Larry Parks, Executive Director, FAME | "With the monetary system we have now, the careful saving of a lifetime can be wiped out in an eyeblink." |
George Bernard Shaw | “You have to choose [as a voter] between trusting to the natural stability of gold and the natural stability of the honesty and intelligence of the members of the Government. And, with due respect for these gentlemen, I advise you, as long as the Capitalist system lasts, to vote for gold.” |
Voltaire (1694-1778) | “Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value ---- zero.” |
Daniel Webster, speech in the Senate, 1833 | “We are in danger of being overwhelmed with irredeemable paper, mere paper, representing not gold nor silver; no sir, representing nothing but broken promises, bad faith, bankrupt corporations, cheated creditors and a ruined people.” |
Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1816 | “I sincerely believe ... that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale.” |
Daniel Webster | "Of all the contrivances for cheating the laboring classes of mankind, none has been more effective than that which deludes them with paper money." |
St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, Review, Nov. 1975, p.22 | "The decrease in purchasing power incurred by holders of money due to inflation imparts gains to the issuers of money--."++ |
Federal Reserve Bank, New York The Story of Banks, p.5. | "Because of 'fractional' reserve system, banks, as a whole, can expand our money supply several times, by making loans and investments."++ |
Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Gold, p. 10 | "Without the confidence factor, many believe a paper money system is liable to collapse eventually."++ |
Federal reserve Bank of New York, I Bet You Thought, p.19 | "Commercial banks create checkbook money whenever they grant a loan, simply by adding new deposit dollars in accounts on their books in exchange for a borrower's IOU."++ |
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Modern Money Mechanics, p.3 | "The actual process of money creation takes place in commercial banks. As noted earlier, demand liabilities of commercial banks are money."++ |
U.S. Supreme Court, Craig v. Missouri, 4 Peters 410. | "Emitting bills of credit, or the creation of money by private corporations, is what is expressly forbidden by Article 1, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution."++ |
James A. Garfield | "Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce."++ |
Frederic Bastiat, The Law | "When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."++ |
Irving Fisher, 100% Money | "Thus, our national circulating medium is now at the mercy of loan transactions of banks, which lend, not money, but promises to supply money they do not possess."++ |
John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1920, page 240 | "If, however, a government refrains from regulations and allows matters to take their course, essential commodities soon attain a level of price out of the reach of all but the rich, the worthlessness of the money becomes apparent, and the fraud upon the public can be concealed no longer." |
John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1920, page 235ff | "Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the Capitalistic System was to debauch the currency. . . Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million can diagnose." |
Ralph M. Hawtrey, former Secretary of Treasury, England | "Banks lend by creating credit. They create the means of payment out of nothing."++ |
Robert H. Hemphill, former credit manager, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta | "Money is the most important subject intellectual persons can investigate and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization may collapse unless it is widely understood and its defects remedied very soon."++ |
Sir Josiah Stamp, former President, Bank of England | "Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money and control credit, and with a flick of a pen they will create enough to buy it back."++ |
Rt. Hon. Reginald McKenna, former Chancellor of Exchequer, England | "Those who create and issue money and credit direct the policies of government and hold in the hollow of their hands the destiny of the people."++ |
John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson | "All the perplexities, confusion and distresses in America arise not from defects in the constitution or confederation, nor from want of honor or virtue, as much from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation."++ |
Wm. Jennings Bryan | "Money power denounces, as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes."++ |
George Washington, in letter to J. Bowen, Rhode Island, Jan. 9, 1787 | "Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice."++ |
George Bancroft, A Plea for the Constitution (1886) | "Madison, agreeing with the journal of the convention, records that the grant of power to emit bills of credit was refused by a majority of more than four to one. The evidence is perfect; no power to emit paper money was granted to the legislature of the United States."++ |
Article One, Section Ten, United States Constitution | "No state shall emit bills of credit, make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts, coin money---."++ |
John C. Calhoun, Speech 5/27/1836 | "A power has risen up in the government greater than the people themselves, consisting of many and various powerful interest, combined in one mass; and held together by the cohesive power of the vast surplus in banks." |
Andrew Jackson: To delegation of bankers discussing the Bank Renewal Bill, 1832 | "You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the eternal God, I will rout you out." |
Treasury Secretary Woodin, 3/7/33 | "Where would we be if we had I.O.U.'s scrip and certificates floating all around the country?" Instead he decided to "issue currency against the sound assets of the banks. [As opposed to issuing currency against gold.] The Federal Reserve Act lets us print all we'll need. And it won't frighten the people. It won't look like stage money. It'll be money that looks like real money." [Emphasis added.] (Source: 'Closed for the Holiday: The Bank Holiday of 1933', p20 - Federal Reserve Bank of Boston) |
John Kenneth Galbraith | “The study of money, above all other fields in economics, is one in which complexity is used to disguise truth or to evade truth, not to reveal it.” Money: Whence it came, where it went - 1975, p15 |
John Kenneth Galbraith | “The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled.” Money: Whence it came, where it went - 1975, p29 |
Senator Carter Glass, Author of the Banking Act of 1933 | "Is there any reason why the American people should be taxed to guarantee the debts of banks, any more than they should be taxed to guarantee the debts of other institutions, including merchants, the industries, and the mills of the country?" |
Chief Justice Salmon Chase, formerly Secretary of Treasury in President Lincoln’s administration, in dissent of Knox vs. Lee (The Legal Tender Cases, 1871) | “The legal tender quality [of money] is only valuable for the purposes of dishonesty.” |
Dr. Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, 11/20/2003 | "As long as we issue fiat currency, I see no alternative to a legal tender law." |
John Adams | "All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation." |
Friedrich A. Hayek (1899-1992) Austrian Economist, Author and 1974 Nobel Prize-Winner for Economics | “With the exception only of the period of the gold standard, practically all governments of history have used their exclusive power to issue money to defraud and plunder the people.” |
Dr. Edwin Vieira, FAME Foundation Scholar | "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, and that's good enough." |
Friday, December 16, 2011
Notable Economic Quotes
Root of your Economic Problems
The Root of Your Economic Problems
"The prime function of government is the protection of the different and unequal faculties of men for acquiring property."
