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			  How To Target Journalists And Politicians 
			  An indication of just how powerful and malevolent "the 
			  Government" is likely to become in the very near future ... 
			  Many journalists and politicians do not yet seem to understand how 
			  the revelations made by Snowden should open their eyes to the fact 
			  that unless the world changes its attitudes towards similar types 
			  of whistle-blowing we are all heading towards the nightmarish 
			  situation commonly described as Big Brother - of the very worst 
			  kind. 
			  As someone who has spent over 35 years programming computers I am 
			  fairly well-acquainted with what they can do, and I have a good 
			  idea about what they will soon be able to do. 
			  what the Americans will do with their spying capabilities 
			  I intend to keep this piece as short as possible, so let me just 
			  head straight into describing what the Americans will do with 
			  their spying capabilities and with their covert invasion of the 
			  social media. 
			  Imagine that Issue X is of significant importance to the 
			  Americans. 
			  They will use their search of metadata and tags to haul up details 
			  of politicians, journalists and bloggers who are popular and/or 
			  influential when it comes to Issue X.  
			  They will soon be able to construct an ordered list of such people 
			  within minutes when it comes to any Issue. 
			  Broadly speaking, they can then do two things to these people. 
			  1. They can get hundreds of their 
			  Social-Media-Agents-Who-Have-Multiple-Online-Identities to post 
			  comments here and there in order to undermine and/or to promote 
			  them. 
			  (They will also have numerous bloggers and 'journalists' on their 
			  payroll who will engage in similar activities.) 
			  2. They can seek - with considerable ease - to hurt them quite 
			  seriously; particularly if they consider them to be a serious 
			  threat. 
			  For example, if a journalist is, 
			  say, threatening an important part of their energy 
			  portfolio by his persistent attacks on, say, oil-drilling, then 
			  some agents might be charged with finding any significant dirt on 
			  him, his friends, or even his relatives, in order to demonise him, 
			  undermine his authority or cause him trouble. 
			  This dirt will be easy to find in most cases given the huge amount 
			  of information that can be gathered by their data-gathering 
			  systems - which are truly extensive - and by employing 
			  highly-sophisticated algorithms that can find, investigate, 
			  collate and analyse this data in order to pass it on to human 
			  brains for final decision-making. 
			  For very powerful organisations and groups such as "the 
			  government", "the military", "the weapons industry", "the energy 
			  industry", "a corporation" etc, small 
			  shifts in policy can mean hundreds of millions of dollars being 
			  won or lost. 
			  even the life of a journalist or a politician is nothing. 
			  For that kind of money and power, even the life of a journalist or 
			  a politician is nothing. 
			  Indeed, you do not need nowadays to be a conspiracy theorist to 
			  find it credible that, say, the recent strange and unlikely deaths 
			  of Michael Hastings and Barnaby Jack were planned by forces 
			  unknown. 
			  Putting it bluntly; if a few journalists or politicians are 
			  preventing someone - or some group - from procuring hundreds of 
			  millions of dollars, or a whole heap of power, then targeting and 
			  undermining them is shortly 
			  going to be very cost effective. 
			  Indeed, when it comes to "America", "American interests" and the 
			  NSA, hundreds of billions of dollars are at stake, and so numerous 
			  powerful subgroups will be beavering away to ensure that they get 
			  the upper hand. 
			  And, very shortly, they will be able to target journalists and 
			  politicians with ease; not only by undermining their public 
			  influence in some way, but also by hurting them in their personal 
			  lives so that they are distracted from what they would normally 
			  say or do. 
			  And, of course, they will also know that the tabloids and the 
			  media will also make a good bit of money out of any scandal that 
			  they can manufacture. 
			  Gathering information, using it, and engineering a coordinated 
			  attack on the basis of it, is now many 
			  million times easier than it would have been even 20 
			  years ago. 
			  As such, already-powerful groups such as governments, big 
			  business, the military etc etc, are becoming far more powerful 
			  than they have ever been in the past. 
			  And any journalist, blogger, politician - or, indeed, anyone - who 
			  threatens them in any significant way is 
			  bound to be heavily targeted and
			  easily targeted by them. 
			  And, unless this happens to involve violence, it will probably 
			  also be totally legal.  
			  there are no laws in America that say that the NSA cannot use its 
			  data on UK citizens 
			  For example, there are no laws in America that say that the NSA 
			  cannot use its data on UK citizens in order to serve the national 
			  interests of America. And so, of course, the NSA will use its data 
			  on UK citizens to serve the interests of America. 
			  And it can do a great deal with it. 
			  Many millions times more than it could do before. 
			  And please remember that they also kill people in order to serve 
			  their national interests.  
			  They really do kill people - using drones or daggers. 
			  After all, the NSA is not some benevolent news agency. It is 
			  involved in all types of underhand shenanigans - some of which 
			  involve inflicting huge amounts of violence. 
			  My point here is that if they really want to hurt someone badly, 
			  they can do so with relative ease, and they will do so. 
			  But a knock on the door and a warning from a person wearing a dark 
			  hat and a dark coat will often be enough. 
			  And, in the long run, the only journalists or politicians whom 
			  most people will ever hear will be those who are "working" for 
			  Government. 
			  In the longer run, One Government. 
 
			  END NOTE 1 
			  To those of you who are involved in some significant way with 
			  political issues - or with other 'big' issues, wherein powerful 
			  groups are involved - you are going to be targeted if you are of 
			  any significance - the latter being judged on a cost-effective 
			  basis. 
			  In a statistical sense, the amount and the intensity of the 
			  targeting that you will experience will depend on your influence 
			  and on the importance of the Issue at hand. 
			  Some of you will be 'upped' and some of you will be 'downed' by 
			  the process - depending on your positive or negative value. 
			  And the problem for you is that it is much easier for people to be 
			  'downed'. 
			  (Undermining someone is much cheaper, easier and quicker than is 
			  building them up.) 
			  they will also be able to put material on to your computer without 
			  leaving any trace. 
			  Furthermore, be warned, that they will also be able to put 
			  material on to your computer without leaving any trace. 
			  As such, it is going to become increasingly unwise to challenge 
			  powerful groups. 
 
			  END NOTE 2 
			  There are some good solutions to this potentially truly horrible 
			  problem. 
			  Assange, Snowden etc. 
			  Please listen carefully to what these kinds of people are 
			  concerned about.  
			  The public and the media are not currently giving these people the 
			  amount of attention and support that they truly deserve. 
			  What they have discovered - Snowden in particular - reveals a 
			  positively enormous shift in the power landscape. A shift that is likely to be decidedly unpleasant 
			  for most people. |