{"id":8173,"date":"2016-06-12T09:07:43","date_gmt":"2016-06-11T21:07:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/?p=8173"},"modified":"2019-11-18T20:01:06","modified_gmt":"2019-11-18T07:01:06","slug":"the-edward-snowden-con","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/conspiracies\/the-edward-snowden-con\/","title":{"rendered":"THE EDWARD SNOWDEN CON"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>THE EDWARD SNOWDEN CON<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong><em>Ever since the Edward Snowden story first became popular, I&#8217;ve been thinking &#8211; this story looks like more bollocks&#8230;<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong><em>Here is a good summary by Jon Rappoport<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/jonrappoport.wordpress.com\/2016\/01\/07\/cia-denies-request-for-info-on-edward-snowden\/\">CIA denies request for info on Edward&nbsp;Snowden<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Who is former CIA employee Edward Snowden?<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"irc_mi igTY5SZ0j1Fk-pQOPx8XEepE\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2866\/9247530743_4410b66860_m.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"332\" height=\"332\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">As we go along, keep in mind that intelligence-agency personnel live in order to tell low-level and high-level lies. They tend to fall into a suicidal funk if they aren\u2019t lying on at least three or four levels at once.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Let\u2019s look at Snowden\u2019s brief history as reported by The Guardian (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2013\/jun\/09\/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>\u201cEdward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations\u201d<\/em><\/a>, by Glen Greenwald, Ewen MacAskill, and Laura Poitras in Hong Kong, 11 June 2013):<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">In 2003, at age 19, without a high school diploma, Snowden enlists in the Army. He begins a training program to join the Special Forces. At what point after enlistment can a new soldier start this elite training program?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Snowden breaks both legs in an exercise. He\u2019s discharged from the Army. Is that automatic? How about healing and then resuming service?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">If he was accepted in the Special Forces training program because he had special computer skills, then why discharge him simply because he broke both legs? Just asking. Just a thought.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201cSorry, Ed, but with two broken legs we just don\u2019t think you can hack into terrorist data anymore. You were good, but not now. Try Walmart. They always have openings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Circa 2003, Snowden gets a job as a security guard for an NSA facility at the University of Maryland. He specifically wanted to work for NSA? Or was it just a generic job opening near his home he found out about? Nothing worth discovering here? Nothing to see?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Snowden shifts jobs. Boom. He\u2019s now in the CIA, in IT. He apparently has no high school diploma.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">In 2007, Snowden is sent to Geneva. He\u2019s only 23 years old. The CIA gives him a diplomat cover story. He\u2019s put in charge of maintaining computer-network security for the CIA and US diplomats. Major job. Obviously, he has access to a wide range of classified documents. Sound a little odd? He\u2019s just a kid.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">During this period, in Geneva, one of the incidents that really sours Snowden on the CIA is the \u201cturning of a Swiss banker.\u201d One night, CIA guys get a banker drunk, encourage him to drive home, the banker gets busted, the CIA guys help him out, and then with that bond formed, they eventually get the banker to reveal deep financial secrets to the Agency.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">This sours Snowden? He\u2019s that na\u00efve? He doesn\u2019t know by now that the CIA does this sort of thing all the time? He\u2019s shocked? He \u201cdidn\u2019t sign up for this?\u201d He doesn\u2019t already know about CIA assassinations and engineered regime changes? MKULTRA?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">In 2009, Snowden leaves the CIA. Why? Presumably because he\u2019s disillusioned. It should noted here that Snowden claimed he could do very heavy damage to the entire US intelligence community in 2008, but decided to wait because he thought Obama, just coming into the Presidency, might keep his \u201ctransparency\u201d promise.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">After two years with the CIA in Geneva, Snowden really had the capability to take down the whole US inter-agency intelligence network, or a major chunk of it?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">If you buy that without further inquiry, I have condos for sale on the dark side of the moon.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">In 2009, Snowden leaves the CIA and goes to work in the private sector. Dell, Booze Allen Hamilton. In this latter job, Snowden is assigned to work at the NSA.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">He\u2019s an outsider, but, again, he claims to have so much access to so much sensitive NSA data that he can take down the whole US intelligence network in a single day. The. Whole. US. Intelligence. Network.