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mercredi 31 août 2022
(N'oublions pas que la France va livrer du gaz à l'Allemagne cet hiver alors que le gouvernement macron annonce des coupures électriques et de gaz pour les particuliers et les entreprises. note de rené)
Comment la France va aider l'Allemagne à se passer du gaz russe
Alors que l'UE doit présenter un plan pour affronter la baisse de l'approvisionnement en gaz russe, la France pourrait livrer du gaz à l'Allemagne, selon le Ministère de la Transition énergétique. Les quantités que la France pourrait envoyer sont encore inconnues, comme la date. Plusieurs pistes sont envisagées pour répondre à la demande allemande.
L’Union européenne doit présenter ce mercredi 20 juillet un plan pour faire face à la baisse de l’approvisionnement en gaz russe. L’Allemagne, qui dépendait à près de 50% du gaz russe avant le début du conflit en Ukraine, craint notamment l’arrêt total de Nord Stream 1. Alors la France pourrait lui livrer du gaz, selon le Ministère de la Transition énergétique.
Servir de relai pour fournir du gaz aux Allemands
Nous ne connaissons pas encore les quantités exactes que la France pourrait envoyer à l’Allemagne, ni quand. Mais plusieurs pistes sont envisagées pour répondre à la demande allemande. Dans tous les cas, il ne s’agit pas de donner du gaz à nos voisins, mais plutôt de servir de relai pour leur en fournir.
Un premier scénario envisagé au Ministère de la Transition énergétique consiste à ce que les fournisseurs allemands se mettent à acheter plus de gaz américain, par exemple, et qu’ils se le fassent livrer en France, comme au port de Dunkerque. Selon Patrice Geoffron, professeur d’économie à Dauphine, nous avons les infrastructures nécessaires. "La France a, à la différence de l’Allemagne, la possibilité d’importer du gaz naturel liquéfié, nous avons quatre terminaux méthaniers", note-t-il.
Les stocks de gaz français remplis à 70% de leurs capacités
Ensuite, la France enverrait ce gaz à l’Allemagne, sans faire payer le transit puisqu’il est déjà compris dans le prix du gaz, grâce à un gazoduc qui traverse la frontière. Ce conduit peut fonctionner dans les deux sens, moyennant quelques mises au point techniques puisqu’il a été pensé à l’origine pour des flux qui transitent d’Est en Ouest.
>> LIRE AUSSI - Gaz russe : «Il faut anticiper une possible interruption de livraison», avertit Agnès Pannier-Runacher
On peut aussi imaginer que les fournisseurs français vendent directement du gaz aux fournisseurs allemands. Nos stocks de gaz étant déjà bien remplis, à environ 70% de leurs capacités.
note sur poutine
poutine est un stratège, il laisse la possibilité à l'union européenne de revenir sur sa décision de boycott de l'énergie russe lorsqu'elle se décidera.
Mais il semble que ses dirigeants préfèrent nous saborder que perdre la face. C'est ce qu'ils appellent payer le prix de la liberté.
rené
(Tiens google vient de censurer les vidéos sur le site de France Soir.)
Études d’impact sur la zone de la centrale nucléaire de Zaporojie
Auteur(s)
Jean Neige, pour FranceSoir
Publié le 30 août 2022 - 11:05
Zaporojie le 4 mars 2022 : vue de nuit d'une attaque des centrales nucléaires.
AFP PHOTO /UKRAINIAN NUCLEAR AUTHORITIESCHRONIQUE — Le 15 août dernier, d’après le site SouthFront, un missile Brimstone, de conception britannique, a explosé dans un parc, en plein centre de la ville d’Energodar, qui abrite la centrale nucléaire dite de Zaporojie. La scène a été filmée par une caméra de surveillance, dont la vidéo est disponible sur le site. On imagine la peur terrible de la famille dont la petite fille se trouve sur la scène au moment de l’impact.
Alors que l’Ukraine accuse la Russie de bombarder la centrale et la ville adjacente, que l’Occident fait mine d’y croire ou de ne pas savoir qui bombarde, cette petite analyse faite avec des outils aussi sophistiqués qu’un ordinateur grand public et d’une connexion internet démontre que le missile venait de la direction du nord, c’est-à-dire des territoires contrôlés par l’Ukraine.
