Bureaucrat's Toolkit of Political Control

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Copyright 1998 Lee Adams. All rights reserved. Quoting, copying, and distributing is encouraged. (Please credit us as the source.) Links to our home page are welcome. Names of characters, corporations, institutions, organizations, businesses, products, and services used as examples are fictitious, except as otherwise noted herein. No resemblance to actual individuals or entities is otherwise intended or implied.

BUREAUCRAT'S TOOLKIT OF POLITICAL CONTROL

     You're about to lose something. It's already slipping from your grasp. And once it's gone, you'll never get it back.
     As a people, we are facing the most serious threat to humanity in recorded history – the systematic stripping away of traditional freedoms by governments worldwide. And that includes all governments.
     It is a situation far more serious than the plagues of the Middle Ages that nearly wiped us out as a species. It is a threat never before seen in ten thousand years of human history.
     You are about to become the property of the government.

...

Governments today
have the means to
permanently wrest
control from
their populations.

A question of control...
     A number of separate threats have recently converged. An extremely dangerous situation has been created. Governments have been given the opportunity – and the means – to permanently wrest control from their populations. Bureaucrats are about to realize their dream of absolute power. It is a nightmare far worse than anything George Orwell might have imagined.
     Technology is providing the tools to government. We are now at a point in human evolution where your government – if it so chooses – can control every aspect of your life from cradle to grave.
     We face three separate threats. Together these threats combine to give government a stranglehold on our civil liberties – a death grip on our traditional freedoms.
     Threat #1 – Computers have taken over surveillance. Surveillance is now automated. Entire populations can be supervised and monitored in real time. Half your life, including your last credit card purchase, is already on a database. Computers eavesdrop on all electronic and telephone communications using word-recognition and voice-recognition software. Video cameras are everywhere – inside and outside – they can recognize vehicle license plates and even human faces. And all this information, all these databases, are cross-referenced and tied together – by computers. Taken together, it's called dataveillance. It makes it easy to track certain classes of people. Like minorities. Or dissidents. Or grassroots political movements. Or anyone who dares think for himself.
     Threat #2 – Militarization has taken over the police. The cops are now using some very nasty weapons. Half the stuff they use is prohibited by the Geneva Convention and the Hague Declaration. The government can't use it in war, but their own population is fair game. Modern police technology gives a whole new meaning to crowd control – they use sticky foam laced with chemical irritants. It gives a whole new meaning to interrogation – they use new mark-free interrogation tools. And new friendlier, more humane weapons like plastic bullets, pepper gas, and stun guns – that still maim, scalp, burn, mutilate, and kill.
     Threat #3 – Big business has taken over proliferation. Any government bureaucrat can buy this stuff. Most of these high-tech gadgets are dual-use. You can use them for benign things like traffic control – or nasty things like people control. Private companies are reaping huge profits manufacturing and exporting this nightmarish technology. Research and development has gone berserk. Who cares about trivial things like human rights when there's a buck to be made? Heck, if anyone complains just order the $100,000 mobile execution vehicle – it comes complete with lethal injection machine, steel holding cell, and areas for "witnesses" and "staff".

...