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">This is Ed Snowden\u2019s sketchy legend. To anyone familiar with intelligence legends and cover stories, it\u2019s mostly red flags, alarm bells, sirens, flashing lights.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Then we have the crowning piece: they solved the riddle: Ed Snowden was able to steal thousands of highly protected NSA documents because\u2026he had a thumb drive.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">It\u2019s the weapon that breached the inner sanctum of the most sophisticated information agency in the world.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">It\u2019s the weapon to which the NSA, with all its resources, remains utterly vulnerable. Can\u2019t defeat it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Not only did Snowden stroll into NSA with a thumb drive, he knew how to navigate all the security layers put in place to stop people from stealing classified documents.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201cLet\u2019s see. We have a new guy coming to work for us here at NSA today? Oh, whiz kid. Ed Snowden. Outside contractor. Booz Allen. He\u2019s not really an in-house employee of the NSA. Twenty-nine years old. No high school diploma. Has a GED. He worked for the CIA and quit. Hmm. Why did he quit? Oh, never mind, who cares? No problem.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201cTell you what. Let\u2019s give this kid access to our most sensitive data. Sure. Why not? Everything. That stuff we keep behind 986 walls? Where you have to pledge the life of your first-born against the possibility you\u2019ll go rogue? Let Snowden see it all. Sure. What the hell. I\u2019m feeling charitable. He seems like a nice kid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">NSA is the most awesome spying agency in this world. If you cross the street in Podunk, Anywhere, USA, to buy an ice cream soda, on a Tuesday afternoon in July, they know.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">They know whether you sit at the counter and drink that soda or take it and move to the only table in the store.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">But this agency, with all its vast power and its dollars\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Can\u2019t track one of its own, as he steals the whole store. Can\u2019t keep the store locked. And they can\u2019t track the later movements of this man who made up a story about needing treatment in Hong Kong for epilepsy and then skipped the country.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Just can\u2019t find him.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Can\u2019t find him in Hong Kong, where he does a sit-down video interview with Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian. Can\u2019t find that \u201csafe house\u201d or that \u201chotel\u201d where he\u2019s staying.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">No. Can\u2019t find him or spy on his communications while he\u2019s in Hong Kong. Can\u2019t figure out he\u2019s booked a flight to Russia. Can\u2019t intercept him at the airport before he leaves for Russia. Too difficult.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">And this man, this employee, is walking around with four laptops that contain the keys to all the secret spying knowledge in the known cosmos.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Can\u2019t locate those laptops. The most brilliant technical minds of this or any other generation can find a computer in Outer Mongolia in the middle of a blizzard, but these walking-around computers in Hong Kong are somehow beyond reach.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">And, again, before this man, Snowden, this employee, skipped Hawaii, he was able to access a principal segment of the layout of the entire US intelligence network. Yes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Not only that, but anyone who worked at this super-agency as an analyst, as a systems-analyst supervisor, could have done the same thing. Could have stolen the keys to the kingdom.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">This is why NSA geniuses with IQs over 180 decided, in the aftermath of the Snowden affair, that they needed to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usnews.com\/news\/blogs\/washington-whispers\/2013\/06\/20\/fla-senator-calls-for-probe-into-government-contractor-hiring-practices\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">draft \u201ctighter rules and procedures\u201d for their employees<\/a>. Right.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Pieces of internal of security they hadn\u2019t realized they needed before would be put in place.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">This is, let me remind you, the most secretive spying agency in the world. The richest spying agency. The smartest spying agency.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">But somehow, over the years, <em>they\u2019d overlooked their own security<\/em>. They\u2019d left doors open, so that any one of their own analyst-supervisors could steal everything.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Could take it all. Could just snatch it away and copy it and store it on a few laptops.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">But now, yes, having been made aware of this vulnerability, the agency will make corrections.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Sure.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">And reporters for elite media don\u2019t find any of this hard to swallow.