Le missile provient bien de la direction du village de Marganets, comme indiqué dans l’article de Southfront.
Le fameux missile/cheminée planté dans le toit, d’après France-2 (vidéo consultable)
Le commentaire est faux à double titre. D’abord, comme tout le monde maintenant le sait, ce n’est pas un missile non explosé que l’on voit à l’écran, mais une cheminée.
Par ailleurs, il est évident que ladite cheminée a été endommagée par une explosion, comme en témoignent toutes les traces d’impacts de shrapnels (obus à balles) au premier plan, mais également le trou béant à la base de la cheminée, lieu précis de l’impact de ce qui était probablement un obus.
Le trou dans la cheminée et la localisation des impacts d’éclats nous permet de conclure que le projectile venait du nord-est, c’est-à-dire de la direction du territoire contrôlé par l’Ukraine, à 11,7 km de là si l'on suit la ligne tracée. Une distance ramenée à 8,6 km si l'on dévie de seulement quelques degrés vers le nord-nord-est, ce qui reste à portée de mortier de 120 mm.
Sans point de repère précis, il est difficile d’établir la hauteur et la largeur de la cheminée. Mais au vu de la hauteur du cadrage au départ, on peut en déduire que la cheminée est à peu près à hauteur d’homme, la raison pour laquelle le trou est assez large, de 15 à 20 cm. On peut penser à un obus de mortier avec une propulsion additionnelle, ou un obus d’artillerie de 122 mm, l’artillerie ayant une plus longue portée. Le toit doit être solide pour y résister, avec une dalle de béton, ce qui semble être le cas ici. Mais, dans cette hypothèse, il demeure un peu étonnant que la cheminée n’ait pas été pulvérisée. Et, le toit aurait été sans doute plus marqué.
Une autre hypothèse serait qu’un drone suicide, de type Switchblade, fut utilisé, vu que ce type de drone aurait été utilisé dans les attaques filmées du 21 juillet. La cheminée aurait servi de point de repère pour viser le toit. Et la charge explosive moins importante pourrait expliquer les moindres dégâts.
Pour comprendre pourquoi l’Ukraine a intérêt à créer des incidents autour de la centrale, voir l’article « Alerte de sécurité pour les Américains présents en Ukraine ».
Une étude montre comment des haies plantées autour des écoles peuvent protéger les enfants de la pollution atmosphérique
On sait depuis longtemps que les plantes peuvent contribuer à atténuer la pollution atmosphérique dans les environnements urbains.
Les haies composées de thuyas géants se sont avérées les plus efficaces. (Barbara Maher. Université de Lancaster )
Une nouvelle étude vient renforcer ces résultats, en montrant que des haies plantées autour des cours d’école peuvent contribuer à protéger les enfants des particules atmosphériques issues de la circulation.
Dans l’étude, dirigée par la professeure Barbara Maher de l’université de Lancaster (Royaume-Uni), des rangées d’arbres servant de haies à hauteur de tête ont été installées autour de trois cours d’école de Manchester pendant les vacances d’été 2019. Toutes les cours étaient situées à côté de routes très fréquentées.
L’une des écoles a reçu des haies de lierre, une autre des cèdres occidentaux, et une troisième un mélange de thuyas géants, de bouleaux suédois et une haie de genévriers intérieurs. Une quatrième cour d’école, qui a servi de témoin, était dépourvue de toute forme de haie.
Lorsque les mesures de la qualité de l’air prises à l’intérieur et à l’extérieur des cours ont été analysées, on a constaté que les haies de thuyas étaient les plus performantes. Plus précisément, elles ont bloqué 49 % des particules de carbone noir, ainsi que 26 % des microparticules PM2,5 et PM1 émises par le trafic routier. Les haies en cèdre ont également contribué à atténuer la gravité des pics aigus et soudains de pollution de l’air dans la cour de l’école.
On pense que les performances supérieures du thuya sont dues aux minuscules projections ondulées de ses feuilles, qui retiennent les particules en suspension dans l’air. Ces particules sont ensuite emportées par la pluie et se retrouvent dans le sol ou dans les égouts pluviaux. Le processus recommence alors, car les feuilles sont capables de collecter davantage de particules.
