{"id":46327,"date":"2013-06-29T04:50:37","date_gmt":"2013-06-29T03:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/snowden-nsa-blackmail\/46327\/"},"modified":"2013-06-29T04:50:37","modified_gmt":"2013-06-29T03:50:37","slug":"snowden-nsa-blackmail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/snowden-nsa-blackmail\/","title":{"rendered":"Snowden, NSA, Blackmail"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n by Jon Rappoport
<\/span>Jon
\n Rappoport’s Blog<\/a><\/i><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Recently
\n by Jon Rappoport: NSA,
\n the Secret AT&T Spy Room, 2\u00a0Israeli Companies, and Loss of American\u00a0Privacy<\/a><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n \"\"<\/a>
\n <\/p>\n


\n The NSA is spying on everybody. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

That includes
\n a major, major, prime target: Congress.<\/span><\/p>\n

So imagine
\n this conversation taking place, in a car, on a lonely road outside
\n Washington, late at night. The speakers are Congressman X and a
\n private operative representing a covert unit inside the NSA:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWell,
\n Congressman, do you remember January 6th? A Monday afternoon, a
\n men\u2019s room in the park off\u2014\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat
\n the hell are you talking about!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA stall
\n in the men\u2019s room. The kid. He was wearing white high-tops.
\n A Skins cap. T-shirt. Dark hair. Scar across his left cheek.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJesus.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have
\n very good audio and video. Anytime you want to watch it, let me
\n know.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Dead silence.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat
\n do you want?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRight
\n now, Congressman? We want you to come down hard on Snowden. Press
\n it. He\u2019s a traitor. He should tried and convicted.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Congressmen
\n pulls himself together:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,
\n well, there\u2019s another side to this story. If Snowden gets enough
\n support, if the wave rises high enough, the NSA could take a hit.
\n I know a dozen Washington players who\u2019d like that very much.
\n They\u2019re pissed off. They don\u2019t like to be spied on. It\u2019s
\n possible Snowden was their guy from the beginning. I couldn\u2019t
\n say\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s
\n make a deal. That ends up being the topic of this and other similar
\n conversations inside the Beltway.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSenator,
\n we know about the underage cheerleader in Ohio. Your trip there
\n in 2012, just before the election.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLook,
\n you\u2019ve brought this up before. But now I\u2019ve got a trump
\n card to play. Ed Snowden. This whole scandal can escalate like a
\n tornado in Kansas, or it can die down\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s
\n make a deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you want
\n to see this starkly played out in a fictional series, watch Netflix\u2019s
\n House of Cards<\/i><\/a>. For House Majority Whip, Frank Underwood,
\n substitute the NSA. Track what happens to Congressman Peter Russo,
\n and you have a rough approximation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s
\n another vector. A Congressman gets a visit from his favorite lobbyist,
\n who works for a private defense contractor in the Congressman\u2019s
\n home state:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCongressman,
\n here\u2019s the thing. The NSA is an integral part of our nation\u2019s
\n defense system. Right? This Snowden thing is messy. We want it to
\n go away.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt may
\n not go away. I\u2019m not some kind of traffic cop who can put up
\n his hand and stop the tide.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand
\n that. I was just talking to XXX at NSA, and he\u2019d really appreciate
\n your help on this. Slam this bastard Snowden. Make him into the
\n worst scumbag in the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if
\n I do?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYour
\n offshore account in Panama will remain protected. That\u2019s what
\n XXX wanted me to tell you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Calling in
\n markers. Putting on pressure. Let\u2019s make a deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re
\n a Congressman or a Senator, and you know NSA is spying on you, because
\n it\u2019s spying on everyone in the Congress, who\u2019s your potential
\n best friend?<\/span><\/p>\n

Somebody who
\n can go up against the NSA.<\/span><\/p>\n

And who might
\n that be?<\/span><\/p>\n

The CIA.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not
\n perfect, but it\u2019s the best you can do. For years, the CIA has
\n been watching the transformation of intelligence-gathering. The
\n CIA been participating in that transformation: from humans using
\n sources to obtain crucial data, to computers doing blanket-spying.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s
\n the trend. It\u2019s inescapable.<\/span><\/p>\n

The big problem
\n for the CIA is: their specialty is human intell. And when they go
\n to computers, they\u2019re second rate, behind the massive NSA machine.<\/span><\/p>\n

Federal budget
\n money for spying has been flowing in greater amounts to NSA and
\n away from CIA.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is one
\n of the key elements of the turf war between CIA and NSA.<\/span><\/p>\n

So if you\u2019re
\n a Congressman, you go to a friend in the CIA and you have a chat
\n about \u201cthe NSA problem.\u201d How can you get NSA off your
\n back? Your CIA friend has his own concerns about NSA.<\/span><\/p>\n

He tells you
\n in confidence: \u201cLook, maybe we can help you. We know a lot
\n about the NSA. We have good people. You might say one of our jobs
\n is watching the watchers at NSA, to, uh, make sure they don\u2019t
\n go too far in their spying.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This sounds
\n interesting. If you have to sell your soul, you\u2019d rather sell
\n it to the CIA than the NSA. It\u2019s a judgment call.<\/span><\/p>\n

And now\u2026you
\n read about Ed Snowden blowing a hole in the NSA. You take note of
\n the fact that Snowden worked for the CIA. He worked for them in
\n Geneva. Then he left for the private sector and got himself assigned
\n to the NSA.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hmm. Maybe
\n you have some cause for optimism.<\/span><\/p>\n