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">On the ever-solicitous <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dRvrFVxvB3I\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Charley Rose<\/a>, a gaggle of pundits\/newspeople warned that Ed Snowden, walking around with those four laptops, could be an easy target for Chinese spies or Russian spies, who could get access to the data on those computers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">But the NSA can\u2019t. No.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">The tightest and strongest and richest and smartest spying agency in the world can\u2019t find its own employee. It\u2019s in the business of tracking, and it can\u2019t find him.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">It\u2019s in the business of security, and it can\u2019t protect its own data from its employees.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">If you instantly believe all that, with no questions, I have timeshares to sell in the black hole in the center of the Milky Way.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Here is a different possible scenario. Is it any less likely than the one we\u2019ve been treated to?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Snowden was working an op, either as a dupe or knowingly. He was working for\u2026well, let\u2019s see, who would that be?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Who was he working for before he entered the private sector and wound up at NSA?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">The CIA.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Would that be the same CIA who competes, on certain levels, with the NSA?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">The same CIA who\u2019s watched its own prestige and funding diminish, as human intelligence has given way to electronic snooping?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Yes, it would be. CIA just can\u2019t match the NSA when it comes to gathering signals-intell.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Wired Magazine, June 2013 issue (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/2013\/06\/general-keith-alexander-cyberwar\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>\u201cNSA Snooping Was Only the Beginning. Meet the Spy Chief Leading Us Into Cyberwar\u201d<\/em><\/a>, 06.12.13). James Bamford, author of three books on the NSA, states:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201cIn April, as part of its 2014 budget request, the Pentagon [which rules the NSA] asked Congress for $4.7 billion for increased \u2018cyberspace operations,\u2019 nearly $1 billion more than the 2013 allocation. At the same time, budgets for the CIA and other intelligence agencies were cut by almost the same amount, $4.4 billion. A portion of the money going to\u2026[NSA] will be used to create 13 cyberattack teams.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">That means spying money. Far more for NSA, far less for CIA.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Turf war.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Suppose people at the CIA, <em>genuine<\/em> experts, carefully, over time, <em>were<\/em> able to access those NSA documents, and handed them to Snowden\u2014or patiently, and at length, or showed Snowden how to execute that quite sophisticated piece of access-trickery? Because (more believably) NSA\u2019s internal security was very good. It wasn\u2019t (far less believably) a bumble-dumb of mismanaged amateur clockwork. It was quite tight, so tight that a man like Snowden wouldn\u2019t have been able to move through it like a ghost.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">The CIA, of course, couldn\u2019t be seen as the NSA leaker. They needed a guy. They needed a guy who could appear to be from the NSA, to make things look worse for the NSA and shield the CIA.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">They had Ed Snowden. He had worked for the CIA in Geneva, in a high-level position, overseeing computer-systems security.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Somewhere in his CIA past, Libertarian and freedom-loving Ed meets a fellow CIA guy who sits down with him and says, \u201cYou know, Ed, things have gone too damn far. The NSA is spying on everybody all the time. I can show you proof. They\u2019ve gone beyond the point of trying to catch terrorists. They\u2019re doing something else. They\u2019re expanding a Surveillance State, which can only lead to one thing: the destruction of America, what America stands for, what you and I know America is supposed to be. The NSA isn\u2019t like us, Ed. We go after terrorists for real. That\u2019s it. Whereas NSA goes after everybody. We have to stop it. We need a guy\u2026and there are those of us who think you might be that guy\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">This could be a straight con, or a few CIA people could have actually wanted to torpedo the NSA for its unlimited surveilling operations.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Ed says, \u201cTell me more. I\u2019m intrigued.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">He eventually buys in.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">And the CIA will eventually find a way to protect and shield him while he\u2019s escaping the US and staying in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Put two scenarios on the truth scale and assess them. Which is more likely? The tale Snowden told to Glenn Greenwald, with all its holes, with its super-naive implications about the fumbling, bumbling NSA, or a scenario in which Snowden is the CIA\u2019s boy?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Let me enhance my alternative scenario and branch it out. If Snowden is still working for the CIA, he and his buds aren\u2019t the only people who want to take the NSA down a notch. No. Because, for example, NSA has been spying on everybody inside the Beltway.