edward snowden

“Deep State” derives from a John le Carré spy novel.  It is an expression bandied about rather frequently these days. It’s in danger of losing its meaning the more it becomes just another little buzzword from Hiveworld, busy bobbing among the festive fields of corn-cockle until exhaustion sets in.  There is a real, non-fictional Deep State, and it’s important that we come to understand what it is, before we are driven shallow by the incessant digital stim of the trite and trivial from the cybersphere of internet ‘updates.’

You should never judge a book by its title, but with whistleblower Edward Snowden’s Permanent Record the reader gets as close s/he can possibly get to the soul of a narrative before actually reading it.  He means it: The American government, with help of its data-gathering 5 Eyes partners, is gathering up information on every mobile or Intern

Dunbar’s number, the famous estimate of how many relationships you can meaningfully maintain in life, is just 150.
— Edward Snowden, Permanent Record (2019)

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together
— The Beatles, “I Am The Walrus,” (1967)

An Omaha police officer escorts freelancer Megan Feeney, a camera dangling from her zip-tied hands, on June 1, 2020. (Aaron Sanderford/Omaha World Herald).
Government attacks on the media are escalating as the battle for the narrative grows in importance.

Binoy kampmark The Kafkaesque Imperium has taken yet another absurd step towards mean absurdity with another superseding indictment against Julian Assange. This move by the US Department of Justice seems to have surprised those involved in his extradition proceedings. Mark Summers QC, one of the members of the Assange legal team, did not conceal his …

On Saturday, I gave a talk at the Pennsylvania Libertarian Party state convention.  There were so many great folks there and it was a pleasure to speak to a savvy, friendly audience.  Richard Schwarz did a pitch-perfect introduction that set the tone for the talk.  It’s hard not to like a guy who is always wearing a Phillies baseball cap.

It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It’s a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.
— Harold Pinter’s Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, 2005

Source : The Deep State, Jefferson Morley, 25-10-2019
Le lanceur d’alerte de la NSA Edward Snowden

What happens to Julian Assange and to Chelsea Manning is meant to intimidate us, to frighten us into silence. By defending Julian Assange, we defend our most sacred rights. Speak up now or wake up one morning to the silence of a new kind of tyranny. The choice is ours.
— John Pilger, investigative journalist

Has anything changed since Katharine Gun’s momentous leak against the Iraq War?
by Ian Sinclair
Morning Star
22 October 2019
Directed by Gavin Hood and starring Keira Knightley, new film Official Secrets tells the story of Katharine Gun’s brave actions to try to stop the illegal US-UK invasion of Iraq in 2003.