Wakeup call...
     This is what our government has been up to while we've been asleep at the wheel. They've been busy making choices. About technology and how to use it. Should technology serve the existing power structure or should it serve the population? Should technology be used to protect the government or should it be used to protect the people?
     Well, folks, they decided to protect themselves rather than us. Government for the people is bureaucrat old-think. Government against the people is bureaucrat new-think. Simply stated, it's hidden-control versus democratic accountability. And hidden-control is winning.
     What does all this mean for you and me? Well, it's becoming a lot easier for politicians to use force rather than fix social problems. It's becoming more tempting for them to choose coercion rather than cooperation. Negotiation and compromise are outdated concepts.
     Even worse, the new technology makes it easy for them to disguise the amount of coercive force they're using.
     Put yourself in their shoes. Why go to the trouble of consulting with the people? Why go to the trouble of negotiating with protesters? Why bother listening to dissenting points of view? Instead, all you need do is pick up the phone and arrange their destruction. A few words from the bureaucrat and the political control apparatus swings into gear – computerized nationwide surveillance of potential troublemakers, militarized police SWAT teams for demonstrations and meetings, and a friendly salesrep standing by in case government needs more fiendish devices for controlling its citizens.
     How to make people say yes. When authority fails, repression begins. Eventually terror becomes official government policy. Look around you. Futuristic scenario? Sci-fi thriller? Hollywood's next blockbuster? Nope. Get real.
     Wake-up call. It's already here. Stop and think. Waco. Vickie Weaver. No-knock search warrants. Property confiscation. National identity cards. A cashless society. Across the USA, more and more people worry that governing-by-authority has become ruling-through-repression.
     Governments today can arm themselves with ghoulish toolkits for political control over individuals – and over entire populations. Most people are unaware of the nightmarish systems that technology has made available to bureaucrats. It ain't pretty. And it ain't cheap. But, hey, it's your money they're spending to protect themselves – from you.
     What is the real problem? The crux of the problem is bureaucrats who don't like people. They don't care about people the way you and I do. They only care about themselves – and power. Technology is about to give these social misfits the power to exercise absolute political control over entire populations.
     The scientists who are providing this technology refuse to accept blame for how their monstrous devices are used. These antisocial idiot-savants have created the ultimate Frankenstein's monster – a juggernaut that will make worldwide slavery a reality.
     Background – What you need to put this article in perspective. This article is based on information from official sources. Recently the European Parliament commissioned a study about political control in today's world. This article is based on that study.
     The study was intended as a guide for Members of the European Parliament to inform them about recent developments in technology useful for political control over people. The resulting document, released through the Directorate General for Research, was a political bombshell.
     The report first surfaced on 6 January 1998 in Luxembourg as a consultative version of a working document. The original document is a whopping 293KB in size. It is available on the Web at http://www.jya.com/stoa-atpc.htm. A 112-page paper version is available from the European Parliament department responsible, at fax number 352-4300-22418.

...

This crisis
has been about
30 years in
the making.

Twisted science... New technology for political control over people
     The crisis has been about thirty years in the making. In 1972 the British Society for Social Responsibility in Science issued a warning about the emergence of a "new technology of repression". In 1977 a report called The Technology of Political Control further described the looming menace.
     Britain, with help from its allies, was using the conflict in Northern Ireland as a laboratory. The authorities tested new technologies of repression and control on a large population. They perfected watchtowers built over underground three-story bunkers filled with computers that used sonar and infrared technology to watch people through the walls of their homes. The arrogant British soldiers couldn't resist gloating – they routinely taunted and humiliated Irish women by describing the undergarments the women were wearing. Keep this in mind the next time you see a snooty British prime minister on TV waxing eloquent about principles. The fact that the IRA was able to operate in such an environment is testament to their countersurveillance and insurgency skills.
     The US, with help from its allies, further refined the technology during the Vietnam war and afterwards. Smart bombs. Surveillance satellites. Psychological profiling. Defoliants. Stealth aircraft. Stun guns. Motion sensors. Night vision. Human odor sensors. DNA fingerprinting. Kill fencing. Helicopter-based telephoto surveillance. Laser sights. Repellent electrified panels on crowd-control vehicles. Psychological-based torture techniques.
     There has been a dramatic change in the technology of socio-political control during the previous 25 years, especially in the USA, UK, Germany, and France. And yet there has been no control over the research, manufacture, deployment, and export of these new technologies. Outdated laws and regulations have simply not kept pace. Much of this new technology is dual-use, so it can be purchased under misleading pretenses. The video surveillance cameras in Tiananmen Square were purchased from a US company as an advanced traffic control system. They enabled China's dreaded security service, the Guoanbu, to identify and arrest all of the activists who were demonstrating for democracy.

...

The technology of
political control is
made up of hardware,
software, and liveware.

