"intelligence programs serve a specific national security mission, and that does not include providing a competitive advantage to U.S. companies or U.S. economic interests," Jay Carney said. "In other words, we do not do what those Chinese nationals were indicted for earlier today. Period."
I call bullshit. Clear evidence that contradicts this statement can be found in a Paris Wikileaks cable.The U.S. government uses the USSS and Five Eyes mass surveillance to attack, harass, and intimidate citizens on behalf of U.S. based corporate interests. Moratoriums on Monsanto’s famous “MON 810” genetically modified (GMO) corn are being passed all across Europe due to people’s belief that these products are unsafe. Instead of respecting the people’s will, our state department considers making a “target retaliation list that causes some pain across the EU” to help out their struggling buddies at Monsanto.
4. (C) France’s new “High Authority” on agricultural biotech is designed to roll back established science-based decision making. The recently formed authority is divided into two colleges, a scientific college and a second group including civil society and social scientists to assess the “common interest” of France. The authority’s first task is to review MON 810. In the meantime, however, the draft biotech law submitted to the National Assembly and the Senate for urgent consideration, could make any biotech planting impossible in practical terms. The law would make farmers and seed companies legally liable for pollen drift and sets the stage for inordinately large cropping distances. The publication of a registry identifying cultivation of GMOs at the parcel level may be the most significant measure given the propensity for activists to destroy GMO crops in the field.
5. (C) Both the GOF and the Commission have suggested that their respective actions should not alarm us since they are only cultivation rather than import bans. We see the cultivation ban as a first step, at least by anti-GMO advocates, who will move next to ban or further restrict imports. (The environment minister’s top aide told us that people have a right not to buy meat raised on biotech feed, even though she acknowledged there was no possible scientific basis for a feed based distinction.) Further, we should not be prepared to cede on cultivation because of our considerable planting seed business in Europe and because farmers, once they have had experience with biotech, become its staunchest supporters.
6. Country team Paris recommends that we calibrate a target retaliation list that causes some pain across the EU since this is a collective responsibility, but that also focuses in part on the worst culprits. The list should be measured rather than vicious and must be sustainable over the long term, since we should not expect an early victory. source: Wikileaks (07PARIS4723_a)
The NSA and the intelligence apparatus of the USSS are busted. Spying on anti-GMO activists in France, creating target lists for retribution, and forcing Monsanto MON810 corn down their throats is a very clear example of the US government spying and harassing on behalf of a large (and generally despised) US corporation. Did the US government come clean after the Wikileaks releases? No, they hired defense contractors to silence Julian Assange, Glen Greenwald, and any activists associated with the website:
U.S. defense contractors hired to use cyber warfare and social media sock-puppets to sway public opinion against Wikileaks, discredit journalists/activists
HBGary Federal, a US defense department cyber security firm, was hacked (allegedly by a 16 year old girl) and its emails were uploaded to torrents and websites. In those emails, the public learned that prominent law firms hired Berico Technologies, Palantir Technologies, and HBGary to create fake Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube accounts to post online as if they were real people, and influence your opinion. One person can run more than 50 different accounts, all with complete “online” life histories to add authenticity. Their purpose? Discredit all associated with Wikileaks through coercion and convince the public that Wikileaks, Glenn Greenwald, and Julian Assange are terrorists.The NSA is hacking everyone, the Department of Homeland Security is watching protesters, and hired hackers can sell their craft to brutal tyrants.
A “top secret” memo from the Egyptian Interior Ministry dated January 1, 2011, which the WSJ was able to gain access to, reveals that the Egyptian authorities had paid €388,604 to test the spyware for five months, and could call on the support of four employees of Gamma’s Egyptian retailer, Modern Communication Systems. This allowed them to spy on many activists, including the “successful penetration of their meetings…even if they were encrypted by Skype.”
The Egyptians were not alone in being spied on. Documents have also revealed that the conversations of Sherif Mansour, a representative of the American NGO Freedom House, who had come to Egypt to monitor elections, had also been intercepted. Aware of interference from the authorities, Mansour had set up a “security protocol which mentioned using Skype as often as possible”, on the grounds that it was more secure than emails.
When questioned by the WSJ, Mr Mansour said he was surprised. “When they detained bloggers, they tortured them for their passwords,” he said. “So we had the impression they could not spy on our conversations.”
In December 2010, following this trial period, a satisfied Interior Ministry approved the purchase of the Gamma software. Only the subsequent Arab Spring and the Egyptian revolution prevented the purchase from going through. source: OWNI
This line is not secure and the surveillance state works for the corporations, not you silly activist.