MEET “CHARLIE,” A ROBOT FISH DESIGNED TO TAKE WATER SAMPLES NEAR POWER PLANTS AND FACTORIES. HE’S JUST ONE OF THE GADGETS ON VIEW AT SPY: THE SECRET WORLD OF ESPIONAGE THIS FALL.
In pop culture these days, we only hear about spies if they’re starring in a movie, or if their leader is sleeping with his biographer. Which is maybe not surprising, given the sensitive nature of the job--but still, whence comes the fake-mustache-and-secret-recorder spy culture of yore?
Thanks largely to the ubiquity of digital devices, those classic, Bond-style gadgets we associate with spies have long been outmoded. But some of the most amazing can be seen this fall at Discovery Times Square (I guess that’s a thing?), where a show called Spy: The Secret World of Espionage is on view until next spring.
In trying to describe some of the objects on view in Spy, It’s tempting to play a game of “real spy gadget or made-up joke.” For example, the keystone of the exhibit is a robot fish named "Charlie,” built to swim in a fairly realistic impersonation of a live catfish. Amazingly, Charlie is only 12 years old--the CIA won’t reveal why he was built, but some speculate he’s intended to collect water samples around nuclear power plants and factories. Salon has already christened him with a nickname: James Pond.
The CIA won’t reveal why this robotic fish was built, but some speculate he’s intended to collect water samples around nuclear power plants and factories (Click Image To Enlarge)
Other objects in Spy hearken from World War II, like the Enigma code-making machine that encrypted Allied messages. There are plenty of secret disguise aids, like a reversible cape, and recording devices abound, from the shoe-borne variety to a super-sensitive recorder, developed by Swiss scientists, that can be worn under your clothes. The show is surprisingly topical, including several fairly recent objet d’espionnage, such as the ice pick that is said to have served as a murder weapon for Trosky in Mexico, in the 1940s, and a Chanel purse belonging to “sexy spy” Anna Chapman, who was arrested in the U.S. and returned to Russia just a few years ago.
The Enigma cipher machine used by the German military and intelligence services during WWII to create what they thought were unbreakable messages (Click Image To Enlarge)
A precision miniature audio tape recorder was built in Switzerland to the highest possible standards. As a very slim device, it could be worn inconspicuously under normal clothing (Click Image To Enlarge)
The icepick that was--allegedly--used to murder Leon Trotsky in Mexico City (Click Image To Enlarge)
Amidst the clutter of outmoded gadgets, what comes through clearly is the sense that information was a precious physical commodity up until a decade ago or so. Today, we walk around with whole gigabytes of data on our person--but for decades, transporting a piece of text or audio was a matter of life and death. Go check out Spy until March of next year.
K.G.B. model of the umbrella that injected a poison ricin pellet into the Bulgarian defector Georgi Markov in 1978.
Handmade pair of shoes made for a United States ambassador to Czechoslovakia in the 1960s that Czech intelligence officers bugged with a listening device in the heel.
Stasi kit (see below) created molar that was hollowed out to allow microdots to be safely stored in a spy’s mouth.
Well-preserved rat with a Velcroed body cavity that was used by Americans in Moscow for exchanges of information without agents’ actually meeting. The rodent, treated with hot pepper sauce to discourage scavenging cats, was easily tossed from a passing car for these “dead drops.”
The Stasi Kit, a kit of tools used by East German members of the Stasi secret police, concealed in a leather case, for spying and surveillance purposes (Click Image To Enlarge)
The gadgets here are full of concealments and misdirection; nothing is what it seems. And much of it is almost quaintly old-fashioned. There are some hints of technological experimentation: a Stasi attaché case fitted with an infrared flash camera that could take pictures in the dark, or the C.I.A. bug that was built inside a cinder block in the visitors’ area of a Soviet embassy and could drill its own listening hole.
A special-purpose small key cutting kit designed for use in a motel room to allow an MI6 agent to duplicate keys for a covert entry (Click Image To Enlarge)
But most of these objects, tools of the trade over a half-century, are not the stuff of the “Mission Impossible” franchise; they are almost all deliberately mundane. They are not meant to startle; they are meant to fade into the background. They work like tricks sold in a magic shop. And they must be used with similar skill.
Something else is similar: once explained, the magic is gone. The objects used in espionage can almost seem silly. Really! Grown people sprinkling dust (nitrophenylpentadienal) on objects to track the movements of whoever touched them? Using a hat, glasses and a fake mustache as a disguise? Employing a hollowed-out nickel to hide top-secret microfilm? All of espionage can easily seem like a kid’s game, except for the trails of blood and insight that are invariably left in its wake.
And this show, produced by Base Entertainment, contains more than enough to make it resemble a child’s game: interactive screens on which you can disguise a photo of yourself; kiosks where your voice can be distorted and filtered; a mist-filled dark room with shifting laser beams that challenge you to make your way across, without breaking the circuit. (A password-oriented interactive game is too lame for its climactic position in the exhibition.)
There are also larger objects here that reveal, more dramatically, that technological sophistication is not a requirement, nor is it something that necessarily increases over time. Next to a collapsible motor scooter with which Allied spies parachuted behind enemy lines during World War II is a saddle, draped with an Afghan blanket, that was used by a C.I.A. officer riding across the forbidding terrain during the first months after the Sept. 11 attacks.
If you are a history or nostalgia buff, and just happen to be in New York City between now and the end of spring, visiting the "Spy: The Secret World of Espionage" exhibit in Times Square could be a very worthwhile experience. Tickets are as follows:
Adults - $27.00
Kids (4-12) - $19.50
Seniors (65+) - $23.50
Group discounts are available
Courtesy of an article dated November 16, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Design
Google's contentious new privacy policy officially takes effect today, despite some objections from Canada's privacy commissioner and others around the world.
Google insists it had users in mind when it consolidated the privacy policies for most of its more than 70 products and streamlined the text.
The main concern being raised by most critics is how Google will now start saving user information collected from all its services in one place. For example, users who log into several different services — such as Google.ca, Gmail and YouTube — will have data about all their searches and clicks stored together.
Alma Whitten, Google's director of privacy, product and engineering, in a blog post to users said.
"Our new privacy policy makes clear that, if you're signed in, we may combine information you've provided from one service with information from other services. In short, we'll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience."
Users can stop this data consolidation from happening by staying logged out when using the search engine or YouTube, or by having separate logins for each different site.
In a letter to Google, Canadian privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said the search giant's efforts to created a more user-friendly privacy policy was "a step in the right direction." But she raised several concerns. For one, she said users aren't being told enough about how to effectively opt out of Google's new plan.
She wrote.
"We would strongly encourage you to make it clearer to users that if they are uncomfortable with these new uses of information, they can create separate accounts. This is not clearly stated in your new policy."
"As we understand it, the policy changes do not mean that Google is collecting more information about its users than it currently does. They do, however, mean that you are going to be using the information in new ways — ways that may make some users uncomfortable."
She also said the new privacy policy isn't clear about how long it will take for personal information to be deleted when requested by a user.
Google is also facing heat in Europe over the new privacy policy, which France's privacy regulator said is a violation of the European Union's data protection rules.
A letter to Google from the Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertes (CNIL) reads.
"Our preliminary analysis shows that Google's new policy does not meet the requirements of the European Directive on Data Protection. The CNIL and the EU data protection authorities are deeply concerned about the combination of data across services and have strong doubts about the lawfulness and fairness of such processing."
CBC's Ron Charles looks at the upcoming changes to Google's privacy policy. Some users are concerned about their internet use being tracked by the tech giant.
"Don't Be Evil," Google's unofficial corporate motto was originally adopted as a company-wide belief as well as a jab to its competitors. However, Google has come a long way since it was incorporated in 1998, and that has some users wondering if the company's philosophy has changed. BackgroundCheck.org asks, "Mother Can I Trust Google?" in the following infographic:
Click Image To Enlarge
COMMENTARY: Google, Twitter and Facebook have been the subject of investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for numerous privacy violations.
In a blog post dated March 31, 2012, I reported that Google and Twitter had both been placed on 20-year probation, and must undergo annual privacy audits.
In the press release about the FTC settlements with both Google and Twitter, it states:
"A consent agreement is for settlement purposes only and does not constitute an admission by the respondent that the law has been violated. When the Commission issues a consent order on a final basis, it carries the force of law with respect to future actions. Each violation of such an order may result in a civil penalty of up to $16,000".
If the FTC had imposed that $16,000 per violation penalty, it would've been sufficient to put both Google and Twitter out-of-business. However, the feds would never impose a penalty that serious because it is not in their best interests. The Feds depend on and carefully monitor the activities of users on social networks and other sites to compile and track down criminals and terrorists. Attorney's also use social sites to gather evidence they can use in lawsuits and divorce cases. What a racket.