You, the Congressman,
\n don\u2019t give a damn about the NSA spying on all Americans all
\n the time. You couldn\u2019t care less about that. You just don\u2019t
\n want NSA looking over your own shoulder.<\/span><\/p>\n

You know the
\n incredibly na\u00c3\u00afve American public would never imagine what\u2019s
\n going on behind the scenes, with CIA, NSA, and Congress. The yokels
\n and rubes in America actually believe their Congressional representatives
\n are, well, representing them in Washington.<\/span><\/p>\n

This fact is
\n good. It means privacy for you: you can try to work out your problems
\n without public scrutiny. You can play all the necessary games to
\n hide your own secrets and crimes, and you can do it in back rooms.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unless those
\n bastards at NSA decide to leak one of your embarrassing secrets.
\n That\u2019s why you need your friend at CIA.<\/span><\/p>\n

And now, again,
\n you look at the recent article and see that Ed Snowden worked for
\n the CIA. You hope he still is. You hope this a signal from the CIA
\n that they\u2019re taking a battering ram to the NSA.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some schmuck
\n reporter asks you about the current NSA scandal and you say, \u201cOf
\n course we have to protect classified data, in order to prevent terrorist
\n attacks. But at the same time, we need to respect the Bill of Rights.
\n People can\u2019t go around spying on anyone for no reason.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019re
\n sending your own signal.<\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019re
\n tipping your CIA guy. You appreciate his help, if in fact he\u2019s
\n helping you. You can\u2019t ask him directly. If you did, he\u2019d
\n never give you a straight answer. But just in case\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

As for the
\n na\u00c3\u00afve rubes in your home state, the voters, you don\u2019t
\n give them a second thought. They\u2019re not on your radar. They\u2019re
\n merely clusters of polling data, and you\u2019ll look at the data
\n when election comes around again. They don\u2019t have a clue about
\n how the game is played, and they never will.<\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019re
\n representing two defense contractors, a pharmaceutical company,
\n a big AG corporation, and a bank. Those are your only true constituents.
\n You give them all the time they need.<\/span><\/p>\n

To keep those
\n relationships on track, you only need to hide your peccadillos from
\n embarrassing exposure. The hooker in DC, the bank account in Panama,
\n the influence you used to move a sizable donation to a university
\n where you intend to teach when you retire.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are only
\n two things you really need to think about in your job. First, what
\n happens when your Party leaders come down the hall and tell you
\n which way you\u2019re going to vote on a bill\u2014and you know
\n your vote is going to upset one of your key constituents back home.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s
\n a tricky situation. But you\u2019ve been successful in keeping feathers
\n from being ruffled. That pharmaceutical company understands you
\n can\u2019t side with their interests every single time.<\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019ve
\n got to go with your Party. The Pharma boys don\u2019t like it, but
\n they get it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Matrix
\n Revealed<\/span><\/p>\n

The other thing
\n you\u2019ve got to think about is darker. Nobody is going to give
\n you stats on it, because stats don\u2019t exist. Here\u2019s how
\n it shakes out:<\/span><\/p>\n

How many people
\n in Congress are so controlled by the NSA that they\u2019d never
\n try to break out? How many people, with how many secrets, are so
\n blackmailed, they\u2019d never dare go up against NSA?<\/span><\/p>\n

This is an
\n important calculation. The battle might already be lost. You might
\n not stand a chance. Maybe nobody can help you. Maybe you can\u2019t
\n escape.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe you shouldn\u2019t
\n even hint that NSA has overstepped its legal boundaries by spying
\n on Americans.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s
\n the conundrum that keeps you up at night.<\/span><\/p>\n

What if the
\n spies spying on their own government are running the government
\n beyond the ability of anyone to stop them?<\/span><\/p>\n

You don\u2019t
\n give a damn about what this would mean for America. You only care
\n about what it means for you and your secrets.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe this
\n is the jail you\u2019re in for the rest of your life.<\/span><\/p>\n

When you\u2019re
\n back in your home state showing your face and giving speeches, and
\n a voter comes up to you and voices a concern about his dwindling
\n paycheck, his house payment, his endangered pension\u2026and when
\n you nod and gaze out at the horizon, as as if to pluck a magic answer
\n from the aether, you\u2019re really thinking about the conundrum.<\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019re
\n thinking about the life sentence you\u2019re serving in the Surveillance
\n State.<\/span><\/p>\n

And that night,
\n in your hotel room, you get down on your knees and pray that Ed
\n Snowden is still working for the CIA.<\/span><\/p>\n

June
\n 29, 2013<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Jon
\n Rappoport runs No More
\n Fake News<\/a>. The author of an explosive collection, <\/i>The
\n Matrix Revealed<\/a>, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional
\n seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer
\n Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years,
\n writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch,
\n <\/i>LA Weekly, <\/i>Spin Magazine, <\/i>Stern, and other
\n newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Copyright
\n \u00a9 2013 <\/span>Jon
\n Rappoport<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The
\n Best of Jon Rappoport<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/a>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

Republished with permission from:: Lew Rockwell<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Jon RappoportJon Rappoport’s Blog Recently by Jon Rappoport: NSA, the Secret AT&T Spy Room, 2\u00a0Israeli Companies, and Loss of American\u00a0Privacy The NSA is spying on everybody. That includes a major, major, prime target: Congress. So imagine this conversation taking place, in a car, on a lonely road outside Washington, late at night. The speakers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-46327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}