported onto US soil, aimed at the domestic population and everyone else.

But a perhaps even more disturbing and revealing vignette into the spy chief's mind comes from a new Foreign Policy article describing what the journal calls his "all-out, barely-legal drive to build the ultimate spy machine". The article describes how even his NSA peers see him as a "cowboy" willing to play fast and loose with legal limits in order to construct a system of ubiquitous surveillance. But the personality driving all of this - not just Alexander's but much of Washington's - is perhaps best captured by this one passage, highlighted by PBS' News Hour in a post entitled: "NSA director modeled war room after Star Trek's Enterprise". The room was christened as part of the "Information Dominance Center":

"When he was running the Army's Intelligence and Security Command, Alexander brought many of his future allies down to Fort Belvoir for a tour of his base of operations, a facility known as the Information Dominance Center. It had been designed by a Hollywood set designer to mimic the bridge of the starship Enterprise from Star Trek, complete with chrome panels, computer stations, a huge TV monitor on the forward wall, and doors that made a 'whoosh' sound when they slid open and closed. Lawmakers and other important officials took turns sitting in a leather 'captain's chair' in the center of the room and watched as Alexander, a lover of science-fiction movies, showed off his data tools on the big screen.

"'Everybody wanted to sit in the chair at least once to pretend he was Jean-Luc Picard,' says a retired officer in charge of VIP visits."

Numerous commentators remarked yesterday on the meaning of all that (note, too, how "Total Information Awareness" was a major scandal in the Bush years, but "Information Dominance Center" - along with things like "Boundless Informant" - are treated as benign or even noble programs in the age of Obama).

But now, on the website of DBI Architects, Inc. of Washington and Reston, Virginia, there are what purports to be photographs of the actual Star-Trek-like headquarters commissioned by Gen. Alexander that so impressed his Congressional overseers. It's a 10,740 square foot labyrinth in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. The brochure touts how "the prominently positioned chair provides the commanding officer an uninterrupted field of vision to a 22'-0" wide projection screen":

 

The glossy display further describes how "this project involved the renovation of standard office space into a highly classified, ultramodern operations center." Its "primary function is to enable 24-hour worldwide visualization, planning, and execution of coordinated information operations for the US Army and other federal agencies." It gushes: "The futuristic, yet distinctly military, setting is further reinforced by the Commander's console, which gives the illusion that one has boarded
a star ship":

Other photographs of Gen. Alexander's personal Star Trek Captain fantasy come-to-life (courtesy of public funds) are here. Any casual review of human history proves how deeply irrational it is to believe that powerful factions can be trusted to exercise vast surveillance power with little accountability or transparency. But the more they proudly flaunt their warped imperial hubris, the more irrational it becomes.

 

Post-Manning Verdict, Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian reams CNN anchors two new ones

Post-Manning Verdict, Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian reams CNN anchors two new ones

July 31, 2013

Thanks to Exopermaculture for the pointer on this one. This is just too funny not to post :) ~BK

http://exopermaculture.com/2013/07/31/post-manning-verdict-glenn-greenwald-reams-cnn-anchors-two-new-ones/

The Guardian: "Snowden Turned Over to us Many Thousands of Documents" -- Tip-of the Iceberg

The Guardian Admits: "Snowden Turned Over to us Many Thousands of Documents"
July 18, 2013

This article provides more proof that what we have seen in the Disclosure arena is just the tip of the iceberg. It appears The Guardian is releasing the documents they have control of in an order that has been pre-planned and carefully crafted. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to blow the whole wad all at once. Too much, too soon, could very easily equate to too overwhelming for many trying to grasp the gravity of the unfolding development. Also, not the best strategy to keep readers coming back to The Guardian for updates. ~BK

http://rt.com/news/snowden-leaks-guardian-greenwald-264/

Edward Snowden is unlikely to make new revelations since “he doesn’t want to end up in a cage like Bradley Manning”, said The Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, adding that he himself decides what to publish from the thousands of leaked documents.

“I think there’s a real misconception over whether he’ll continue to leak,” Greenwald, who helped publish the leaks made by Snowden, told NBC News. “He turned over to us many thousands of documents weeks and weeks ago back in Hong Kong and we’ve been the ones deciding which stories get published and in which order. As far as I know he doesn’t have any intention of disclosing any more documents to us,” the Brazil-based journalist continued.

Greenwald confirmed he has thousands of documents from Snowden in his possession, but so far no government agency has requested that he turn them over.

“I don’t think that the US government thinks trying to pressure us or me out of continuing to publish these stories will do them any good, and so as far as I know, there hasn’t been any kind of pressure like that,”Greenwald said.

The Guardian journalist explained why Snowden had to flee the US and seek political asylum in countries that can stand up to the US in the international arena.

“Of course he has to go somewhere. There are very few places in the world willing to stand up to the United States and demand his rights under the law be protected,” the journalist said.

Picture released by Human Rights Watch shows US National Security Agency (NSA) fugitive leaker Edward Snowden (C) during a meeting with rights activists, with among them Sarah Harrison of WikiLeaks (L), at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, on July 12, 2013. (AFP Photo)

“Obviously he isn’t going to Venezuela or Ecuador or Bolivia or Nicaragua or Russia or wherever he ends up because he thinks they’re bastions of civil liberties protections,” Greenwald added. “He’s going there because as Daniel Ellsberg said in a Washington Post Op-Ed, this country is no longer safe for whistle-blowers.”

The journalist pointed out that Snowden’s “choices are very limited and he’s trying to make sure that he doesn’t end up like Bradley Manning, put in a cage, rendered incommunicado. He wants to participate in the ongoing debate that he helped provoke and that’s what’s guiding his choices.”

Manning, 25, is currently locked up in punitive solitary confinement at Marine Corps base in Quantico, VA, and faces life in prison for turning over secret documents to the WikiLeaks whistleblower project.

After the former CIA technician and NSA contractor exposed the global wiretapping industry of the US National Security Agency, the number of lawsuits in US federal courts challenging the constitutionality of Foreign Intelligence Security Act programs have continued to multiply.

“There a lot of encouraging and gratifying trends,” Greenwald concluded.