In a blog post dated November 30, 2011, I reported that Facebook had settled with the FTC for numerous privacy violations going back into 2010. Like Google and Twitter, the FTC placed Facebook on 20-year probation, and must undergo annual privacy audits.
Co-founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a lengthy post on the company's official blog on Tuesday.
"I'm the first to admit that we've made a bunch of mistakes."
He said a few "high-profile" mistakes, such as changes to the service's privacy policy two years ago, "have often overshadowed much of the good work we've done."
To ensure that Facebook did a better job, Zuckerberg said the company had created two new corporate privacy officer positions to oversee Facebook products and policy.
In its complaint, the FTC said that Facebook had repeatedly violated laws against deceptive and unfair practices. For example, it said Facebook promised users that it would not share personal information with advertisers, but it did.
Also, the company had failed to warn users that it was changing its website in December 2009 so that certain information that users had designated as private, such as their "Friends List," would be made public, the FTC said.
Facebook's Timeline feature, which it rolled out for all users on February 29, 2012, has been a subject of much controversy because of the huge potential for even more privacy violations. Also, only about 10% of Facebook users actually like Timeline.
The new Timeline feature makes everything a person has ever done on Facebook appear on a single screen that scrolls down year by year right back to when the person was born.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg described Timeline as letting you "tell the whole story of your life on a single page".
However, as Timeline makes all of a user's photographs and wall posts visible to friends, critics have warned the mandatory change could erode users' privacy.
There are also concerns that this will instantly make it easier for identity thieves and stalkers to profile individuals.
However, a spokeswoman for the site said the change would not alter existing privacy settings.
As you can readily see, user privacy is a huge concern, and the FTC has come down hard on both Google, Twitter and Facebook. LinkedIn maybe the subject of sanctions as well over ads using pictures of users without their permission.
It should be obvious by now that Google broke from its motto of "Don't Be Evil," and that controversy over privacy continues to haunt it like flies over a picnic table. If we are to hold Google accountable, then we must do the same for all the major social networks, who have violated our privacy and continue to do so to this date.
Courtesy of an article dated April 18, 2012 appearing in BackgroundCheck.org and an article dated March 15, 2012 appearing in Socialphy
Employers already know it’s a good idea to check job candidates’ Facebook pages to make sure there aren’t any horrible red flags there. The reddest flags for most employers seem to be drugs, drinking, badmouthing former employers, and lying about one’s qualifications. But there’s another good reason for checking out a candidate’s Facebook page before inviting them in for an interview: it may be a fairly accurate reflection of how good they’ll be at the job.
That’s the conclusion in a study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology last month. The researchers hired HR types to rate hundreds of college students’ Facebook pages according to how employable they seemed.
One of the study author’s, Don Kluemper, of Northern Illinois University says.
“We asked them to form impressions of a candidate based solely on their Facebook page.”
This involved looking at what was publicly available on those pages (photos, status updates, and conversations with friends) and then assigning each person a score for a number of qualities important to being a good employee, such as their degree of emotionally stability, conscientiousness, extroversion, intellectual curiosity and agreeableness. (In other words, will they flip out on you, care about completing tasks, be fun to work with, be creative in problem solving, and be willing to kiss up when necessary?) The review took about five to ten minutes per profile.
Six months later, the researchers got in touch with their guinea pigs’ employers to ask about their job performances. Unfortunately, of the over 500 guinea pigs, just 56 of the employers responded. So the sample is small, but the researchers found a strong correlation between those employers’ reviews and the employability predictions they had made based on folks’ profile pages.
I asked Kluemper about the “personality red flags” that their reviewers looked for. He was a little vague but said that a person with obvious mood swings, who is overly emotional in their postings would not be an attractive candidate. Meanwhile, a person with a lot of Facebook friends who takes a lot of crazy photos would be rated as extroverted and friendly — which are attractive qualities in a candidate.
Key takeaway for hiring employers: The Facebook page is the first interview; if you don’t like a person there, you probably won’t like working with them. The bad news for employers, though, who are hoping to take the Facebook shortcut Kluemper said.
“So many more profiles are restricted in what the public can access.”
Given the small sample size for that first study, I was more impressed by the second. In the second study, the researchers did a similar assessment of students’ Facebook selves and also had the students take personality and IQ tests. Then, instead of following up with employers, they turned to students’ transcripts. Kluemper says.
“We were able to better predict a student’s academic success based on their Facebook page than on the cognitive tests.”
(Most universities claim they don’t stalk applicants on social networking sites during the admissions process. Maybe they should?)
Of course, there are some legal questions to think about before jumping into someone’s Facebook page. Employers can discriminate against potential employees who seem like bummers based on their Wall postings and interests, but will get into trouble if what the Facebook user has said about their religious views affects the hiring process.
COMMENTARY: For quite a while I have been warning my readers about the dangers of posting or saying offensive things on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. Unless you make your Facebook or Twitter page private, you are an open book, and whatever you post on your social network page, could come back to haunt you, no matter how qualified you may be for the job.
The addition of Facebook's Timeline is going to be a goldmine for employers because it makes it much easier for an employer to dig up dirt you may have long forgotten about. If you've said some derogatory things about an opposing political party or candidate, a former employer or co-worker, or even an ex-girlfriend or spouse, even the boss' favorite sports team, this can be viewed very negatively by employers.
Law enforcement organizations and government agencies like the FBI, NSA and the CIA are actively involved and working closely with many of the major social networks to conduct investigations, gather evidence and track down criminals and terrorists. Much of this investigation and data gathering is done under the auspices of the Patriot Act in the interest of national security, so in special circumstances they may not be required to obtain a subpoena to access your private Facebook or Twitter account. The former Director of the CIA testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee about the billions Facebook had saved the agency. The director said with a smile on his face,
"After years of secretly monitoring the public, we were astounded that so many people would willingly publicize where they lived, their religious and political views, alphabetize a list of all their friends' personal email addresses, phone numbers, hundreds of photos of themselves, and even status updates of what they were doing moment-to-moment. It is truly a dream come true for the CIA."
Here, checkout the YouTube video yourself.
To assist employers in their hiring decisions, many employers are now using what I call "professional social media snooping" firms to scour the internet to find out what you say and post online, particularly on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and others. In a blog post dated October 3, 2010, I profiled Social Intelligence Corporation, one of these social media snoopers, and at that time called it a "creepy startup" and "truly scary" company.
Apparently consumers hurt by this companies activities filed complaints with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), claiming they were in violation of the Federal Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) of 1996, 2004 with amendments there to.
On May 9, 2011, the Federal Trade Commission ruled on behalf of Social Intelligence Corp claiming that they were not in violation of the Federal Credit Reporting Act. This effectively gave Social Intellignece Corporation the legality to provide social media consumer reports to employers conducting background checks on prospective employees.
On February 3, 2012, I told you about the growing trend by employers to use social media snooping firms to help employers screen employees through their social media behaviors. It's not just a U.S. trend, employers all over the world are now using social media snooping firms. More than half of my readers are from countries outside the U.S., so you should be aware of this.
According to Social Intelligence Corp. CEO Max Drucker, the company focuses on screening social media profiles for the usual suspects -- racist remarks, sexually explicit content, pictures with guns, knives, or other weapons, and other illegal behavior (think bongs).
There are some limits on how employers may use archived social media content, however. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, companies are required to tell prospective employees (or, say, credit applicants) that they are going to perform background check and obtain their permission to do so. Employers are also required by law to tell the applicant about any damaging information they find online.
The majority of my readers probably have nothing to worry about, but if you have a previous felony conviction, been fired for cause, previously lost your job due to a layoff, and you voiced your anger online, you have a lot to risk. By some estimates, as many as 40% of longterm unemployed may be in limbo and simply unemployable because of their online social media behaviors. Social media snooping firms have already expanded into the insurance industry. Their reports could cause you to lose your health or life insurance coverage or prevent you from obtaining insurance coverage. If you have any experience or information about the activities of these snoopers, post it on my blog, or shoot me an email. I have a feeling we have just scratched the surface.
Courtesy of an article dated March 5, 2012 appearing in Forbes
The country’s premiere law enforcement organization is looking to develop an early warning system for domestic and global threats drawing on information from social networks. The Federal Bureau of Investigation released details of the planned system in a request for information from private contractors who are qualified to help build it.