En revanche, les feuilles lisses et cireuses des lierres bloquent physiquement certaines particules, mais elles sont loin d’être aussi efficaces pour les piéger et les retenir.
Selon Barbara Maher :
Nos résultats montrent que nous pouvons protéger les cours de récréation des écoles avec des lierres soigneusement choisis et gérés, qui capturent les particules de pollution atmosphérique sur leurs feuilles. Cela permet de prévenir au moins une partie des risques sanitaires imposés aux jeunes enfants dans les écoles situées à proximité de routes très fréquentées où la qualité de l’air localisée est dangereusement mauvaise, et cela peut être fait rapidement et de manière rentable.
L’étude publiée dans Scientific Reports : Protecting playgrounds: local-scale reduction of airborne particulate matter concentrations through particulate deposition on roadside ‘tredges’ (green infrastructure) et présentée sur le site de l’Université de Lancaster : New evidence shows planting around school playgrounds protects children from air pollution.
(Il est sacrément populaire elon musk. note de rené)
China Threatens To Destroy Elon Musk's Starlink
Authored by Judith Bergman via The Gatestone Institute,
Chinese military researchers recently called for the destruction of Elon Musk's Starlink satellites, an extraordinary threat for a state to make against a private foreign enterprise.
In December 2021, China filed a complaint with the United Nations, claiming that two of Musk's Starlink satellites had nearly collided with the Tianhe module of its Tiangong Space Station -- in April and October of 2021-- and that Chinese astronauts had been forced to maneuver the module of the station to avoid the collision. Starlink is part of Elon Musk's SpaceX and the satellites are part of a plan to make internet coverage from the satellites available worldwide, with the goal of launching nearly 12,000 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit.
Space is becoming crowded and risks of collision -- whether with satellites or space debris -- are not new. Tellingly, China was among the first to help create much of that debris: In January 2007, China tested its first successful anti-satellite missile (ASAT), destroying one of its own inactive weather satellites and creating one of the world's largest space debris incidents. That space debris is still floating around in space, causing collision risks every day.
The United States rejected China's claims that the Starlink satellites had endangered China's space station. The US stated that if there had been a "significant probability of collision" with China's space station, the U.S. would have given notice to China ahead of time. "Because the activities did not meet the threshold of established emergency collision criteria, emergency notifications were not warranted in either case."
China is now taking things a step further: Chinese military researchers are threatening that Musk's Starlink satellites must be destroyed. The problem, however, does not appear so much to be the fear of collision, but rather that China believes that Starlink could be used for military purposes and thereby threaten what China calls its national security.
Five senior scientists in China's defense industry, led by Ren Yuanzhen, a researcher with the Beijing Institute of Tracking and Telecommunications -- which is under the People Liberation Army's (PLA's) Strategic Support Force – recently wrote that "a combination of soft and hard kill methods should be adopted to make some Starlink satellites lose their functions and destroy the constellation's operating system."
Soft kill methods target software and operating systems of the satellites, whereas hard kill methods physically destroy the satellites, such as using an ASAT weapon.
According to the scientists, China should "vigorously develop countermeasures" against Starlink, as such capabilities are necessary for China "to maintain and obtain space advantages in the fierce space game."
Unsurprisingly, China has eagerly copied Elon Musk's SpaceX to achieve its own space ambitions: China's Long March 2C rocket, for instance, which China launched in the summer of 2019, had parts that were "virtually identical" to those that are used to steer the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
China is not the only state actor to show an interest in interfering with Musk's Starlink satellites.
Russia too has sought to jam Starlink's internet service in Ukraine and failed. "Starlink has resisted Russian cyberwar jamming & hacking attempts so far, but they're ramping up their efforts," Musk tweeted in May.
Starlink is a problem for Russia because Musk's satellites have enabled Ukraine to stay connected to the internet – and the rest of the world – amid Russian President Vladimir Putin's attempts to cut the country off.
Musk began to send Starlink terminals to Ukraine in late February at the request of Ukrainian government officials, as a backup for when Russia would predictably try to cut off internet access. According to one US general, the use of Starlink in Ukraine ruined Putin's attempts to isolate the country.
"The strategic impact is, it totally destroyed Putin's information campaign," said Brig. Gen. Steve Butow, director of the space portfolio at the Defense Innovation Unit.
