Monday, September 16, 2013

General Alexander's Scary Star Trek Fantasy



He is the man most responsible for taking the surveillance state into a new and even more sinister Orwellian age.

The General who while working in Iraq decided that instead of just monitoring terrorists and suspects he should monitor EVERYONE. And as the head of the National Security Agency is now doing the same to us.

But who knew that Keith Alexander had turned his Information Dominance Center into a Star Trek fantasy? 



When he was running the Army's Intelligence and Security Command, Alexander brought many of his future allies down to Fort Belvoir for a tour of his base of operations, a facility known as the Information Dominance Center. It had been designed by a Hollywood set designer to mimic the bridge of the starship Enterprise from Star Trek, complete with chrome panels, computer stations, a huge TV monitor on the forward wall, and doors that made a 'whoosh' sound when they slid open and closed.

Where he got to play Capt. Jean-Luc Picard on the bridge on the Enterprise.

Lawmakers and other important officials took turns sitting in a leather 'captain's chair' in the center of the room and watched as Alexander, a lover of science-fiction movies, showed off his data tools on the big screen."'Everybody wanted to sit in the chair at least once to pretend he was Jean-Luc Picard,' says a retired officer in charge of VIP visits."

It really is incredible and deeply disturbing. If Stanley Kubrick had included a character like Gen. Alexander in Dr Strangelove they wouldn't have believed him.

And Glenn Greenwald is right to wonder what this says about the mind of Alexander, and what it says about those running the surveillance state.

Any casual review of human history proves how deeply irrational it is to believe that powerful factions can be trusted to exercise vast surveillance power with little accountability or transparency. But the more they proudly flaunt their warped imperial hubris, the more irrational it becomes.

Just like we should all wonder to what dark universe would these information control warriors take us?

And of course, wonder what's happening in Canada...



Because anybody who thinks that in a country run by a deranged control freak the same kind of thing isn't happening here.

Critics are urging the Harper government to lift the veil that shrouds Canada's electronic eavesdropping agency in the wake of an watchdog's report that suggests ordinary Canadians may have been illegally spied on.

Must be living in a fantasy world like Keith Alexander.

Yup. They would watch us to control us.

But who is watching HIM?



Click here to recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chuck Strahl, former Reform MP and current head of the far right Preston Manning institute of Democratic reform, is now also the chairman of the Security Intelligence Review Committee which oversees the activities of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Services (CSIS).

All Canadians should be concerned about this egregious conflict of interest.

http://www.sirc-csars.gc.ca/abtprp/ccmcma/strachu-eng.html

Anonymous said...

How right you are. Harper the Hun, is handing Canada over to the Chinese Borg. Canada must be assimilated into China's Communism, where no-one has any rights. Canadians have very few rights as it is.

Anonymous said...

While the greed speaking head piece Oleary facilitates this and calls the NDP commies?

Simon said...

hi anonymous...yes isn't that great eh? They have politicized the military, they have corrupted the police, and now the foxes are guarding the chickens and who knows what democratic atrocities they are committing. All Canadians should be concerned about that conflict of interest AND the state of this country. How did we ever let it fall so low?

Simon said...

hi anonymous 1:38pm...Well I don't know about the Chinese Borg, but Harper the cyborg sure is taking us to a dark place. I can hardly wait to take its batteries out and watch it grind to a halt, or start running backwards all the way to Alberta... ;)

Simon said...

hi anonymous 12:05...I can barely stand listening to O'Leary anymore. The man is such an asshole he's a parody of himself, and I really can't forgive the CBC for making him such a "star." He's an absolute animal and he's dragging the CBC into the gutter...