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Spying on politicians with secrets.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">That includes a major, major, prime NSA target: <a href=\"https:\/\/jonrappoport.wordpress.com\/2015\/12\/30\/nsa-spying-rolls-up-us-congress-bombshell-kidding\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Congress<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Do you think members of Congress with heavy secrets enjoy knowing NSA is over their shoulders?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Imagine this conversation taking place, in a car, on a lonely road outside Washington, late at night. The speakers are Congressman X and a contractor representing a covert unit inside the NSA:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201cWell, Congressman, do you remember January 6th? A Monday afternoon, a men\u2019s room in the park off\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201cWhat the hell are you talking about!\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201cA stall in the men\u2019s room. The kid. He was wearing white high-tops. A Skins cap. T-shirt. Dark hair. Scar across his left cheek. Blue tattoo on his right thigh.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201cJesus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Dead silence.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201cWhat do you want?\u201d says the Congressman, now trapped.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Imagine this one: \u201cSenator, we know about the underage cheerleader in Ohio. Your trip there in 2010, just before the election.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Blackmail on the hoof.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">If you\u2019re a Congressman or a Senator with nasty secrets, and you know NSA is spying on you, because it\u2019s spying on everyone in the Congress, who\u2019s your potential best friend?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Somebody who can go up against the NSA, somebody who wants to go up against the NSA.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">And who might that be?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">The CIA?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">It\u2019s not perfect, but it\u2019s the best you can do.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">So if you\u2019re a Congressman, you go to a friend in the CIA and you have a chat about \u201cthe NSA problem.\u201d How can you get NSA off your back? Your CIA friend has his own concerns about NSA.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">He tells you in confidence: \u201cLook, maybe we can help you. We know a lot about the NSA. We have good people. You might say one of our jobs is watching the watchers at NSA, to, uh, make sure they don\u2019t go too far in their spying.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">This sounds interesting. If you have to sell your soul, you\u2019d rather sell it to the CIA than the NSA. It\u2019s a judgment call.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">And a few months later, a year later\u2026you read about Ed Snowden blowing a hole in the NSA. You take note of the fact that Snowden worked for the CIA. He worked for them in Geneva. Then he left for the private sector and got himself assigned to the NSA.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Hmm. Maybe you have some cause for optimism. Maybe your CIA friend is helping you out.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Some schmuck reporter asks you about the current NSA scandal and you say, \u201cOf course we have to protect classified data, in order to prevent terrorist attacks. But at the same time, we need to respect the Bill of Rights. People can\u2019t go around spying on anyone for no reason.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">You\u2019re sending your own signal.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">You\u2019re tipping your CIA guy. You appreciate his help, if in fact he\u2019s helping you. You can\u2019t ask him directly. If you did, he\u2019d never give you a straight answer. But just in case\u2026you\u2019re tipping him off.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">At the same time, you\u2019re wondering how many people in Congress are so controlled by the NSA that they\u2019d never try to break out? How many people, with how many secrets, are so deeply blackmailed they\u2019d never dare go up against NSA?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">This is an important calculation. The battle might already be lost. You might not stand a chance. Maybe nobody can help you. Maybe you can\u2019t escape.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Maybe you shouldn\u2019t even hint that NSA has overstepped its legal boundaries by spying on Americans.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">That\u2019s the conundrum that keeps you up at night.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">What if the spies spying on their own government are running the government beyond the ability of anyone to stop them?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">You don\u2019t give a damn about what this would mean for America. You only care about what it means for you and your secrets.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Maybe this is the jail you\u2019re in for the rest of your life.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">When you\u2019re back in your home state showing your face and giving speeches, and a voter comes up to you and voices a concern about his dwindling paycheck, his house payment, his endangered pension\u2026and when you nod and gaze out at the horizon, as if to pluck a magic answer from the ether, you\u2019re really thinking about the conundrum.