"He never, to this day, has been able to silence Zelenskyy."
"We've got more than 11,000 Starlink stations and they help us in our everyday fight on all the fronts," Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's vice prime minister, told Politico.
"We're ready, even if there is no light, no fixed internet, through generators using Starlink, to renew any connection in Ukraine."
China's threats against Musk's Starlink is more proof that the country is not ready to let anyone stand in the way of its "fierce space game", as China put it. General David Thompson, the U.S. Space Force's first vice chief of space operations, possibly trying to downplay the Chinese's Communist Party's threat to the West, described it as merely a "shadow war."
In this "space war", China – and Russia to a slightly lesser degree -- is conducting attacks against U.S. satellites with lasers, radio frequency jammers, and cyber-attacks every day. While the attacks are "reversible" for now, which means that the damage to the attacked satellites is not permanent, they demonstrate China's malign intentions.
"The threats are really growing and expanding every single day. And it's really an evolution of activity that's been happening for a long time," Thompson said in November 2021.
"We're really at a point now where there's a whole host of ways that our space systems can be threatened."
In addition to its "fierce space game", China is forging ahead with a number of projects that will significantly accelerate the country's space capabilities.
China has reportedly sped up its program to launch a solar power plant in space. The purpose of the plant is to transmit electricity to earth by converting solar energy to microwaves or lasers and directing the energy to Earth, according to the South China Morning Post. The first launch of the project is scheduled for 2028 and will be the world's first such project in space. It is probable that China got the idea from the US; NASA reportedly proposed a similar plan more than two decades ago but never went on to develop it.
China recently launched its third crewed mission to the Tiangong Space Station's Tianhe module, where three astronauts will work on completing the space station before returning to Earth in December. China only launched the first module of the Tiangong Space Station in April 2021, but expects to have the space station fully crewed and operational by the end of the year, when the space station will have an additional two science lab modules and a robotic cargo ship. The space station will also help China to deploy and operate its new space telescope, Xuntian, meant "to rival NASA's aging Hubble Space Telescope, with a field of view 300 times larger and a similar resolution. It will make observations in ultraviolet and visible light, running investigations related to dark matter and dark energy, cosmology, galactic evolution, and the detection of nearby objects." Xuntian is scheduled to launch in 2024.
China's explicit goal is to become the world's leading space power by 2045. It is important to keep in mind that China's space program – even what might look like harmless, civil aspects of space exploration – is heavily militarized. The organization in charge of China's manned space program, for instance, is the China Manned Space Engineering Office, which is under China's Central Military Commission Equipment Development Department. Similarly, the People's Liberation Army runs China's space launch sites, control centers and many of China's satellites.
(Et toujours personne ne remet en question la privatisation de l'eau aux USA. note de rené)
Mississippi Declares State Of Emergency As Broken-Pump Leaves Capital Without Drinking Water
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency for Jackson, the state's capital, as an ongoing water crisis threatens the "critical needs" of more than 180,000 city residents. Severe flooding knocked out pumps at the capital's main water treatment center, sparking a massive shortage of clean water.
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and Gov. Reeves activated the National Gaurd Monday evening to assist in distributing clean water to the city's residents.
"The is a very different situation from a boil water notice — which is also a serious situation which the residents of Jackson have become tragically numb to," the governor said in a prepared statement.
The crux of the problem resides in Jackson's failed water treatment facility with low water pressure and inadequate treatment to clean the water. Pumps at the water treatment facility were damaged in recent floods.
"Until it is fixed, it means we do not have reliable running water at scale. It means the city cannot produce enough water to reliably flush toilets, fight fire and meet other critical needs," the governor continued.
The mayor warned residents:
"Do not drink the water. In too many cases, it is raw water from the reservoir being pushed through the pipes," Reeves told Jackson residents Monday. "Be smart, protect yourself, protect your family."
Gov. Reeves said emergency maintenance is underway at the water treatment facility as there is no timetable on when the water shortage will be resolved.
(Comme pour nous en occident, une crise, de la seule responsabilité du gouvernement chinois. Et, comme pour nous, les victimes doivent fermer leur gueule. note de rené)
China's $29 Billion Property Bailout Plan Falls Short
By Ye Xie, Bloomberg markets live analyst and reporter.
