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SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #427: BRICOLAGE
2 hours ago
Saturday 19 March 2011
History of Libya 1912-1969
A beautiful short documentary highlighting the key historical events that occurred in Libya between 1912 and 1969. This got me quite emotional as I saw a budding young Libya in its early spring, blossoming and reaching out to the world, and then suddenly it was cloaked in darkness…
Via
Via
Michel Houellebecq vs. William Burroughs (Quotes)
Oil on Canvas: “William S. Burroughs 3″
Christiaan Tonnis (1999)
Michel Houellebecq — the misanthropic, caninophilic French novelist — and William Burroughs both deploy thorough visions of the world. They proffer more or less elaborate cosmologies, ethics, and particularly critical assessments of humanity. And both view the act of writing in general, and their own writing in particular, as an active force doing some kind of battle, performing some kind of negotiation, with the powers of stupidity, evil, greed, and banality. Both understand the human universe as being at the mercy of non-human laws — for Houellebecq, it’s all species, biology, physics; for Burroughs, it’s biology, physics, magic.
But whereas Houellebecq sees a world of absolute bleakness, Burroughs sees a world of plenitude — filled with shit and bile and semen and stupidity and cruelty but full nonetheless. If Houellebecq offers a world heading to zero, Burroughs offers a world of infinite complexity.
On Society
Houellebecq
I don’t like this world. I definitely do not like it. The society in which I live disgusts me; advertising sickens me; computers make me puke.
Burroughs
America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers.
The Future of Humanity
Houellebecq
Few beings have ever been so impregnated, pierced to the core, by the conviction of the absolute futility of human aspiration. The universe is nothing but a furtive arrangement of elementary particles. A figure in transition toward chaos. That is what will finally prevail. The human race will disappear. Other races in turn will appear and disappear. And human actions are as free and as stripped of meaning as the unfettered movements of the elementary particles. Good, evil, morality, sentiments? Pure ‘Victorian fictions.’ All that exists is egotism. Cold, intact, and radiant.
Burroughs
Man is an artifact designed for space travel. He is not designed to remain in his present biologic state any more than a tadpole is designed to remain a tadpole.
Youth and Dreams
Houellebecq
Adolescence is not only an important period in life, but that it is the only period where one may speak of life in the full sense of the word.
Burroughs
As a young child I wanted to be a writer because writers were rich and famous. They lounged around Singapore and Rangoon smoking opium in a yellow pongee silk suit. They sniffed cocaine in Mayfair and they penetrated forbidden swamps with a faithful native boy and lived in the native quarter of Tangier smoking hashish and languidly caressing a pet gazelle.
Influence
Houellebecq
I’ve lived so little that I tend to imagine I’m not going to die; it seems improbable that human existence can be reduced to so little; one imagines, in spite of oneself, that sooner or later something is bound to happen. A big mistake. A life can just as well be both empty and short. The days slip by indifferently, leaving neither trace nor memory; and then all of a sudden they stop.
Burroughs
I am not one of those weak-spirited, sappy Americans who want to be liked by all the people around them. I don’t care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do. The important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it. My affections, being concentrated over a few people, are not spread all over Hell in a vile attempt to placate sulky, worthless shits.
Sex
Houellebecq
But whereas Houellebecq sees a world of absolute bleakness, Burroughs sees a world of plenitude — filled with shit and bile and semen and stupidity and cruelty but full nonetheless. If Houellebecq offers a world heading to zero, Burroughs offers a world of infinite complexity.
On Society
Houellebecq
I don’t like this world. I definitely do not like it. The society in which I live disgusts me; advertising sickens me; computers make me puke.
Burroughs
America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers.
The Future of Humanity
Houellebecq
Few beings have ever been so impregnated, pierced to the core, by the conviction of the absolute futility of human aspiration. The universe is nothing but a furtive arrangement of elementary particles. A figure in transition toward chaos. That is what will finally prevail. The human race will disappear. Other races in turn will appear and disappear. And human actions are as free and as stripped of meaning as the unfettered movements of the elementary particles. Good, evil, morality, sentiments? Pure ‘Victorian fictions.’ All that exists is egotism. Cold, intact, and radiant.
Burroughs
Man is an artifact designed for space travel. He is not designed to remain in his present biologic state any more than a tadpole is designed to remain a tadpole.