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">You\u2019re thinking about the life sentence you\u2019re serving in the Surveillance State.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">And that night, in your hotel room, you get down on your knees and pray that Ed Snowden is still working for the CIA.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Who else, besides the CIA and numerous politicians inside the Beltway, would be aching to take the NSA down a notch? Who else would be rooting hard for this former (?) CIA employee, Snowden, to succeed?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">How about Wall Street?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Still waiting to be uncovered? NSA spying to collect elite financial data, spying on the people who have that data: the major investment banks. NSA scooping up that data to predict, manipulate, and profit from trading markets all over the world.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">A trillion-dollar operation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Snowden worked for Booz Allen, which is owned by the Carlyle Group ($170 billion in assets). Carlyle, the infamous. Their money is making money in 160 investment funds.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">A few of Carlyle\u2019s famous front men in its history: George HW Bush, James Baker (US Secretary of State), Frank Carlucci (US Secretary of Defense and CIA Deputy Director), John Major (British Prime Minister), Arthur Levitt (Chairman of the SEC).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Suppose you\u2019re one of the princes in the NSA castle, and Ed Snowden has just gone public with your documents. You\u2019re saying, \u201cLet\u2019s see, this kid worked for Booz Allen, which is owned by the Carlyle Group. We (NSA) have been spying over Carlyle\u2019s shoulder, stealing their proprietary financial data. What are the chances they\u2019re getting a little revenge on us now?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Yes, you\u2019re thinking about that. You\u2019re looking into it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">The Surveillance State has created an apparatus whose implications are staggering. It\u2019s a different world now. And sometimes it takes a writer of fiction to flesh out the larger landscape.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Brad Thor\u2019s novel, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1439192987\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Black List<\/em><\/a>, posits the existence of a monster corporation, ATS, that stands alongside the NSA in collecting information on every move we make. ATS\u2019 intelligence-gathering capability is unmatched anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">On pages 117-118 of <em>Black List<\/em>, Thor makes a stunning inference that, on reflection, is as obvious as the fingers on your hand:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201cFor years ATS [substitute \u201cNSA\u201d] had been using its technological superiority to conduct massive insider trading. Since the early 1980s, the company had spied on anyone and everyone in the financial world. They listened in on phone calls, intercepted faxes, and evolved right along with the technology, hacking internal computer networks and e-mail accounts. They created mountains of \u2018black dollars\u2019 for themselves, which they washed through various programs they were running under secret contract, far from the prying eyes of financial regulators.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201cThose black dollars were invested into hard assets around the world, as well as in the stock market, through sham, offshore corporations. They also funneled the money into reams of promising R&amp;D projects, which eventually would be turned around and sold to the Pentagon or the CIA.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201cIn short, ATS had created its own license to print money and had assured itself a place beyond examination or reproach.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">In real life, whether the prime criminal source is one monster corporation or the NSA itself, the outcome would be the same.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Total surveillance has unlimited payoffs when it targets financial markets and the people who have intimate knowledge of them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201cTotal security awareness\u201d programs of surveillance are ideal spying ops in the financial arena, designed to grab millions of bits of inside information, and then utilize them to make investments and suck up billions (trillions?) of dollars.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">It gives new meaning to \u201cthe rich get richer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Think about Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. Think about the NSA men who already know everything about GS and Morgan, and are using this knowledge to steal sums that might make GS and Morgan blush with envy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Goldman Sachs, Chase, and Morgan consider trillion-dollar trading markets their own private golden-egg farm. They run it, they own it, they manipulate it for their own ends.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">If NSA has been looking over their shoulders for the past 30 years, discovering all their knowledge, and operating a meta- invasion, siphoning off enormous profits, NSA would rate as their Enemy Number One.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">And would need to be torpedoed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Enter Ed Snowden.