Your typical FBI Special Agents (Click Image To Enlarge)
The FBI's Strategic Information and Operations Center said the RFI was intended to determine the capability of industry to provide an “Open Source and social media alert, mapping, and analysis application solution.” As indicated here, the system would be able to scrape material from social networks about emerging threats and then superimpose the information graphically on maps, giving FBI analysts a spatial sense of the threat landscape.
Among other capabilities, the proposed system should:
Be able to provide an automated search and scrape capability of both social networks and open source news sites;
Allow users to create, define, and select new keyword search parameters;
Display different threats on maps, color coded to distinguish the threat level, preferably including Google Maps, Google 3D maps, Yahoo Maps, and ESRI;
View and plot historic and current foreign and domestic terror data “mashed with geo coordinates”;
Instantly translate foreign language tweets into English;
Display video feeds from traffic cameras.
The RFI emphasizes that
"Flexibility is critical because the users must have the ability to select and display to a common operating picture or dashboard both unclassified open source feeds, and social media vetting and analytical tools in support of a breaking event or crisis."
The platform must also be able to "view terrorist activities by location, terrorist group, and type of attack," and “change search parameters and geo-locate the search based on breaking events or emerging threats."
As far as privacy concerns go, the RFI notes that
"Information posted to social media websites is publicly accessible and voluntarily generated. Thus the opportunity not to provide information exists prior to the informational post by the user."
Of course, U.S. government agencies like the CIA and NSA are probably also engaged in surveillance of ostensibly private social media content in at least some cases where a serious terrorist threat is felt to exist.
The FBI certainly isn’t alone and is monitoring social media for security threats. The Department of Homeland Security has admitted in a public statement that it creates profiles to monitor “publicly available online forums, blogs, public websites, and message boards,” including social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, in what is known as the “Publicly Available Social Media Monitoring and Situational Awareness Initiative.” The aim is to “to provide situational awareness” for the federal, state, and local governments; the DHS “may also share this de- identified information with international partners and the private sector where necessary and appropriate for coordination.” Crucially, the DHS statement also reveals that participating agencies may reveal personally identifying information about Internet users in emergency, life-and-death situations.
The DHS is also using social networks to ferret out fake “green card” marriages between U.S. citizens and immigrants for the purpose of obtaining residency or citizenship for the latter.
COMMENTARY: The Patriot Act is really the force driving the FBI's strategy to developan “Open Source and social media alert, mapping, and analysis application solution.”
The original Patriot Act was signed into law during the Bush administration October 26, 2001 following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The title of the act is a ten letter acronym (USA PATRIOT) that stands for Uniting (and) Strengthening America (by) Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001.
Click Image To Enlarge
On May 26, 2011, President Barack Obama signed a four-year extension of three key provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act: roving wiretaps, searches of business records (the "library records provision"), and conducting surveillance of "lone wolves" — individuals suspected of terrorist-related activities not linked to terrorist groups.
Opponents of the Patriot Act have criticized its authorization of indefinite detentions of immigrants; searches through which law enforcement officers search a home or business without the owner’s or the occupant’s permission or knowledge; the expanded use of National Security Letters, which allows the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to search telephone, e-mail, and financial records without a court order, and the expanded access of law enforcement agencies to business records, including library and financial records. Since its passage, several legal challenges have been brought against the act, and Federal courts have ruled that a number of provisions are unconstitutional
It does not surprise me that the FBI now wants to directly tap into social network profiles and databases in order to gather information in their criminal investigation and counter-terrorist activities.
What concerns me the most is whether this is a first step towards government censorship. We know that the Patriot Act has pretty much destroyed the Bill of Rights as we know it. We really don't have any rights, because the Patriot Act gives the government the authority to spy on us at will, arrest us, hold us indefinitely without the rights of Habeaus Corpus.
Of course I see a need for criminal surveillance, including wire taps, but this must all be done under court order, but the FBI doesn't need such authority to carry out the mission of the Patriot Act.
If China, Iran, Syria, North Korea and other countries can censor what its citizens say and do online, this new move by the FBI gets us one step closer to censorship and an even deeper violation of our privacy.
I know some of you believe in a strong America, believe there is a terrorist hiding in every closet, a scheme our government concocted to pass the Patriot Act. The theory goes like this: If we can be made to fear terrorism, are reminded of it constantly, we will be less reluctant to give up our individual, Constitutionally-guaranteed rights. I am really sick and tired of my government constantly using the fear card. And, low and behold, that's exactly what we did under Bush, and now under Obama.
This is the sort of thing I have been warning everybody about for years now, so be careful what you post on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ for that matter. Government spying and censorship is sure to follow. Shit, the FBI will probably read what I say on my blog, and label me a "person of interest."
In an earlier blog entry dated January 26, 2012, I told you about how Washington insider Erskin Bowles was added to Facebook's board of directors recently.
Big Brother Is Watching......YOU!!
Courtesy of an article dated January 26, 2012 appearing in MediaPost Publications The Social Graf
Facebook Inc. is continuing its rapid pace of growth, with the social network doubling its revenue to $1.6 billion in the first half of 2011 from about $800 million a year earlier, said a person familiar with the matter.
Facebook's improving financial performance comes as speculation has swirled over its plans for an initial public offering. The company hasn't made any formal announcements around an IPO but has said it will begin disclosing financial information next April. Facebook's valuation has soared this year in the secondary market.
Erskine Bowles, at a Senate hearing this year, has joined Facebook's board. Bowles will serve as the CIA's "inside man" at Facebook, making sure Zuck does as he is told.
Separately, the company said Wednesday that it appointed Erskine Bowles, president emeritus of the University of North Carolina and a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, to its board of directors. Mr. Bowles is Facebook's second recent addition to its board, having brought on Netflix Inc. Chief Executive Reed Hastings in June. In total, Facebook now has seven board members, including Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg.
The revenue figures for privately held Facebook were earlier reported by Reuters.
Facebook's revenue has been driven by its online-advertising business, as big brands rush to the site to interact with consumers through display ads and fan pages. Facebook brand campaigns, or fan pages created by big companies to interact with their consumers, are up 104% from last year, according to a recent report by TBG Digital.
Facebook's world-wide ad revenue increased from $40 million in 2006 to close to $2 billion in 2010, and an estimated $4 billion in 2011 according to data compiled by eMarketer. Facebook's share of display-ad revenue in the U.S. is projected to grow to 17.7% in 2011, up from 12.2% share last year, according to eMarketer. The research firm projects that Facebook's ad revenue will be close to $6 billion by 2012.
Social gaming and the sale of virtual goods within games has also become an important part of Facebook's business. EMarketer estimates that social-gaming companies generated more than $500 million in revenue from selling virtual goods last year. As of July 1, Facebook requires game developers to accept payments through its virtual payment system, called Facebook Credits. Through credits, the company takes a 30% cut of all game-developer revenue.
COMMENTARY: This blog post was supposed to be about Facebook's mid-year 2011 revenues, but when I saw that Erskine Bowles had been appointed a new Facebook board member, it all came together for me. Here's why.
It is not surprising that Facebook would add a Washington insider to its board of directors. Bowles has served under two U.S. Presidents, Bill Clinton (Chief of Staff) and Barack Obama (co-chair National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform). He also happens to be a member of the board for Morgan Stanley, who will probably figure prominently in any future Facebook IPO.
Facebook is getting too big, too influential, too intrusive, so Bowles fits in quite nicely with the federal governments future plans. Here's how it works: Bowles became President Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff in Janury 1997, taking over from former CIA director Leon Paneta who was Clinton's COS at the time. Do you see the connection now? Bowles will be the CIA's "inside man" at Facebook, covering the CIA's "back" so to speak, insuring the CIA's clandestine and information gathering activities proceed unimpeded.
Facebook doesn't sell or make anything that I know of. YOU are the product. Facebook is, quite simply, in the information gathering business. Essentially, they gather the most intimate details of information about YOU. In Mark Zuckerberg's own words, "privacy is no longer a social norm". He once said,
"It's incredible what members will reveal about themselves on Facebook, that they wouldn't anywhere else."
I view Facebook as the perfect spy disguised as a social network, that has secretly become an arm of the CIA, NSA and FBI, who have funded the social networking giant directly or indirectly through several venture capital firms who are just conduits for money. Mark Zuckerberg maybe the major stockholder, but he has very little to say about it now. Here's Zuck hobnobbing with President Obie and other Silicon Valley CEO's:
Click Image To Enlarge
That guy in the foreground (tongue sticking out) who is just behind Zuck is CIA spy Eric Schmidt who used to be Google's CEO. Eric is Google's Washington D.C. go-between guy now, and makes regular visits to Langley, VA.