Youth and Dreams
Houellebecq
Adolescence is not only an important period in life, but that it is the only period where one may speak of life in the full sense of the word.
Burroughs
As a young child I wanted to be a writer because writers were rich and famous. They lounged around Singapore and Rangoon smoking opium in a yellow pongee silk suit. They sniffed cocaine in Mayfair and they penetrated forbidden swamps with a faithful native boy and lived in the native quarter of Tangier smoking hashish and languidly caressing a pet gazelle.
Influence
Houellebecq
I’ve lived so little that I tend to imagine I’m not going to die; it seems improbable that human existence can be reduced to so little; one imagines, in spite of oneself, that sooner or later something is bound to happen. A big mistake. A life can just as well be both empty and short. The days slip by indifferently, leaving neither trace nor memory; and then all of a sudden they stop.
Burroughs
I am not one of those weak-spirited, sappy Americans who want to be liked by all the people around them. I don’t care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do. The important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it. My affections, being concentrated over a few people, are not spread all over Hell in a vile attempt to placate sulky, worthless shits.
Sex
Houellebecq
In a perfectly liberal sexual system, some people have an exciting erotic life; others are reduced to masturbation and solitude.
Burroughs
There is nothing more provocative than minding your own business.
Love
Houellebecq
Love binds, and it binds forever. Good binds while evil unravels. Separation is another word for evil; it is also another word for deceit.
Burroughs
Love? What is it? Most natural painkiller. What there is. LOVE.
Burroughs
There is nothing more provocative than minding your own business.
Love
Houellebecq
Love binds, and it binds forever. Good binds while evil unravels. Separation is another word for evil; it is also another word for deceit.
Burroughs
Love? What is it? Most natural painkiller. What there is. LOVE.
Daniel Coffeen @'Thought Catalog'
Yemen unrest: 'Dozens killed' as gunmen target rally
Unidentified gunmen firing on an anti-government rally in the Yemeni capital Sanaa have killed at least 45 people and injured 270, doctors told the BBC.
The gunmen fired from rooftops overlooking the central square in what the opposition called a massacre. President Ali Abdullah Saleh declared a national state of emergency but denied his forces were behind the shooting.
US President Barack Obama has condemned the violence, urging Mr Saleh to allow peaceful protests.
In a statement, he said those responsible for Friday's violence "must be held accountable".
Separately, France demanded an end to attacks "by security forces and armed pro-government groups... against people exercising their rights to free speech and demonstration", Reuters reports.
Yassin Noman, rotating president of Yemen's umbrella opposition group, was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying there was "no longer any possibility of mutual understanding" between the protesters and President Saleh, and he should resign.
Another opposition spokesman, Mohammad al-Sabri, accused Mr Saleh of presiding over a "massacre".
"This is part of a criminal plan to kill off the protesters, and the president and his relatives are responsible for the bloodshed in Yemen today," he told the Associated Press news agency.
Soon after the shooting in the capital, the country's Tourism Minister, Nabil al-Faqih, resigned in protest.A month of violence has gripped Yemen and demonstrators reportedly gathered in other cities across the country on Friday:
- In the city of Taez, security forces, tanks and armoured vehicles surrounded a square where protesters had gathered, and access to the square was blocked
- In Mahweet, protesters reportedly captured five gunmen who had been firing at protesters; they were found inside the governor's house along with weapons and spent ammunition, eyewitnesses told the BBC
- Tens of thousands attended the funeral of a protester in the southern port of Aden, AFP reports
The BBC's Abdullah Ghorab in Sanaa says the level of anger over the casualties is unprecedented among Yemenis.
The declaration of an emergency is being seen by some as an attempt to find legal cover for suppressing peaceful protests and blocking media coverage, our correspondent adds.
Photographs from Sanaa showed bloodstained people being carried through crowds.Other photos showed a row of dead bodies, with injuries which appeared to be consistent with bullet wounds, laid out in a mosque.
Doctors at a field hospital set up in the square, which protesters have named Taghyir (Arabic for "change") Square, issued an urgent call for blood, ambulances and medical supplies.
According to a statement from the field hospital, a total of 617 people were injured on Friday, 270 with gunshot wounds and 347 "poisoned by gas". Tear gas was fired by security forces during the day.