China is reportedly setting up a national bailout fund to finance stalled real-estate projects. The move, if confirmed, will reduce some systemic risk in the sector. Unfortunately, it’s neither a cure-all designed to save troubled developers, nor a game changer to turn around the market.
We have a date! Beijing set Oct. 16 as the start of the Communist Party’s twice-a-decade leadership congress, where President Xi Jinping is widely expected to retain his power for an unprecedented third term. Optimists might take the news as a positive, hoping that Beijing will improve its economic and Covid policies once the uncertainties about leadership are removed. The CSI 300 did rise in the three months following the two previous leadership changes at the party congresses -- in 2002 and 2012.
One area in desperate need of improvement is the housing market. Despite various supportive measures from Beijing, including lowering mortgage rates, the sector shows few signs of a meaningful recovery. New home sales in 30 cities fell about 22% from a year earlier in the month through Aug. 27, only slightly better than the 33% contraction in July, according to Nomura.
The government is doing more. Caixin magazine reported Monday that Beijing has set up a 200 billion yuan ($29 billion) fund -- financed by two policy banks – to help stalled property projects. It’s in-line with earlier reports from other media outlets, including Bloomberg, but contains more details.
- Local governments will borrow these special-purpose loans and complete the unfinished projects, according to Caixin. The loans will carry low interest rates of 2.8% in the first two years, but rates will jump to 6.4% if they cannot be repaid within three years. In other words, it’s not a blank check.
- Crucially, regulators have made it clear that the fund will only be used to finish stalled projects. It will not be used to stimulate the housing market or rescue developers.
- Leaving aside the question of whether it’s enough money, the plan won’t hand cash to the developers. It’s unlikely to completely break the vicious feedback loop between delayed projects, mortgage boycotts and slumping home sales.
As long as home sales are depressed, more credit problems are likely. Goldman Sachs’s analyst Kenneth Ho expects the default ratio of high-yield dollar bonds by Chinese developers to rise this year to 45%, from the current 30%.
This may not topple China’s credit system as offshore bonds only account for 4% of the total debt of Chinese developers, according to Ho. By the same token, it shows why Beijing can afford to stand tough against developers.
The reported rescue plan makes it clear that President Xi is only willing to save the little guys on Main Street, not greedy and reckless tycoons.
The American Kleptocracy: A Government Of Liars, Thieves, & Lawbreakers
Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,
“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable.”
- H. L. Mencken
The American kleptocracy (a government ruled by thieves) continues to suck the American people down a rabbit hole into a parallel universe in which the Constitution is meaningless, the government is all-powerful, and the citizenry is powerless to defend itself against government agents who steal, spy, lie, plunder, kill, abuse and generally inflict mayhem and sow madness on everyone and everything in their sphere.
Think about it.
Almost every tyranny being perpetrated by the U.S. government against the citizenry—purportedly to keep us safe and the nation secure—has come about as a result of some threat manufactured in one way or another by our own government.
Cyberwarfare. Terrorism. Bio-chemical attacks. The nuclear arms race. Surveillance. The drug wars. Domestic extremism. The COVID-19 pandemic.
In almost every instance, the U.S. government (often spearheaded by the FBI) has in its typical Machiavellian fashion sown the seeds of terror domestically and internationally in order to expand its own totalitarian powers.
Who is the biggest black market buyer and stockpiler of cyberweapons (weaponized malware that can be used to hack into computer systems, spy on citizens, and destabilize vast computer networks)? The U.S. government.
Who is the largest weapons manufacturer and exporter in the world, such that they are literally arming the world? The U.S. government.
Which country has a history of secretly testing out dangerous weapons and technologies on its own citizens? The U.S. government.
Which country has conducted secret experiments on an unsuspecting populace—citizens and noncitizens alike—making healthy people sick by spraying them with chemicals, injecting them with infectious diseases and exposing them to airborne toxins? The U.S. government.
What country has a pattern and practice of entrapment that involves targeting vulnerable individuals, feeding them with the propaganda, know-how and weapons intended to turn them into terrorists, and then arresting them as part of an elaborately orchestrated counterterrorism sting? The U.S. government.
Are you getting the picture yet?
The U.S. government isn’t protecting us from terrorism.