To insure that the information about YOU flows to the CIA, the CIA secretly spent nearly $300 million of taxpayer dollars for a new 150,000 square data center for Facebook. Everytime you click that LIKE button, the CIA knows about it. Everytime you post a Wall post, the CIA knows about it. If you play Mafia Wars, the CIA knows about it. They know everything about you punkasses. Be careful who you friend on Facebook, he's probably a CIA spy.
If a previous minister of national defense of a big country started talking publicly about his belief that some UFOs are interplanetary vehicles carrying visitors to Earth, would you believe him or not?
Well, stepping up to the plate is the Honorable Paul Hellyer, a former deputy prime minister of Canada and the longest serving current member -- ahead of Prince Philip -- of the Queen's Privy Council, which is made up of "prominent Canadians appointed to advise the queen on issues of importance to the country."
In the above video recorded on April 2008 at X-Conference at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C., former Canadian Defense Minister Paul Hellyer, exposes the truth about a deliberate U.S. government cover-up of the existence of UFO's & extra-terrestrial beings.
As Canadian minister of national defense in 1963, Hellyer was responsible for integrating and unifying the Royal Canadian army, navy and air force into a single organization, the Canadian Armed Forces.
And yes, he is extremely outspoken about UFOs and alien visitors to Earth.
Hellyer told AOL News.
"Oh, I'm absolutely convinced of it. These things were not invented here. And I think people have to get accustomed to this new reality. We lived too long in a sense of isolation, thinking that Earth was the center of the cosmos, that we were the only species and, therefore, probably the most advanced. And when we come to the realization that we're not any of those things, then I think we should be aware of it, learn to live with it and certainly try to take advantage of anything that we can learn from visitors from anywhere."
Hellyer, 87, is also known for his activities involving world issues, including monetary reform, the Middle East and environmental concerns.
When Hellyer was Canada's minister of national defense, he says he never discussed UFOs with other high-ranking officials.
"I got periodic reports on sightings and I looked at them very casually, and it was decided that about 80 percent of them were natural phenomena of one sort or another, and the other 20 percent roughly were unexplained, and therefore unidentified. You know, this is the kind of thing that sometimes they don't tell politicians about, and I have no doubt that there were probably people in my employ who would have been more knowledgeable than I was at the time."
While spending last Thanksgiving north of Toronto, Hellyer and his wife spotted an unidentified flying object and recount what they saw.
"The two of us stood there transfixed for 20 minutes, looking up at this thing moving first in one direction, and then another. By process of elimination, we determined it wasn't a star or satellite and it wasn't the space station, so there was really no explanation for it other than it was, in fact, a UFO."
Hellyer's analytical mind raced as fast as the object he was looking at.
"It looked like a star, but it maneuvered in a way that stars don't. I must admit that when I saw this one, I wondered whether it was extraterrestrial or American. And I guess the thought that occurred to me was that if it is American, then they have learned some pretty big secrets about acceleration, because it accelerated at a pace that nothing I've ever known about that was built here is capable of."
Trusted political and scientific sources whom Hellyer has talked to have suggested that the United States has developed new forms of energy at top-secret "black operation" installations, using reportedly extraterrestrial technology.
"That is my belief. I do not have proof of that, but I believe that they have developed energy sources, and publicly I'm saying that if they do not exist in commercial form, that extraterrestrials would certainly give us that information if we would ask them for it and stop shooting at them. Paul Hellyer's story is an important contribution to the literature of modern Western civilization. His experience in government, his interest in exopolitics and the issues of sustainability of civilization are significant areas of current discourse."
In the above video, Apollo 14 astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell, spoke at the Disclosure Conference held at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C. Dr. Mitchell talks about what he knows about the Roswell UFO incident and existence of UFO's and extra-terrestrial lifeforms. There are two parts to the video.
While Hellyer believes -- as many people do -- in an ongoing cover-up of UFO information, there are those of equal or higher credentials who say otherwise. Case in point: retired Army Col. John Alexander -- another speaker at this week's International UFO Congress -- who acknowledges the reality of UFOs but says there has never been a cover-up of the facts and that UFO disclosure has already taken place over many decades.
In the above video uncovered by Grant Cameron & Neil Gould of former U.S. President Bill Clinton'a speech held at the Expolitics Conference on September 14, 2005, the former President answers questions regarding UFO's, Roswell and Area 51.
On the topic of disclosure of all facts relating to UFOs, Hellyer is pretty adamant.
"Basically, I'm a full-disclosure person. People keep talking about transparency and still not telling the truth, and this applies in various other areas as well as UFOs, and it's just about time that we started getting open with each other and trying to get along and live together."
If Hellyer was Canada's minister of defense today, would he be as up-front with his UFO beliefs?
He replied.
"I would probably be open-mouthed about it and I might get fired for it. I've always been pretty open and direct, so unless there was some reason which I can't conceive of, I wouldn't try to hide the existence of the extraterrestrials and their presence."
COMMENTARY: I suppose it's possible to have a wacked out, mental retard working at the highest levels of government. Hell yes, it is possible. We had George Bush running the U.S. government for eight years. He claimed he was in contact with God. Richard Nixon's suspicions of others bordered on lunacy. He even kept an "Enemy's List" and secretly recorded telephone conversations which eventually got him impeached. Lyndon Johnson did the same thing. Many of those recorded telephone conversations are finally being disclosed.
However, even at 87 years of age, I find Paul Hellyer quite sane, intelligent, frank, honest and very serious when he says that the U.S. has been deliberately covering up the truth about the existence of UFO's and extra-terrestrials for decades. What's even more astounding is that former Presidents, cabinet members, senator's and congressmen are completely "out-of-the-loop" about what the government knows about UFO's and extra-terrestrial beings and we are spending on so-called "black" projects. Everything is on a need to know basis. Sounds like a familiar story doesn't it?
In a blog post March 1, 2011, one of my earliest on the subject of UFO's and extraterrestrials, I profiled Paul Hellyer, who claimed that the U.S. is deliberately hiding the truth about the existence of UFO's and extraterrestrials, has back-engineered UFO craft and energy propulsion systems, and U.S. scientists and military personnel are coooperating with and working along side one or more species of extra-terrestrials to developed advanced weapons and other technologies that could provide mankind unlimited free energy sources and eliminate the damage to our environment from greenhouse gases from fossil fuels.
The year 2011 will be referred to as "The Year of the UFO", due to the sheer number of UFO sightings and number of witnesses to these sightings, including NASA astronauts, military and commercial pilots, military personnel, and even a few politicians, have reached epidemic proportions. The Mutual UFO Network or MUFON, which tracks and keeps accurate records of UFO sighting repots, reported that over 1,000 UFO sightings were reported in the month of August 2011. This is twice the usual number of 500.
In the old days you would see a lone UFO, typically saucer-shaped, and just a few witnesses to the sighting. Today, we are seeing fleets of UFO's some of them numbering in dozens, and sometimes accompanied by a larger UFO which is often been referred to as "The Mothership". Sightings have been reported everywhere, and witnesses to an individual sighting can number in the hundreds and even thousands. Witnesses have sighted UFO's in just about every continent, and some recognizable patterns are beginning to develop:
Commonly sighted UFO's appear to have a noticeable bright halo around their saucer-shaped perimeter. (Search YouTube under London UFO's, Mexico City UFO's, Hawaii UFO's, Fukushima UFO's, Chile UFO's, among just a few).
When UFO's appear at night, witnesses say they appear as a very bright star. The "Jerusalem UFO" is an excellent example. It was recorded by several different witnesses and videos are on YouTube and have been seen by thousands.
They fly at lower altitudes where they are clearly visible by the human eye.
They fly at high speeds, sometimes nearing 4,000 mph and often make crazy 90 degree turns that a regular military pilot could not perform.
A jumbo-sized "Mothership" often accompanies a group of UFO's.
They fly in waves or even formations of 3-5 UFO's, sometimes forming patterns like triangles. It is rare to see just one UFO.
Some UFO's have been known to hover over an area for several seconds to as long as 10-20 minutes.
They are appearing over large metropolitan areas, in broad daylight, and in greater frequency is if they purposely want to be seen.
The media has become more active in covering UFO sightings. The Jersualem UFO has caught worldwide media attention because it appeared over the Dome of the Rock, one of the holiest spots for Jews, Christians and Muslims in the world. Some individuals are claiming it has a religious significance, but what that may be, remains to be seen.
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Everyday more highly creditable individuals are coming forward, many of them claiming they have seen UFO's and/or extra-terrestrials, and accusing the U.S. government of deliberately hiding the truth about UFO's and extra-terrestrials. Individuals within the government with inside knowledge of UFO's and extra-terrestrials claim that the truth is being withheld because it would cause panic.