Abdul Malek Al-Yussefi, a doctor in the field hospital, told the BBC that what had happened in the square was a "crime in all possible terms".
"There was live ammo fired," he said.
"Many of the wounded are in critical condition. The injuries are mostly in the head and chest but there are also injuries all over the body. We have cases targeted randomly and others were clearly shot to be killed. Most of those killed were shot in the head and chest."
Announcing the state of emergency, President Saleh said the country's national defence council had decided to impose a curfew on "armed men in all cities".
"Security forces and armed forces will take responsibilities to maintain public security," he added.
Popular revolts
Yemen is one of a number of countries in the region that have seen unrest since the presidents of Egypt and Tunisia were ousted in popular revolts.
Thousands of people have turned out for regular demonstrations in cities including Sanaa, Aden, Taez, calling for corruption and unemployment to be tackled and demanding the president step down.
Some 40% of the population live on $2 (£1.20) a day or less in the country, and a third face food shortages.
The protests have often been met by riot police or supporters of President Saleh armed with knives and batons.
The president has been in power for 32 years, facing a separatist movement in the south, a branch of al-Qaeda, and a periodic conflict with Shia tribes in the north.
He has said he will not seek another term in office in 2013 but has vowed to defend his regime "with every drop of blood".
@'BBC'
The Wu master
Continue reading
Patrick Kingsley @'The Guardian'
Will radiation hormesis protect us from exploding nuclear reactors?
Dear oh dear...things are bad when you are on O'Reilly's side! Coulter's a total fugn deadhead and is it my imagination or his her Adam's apple very prominent in this clip?
The Johann Hari podcast: Episode 2 - Israel's most hated man - and its most heroic
Gideon Levy is the most hated man in Israel – and perhaps the most heroic. This patriotic Israeli has been shot at repeatedly by the Israeli Defence Force, been threatened with being “beaten to a pulp” on the country’s streets, and faced demands from government ministers that he be tightly monitored as “a security risk.” This is because he has done something very simple, and something that almost no other Israeli has done.
Nearly every week for three decades, he has travelled to the Occupied Territories and described what he sees, plainly and without propaganda. “My modest mission,” he says, “is to prevent a situation in which many Israelis will be able to say, ‘We didn’t know.’” And for that, many people want him silenced.
In the latest edition of his podcast, Johann Hari interviews Levy about his life, his work, and the real way to achieve peace in the Middle East.
@'The Independent'
Kosmische Gehackt und Geschraubt: Flash Strap Presents - Afrokraut•Control Car
They fiercely hated capitalism and colonialism and immoderately loved psychedelic drugs. They built self-managed nations and communities devoted to the inner space exploration, they were followers of polygamy and esoteric practices. They worshipped the rhythm.. and the ministers were Tony Allen and Jaki Liebezeit. At the out side, RAF urban guerrilla rioted and the Nigerian dictatorship put down the rebellion... and Allah could have been Marxist. Can, Faust, Fela Kuti & Africa 70, Neu!, Ofo the Black Planet, William Onyeabor, Harmonia are the stars of Krautrock and Afrobeat. It’s a journey through the sounds of a buried period, looking for improbable resemblances between seventies Africa and Germany.
-Massimo Carozzi, for his excellent Afrokraut mix, listenable at Music City
"It's a plan of action through non-action. It's an observational/lenticular move, and it's the right move... It's an intended obfuscation; I think the implicit vibe that comes with something law enforcement related is aggression, control, all the dominant archetypes we can watch failing catastrophically at the moment. On Patrol is about flipping that vision: enforcement through perceptual strategies. On Patrol is a statement of place, a statement of being. It's not about patrolling. It's about getting On Patrol."- Camerone Stallones/ Sun Araw, describing the philosophy behind the concept of being On Patrol, also the name of his cosmically badass most recent full-length.
Inspired by the Afrokraut bridging suggested in part by Mr. Carozzi, and the truly evident connections that have always lived within the music itself; as well as the fine Mr. Araw's razor-sharp alchemy of, as he says, "70's classy: free jazz, krautrock, African music, etc.", in addition to the notable elements in his work of funkadelicism, dub, and old-school hip hop; and with considerable attention paid to Brother Murky's revelation of a comp, Purple Chicha Music-- I give you an effort of my own Man-Hours and Brain-Powers, Afrokraut•Control Car.