The U.S. government is creating the terror. It is, in fact, the source of the terror.
Consider that this very same government has taken every bit of technology sold to us as being in our best interests—GPS devices, surveillance, nonlethal weapons, etc.—and used it against us, to track, control and trap us.
So why is the government doing this? Money, power and total domination.
We’re not dealing with a government that exists to serve its people, protect their liberties and ensure their happiness. Rather, these are the diabolical machinations of a make-works program carried out on an epic scale whose only purpose is to keep the powers-that-be permanently (and profitably) employed.
Case in point: the FBI.
The government’s henchmen have become the embodiment of how power, once acquired, can be so easily corrupted and abused. Indeed, far from being tough on crime, FBI agents are also among the nation’s most notorious lawbreakers.
Whether the FBI is planting undercover agents in churches, synagogues and mosques; issuing fake emergency letters to gain access to Americans’ phone records; using intimidation tactics to silence Americans who are critical of the government, or persuading impressionable individuals to plot acts of terror and then entrapping them, the overall impression of the nation’s secret police force is that of a well-dressed thug, flexing its muscles and doing the boss’ dirty work.
It’s a diabolical plot with far-reaching consequences for every segment of the population, no matter what one’s political leanings.
As Rozina Ali writes for The New York Times Magazine, “The government’s approach to counterterrorism erodes constitutional protections for everyone, by blurring the lines between speech and action and by broadening the scope of who is classified as a threat.”
This is not an agency that appears to understand, let alone respect, the limits of the Constitution.
For instance, the FBI has been secretly carrying out an entrapment scheme in which it used a front company, ANOM, to sell purportedly hack-proof phones to organized crime syndicates and then used those phones to spy on them as they planned illegal drug shipments, plotted robberies and put out contracts for killings using those boobytrapped phones.
All told, the FBI intercepted 27 million messages over the course of 18 months.
What this means is that the FBI was also illegally spying on individuals using those encrypted phones who may not have been involved in any criminal activity whatsoever.
Even reading a newspaper article is now enough to get you flagged for surveillance by the FBI. The agency served a subpoena on USA Today / Gannett to provide the internet addresses and mobile phone information for everyone who read a news story online on a particular day and time about the deadly shooting of FBI agents.
This is the danger of allowing the government to carry out widespread surveillance, sting and entrapment operations using dubious tactics that sidestep the rule of law: “we the people” become suspects and potential criminals, while government agents, empowered to fight crime using all means at their disposal, become indistinguishable from the corrupt forces they seek to vanquish.
To go after terrorists, they become terrorists. To go after drug smugglers, they become drug smugglers. To go after thieves, they become thieves.
It’s hard to say whether we’re dealing with a kleptocracy (a government ruled by thieves), a kakistocracy (a government run by unprincipled career politicians, corporations and thieves that panders to the worst vices in our nature and has little regard for the rights of American citizens), or if we’ve gone straight to an idiocracy.
This certainly isn’t a constitutional republic, however.
Some days, it feels like the government is running its own crime syndicate complete with mob rule and mafia-style justice.
In addition to creating certain crimes in order to then “solve” them, the FBI—the government’s law enforcement agency—also gives certain informants permission to break the law, “including everything from buying and selling illegal drugs to bribing government officials and plotting robberies,” in exchange for their cooperation on other fronts.
USA Today estimates that government agents have authorized criminals to engage in as many as 15 crimes a day (5600 crimes a year). Some of these informants are getting paid astronomical sums: one particularly unsavory fellow, later arrested for attempting to run over a police officer, was actually paid $85,000 for his help laying the trap for an entrapment scheme.
In addition to procedural misconduct, trespassing, enabling criminal activity, and damaging private property, the FBI’s laundry list of crimes against the American people includes surveillance, disinformation, blackmail, entrapment, intimidation tactics, and harassment.
For example, the Associated Press lodged a complaint with the Dept. of Justice after learning that FBI agents created a fake AP news story and emailed it, along with a clickable link, to a bomb threat suspect in order to implant tracking technology onto his computer and identify his location. Lambasting the agency, AP attorney Karen Kaiser railed, “The FBI may have intended this false story as a trap for only one person. However, the individual could easily have reposted this story to social networks, distributing to thousands of people, under our name, what was essentially a piece of government disinformation.”