Several nations (The U.K., Mexico, Belgium, The Netherlands, and several South American nations) have already began the serious process of releasing their classified records of UFO sightings and reports of extra-terrestrials. When government officials like Mr. Hellyer step forward, then you know its time our government came clean.
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Courtesy of an article dated February 25, 2011 appearing in The Huffington Post
Background: Thule Air Base sits within 800 miles of the Arctic Circle, making it the northernmost U.S. military installation. Among the many challenges posed by the region's climate is that the base's port is only accessible for three months each year, so major supplies need to be shipped during the summer. The base may be frozen and remote, but the 12th Space Warning Squadron operates an early warning system for Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles from Thule, while the 21st Space Wing is in charge of space surveillance operations.
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How It's Unique: Brad Schulz, vice president of federal architecture at HNTB, who recently worked on a dormitory replacement project at Thule, explains that construction crews essentially need to build on the most stable layer of permafrost they can get to. With temperatures dropping below minus-60 F, keeping troops warm is crucial. One of the more interesting weather-specific features is that all of the utilities are above ground, because it would be too hard to quickly access them if something went awry. "You don't bury any waterlines, communication lines or even sanitary lines," Schulz says. "They're all insulated and triple-heat-taped." Schulz also notes that all the buildings on the base are equipped with so-called arctic vestibules, which provide 24/7 access to shelter while ensuring the buildings remain secure.
Background: Within two months of the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt set aside the first 127,000 acres of Dugway Proving Ground in Utah's Great Salt Lake Desert. Over the past 60 years, the site has expanded to nearly 800,000 acres, roughly the size of Rhode Island. Geographically, Dugway is located in the eastern Great Basin desert region of the American West. The mean elevation is 4,350 feet above sea level. Dugway sits under a huge invisible container of protected airspace known as the Utah Test and Training Range, controlled by the U.S. Air Force. Military Flight Operations in this area are very frequent. NASA has also used the combined air/land space for critical recovery operations of its Genesis and Stardust Mission Craft. The nearest major national-scale city is Salt Lake City, Utah, 85 miles northeast.
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How It's Unique: Dugway's massiveness allows it to be the premiere site for testing defense systems against chemical and biological weapons, as well as military-grade smoke bombs. During World War II, the facility played a vital role in the development of incendiary bombs. In order to test the fire-causing weapons, crews at Dugway built replicas of German and Japanese villages, even going so far as to fill the model buildings with furniture that would be similar to that found in the respective country. Today, the remains of the German village are eligible to be included on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
Background: This joint U.S. and U.K. operation is situated on a tiny atoll about 1000 miles from India and tasked with providing logistical support to forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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How It's Unique: "There's a certain amount of logistical difficulty" with ultra-remote facilities like Diego Garcia, Schulz says, and shipping materials can be costly. Diego Garcia's remoteness, though, allows it to be a key hub for tracking satellites, and it is one of five monitoring stations for GPS. Additionally, the island is one of only a handful of locations equipped with a Ground-based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance system for tracking objects in deep space. As an atoll, the land itself is rather oddly shaped, too. From end to end, Diego Garcia is 34 miles long, but its total area is only 11 square miles.
Background: HAARP, or the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, is a collaborative project involving the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Army and the University of Alaska. Researchers at the facility use a powerful high-frequency transmitter and an array of 180 antennas to temporarily disrupt the ionosphere in hopes of yielding potential communications and surveillance benefits.
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How It's Unique: HAARP has been the centerpiece of countless conspiracy theories, ranging from rumors that it will be used for mind control to claims that it can manipulate the weather of individual countries. The project's website says that the equipment can only function properly if it is located in the auroral region, and Alaska happens to be the only U.S. state that fits that criterion. A quiet electromagnetic location is needed for the system to operate, which further explains the removed location of HAARP. In past interviews, HAARP's operators readily admit they're researching potential defense applications.
Cheyenne Mountain Complex Air Force Station, Colo.:
Background: This iconic underground base has been inspiring science fiction writers and awing engineers since 1966. Located nearly a half mile under a granite mountain, the labyrinthine facility is run by Air Force Space Command. The base earned its place in pop culture when the television version of Stargatemade Cheyenne Mountain the HQ of cosmic time travel.
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How It's Unique: One-of-a-kind bases like Cheyenne pose countless construction challenges and need to satisfy seemingly impossible requirements, like being able to withstand multi-megaton attacks. "It would be hard for a contractor to bid a project like this, because you might be using new construction techniques, new construction technology," Schulz says. Aside from sitting under a mountain of granite, an extremely hard rock, the base is protected by 25-ton blast doors, and some rooms sit on massive beds of springs to better absorb a blast. "It's certainly not a very secret installation, but it's well-protected."
Background: Near the hot, desolate center of Australia, just outside of Alice Springs, is the Joint Defence Space Research Facility Pine Gap. Australia and the U.S. agreed to build the compound in 1966, but desert flooding, blistering heat and a lack of paved roads slowed initial construction efforts. The site officially opened in June 1970 and has been a joint U.S./Australian operation since.
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How It's Unique: Pine Gap's collection of eight or so radomes and its remote location have sparked many UFO-related rumors, both in Australia and abroad. The main function of Pine Gap is to monitor any missile activity in the region and relay intelligence to U.S. and Australian forces. Schulz points out there are certain military installations, like Pine Gap or HAARP, that can only operate effectively in certain geographical areas. "Even though they're in terrible environments, some portion of that land is strategically important," he says. In 2009, the Australian Department of Defence announced plans to upgrade antiquated equipment at the facility, indicating that Pine Gap has a long future ahead of it.
Background: Anthrax, Ebola virus, plague and monkeypox are just a few of the deadly microbes handled by researchers at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, commonly known as USAMRIID. Over the years, the institute has made significant contributions to the development of vaccines, diagnostics and treatments that have both military and civilian applications.
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How It's Unique: USAMRIID is the only Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory under the purview of the Department of Defense. Facilities like these are all about redundancies, Shulz says, and the safety requirements needed for BSL-4 certification are extensive and complex. A few of the more notable precautions include double-door airlocks, sophisticated filtration systems capable of catching microscopic particles, fumigation chambers and a completely air-tight building. According to the National Institutes of Health, many of the BSL-4 facilities build buffer corridors around the laboratories to help mitigate damage from any potential blasts.
Background: This notoriously cryptic facility is built under Raven Rock mountain near the border of Pennsylvania and Maryland. The site was birthed during the Cold War and goes by many names, including Site R and the underground Pentagon.
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How It's Unique: Raven Rock Mountain Complex (RRMC) is a underground continuity of government facility built by the U.S. government in the early 1950s. It is located about 14 km (8.7 miles) east of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, and 10 km (6.2 miles) north-northeast of Camp David, Maryland. It is also called the Raven Rock Military Complex, or simply Site R. Other designations and nicknames include “The Rock”, NMCC-R (National Military Command Center Reservation), ANMCC (Alternate National Military Command Center), AJCC (Alternate Joint Communications Center), “Backup Pentagon”, or “Site RT”; the latter refers to the vast array of communication towers and equipment atop the mountain. Colloquially, the facility is known as an “underground Pentagon”.
Background: Lajes Field, on the small, Portuguese-owned Terceira Island, is an important refueling station for aircraft that can't clear the Atlantic Ocean in a single shot. In 1953, the U.S. established its first presence on the island when it positioned the 1605th Air Base Wing at Lajes. Today, the 65th Air Base Wing is stationed at the facility, providing support to U.S. Air Forces in Europe and to a variety of allies.
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How It's Unique: Lajes Field is on a small chunk of volcanic rock about 1000 miles off the coast of Portugal, a location that can be stressful for first-time navigators. About 11 miles long from north to south, the island is not capable of supporting more than one airport, so the field is split between civilian operations and military operations. "All the military support facilities line one side of the runway, and the passenger terminal, if you will, is very small on the other side," Schulz says.
Background: The U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency's Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility is one of six locations that stores chemical weapons. During the 1960s, 7 percent of U.S. chemical weapons were stashed at Anniston, including stockpiles of VX nerve-agent munitions. The Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, currently under construction, is located 50 miles east of Birmingham, Alabama, and eight miles west of Anniston. The stockpile at Anniston is maintained on 762 acres in the northeastern portion of the Anniston Army Depot, and holds 2,254 tons, or 7.4 percent of the original US stockpile of chemical weapons. Anniston's stockpile consists of cartridges, projectiles, ton containers, rockets and mines containing the nerve agents GB and VX, and the blister agent HB, more commonly referred to as or mustard agent.