Stretching worldly Kraut grooves and Afro-psych/synth across space and time, utilizing the slurring technique of chopping and screwing to obtain a unity, to insist the intrinsic connection be felt more deeply in the blood, this set aims only slightly to make points and teach lessons about international musical kinship, instead skewing mightily in preference to the creation of audio-psychic fuel with which to find one's consciousness setting about going On Patrol to, in either the physical realm or otherwise. Observe and Conquer. Move through space like a secret genius, a jalopy wizard, a safari cyborg. You understand what I am advocating, I trust.
The set consists of two programs: the first, Afrokraut, the details of which has been fairly well fleshed out by now, and the second, Control Car, a rundown of similarly chopped late 70's/early 80's disco-funk cuts, largely of African-American or African origin. Control Car is Robocop funk, abandoned city steam vent soul-dubb jams. Originally slated to be a separate project, a review of the two programs side-by-side revealed a kinship that ran deep, one bolstering the other and creating a seriously trippy, groovy, dare I say, apocalyptically radical universe of active-minded, head-bobbing smolderers unrestricted by a simple thesis of duality-- friends, this is a trifecta.
Disregard the inherent pretension in these wordy paragraphs and get cerebrally primitive to these enjoyable musical experiments.
Program One: AFROKRAUT
1. I Want More- Can
2. Everyday- William Onyeabor
3. La Bomba (Stop Apartheid Worldwide!)- Neu!
4. Saduva- Gibson Kente
5. The Seven Game- Baka Pygmies/ Irmin Schmidt and Bruno Spoerri
6. I First U Last- N'Draman Blintch
7. One Thing (Or The Other)- Michael Karoli and Polly Eltes
8. Ceddo End Title- Manu Dibango
Program Two: CONTROL CAR
1. Wind It Up- Control
2. Break It!- Oby Onyioha
3. Over the Ledge (Rub Dub)- Ta'boo
4. Jungle Drums- Wild Fantasy
5. Them Crazy- Robo Arigo
Download @'Flash Strap'
(Thanx Stan!)
Funny that!
Reuters Reuters Top News
FLASH: Gaddafi forces continuing to advance toward Benghazi despite proclaimed ceasefire: U.S. National Security official
blakehounshell Blake Hounshell
Clinton made another goof in Cairo that went unnoticed. Said she wanted to see a "secular" Egyptian state. Sure to be used against U.S.
“Nuclear Boy” Explains Japan’s Nuclear Crisis to Children
Japanese media artist Kazuhiko Hachiya created “Nuclear Boy,” an cartoon that explains his country’s current nuclear reactor crisis to children. The troubled Fukushima plant is played by Nuclear Boy, and the threat of a catastrophic meltdown is represented by his stomach upset. It’s an odd but earnest attempt to explain the evolving nuclear crisis to Japanese children.
via
Experimental Compound MER 17 and LSD-25: Psychosis (1955)
This film examines medical experiments to determine the efficacy of LSD-25 and MER 17 (Frenquel) on treating psychosis. Funded as part of the Central Intelligence Agency’s MKULTRA mind control research program during the 1950s.
National Archives and Records Administration
Experimental Compound MER 17 and LSD-25: Psychosis
National Security Council. Central Intelligence Agency. (09/18/1947 - 12/04/1981)
Experimental Compound MER 17 (Frenquel) and LSD-25: Psychosis. ARC Identifier 1634172 / Local Identifier 263.1057.
Download mpeg2 (1,5 GB)
Download ogg (155 MB)
Download mpeg 4 (134 MB)
Experimental Compound MER 17 and LSD-25: Psychosis @ archive.org
Unethical human experimentation in the United States @ wikipedia
via
Various - Nihon Kizuna/Japan Disaster Relief (日本絆) [Teaser Mix]
Teaser mix for the compilation Nihon Kizuna (日本絆) featuring some of the exclusive tracks donated by artists worldwide to the relief effort for Japan's March 11 earthquake and tsunami victims.
The compilation will be available to buy from approx. 3pm GMT on March 18, 2011.