Then again, to those familiar with COINTELPRO, an FBI program created to “disrupt, misdirect, discredit, and neutralize” groups and individuals the government considers politically objectionable, it should come as no surprise that the agency has mastered the art of government disinformation.
The FBI has been particularly criticized in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks for targeting vulnerable individuals and not only luring them into fake terror plots but actually equipping them with the organization, money, weapons and motivation to carry out the plots—entrapment—and then jailing them for their so-called terrorist plotting. This is what the FBI characterizes as “forward leaning—preventative—prosecutions.”
Another fallout from 9/11, National Security Letters, one of the many illicit powers authorized by the USA Patriot Act, allows the FBI to secretly demand that banks, phone companies, and other businesses provide them with customer information and not disclose the demands. An internal audit of the agency found that the FBI practice of issuing tens of thousands of NSLs every year for sensitive information such as phone and financial records, often in non-emergency cases, is riddled with widespread violations.
The FBI’s surveillance capabilities, on a par with the National Security Agency, boast a nasty collection of spy tools ranging from Stingray devices that can track the location of cell phones to Triggerfish devices which allow agents to eavesdrop on phone calls.
In one case, the FBI actually managed to remotely reprogram a “suspect’s” wireless internet card so that it would send “real-time cell-site location data to Verizon, which forwarded the data to the FBI.”
The FBI has also repeatedly sought to expand its invasive hacking powers to allow agents to hack into any computer, anywhere in the world.
Indeed, for years now, the U.S. government has been creating what one intelligence insider referred to as a cyber-army capable of offensive attacks. As part of this cyberweapons programs, government agencies such as the NSA have been stockpiling all kinds of nasty malware, viruses and hacking tools that can “steal financial account passwords, turn an iPhone into a listening device, or, in the case of Stuxnet, sabotage a nuclear facility.”
In fact, the NSA was responsible for the threat posed by the “WannaCry” or “Wanna Decryptor” malware worm which—as a result of hackers accessing the government’s arsenal—hijacked more than 57,000 computers and crippled health care, communications infrastructure, logistics, and government entities in more than 70 countries.
Mind you, the government was repeatedly warned about the dangers of using criminal tactics to wage its own cyberwars. It was warned about the consequences of blowback should its cyberweapons get into the wrong hands.
The government chose to ignore the warnings.
That’s exactly how the 9/11 attacks unfolded.
First, the government helped to create the menace that was al-Qaida and then, when bin Laden had left the nation reeling in shock (despite countless warnings that fell on tone-deaf ears), it demanded—and was given—immense new powers in the form of the USA Patriot Act in order to fight the very danger it had created.
This has become the shadow government’s modus operandi regardless of which party controls the White House: the government creates a menace—knowing full well the ramifications such a danger might pose to the public—then without ever owning up to the part it played in unleashing that particular menace on an unsuspecting populace, it demands additional powers in order to protect “we the people” from the threat.
Yet the powers-that-be don’t really want us to feel safe.
They want us cowering and afraid and willing to relinquish every last one of our freedoms in exchange for their phantom promises of security.
As a result, it’s the American people who pay the price for the government’s insatiable greed and quest for power.
Suffice it to say that when and if a true history of the United States is ever written, it will not only track the rise of the American police state but it will also chart the decline of freedom in America: how a nation that once abided by the rule of law and held the government accountable for its actions has steadily devolved into a police state where justice is one-sided, a corporate elite runs the show, representative government is a mockery, police are extensions of the military, surveillance is rampant, privacy is extinct, and the law is little more than a tool for the government to browbeat the people into compliance.
Somewhere over the course of the past 240-plus years, democracy has given way to kleptocracy, and representative government has been rejected in favor of rule by career politicians, corporations and thieves—individuals and entities with little regard for the rights of American citizens.
This dissolution of that sacred covenant between the citizenry and the government—establishing “we the people” as the masters and the government as the servant—didn’t happen overnight. It didn’t happen because of one particular incident or one particular president. It is a process, one that began long ago and continues in the present day, aided and abetted by politicians who have mastered the polarizing art of how to “divide and conquer.”
As I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, our freedoms have become casualties in an all-out war on the American people.
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