A new type of weaponry...
     Simply stated, the technology of political control is a new type of weaponry. This technology is used to neutralize the state's internal enemies. In most cases this means the population. Most governments today see their own population as the major threat to their existence.
     The technology of political control is made up of three components – hardware, software, and liveware. Hardware is the apparatus. It consists of instruments, tools, machines, appliances, weapons, and gadgets. Software is the method. It consists of standard operating procedures, routines, skills, techniques, and methods. Liveware is the implementation. It consists of the human element – rationalized human social organizations, arrangements, systems, and networks.
     This new technology has created a growing pattern of abuses. It threatens the rights of assembly, privacy, and due process. It smothers freedom of political and cultural expression. It weakens what little protection we have against arbitrary arrest, torture, and extra-judicial execution.
     What makes this new technology so scary is the people using it. Bureaucrats. Faceless people operating behind closed doors. Unaccountable. Uncaring. Unrelenting.
     Even in the so-called democracies, it is the bureaucrat who runs the show. A well-documented phenomenon called bureaucratic capture is the cause. Around the world, senior bureaucrats in government control their elected ministers, rather than the other way around. Elected politicians may come and go, but the bureaucrat remains – as a virtual dictator. If there is such a thing as a ghoul, surely it is the bureaucrat.
     The police-industrial complex. During the 1990s huge sums are being spent on the research, development, procurement, and deployment of new technology for police and internal security forces. A massive police-industrial complex has come into being. It is similar to the military-industrial complex. Many companies are doing business in this newly-emerging market. There are huge profits being made.
     From the bureaucrat's viewpoint, all this is good. It increases efficiency and cost-effectiveness. After all, only those with something to hide resist, right? To the bureaucrat's way of thinking, the use of so-called minimum force is always justifiable. Existing regulations and controls are satisfactory. After all, technology upholds democracy, they assert.
     Well, folks, that's just polite talk for what's really happening. Social conflicts and their participants are either reconciled, managed, repressed, lost, or efficiently destroyed. This ruthless application of cold logic is made possible by the new technology of political control – and by a class of bureaucrats who simply don't like people, except for the rich and powerful for whom they act, of course.

...

All this technology
gives government
tremendous power
over us.