Featuring Kode 9, Kuedo, Rudi Zygadlo, Broken Haze, Circulations Records, All City Records, Daisuke Tanabe, Yosi Horikawa, XLII, Memory 9, Ninja Tune, Kid Kanevil, Om Unit, Paul White, One Handed Music, BD1982, Illum Sphere, Fink, Emika, Mux Mool, Ernest Gonzales, Paper Tiger, Sesped, Jay Scarlett, Elliott Yorke (Royalty), Kan Sano, Onra and many more.
Over 40 international artists have donated music for the Nihon Kizuna compilation in aid of the Japan disaster relief effort. Nihon Kizuna, or 日本絆 in Japanese roughly translates as ‘bond of friendship with Japan’.
Full details and more at www.nihonkizuna.com
Tracklist for teaser mix:
Danny Drive Thru - Prescience
Ernest Gonzales - Beneath The Surface
Mus.sck - Happiness Is The Best Face Lift
Nightwave - Hosukai Dream
Rudi Zygadlo - Perdu
Tatsuki - Mirror In Bologna
Kan Sano - Bless
Jay Scarlett - The Rising Sun
Kuedo - Zap
Primus Luta & Lonesome D - Lockdown
Pete SasQwax - Aggro A Go Go
Takuma Kanaiwa - Senpo World
Throwing Snow - The Luck Without
Elliott Yorke - Wormhole Squirm
Emika - Count Backwards
2phast - Japan
F.A.M.E - Real Surreal
Kper - Chotto
Kid Kanevil - One For Tokyo
[audio presentation]
The compilation will be available to buy from approx. 3pm GMT on March 18, 2011.
Featuring Kode 9, Kuedo, Rudi Zygadlo, Broken Haze, Circulations Records, All City Records, Daisuke Tanabe, Yosi Horikawa, XLII, Memory 9, Ninja Tune, Kid Kanevil, Om Unit, Paul White, One Handed Music, BD1982, Illum Sphere, Fink, Emika, Mux Mool, Ernest Gonzales, Paper Tiger, Sesped, Jay Scarlett, Elliott Yorke (Royalty), Kan Sano, Onra and many more.
Over 40 international artists have donated music for the Nihon Kizuna compilation in aid of the Japan disaster relief effort. Nihon Kizuna, or 日本絆 in Japanese roughly translates as ‘bond of friendship with Japan’.
Full details and more at www.nihonkizuna.com
Tracklist for teaser mix:
Danny Drive Thru - Prescience
Ernest Gonzales - Beneath The Surface
Mus.sck - Happiness Is The Best Face Lift
Nightwave - Hosukai Dream
Rudi Zygadlo - Perdu
Tatsuki - Mirror In Bologna
Kan Sano - Bless
Jay Scarlett - The Rising Sun
Kuedo - Zap
Primus Luta & Lonesome D - Lockdown
Pete SasQwax - Aggro A Go Go
Takuma Kanaiwa - Senpo World
Throwing Snow - The Luck Without
Elliott Yorke - Wormhole Squirm
Emika - Count Backwards
2phast - Japan
F.A.M.E - Real Surreal
Kper - Chotto
Kid Kanevil - One For Tokyo
[audio presentation]
Friday 18 March 2011
Champions League Drawing
Quarter Final:
Real Madrid - Tottenham Hotspur
FC Chelsea - Manchester United
FC Barcelona - Schachtar Donezk
Inter Mailand - FC Schalke 04
Half Final:
Inter Mailand/Schalke 04 - Chelsea/Manchester United
Real Madrid/Tottenham Hotspur - Barcelona/Donezk
Real Madrid - Tottenham Hotspur
FC Chelsea - Manchester United
FC Barcelona - Schachtar Donezk
Inter Mailand - FC Schalke 04
Half Final:
Inter Mailand/Schalke 04 - Chelsea/Manchester United
Real Madrid/Tottenham Hotspur - Barcelona/Donezk
Booker T & The Roots Cover Lauryn Hill's 'Everything Is Everything'
In this sneak preview of Booker T's forthcoming album The Road From Memphis, the legendary keyboardist teams up with the Roots to perform a funky, hard-charging instrumental version of Lauryn Hill's hit "Everything Is Everything." The Road From Memphis, which hits stores on May 10th, will also include collaborations with Lou Reed, Yim Yames of My Morning Jacket, Sharon Jones and Matt Berninger of the National.
via Rolling Stone
Fresh riots at Australia's Christmas Island centre
Australian police have fired tear gas to subdue rioting asylum seekers at the Christmas Island detention centre following days of unrest.
