Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Governments turn to hacking techniques for surveillance of citizens

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Governments turn to hacking techniques for surveillance of citizens

Click here to access article by Ryan Gallagher from The Guardian.

At the nerve center of the US Empire we see, thanks to this reporter, corporations specializing in surveillance equipment coming together in secret to display their wares to all the oppressive governments of the world. It seems that the facade of democratic institutions is no longer serving the purpose of fooling the people. Hence, the one percent is now preparing to rely on police state methods to control their citizens in order to save their beloved system of capitalism.

At this year’s Intelligence Support Systems (ISS) World Americas conference, the only consumers were the governments of great nations far and wide who came together in DC last month to go over the newest achievements in “lawful interception” methods, reveals an article published this week in the UK’s Guardian. According to their filing, international figureheads came together on American soil to find the freshest ways to carry out clandestine surveillance on their own citizens back home by hacking smart phones, laptops and anything else with a circuit.