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List of Chemical Weapons stored at Anistan Chemical Weapons Disposal Facility
How It's Unique: Operations at Anniston have shifted from storing chemical weapons to safely destroying and disposing of them. Mustard-gas-filled munitions can't just be chucked in the garbage or buried, so the facility is equipped with high-tech robotics that disassemble weapons and powerful incinerators that help destroy certain waste materials. Workers at the site have recently started using a Linear Projectile Mortar Disassembly machine—a six-axis, remote-controlled robot—to extract the explosives from mortars filled with chemical agents.
Background: Around 1980, the Navy began overhauling Kings Bay to be the East Coast location for Ohio-class nuclear submarines, a project that took nearly a decade and cost $1.3 billion, making it the largest peacetime construction project for the Navy at the time. Spread over 16,000 acres, about a quarter of which is protected wetlands, this submarine base is the habitat of 20 threatened or endangered species.
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How It's Unique: When a submarine needs a little TLC, there's not a better place than the Trident Refit Facility at Kings Bay. The 700-foot-long covered drydock, one of the largest in the world, is impressive, but what really stands out is the state of the art Magnetic Silencing Facility. The entrance of the silencing facility is designed as a drive-in, like a Jiffy Lube for Naval vessels. After a sub is in place, it is subjected to a deperming treatment, which basically erases the sub's magnetic signature, allowing it to remain as stealthy as possible during future voyages.
COMMENTARY: I wanted to add one final military facility that is glaringly missing from the above list. This is the military facility known as Area 51 (see below) a.k.a Groom Lake and Dreamland. If you ask the U.S. government about Area 51, they will tell you that it does not exist.
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Fifteen miles south of Area 51 is S-4, a super-secret facility located at the base of the Papoose Mountains adjacent to the Papoose dry lakebed. Individuals with authorized access to S-4 are flown from Las Vegas to Area 51, then transported by bus over a dirt road to S-4. The windows of the bus are deliberately blackened so that passengers are unable to see the route to S-4.
The airspace over Area 51 and S-4 is highly restricted, and any pilot or aircraft that accidentally or intentionally strays into sector R 4808 N is subject to pursuit by Air Force jets scrambled for intercept, or subject to outright destruction by surface-to-air missiles.
Sector R 4808 N houses Area 51 and S-4 and is completely offlimits to all unauthorized air traffic
The S-4 installation is built into the mountain, and there are nine hanger doors that are angled at about 90 degrees to match the hillside. These doors are covered with a sand-textured coating to blend-in with the sides of the mountain, amid the desert floor.
According to several S-4 informants, including Conner O'Ryan, Bob Dean, Phil Schneider (btw, the powers that be within the U.S. government probably arranged to have Phil Schnider murdered in 1996 for divulging the existence of S-4), and Bob Lazar, S-4 houses several recovered extra-terrestrial spacecraft that either crashed or were shot down.
Below are some aerial images of an underground facility located at Area 51/S-4 taken by Google Earth.
An aerial view of S-4 underground facility taken by Google Earth
Construction of S-4 undeground facility entrances
S-4 underground facility entrance aerial view
Aerial view of another S-4 underground facility entrance
The S-4 underground facility has several entrances. Here's one of them.
The following videos do an excellent job of describing the location of Area 51 and S-4.
Now you know where your tax dollars go.
Courtesy of an article appearing in the November 2011 issue of Popular Mechanics
I have often wondered whether Steve Jobs, the former founder and CEO of Apple is as brilliant as many technology experts say. Compared to other company founders and CEO's, Steve's record of innovation and achievement is quite simply: ASTOUNDING and his record is unmatched. Name another CEO who racked up so many new product successes one after another, and has been doing it consistently for decades. You can't, can you?
Steve's incredible success got me to thinking: What if Steve Jobs had some REAL help along the way? By REAL help I am not talking about assistance from his great team of new product designers and engineers who are reveered throughout the world for their creative genius and spirit of innovation. What I am really getting to is help from the beyond, help that no other company founder or CEO would ever have access to. I am talking about dark forces of the unknown, the kind of help that is so unreal and unimaginable that it would be earth shaking if the public ever became aware of it. Got you thinking, don't I?
During the course of my extensive research and countless inquiries about Steve Jobs, I received a mysterious email. At first, I discounted the cryptic words of the writer. "Naw, it couldn't possibly be", I thought to myself, while sipping on 50 year-old brandy. But, upon reflection, I became convinced, that yes, this could be the REAL help that Steve Jobs got. The sender's name was UNIDENTIFIED, but what really got me was the subject line of the email which read:
"Is this what you have been looking for?"
NASA - 5 May 1972 - Need To Know - Top Secret Level 10 (Official NASA photo)
In 1972, Apollo 2o astronauts discovered a mysterious device of alien origin laying on the surface of the Moon near the Sea of Tranquility, the landing site of several previous Apollo Moon missions. In 1978, Apple's Steve Jobs was contacted by NASA scientists to determine what it was, and the rest is history.
The EMAIL contained the above attached image and following lengthy message. At the top it was labeled Everything Below This Line is Above Top Secret. Since I live dangerously and am something of an outlaw, I will let you read it, and do with it as you may. Just remember one thing, don't tell anybody else, or you will be erased out of existence.
EVERYTHING BELOW THIS LINE IS ABOVE TOP SECRET
- Simon Apocryphal, November 12, 2007
"I am a former Apple employee. I do not wish to get my name out in the public because of the serious and obvious danger to my life if my identity became known. I am posting this under a false name, Simon Apocryphal. I was one of the original Apple employees. It was 1977 and Apple had just introduced the Apple II. I was a hardware engineer by trade, but in Apple's early days, it wasn't too uncommon for hardware engineers to work primarily with software. The industry was very young and there were relatively few people with a formal education in computer science.
In early 1978, Jobs requested I attend a meeting with himself, Mike Markkula, and another engineer that shall remain unnamed. For the last few months, I had been working directly with Steve Wozniak testing and refining the Disk II. The project was coming to a close as we were refining our plans for mass production, so I assumed the meeting related to my next assignment at Apple.
I remember our first meeting on a rainy Friday in January 1978. It was held in a small meeting room on our old campus. The other three participants were there, Steve, Mike, and the unnamed engineer. Jobs asked me if I wanted a Coke or juice before we started, I declined, and Mark stood up and closed the door behind me. Jobs looked at me and my engineering colleague and informed us that what we were going to talk about in the meeting was a corporate secret. He pulled out two pieces of paper from a folder in front of him and handed each of us a copy. The papers were legal documents. At the top, it read "Nondisclosure Agreement."
We were asked to sign the document before we proceeded with the meeting. We signed the documents and Markula started explaining this new project to us. He told us that we were going to meet with a company called Affiliated Xanatech in Palo Alto, California. Markula explained that Affiliated was a government subcontractor and that the government was looking for high tech companies with experience commercializing bleeding edge technology to assist them in converting secret military hardware to private consumer applications.
We were told that the government was looking into ways to fund black projects by licensing patents to companies like Apple in exchange for complete secrecy as to the true source of the technology. Private industry in Silicon Valley was responsible for some of the most incredible technological leaps in history and this fact did not go unnoticed by the U.S. government and military. We were told to not speak of this with anyone in the company, not even Steve Wozniak. Furthermore, we were told that the military would perform a thorough background check on us and brief us as to our responsibilities in regards to secrecy. Of course, we were going to need Top Secret security clearance from the government, a process that took a few months and involved the government thoroughly looking into our histories. I remember several of my colleagues being called and questioned about my background. We also filled out a book load of documents basically covering everything from our credit histories to where we went to primary school. It was an invasive process.
Markkula had set up a meeting with Affiliated Xanatech in February 1979. Jobs, Markkula, the unnamed engineer, and myself arrived at Affiliated around 9:00 am on a Tuesday morning. The building was unassuming. It was a one-story structure with a very normal parking lot and one security guard standing in a small house at the entrance. We showed the guard the special passes sent to us by Affiliated and walked into the front lobby. At that point, we were greeted by five men in black uniforms carrying very imposing M-16s. They escorted us to the elevator and we went down some three floors or more. I would later discover that the facility had at least 8 sub-levels, but I was never able to confirm that.
We met with two men in military uniforms in a large conference room. There are very few moments in life in which your entire world view is turned forever upside down, and for me, this was one of them. I still remember that turning point during the briefing when I realized what we'd just been told, and that I hadn't heard the speaker wrong, and that it wasn't some kind of joke. In retrospect the whole thing felt like it was in slow motion. When the term "extra-terrestrial" came up for the first time, the room itself seemed to go off kilter as we collectively tried to grasp what was being said. My mind kept jumping back and forth between trying to look at the speaker, to understand him better, and looking at everyone else around me, to make sure I wasn't the only one that was hearing this. But I don't want this story to be about me, so I will spare you any more insights into my emotional state at the time.