Police reinforcements were flown to the island on Thursday after about 250 detainees set fire to buildings and attacked security staff. Inmates say they are protesting against living conditions and the time it takes to process their asylum applications.
Some asylum seekers have been reportedly held for 18 months.
Christmas Island, off the north-west coast of Western Australia, is home to more than 2,500 asylum seekers.
The centre is overcrowded following a steady surge of asylum seekers arriving by boat in Australia's northern waters.
More than 6,500 arrived in Australia by boat last year, mostly from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Iraq.
'In crisis' Bricks and concrete blocks were thrown by protesters and they destroyed two compounds at the prison-like centre, police said.
The incident was the latest in almost a week of similar riots and break-outs at the facility.
"How can you expect our officials to process applications for asylum when that sort of thing is happening?" he said in a televised statement, adding that there would be no relaxation of the rules.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said police were firmly back in control at the centre.
"Last night buildings were damaged, fires were lit and there were violent approaches to the Australian Federal Police," he said.
The authorities used tear gas and "beanbag" bullets - which have been described as mini beanbags fired out of a gun-like weapon - to bring the protesters under control.
Mr Bowen said another 70 police were being sent the island to bolster the 118-strong force already there.
The Immigration Department announced this week it had transferred almost 100 asylum seekers from Christmas Island to Darwin, following the continued unrest.
Another 500 asylum seekers may be transferred to Darwin from the island in coming weeks, ABC reported.
Mr Bowen said overcrowding and long delays were contributing to a level of frustration which had contributed "significant and serious" incidents at Christmas Island.
Earlier this month, the government announced it would build a new immigration detention centre in the northern city of Darwin to relieve overcrowding on Christmas Island.
The conservative opposition believes harsher measures must be taken to deter more boats from arriving with more asylum-seekers.
Opposition leader Tony Abbott said the detention system was "in crisis".
@'BBC'
Livestream: NHK-TV - Japanese News
Official NHK WORLD TV live on USTREAM.
NHK WORLD TV is an English language 24-hour international news and information channel from Japan
Birgitta Jonsdottir: My Twitter case and 'thoughtcrime'
We are at critical point when it comes to freedom of information and speech. If we don’t act now it might be too late in a years’ time. Everything happens so fast in the realm of the Internet -- our rights are eroding every day at an alarming speed. I urgently suggest and call upon everyone who cares for their rights to their content online to join me in fighting for these rights.
I am calling for a joint action to demand that all social media sites that host our information in the USA will notify all of their users that they don’t have any rights to defend themselves except through these sites but not as individuals. I want to know if Facebook, Google and Twitter are willing battle for every one of us against unwarranted and sometimes secret demands to our information from the U.S. government. If they can’t make that pledge we will either leave them or ask them to change users’ terms or demand that authorities recognize our rights to defend ourselves.
Here are a few examples that I find unsettling:
Google hosts our entire history of searching and they create a profile of every one of us as consumers so that they can make us targeted costumers for individually directed ads. This is why Google can maintain their services for free.
If authorities get access to this profiling – do you feel comfortable that they do? Consider this scenario: You are doing research on terrorists or the drug culture for an article or essay – all of your searching is now part of your profile. It is easy to build a very damning and erroneous profile of you simply based on your innocent research.
Many users do not understand that they are giving away all control of their web usage statistics. Personal data can be used against you in secret! This is very dangerous to those, like me, who are activists, journalists and researchers. It equally endangers the merely curious.
All our emails can be exposed and handed over. Every email you write is an open postcard for authorities to read whenever they choose.Every move you make on Facebook can be used against you and as my case proved – we now know we have no right whatsoever to stop it even if we were to stop using these sites today. All our information is already stored there.
In George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, a “thoughtcrime” was an illegal type of thought.Have we finally reached the sad state of affairs where our written communication, indeed our very thoughts are seen by an increasingly surveillance-obsessed totalitarian state as “thoughtcrimes”? Is this the kind of world we would wish for our children?
In the next few days I will work to gather as many as supporters as possible to be part of this joint action for our rights as users of social media. It will be an effort to our privacy rights and the right to defend our personal content online. Drop me an email if you have ideas on how to take this further so we may make a shockwave of change.