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"irc_mi igTY5SZ0j1Fk-pQOPx8XEepE\" src=\"http:\/\/estaticos.elperiodico.com\/resources\/jpg\/6\/4\/cartel-con-rostro-edward-snowden-con-palabra-hero-heroe-durante-una-protesta-contra-casa-blanca-pasado-octubre-washington-1390996228946.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"622\" height=\"426\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/jonrappoport.wordpress.com\/2016\/01\/07\/cia-denies-request-for-info-on-edward-snowden\/\">CIA denies request for info on Edward&nbsp;Snowden<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THE EDWARD SNOWDEN CON Ever since the Edward Snowden story first became popular, I&#8217;ve been thinking &#8211; this story looks like more bollocks&#8230; Here is a good summary by Jon Rappoport CIA denies request for info on Edward&nbsp;Snowden Who is former CIA employee Edward Snowden? As we go along, keep in mind that intelligence-agency personnel [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[19,47],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13322,"url":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/conspiracies\/misunderstand-all-you-see\/","url_meta":{"origin":8173,"position":0},"title":"MISUNDERSTAND ALL YOU SEE","date":"April 14, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"WAKE UP SHEEPLE Back in 1967, not long after they replaced Paul McCartney with the new guy - the taller, right handed, and narrower faced Fake Paul (aka Faul), The Beatles put out the album that was all carefully written and created for them - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;CONSPIRACIES&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/GoArt_20190414_200311_556535528-01.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":29574,"url":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/cryptos\/some-retard-paid-what\/","url_meta":{"origin":8173,"position":1},"title":"SOME RETARD PAID WHAT???","date":"November 6, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Just a few years ago NFTs were going to be the new Bitcoin and were being heralded as an amazing investment opportunity. But\u00a0they\u00a0are not doing so well in 2023. In fact people seem to be saying the bloody things are now worthless and all the gullible numpties who bought them\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;ART&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/2021_NYR_20447_0001_001_beeple_everydays_the_first_5000_days034733_.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10870,"url":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/observations\/8-signs-the-world-is-undergoing-a-paradigm-shift\/","url_meta":{"origin":8173,"position":2},"title":"Eight Signs The World Is Undergoing A Paradigm Shift","date":"May 8, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Eight Signs The World Is Undergoing A Paradigm Shift Browsing through history, it\u2019s very clear that the world has undergone many monumental shifts that have uprooted our society\u2019s very foundation in place of new seed. Though it might appear the opposite in the corporate controlled mainstream news, it appears that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;OBSERVATIONS&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wakeupkiwi.com\/images\/global-awakening.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6479,"url":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wapf\/apricot-seeds-kill-cancer-cells-without-side-effects\/","url_meta":{"origin":8173,"position":3},"title":"Apricot Seeds Kill Cancer Cells without Side Effects","date":"April 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Apricot Seeds Kill Cancer Cells without Side Effects \u00a0Are apricot seeds a source for a natural substance that kills cancer cells without destroying the cancer victim\u2019s health and wealth? The essential ingredient has been called laetrile or vitamin B 17. If there is any merit to it, why is this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;HEALTH&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14904,"url":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wordpress\/my-secret-to-success-on-the-internet\/","url_meta":{"origin":8173,"position":4},"title":"MY SECRET TO SUCCESS ON THE INTERNET","date":"July 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Britney Spears was my ticket to the big time. Back when she was having her first breakdown and doing all sorts of weird shit, despite having no talent whatsoever, she was really popular. The handy thing about Britney is that both her names can be easily misspelled. I fact by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;FUNNY&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/steemitimages.com\/640x0\/https:\/\/cdn.steemitimages.com\/DQmaKoUteVpqi6Hsr9WJhFrjUoMzcVfxJKmsx3NEAayyVcC\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11809,"url":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/conspiracies\/the-medias-hall-of-mirrors-that-controls-our-minds\/","url_meta":{"origin":8173,"position":5},"title":"The Media's Hall Of Mirrors That Controls Our Minds","date":"March 18, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Everything We Have Been Told Is A Lie - The Media's Hall Of Mirrors That Controls Our Minds! Our media systems are being used against us in a blatant attempt to control our minds and thought processes. This is an extremely dangerous situation and the problem is only growing worse.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;CONSPIRACIES&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-17-at-1.13.34.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8173"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8173\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}