Steve Jobs listened intently and for the first time I can recall, he didn't have anything to say. He simply nodded and peered intently at the speaker as he went over Project CARMA:
Commercialization of Alien Resources for Market Assimilation
Our job was to examine recovered alien artifacts and come up with a commercial application for them related to the computer industry. The unnamed engineer and myself spent the next four months being briefed about security and the true nature of the project. I was told that if I ever went public with this information, I would be erased from existence. Furthermore, the agents threatened to erase all my family and friends. We worked under the barrel of a gun. Need to know was the order of the day. We were only given a very narrow description of the origins of the artifacts. We knew that they were of extra-terrestrial origin, but our government partners would not reveal anymore. In fact, they discouraged us from talking about the alien connections and they never brought the subject up unless we asked questions. Getting information about the artifacts was like pulling teeth. Answers were slow to come, if they came at all.
We weren't the only team working on the artifacts, however, Apple was the only team from Silicon Valley. Apple was chosen because we were small and hungry. The government disliked monopolies and IBM was considered too much of a security threat. Other companies that we had contact with during project CARMA included Boeing, General Electric, GM, and Union Carbide Corporation. Some were examining the same artifacts we were given access to, others had access to areas of Affiliated off-limits to the Apple team.
What we saw:
We had access to an advanced computer system called the LAAC (Luminous Autonomous Agnition Computer). The LAAC was approximately the size of a soda can. Its interface is hard to explain. It didn't have a screen or projection of any kind. It projected itself into the user's mind. The object was activated by passing your hand over its top. It was deactivated in the same manner. Upon activation, a projection, an almost dream-like image in vivid color appeared in your head. We were told that the first person to use the device died of a brain embolism within seconds of activation. Apparently, the machine was a learning device that automatically adjusted itself to the human anatomy. The next person to try the device suffered from severe migraines after a few minutes of use. Over time, the machine fully adjusted to the human anatomy and was completely safe to use.
For lack of a better term, we referred to its capabilities as magic. The government wasn't interesting in having us understand exactly how the device worked. They were interested in what we could take from it for commercial purposes. At first we were baffled. We knew that computers at the time could not possibly mimic the interface technology, nor could we come close to the device's capacity, which was not measured in bytes as far as we could ascertain and was unlimited in terms of storage and speed. We were interesting in its file structure. Information was stored in terms of "objects". The user selected the objects by moving an imaginary mental pointing instrument. The objects could be organized in a structured manner. It was really up to the user to determine the structure data was stored in the system.
If the user wanted to draw an image, the LAAC created a sophisticated pallet with a set of advanced primitives. I guess you could say that the program was analogous to the modern Abobe Photoshop program, but with several profound differences. First, there were no user manuals or help functions. While hooked up the computer, the user instantly knew how to use every aspect of it and the user was free to modify the program in any way the user could imagine. We used the LAAC to define a whole new way to use a personal computer. In short, we used the LAAC to design, develop and test the operating system that would first appear on the Lisa and later on the Macintosh.
You might have heard that Apple got many of its ideas for our first graphical operating systems from the Xerox PARC. This is only partially true. We used the PARC to help us determine ways to translate the advanced alien technology into contemporary computer technology. Obviously, we were constrained in terms of interface, storage, and speed. About the only thing we really took away from the PARC was the mouse, a device that allowed the user to move a cursor on the screen and manipulate computer-generated objects.
What does Steve Jobs know about the aliens and when did he know it?
We worked with the LAAC until early 1985. Our experiments were pumped into Apple's two competing system teams, the Lisa Team and the Macintosh Team. Steve Jobs worked with both teams and acted as a facilitator. His famous "reality distortion field," the seemingling magical influence Steve had over people, was partially due to his inside knowledge of the LAAC and partially due to another secret project he was working on at Affiliated. I can't give you more information on this and don't want to speculate on its meaning because I was only allowed to work with the LAAC.
As many are aware, Steve Jobs left Apple in 1985 to start NeXT. The official story was that he had a disagreement with John Sculley, Apple's CEO, over the direction of the company. Here is what I know about what actually happened.
Sculley was never informed about our dealings with the government. Jobs could have easily made Sculley do anything he wanted because of his access to the reality distortion technology, but he purposefully picked a fight with Sculley in order to create a plausible explanation for his departure from Apple.
As I stated earlier, the government does not like monopolies that threaten its power. Jobs was given an ultimatum by his handlers at Affiliated. He was told that if he wanted ongoing access to the alien artifacts, he would have to create a start up company competing against Apple. Many of the revolutionary aspects of NeXT and later Mac OS X, come from his ongoing association with the government.
Apple's association with CARMA ended shortly after Steve Jobs left the company. We were officially debriefed by government officials. We were told that we were not to ever disclose the program and that we were to continue working at Apple in order to keep tabs on Apple's use of the alien technology. I worked at Apple until 1992 and have since retired from the computer industry. I currently teach technology at a school that shall remain unnamed.
Why am I coming out now? Well, I am at that age where it no longer matters what happens to me. I have recently been diagnosed with a terminal illness and before my time comes, I want to get this off my conscience. Apple is a great company, but it is shameful that we helped the government conceal the greatest secret of all time. The public must be told the truth."
COMMENTARY: I knew it all along. I have been giving Steve Jobs and his Apple munchkins a.k.a. Apple's new product development engineers, too much credit. It now appears that every product Apple has ever produced probably had its origins from alien technology.
Now it all makes sense to me why there are so many Apple mobile products--and it scares me. Aliens are always moving from one galaxy to another. If you are using an app, iPod, iMac, iPhone or iPad, it wasn't Steve Job's vision and talent for innovation that created it. It was those evil "Greys" with the dark black almond shaped eyes, and frail bodies. Come to think of it, Jobs looks a bit frail too, don't you think?
Steve Jobs' mind empowers him to control yours and influence your very being. No wonder those Apple evangelists are such zealots, with a lemming-like behaviors, and crazy over Apple products. They would buy a toilet, if the Apple brand was emblossomed on it. Jobs burned the Apple brand into their feeble-minded brains. They will buy only Apple products for the rest of their tormented lives. Now Jobs is doing the same thing with PC Windows users. Very slowly and with stealth, he is converting Microsoft and Windows PC users to Apple products. But, no Flash.
I dugged deep into the internet, and could not find a damn thing about a company named Affiliated Xanatech. For security reasons, probably erased forever by men in black suits and sunglasses. I have a dark feeling that the company was secretly assimilated into Apple, where it now operates on black government projects to create the mobile products of tomorrow.
I got to get me an LAAC computer. Screw the mouse and pointer. It's all in my mind. I can move objects. This blog resides in my head. No more "clickity-clickity" sounds of me typing on a computer keyboard. If anyone knows where I can get one, please leave a comment. I promise not to disclose your identity.
Courtesy of an alien artifact dated November 12, 2007 from an unidentified individual code named Simon Apocryphal
The New World Order, Ruling Class or Illuminati, as it is commonly referred IS real. They go back to the Middle Ages. They have been associated with the occult even belief in Lucifer or The Devil. They are at the top of the food chain and control EVERYTHING. Everybody thinks that the Big Corporations, Politicians and Military Industrial Complex are the rulers, but they are just merely the tools to concentrate power at the top.
The Politicians are controlled by the Illuminati through their financial support, favors and even bribery. Washington lobby groups dominate Washington, D.C. The Big Corporations, through their global business activities provide the capital to acquire and control the vast majority of global worth. The Top 137 corporations control 40% of the world's wealth.
The Politicians and The Big Corporations both report to the Military Industrial Complex which is where the "muscle" of the Illuminati resides. The Illuminati are the equivalent of the Boss of Bosses or top Don of a Sicilian family. The Military Industrial Complex are equivalent to the Bosses of La Familia or Mafia. The various branches of the military are the Under Bosses, and then there are the soldiers.
The Military Industrial Complex consists of the U.S. military and heads of the CIA, NSA and FBI and "The Greys." YES, extra-terrestrials are involved indirectly, and they take great pleasure in watching over everything. They are the ultimate beneficiaries. They have unlimited power, and their technology is millions of years ahead of us, and they could destroy the Earth if they wanted, but they need us, so they don't care if there is a power struggle for supremacy among us humans.
Image of a Grey Alien, circa 1955
The Greys are a dying species of extra-terrestrials who travelled to Earth and colonized it thousands of years ago, and through genetic experimentations of human DNA developed Modern Man. Trust me, it was not Divine intervention like it says in the Holy Bible.