Together we can stop this unjust development.
Birgitta Jonsdottir
Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media
The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.
A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to develop what is described as an "online persona management service" that will allow one US serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world.
The project has been likened by web experts to China's attempts to control and restrict free speech on the internet. Critics are likely to complain that it will allow the US military to create a false consensus in online conversations, crowd out unwelcome opinions and smother commentaries or reports that do not correspond with its own objectives.
The discovery that the US military is developing false online personalities – known to users of social media as "sock puppets" – could also encourage other governments, private companies and non-government organisations to do the same.
The Centcom contract stipulates that each fake online persona must have a convincing background, history and supporting details, and that up to 50 US-based controllers should be able to operate false identities from their workstations "without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries".
Centcom spokesman Commander Bill Speaks said: "The technology supports classified blogging activities on foreign-language websites to enable Centcom to counter violent extremist and enemy propaganda outside the US."
He said none of the interventions would be in English, as it would be unlawful to "address US audiences" with such technology, and any English-language use of social media by Centcom was always clearly attributed. The languages in which the interventions are conducted include Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto.
Once developed, the software could allow US service personnel, working around the clock in one location, to respond to emerging online conversations with any number of co-ordinated Facebook messages, blogposts, tweets, retweets, chatroom posts and other interventions. Details of the contract suggest this location would be MacDill air force base near Tampa, Florida, home of US Special Operations Command.
Centcom's contract requires for each controller the provision of one "virtual private server" located in the United States and others appearing to be outside the US to give the impression the fake personas are real people located in different parts of the world.
It also calls for "traffic mixing", blending the persona controllers' internet usage with the usage of people outside Centcom in a manner that must offer "excellent cover and powerful deniability".
The multiple persona contract is thought to have been awarded as part of a programme called Operation Earnest Voice (OEV), which was first developed in Iraq as a psychological warfare weapon against the online presence of al-Qaida supporters and others ranged against coalition forces. Since then, OEV is reported to have expanded into a $200m programme and is thought to have been used against jihadists across Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East.
OEV is seen by senior US commanders as a vital counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation programme. In evidence to the US Senate's armed services committee last year, General David Petraeus, then commander of Centcom, described the operation as an effort to "counter extremist ideology and propaganda and to ensure that credible voices in the region are heard". He said the US military's objective was to be "first with the truth".
This month Petraeus's successor, General James Mattis, told the same committee that OEV "supports all activities associated with degrading the enemy narrative, including web engagement and web-based product distribution capabilities".
Centcom confirmed that the $2.76m contract was awarded to Ntrepid, a newly formed corporation registered in Los Angeles. It would not disclose whether the multiple persona project is already in operation or discuss any related contracts.
Nobody was available for comment at Ntrepid.
In his evidence to the Senate committee, Gen Mattis said: "OEV seeks to disrupt recruitment and training of suicide bombers; deny safe havens for our adversaries; and counter extremist ideology and propaganda." He added that Centcom was working with "our coalition partners" to develop new techniques and tactics the US could use "to counter the adversary in the cyber domain".
According to a report by the inspector general of the US defence department in Iraq, OEV was managed by the multinational forces rather than Centcom.
Asked whether any UK military personnel had been involved in OEV, Britain's Ministry of Defence said it could find "no evidence". The MoD refused to say whether it had been involved in the development of persona management programmes, saying: "We don't comment on cyber capability."
OEV was discussed last year at a gathering of electronic warfare specialists in Washington DC, where a senior Centcom officer told delegates that its purpose was to "communicate critical messages and to counter the propaganda of our adversaries".
Persona management by the US military would face legal challenges if it were turned against citizens of the US, where a number of people engaged in sock puppetry have faced prosecution.
Last year a New York lawyer who impersonated a scholar was sentenced to jail after being convicted of "criminal impersonation" and identity theft.
It is unclear whether a persona management programme would contravene UK law. Legal experts say it could fall foul of the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981, which states that "a person is guilty of forgery if he makes a false instrument, with the intention that he or another shall use it to induce somebody to accept it as genuine, and by reason of so accepting it to do or not to do some act to his own or any other person's prejudice". However, this would apply only if a website or social network could be shown to have suffered "prejudice" as a result.
Nick Fielding and Ian Cobain @'The Guardian'
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