Privacy forbidden... New surveillance capabilities
     Life was a lot simpler 40 years ago at the peak of the Cold War. In 1963 the East German security service (the notorious Stasi) used 500,000 informants to monitor and intimidate the population. The Stasi needed a staff of 10,000 agents just to eavesdrop on telephone calls throughout East Germany.
     That was then. This is now. Today an entire population can be automatically monitored. The trick is to use computers running word-recognition software. Every telephone conversation is scanned for suspicious words – if any are found the conversation is stored on disk for a human agent to review at a later time. Today's computers also feature voice-recognition software. The security service can tell who is making the call, even if it's from a public pay telephone. Even more unsettling is the newest generation of mapping software. It creates a graphic display – a city map showing locations of who-called-who. It makes police roundups a lot easier. (Alas, the more things change, the more they stay the same. 40 years ago the East German security service rounded up dissidents during a so-called ratissage – a rat hunt. Today the FBI calls it a no-knock entry.)
     All this computer hardware and software may seem impressive, but in the USA the National Security Agency continues to push the envelope with self-learning neural network software that uses human-like artificial intelligence.
     All this technology gives the government tremendous power over us.
     Looking for trouble. Today's surveillance apparatus is routinely used by both the government security service and the police. They go on fishing expeditions, looking for trouble that doesn't exist yet – or creating trouble where none exists.
     The security service uses surveillance to track dissidents, journalists, human rights activists, student leaders, political opponents, and union leaders. This is illegal, of course.
     The police use surveillance for pre-emptive policing. They track certain classes of people. This surveillance, identification, and networking results in mass routine surveillance of large segments of the population without the need for warrants and formal investigations. This too is illegal, of course.
     Huge amounts of low-grade intelligence are created. It is used by the government to monitor certain social classes of people and certain races of people living in so-called red-lined areas before any crime is committed. Hey, in the eyes of the government, you're automatically presumed to be guilty and deserving of surveillance.
     The curse of dataveillance. When computers are employed to tie together unrelated databases for use by the security service or police, it is called dataveillance. In the USA, 700 databases can be monitored simultaneously. A surveillance team has instant access to your driver's license, your marital status, your last credit card purchase, the mortgage on your house, your health records, your employment history, your tax return, political contributions, and a potpourri of other personal information.
     Combine this information with a network of closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) and you've got an impressive apparatus for population control. So-called traffic-control cameras can recognize vehicle license plates – and track your movement around the city. Cameras in shopping malls, retail stores, fast food outlets, parking lots, and other public places can track you on foot.
     When this network of surveillance devices is tied together by computer networks, it results in pre-emptive policing. The system targets certain classes of people rather than specific types of criminal activity. Much of the surveillance apparatus is automatic. It runs on artificial intelligence.
     Now it starts to get scary. Here's why. This massive apparatus of surveillance and repression can be easily be refocused and retargeted if the political environment changes. Even in the world's so-called democracies, all it takes is a word from the nation's leader to declare a national emergency and implement special measures (this is polite talk for setting up a dictatorship, folks). Just stop for a moment and imagine living under a dictator equipped with such enormous capabilities of surveillance, repression, and control over the general population. Hitler and Stalin were a couple of milquetoasts compared to what's coming next.
     What we're talking about here are huge police databases and widespread abuse of civil liberties. Systems like this are usually first forced on groups with little political power like welfare recipients, the unemployed, and minorities. If they complain about invasion of privacy, no one listens. Then, as the oppression begins to be accepted, the dataveillance system is expanded up the socio-economic system.
     The potential for abuse is so great that legislators in Denmark have banned CCTV systems. But it's the only country in the world to do so. Some legislators in Europe were so alarmed that they passed Article 15 of the 1995 European Directive on the Protection of Individuals, which grants everyone the right "not to be subject to a decision which produces legal effects concerning him which is based solely on the automatic processing of data". Automatic video-camera speed-traps are making a mockery of that legislation. (I am embarrassed to admit that a key manufacturer of this new radar-trap technology is actually located in the city where I live.)
     The core issue. As few as 20 years ago, personal information about each us was fragmented. It was stored in many separate, unrelated locations. It was extremely difficult to acquire and collate. That's where the safety factor was. But it's gone now. In today's world, networked computers make retrieval easy. Cross-referencing and collating is a snap. Simply stated, it is bureaucratic heaven for the unelected, sociopathic, control-freaks that run the system.
     Biometric systems. The spread of computer-driven biometric systems promises even greater loss of individual privacy. What we're talking about are devices like automatic fingerprint readers and human identity recognition systems that analyze characteristics like genes, odor, signatures, and the pattern of capillaries at the back of the retina. For example, databases of DNA fingerprints are popular with police in Britain. The data is already being used to justify pre-dawn raids of large groups of suspects in the UK. Even more disturbing, face recognition systems are being tested in the USA, France, and Germany. In a few short years, you can expect FBI SWAT teams to be kicking in doors at 5 am simply because some computer program has concluded that your facial characteristics may match the description given by some sleazy informant under duress by his FBI handler.
     Other goodies for bureaucrats. Bureaucrats and their toadies can choose from a well-stocked toolkit of surveillance and oppression gadgets. Night vision systems. Recognition and tracking of human heat signatures in total darkness. Helicopter-based telephoto surveillance. Passive millimeter wave imaging that can see through clothing – this will add a new dimension to airport pre-flight screening areas.
     In today's world, electronic bugs are disguised as light fixtures, telephone packages, telephones, clocks, cable-TV decoders, even cockroaches. Multi-room monitoring systems are becoming popular with both the police and the government security service. And low-intensity magnetic pulse tools can be used to momentarily disrupt your thinking and confuse you.
     A number of companies are currently selling converted notebook computers than can eavesdrop on all cellular telephone conversations in a given area. The software is compatible with Windows 95. Simply scroll down the menu and click on the number(s) you want to listen to.