In the 1950's, The Greys entered into a secret pact with the Eisenhower administration. According to that Pact, the U.S. government would provide The Greys with access to a certain number of humans so they could conduct DNA experiments to replicate their species by combining both Grey and Human DNA. In exchange, The Greys were to provide us with certain advanced technologies.
A few unscrupulous Illuminati individuals within the U.S. government saw an opportunity to exploit the alien technology to consolidate power, wealth and control over the masses on Earth. The Greys really don't care. We are their form of entertainment. In fact, they love harvesting our souls. They get off in capturing the soul as it leaves the human body upon death, and use it like an aphrodisiac. In effect, they get off on US.
The Big Corporations controls the Corporate Media and Global Banking. It is the job of the Corporate Media to spread disinformation and propaganda that has divided the masses. I am sure that you will agree that this has worked perfectly.
Global Banking provides the financial resources so that the Big Corporations can successfully carry out their evil commercial activities throughout the world and create more wealth for the Illuminati.
The Politicans control the Government and Courts. The Government creates the laws and regulations to control the masses. The Courts are the enforcers for the politicians. They punish the masses if they don't stay in line.
Below is a simplified organizational chart showing the Ruling Class or Illuminati at the top with the other organizations and entities just described below them:
The Illuminati has the following pecking order or power rank which is illustrated in the graphic below:
British Monarchy a.k.a." The Royals" which is headed by Her Highness Queen Elizabeth II.
Israel who control most of the banking industry and Wall Street.
Welf Relations.
The Freemasonry a.k.a. The Masons.
Catholic Church.
The Illuminati or Ruling Class
I know some "British Subjects" are going to scream blasphemy for mentioning Queen Elizabeth at the head of the Illuminati, but the decision was an obvious one. The Illuminati needed natural succession at the top, and The Royals fit that description perfectly. They are of royal blood, respected worldwide and there is logical order of succession. Next in line in order of succession is Prince Charles. Even President Barack Obama and the First Lady bow to Queen Elizabeth.
Israel is next in line in the Illuminati pecking order. They are the business leaders, power brokers and bankers of the world. They also control the media (from newspapers to the Internet). Facebook is a front for the CIA, FBI and NSA. I warned you about this in a previous blog post. Do you notice that every American presidential candidate goes before the prominent Jewish Organizations like the National Jewish Democratic Council to make sure the next president will support Israel? That's not a coincidence.
Next is the Welf Relations which stems from the House of Welf. The House of Welf (historically rendered in English, Guelf or Guelph) is a European dynasty that has included many German and British monarchs from the 11th to 20th century. The original House of Welf Family Tree is below:
In its modern context, Welf Relations now includes the hundreds of descendants of the House of Welf who live today. They consider their membership in the Illuminati a blood right.
The Freemasonry are next in the pecking order. Freemasonry is a fraternal organization that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. You can recognize a Freemason by the symbol of a square and compass and letter "G" in the middle. Some say the "G" stands for God or Guild. Some say its the symbol for the human penis.
Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million. Very few Freemasons are in the Illuminati, but the top guys probably are. The fraternity is administratively organized into independent Grand Lodges, each of which governs its own jurisdiction. There are over a quarter of a million under the jurisdiction of the United Grand Lodge of England and just under two million in the United States.
The heads of the Roman Catholic Church is the last in the pecking order of the Illuminati. This includes Pope Benedict XVI and the College of Cardinals. The Cardinals are princes of the Church appointed by the Pope, who are ordained senior bishops. As a whole, the College of Cardinals advises the Pope, and those cardinals under the age of 80 at the death of a Pope elect his successor. There are now a total of 193 Cardinals, of whom 112 are aged under 80. Of the voting-age cardinals, 64 were appointed by Pope John Paul II, and 28 by Pope Benedict XVI.
BTW, the Roman Catholic Church, was duped by The Greys. Jesus was never born of a Virgin Mary and he never rose from the dead. He was "invented" by those evil Greys, and the rest is history. The Roman Catholic Church provides the people something the Illuminati cannot or won't: HOPE. It's perfect, the Greys get a great kick out of it. But, the Church is now worried that they maybe exposed and be out of the religion business. I mentioned this to you in a previous blog post when The scientists from Vatican met with the scientists from NASA and 20 or so top-level scientists because they want to know if ET is for real. Ha, ha, ha. I got a kick out of that one. Naturally, they've been given assurances that ET does not exist.
The Royals and The Committee of 300 make the important decisions for the Illuminati. They represent the wealthiest, most powerful and influential individuals in the World, not necessarily the most well known or even wealthy. None of them would ever admit they are a member of The Committee of 300 or Illuminati. The Committe of 300 include a Who's Who of Americans, British and Europeans. Famous Americans who are members of The Comittee of 300 include Senator John Kerry, Senator Joe Lieberman, former Senator and Democratic Presidential Candidate Al Gore (consolation prize for losing the Presidency to that idiot son George W Bush), investor Warren Buffet, former President Bill Clinton, Former President George H.W. Bush, Microsoft executives Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, The Rockefeller's, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geitner and others. Political affiliations do not matter within the Illuminati. Everybody is pals, some of them even swop their wives to seal a deal, then they laugh and do high-fives afterwards.
The ultimate goal of the Illuminati is to own everything, and judging from the concentration of wealth among developed nations throughout the world, it's working. Eventually they will have total control of the working class. Their ultimate plan is to keep the poor as poor as possible, eliminate the middle class, and increase their numbers at the top so they own quite literally everything.
I know what you are thinking: The Illuminati does not exist and this is all bullshit. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I may even be a member of the Illuminati, and you would never know it, because I would never admit it.
I've been extensively researching China's social networking scene for sometime now, and the market grabbed my interest due to its diversity, immensity and competitiveness of the market:
In the U.S. Facebook, foursquare, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Zynga are the clear leaders in their respective social media categories (general social networking, microblogging, business social networks, location-based check-in services, video sharing and social gaming) respectively. However, in China there is generally one dominant player and two major followers within each category of China's Social Media Ecosystem as you can see from the following graphic.
Click Image To Enlarge
As you can readily see from the above graphic, China has more than enough competition to challenge any American social network from Facebook to YouTube--that's how huge the Chinese social media landscape is. Unfortunately, we will never know whether any of the above aforementioned U.S. social networking giants can compete, since all of them are banned in China.
Chinese social media expert Resonance China prepared the following infographic which describes China's social media space in great detail:
Click Image To Enlarge
Unlike U.S. social networks, China's social networks are highly censored by the Chinese government. There are quite literally 40,000 government employees charged with the task of reviewing social media posts for criticisms of the government. The social networks also have their own staffs, usually representing two-thirds of their staffs, dedicated to policing their sites to make sure they are in compliance with China's censorship regulations. First-time offenders usually get off with a handslap, but repeated offenders can be imprisoned. Zuck, are you listening?
China's three largest social networks include microblogger Seina Weibo (NASDAQ:SINA), and general social networking and gaming sites Renren (NYSE:RENN) and Tencent (HGK:0700). All three are public companies, but their stock prices have all but collapsed.
Renren has taken the biggest hit, dropping from a high of 18.01 on May 4, 2011 to 3.35 on December 23, 2011.
Sina Weibo has dropped from a high of 142.40 on April 19, 2011 to 55.79 on December 23, 2011.
Tencent has faired a bit better dropping from 224.80 on May 8, 2011 to 159.30 on December 23, 2011.
Social networks going public in the U.S. have experienced similar stock price collapses as well.
LinkedIn had a very successful IPO on May 19, 2011, going out at 45, and closing at 94.25 on its first day on trading. However, it has suffered several ups and downs, ending at 63.79 on December 23, 2011.
Zynga, the social gamer, had its IPO on December 19, 2011. Its stock price went out at $10.00, popped to $11.50, but ended its first day of trading down 5% at $9.34 on its first day of trading. Apparently, its complete reliance on Facebook failed to generate the anticipated "Facebook Halo Effect," with investors viewing that association as a big negative rather than a negative. Zynga's stock price is now 9.39 as of December 23, 2011.
Facebook, now trades solely in the secondary market at between $32.50 and $33.00 per share, is making plans for its IPO in Q2 2012. That IPO could raise $10 billion for Facebook with a projected valuation of about $100 billion. However, Zynga situation could be a warning to all U.S. social networks that they are not the "hottest" thing since slided bread.
Like the U.S., China's social network landscape has been growing rapidly, and there are now definite signs of saturation and reaching a critical inflection point.
Courtesy of an article dated December 21, 2011 appearing in Resonance China
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