themeek

I am disputing that I broke the rules.

The OP had said that tptacek was a shill. I defended tptacek by saying I didn't know that he was paid or whether he was just in the circle of security contractors (he is) or whether he merely bought into and was regurgitating their propaganda.

I did not call tptacek a shill nor make a baseless accusation. It's absolutely true that tptacek is a stalwart defender of public narrative. This is the base of OP (not baseless) of his calling tptacek a shill. I entertained the possibility that he wasn't paid or anything like that.

Anyway, this isn't really interesting content any more. I think the real shame is that the main topic was downvoted to oblivion where people will not see the comparison to the US. The information about Binney (that tptacek clearly showed he was noncharitably and polemically engaging) and Risen and others won't be seen.

That's okay. One battle at a time.

Thanks dang, for your help and attention.

Which ones in particular? That's just not right.

Everything I said has been perfectly straightforward and honest.

Downvote brigades are usually only a thing on Reddit, but I experience them here occasionally.

The OP claimed you were a shill - I questioned whether you were paid. I said maybe you were just in the circle or bought into the narrative.

You should have posted this to OP. I am defending tptacek.

The Military-Industrial-Lol Complex, in fact - and the Build-a-lollers.

Lol.

Yes, see the other thread. Responded there.

Right, he was involved in insider trading. If you don't do anything illegal it's hard to blackmail you for it. That was the claim. Blackmail. Sure, he did something wrong(-ish).

You are right about Risen and Sterling. I think you get the point though. The leverage placed on Risen to reveal his sources and the placement of Sterling under the Espionage Act - the use of backroom deals to keep Risen's publication of mass surveillance out of the Times when it was first published - the use of NSLs - the hacking of the Associated Press to spoil their sources during the Benghazi Affair. The US uses these things to curdle journalistic coverage and their sources.

Binney wasn't indicted for anything. He and his family was held at gunpoint and threatened.

The link you gave just had people calling Nacchio pathetic. Was there a specific fact you were trying to highlight? (I mentioned character defamation in the top post.)

He was charged with the Espionage Act. Please refer to the original comment to see that I did not claim the US charges individuals with treason.

Risen got it better than others though in some ways. Binney and his family were held at gunpoint. Nacchio was blackmailed.

Not the ACLU. James Risen. Journalist.

Germany's Secret Service just charged their leading Civil Rights group on treason for publishing information about the German government's plans to further expand domestic mass surveillance.

This is not different than what has happened in the United States - though the US uses National Security Letters, gag orders, financial and criminal leverage and defamation - its only when these don't work that the US will reach toward the Espionage Act.

We look back in history and question why citizens in history asked their governments to send civil rights activists to prison and to silence certain stories in the press.

Today we get modern answers to these questions at least every few months.

I have polled friends, family and acquaintances: the overwhelming response is that we don't feel safe.

I have also sampled the official stance from press releases and speeches: the overwhelming justification is that we are not safe.

As all things are, the truth is much more complicated.

I find this neither complete nor accurate but it's good to see a list like this. Thanks for doing the legwork.

Don't forget the Japan mutual defense deal, the upcoming Korea unification and all the other hundred things in the Asia Pacific.

Be careful about many of these things - the way you present them needs to be pretty careful. The goal in the Asia-Pacific (TPP included) is to contain China with a balance of power in their region. This includes Australia, Philippines, Japan of course, Guam, and Singapore, Vietnam, India, Thailand, Northern Mariana Islands, etc. Ukraine was being purposefully Westernized (Project UNITER) for inclusion into the EU and Russia is the goal after Ukraine. It is against the backdrop of NATO, EU and in general Western liberal expansion that Russia solidified its position in Crimea. In other words many of the things you list here can be seen as policy failures or at least haven't played themselves out (Saudi Arabia and Israel with Iranian nuclear deal, etc). We don't know whether this will actually prevent Israel from invading Iran yet.

Yadda yadda.

Anyway, thanks for compiling a list. It's hard to follow American domestic politics without understanding American Foreign policy and Geostrategy. So it's good to see information and dialogue posted here.

During the White House press briefing the WH spokesperson mentioned that normalizing ties was being done for international strategic purposes (and of course, Cuba was blacklisted for similar and for political reasons - not because they had anything to do with terrorism). I don't actually know what they mean by this. Do you have some idea of what strategic investment/partnership is being made?

I do not. Microsoft Research and Google Research and IBM are examples of places where some of this research is done - and there's Universities. MITRE does as well as other semi-public orgs.

But it's the case that all of these places also sponsor work and work with the military. I guess the answer is yes that it exists, but no it doesn't exist (AFAIK) completely military free.

I don't have very good visibility into pharma companies and agro companies. I know that they do some long term research and I don't know (I would suspect) whether they have partnerships with DoD folks.