The interception networks...
     The scope of the system is mind-boggling. For example, all email, telephone, and fax communication is routinely intercepted by the NSA in Europe, USA, Central America, South America, Canada, and Mexico.
     Project Echelon taps into the system of Intelsat satellites and the world's long-distance telephone calls, Internet communications, email transmission, faxes, and telexes. This is a billion dollar intelligence-gathering network. It is used by NSA to monitor everything from dissidents to the activities of international banks. Data processing sites are located at Yakima (USA), Wailhopai (New Zealand), Geralton (Australia), Hong Kong, and Morwenstow (UK). Other countries like Canada and Germany are also key participants in the data-gathering scheme.
     Whistleblowers inside Project Echelon are claiming widespread abuse, including malpractice and negligence. Even Amnesty International is routinely surveilled by the spooks.
     Not to be outdone, the European Union (EU) is in the process of setting up its own massive eavesdropping network.

...

Spy & CounterSpy

A call to action... How to save yourself
     It's worth saying again. It was important enough to say it at the beginning of this article – and it's important enough to repeat.
     You're about to lose something. It's already slipping from your grasp. And once it's gone, you'll never get it back.
     As a people, we are facing the most serious threat to humanity in recorded history – the systematic stripping away of traditional freedoms by governments worldwide. And that includes all governments.
     It is a situation far more serious than the plagues of the Middle Ages that nearly wiped us out as a species. It is a threat never before seen in ten thousand years of human history.
     You are about to become the property of the government.
     A call to action – How to save yourself. A hundred years ago, privacy was taken for granted. It took a lot of time and effort for the authorities to invade your privacy.
     Today the situation is reversed. Surveillance is the norm. The technology of political control has made it very easy for the authorities to watch you. It takes deliberate effort by you to enforce your right to be left alone. In today's world, you must earn the right to privacy. By doing nothing, you forfeit your privacy – and your life becomes an open book. Any bureaucrat can watch you.
     What can you do? Be aware of what's really going on. Quietly resist. In your own way, work against the dehumanizing political control that government is trying to implement.
     Learn countersurveillance skills. Protect what is left of your freedom. Learn activist tactics and go underground if you feel you have to. But act soon. Wait much longer and it may be too late. For some people it may already be too late. Return to our home page for more sources of information about countersurveillance and the basics of underground activist tactics.

Coming up next...
     Coming next in Part 2 of the Bureaucrat's Toolkit. The next installment of Bureaucrat's Toolkit will explore crowd-control technology and prisoner-control technology.
     Human pain – New crowd-control weapons. You'll learn about new paralyzing weapons – as well as chemical, kinetic, and electrical weapons – rubber bullets, plastic bullets, and beanbag projectiles. You'll find out about discrete-order vehicles like pseudo-ambulances that hide SWAT teams inside – and crowd-control vehicles with a retaliatory capability like repellent electrified panels. You'll see how these vehicles seal people inside a zone rather than chasing them out. You'll learn how police dum-dum ammunition can amputate your arm or leg – without immediate medical attention this amounts to an extra-judicial execution. You'll learn about mark-free torture methods – the authorities no longer fear embarrassing questions from Amnesty International – because you can't prove you were tortured.
     Human warehousing – New prisoner-control technology. You'll see how government plans to cut expenses by replacing staff with technology. You'll learn about the social implications of a strategy of human warehousing rather than rehabilitation. You'll learn about kill fencing, lethal area-denial systems, and electric-restraint technology. You'll see how heavily private industry is involved – electrocution systems sell for $50,000 – a gallows sells for $85,000 – and you can pick up a mobile execution vehicle with lethal injection machine for a paltry $100,000. You'll also learn how psychotropic drugs are used to control prisoners. You'll discover laser sights and silencers that make it easier to implement extra-judicial execution – as well as synchrofire systems that provide push-button control over firing squads.

Where do you go from here?
The keys to success in today's world of unregulated surveillance are twofold – knowledge and skills. First, you need knowledge of your adversary's capabilities. Second, you need skills in the art of countersurveillance. You can get both by reading Spy & CounterSpy. In fact, that's the only way you can get them.

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. . .

Copyright ©1998 Lee Adams. All rights reserved except as noted herein. Spy & CounterSpy is published by Here's-how, Right-now! Seminars Inc. How to contact us: Send mail to PO Box 8026, Victoria BC, CANADA V8W 3R7. Email us at reader_service@SPYCOUNTERSPY.com

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