JAMES MADISONRising debts and increasing bankruptcies are the result of Congress suspending the free coinage of metals - into money - and switching us to bank credits as our medium of exchange. These acts converted our nation from a wealth monetary system, where people created money for society's benefit through the fruits of their labor, to a monetary system, where now ....
All new money is loaned into circulation as an interest bearing debt. Since this system only creates the principal and never the interest, the debt is always greater than the money supply.
This fraudulently created debt forces American citizens to borrow constantly so the system can function. Eventually, the process becomes unworkable as society, mortgaged to the hilt, can no longer afford to borrow. This debt creates extreme stress for us as we struggle to meet impossible money obligations. The results are: a constantly rising cost-of-living, layoffs, bankruptcies, family breakdown, increased drug and alcohol use, an increase in crime and a general moral breakdown.http://web.archive.org/web/20030416010517/http://darren.lib.utah.edu/money_problem1.htm
The Switch From Wealth to DebtSince 1792, our money has been "switched' from wealth to debt. By changing our money back to wealth, we can reverse the tide of ever increasing prices, taxes, debt , bankruptcies and economic ills that are destroying America and her people. How money is put into circulation is the most important principle. The real issue is not gold and silver vs. paper, not commodity money vs. fiat money, but wealth vs. debt, honesty vs. fraud. Let's follow the trail of United States money, from when it was gold and silver commodity money, put into circulation as a wealth to the people, by the people, to what it has become - a monetized debt, put into circulation by the banks, as interest bearing debts to the people, for the personal profit of bankowners.
The real reason gold and silver coinage initially worked well as money for the people, is that the people produced the gold and silver, a raw resource of the earth, through their labor. The 1792 Coinage Act allowed anyone to take that resource to the United States mint and have it monetized (coined) free of charge. We, the people, furnished our own money, based on our production, as a wealth to ourselves and spent it into circulation as a benefit to all of society with no debt attached to it.
Gold and silver are very heavy metals and not as convenient to carry as paper money. If we didn't want to carry the gold and silver coins around with us we could take them to the United States Treasury's National Bank and store/deposit the coins. The Treasury would issue depositors gold and silver certificates as receipts. They stated on their face that there was X amount of gold or silver coin on deposit in the Treasury, payable to the bearer on demand. Now, we had paper money. As long as just this principle was followed you still had good, honest, wealth money with no debt, no excessive profit, nor excessive purchasing power to anyone.This 1922 series ten dollar gold certificate is a good example of honest money. The note states on it's face "THIS CERTIFIES THAT THERE HAS BEEN DEPOSITED IN THE TREASURY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TEN DOLLARS IN GOLD COIN PAYABLE TO THE BEARER ON DEMAND" Fully backed and redeemable paper money that was as good as gold.
However, when someone deposited their gold and silver coins in private non-governmental reserve banks, a totally different principle went into action. The private banks held the coins as a reserve for making new paper money to issue as loans, expanding the paper money supply. Making the new paper money loans equal to 10 times the face value of the coins deposited. This fractional reserve system seemed well and good as the banks raked in huge sums of interest and shared some of the earned interest with depositors. At that point, money switched from wealth to debt. The expanded money supply now had a fiat backing (only a fraction of the paper money was really backed by gold or silver coin).Private Bank Note Money.Because of the popularity and tactics of these private non-governmental banks the United States National Bank established in 1791 by congress was unable to compete and had to be shut down in 1832. From the beginning private banks have been lobbing congress and congress has been deceived into making laws allowing private banks to take control of our money.Americans have lacked this understanding. Lack of understanding is why America is the world's greatest debtor nation with over $26 Trillion in public and private debt at the end of 1990.
On January 24, 1939, Robert H. Hemphill, credit Manager of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta stated:
"If all the bank loans were paid no one would have a bank deposit and there would not be a dollar of coin or currency in circulation. This is a staggering thought. We are completely dependent on the commercial banks. Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation, cash or credit. If the banks create ample synthetic money we are prosperous: if not, we starve. We are absolutely without a permanent money system. When one gets a complete grasp of the picture the tragic absurdity of our hopeless position is almost incredible, but there it is. It (the banking problem) is the most important subject intelligent persons can investigate and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization may collapse unless it becomes widely understood and the defects remedied very soon."
At first glance, private non-governmental banking looks like a good deal for everyone. The banks get more profit. The people can get quicker and easier loans. More capital is available to engage in commerce. Production picks up. But, sooner or later, more and more people can not make their loan payments. An unseen by-product of fractional reserve banking is: it makes a few people very rich, and leaves everyone else constantly in debt (even if you are personally out of debt the taxes you pay are your interest payments on an unpayable public debt). Fractional reserve banking creates compounding, unpayable public and private debt, which causes the cost of living to constantly go up for all Americans.Throughout the nineteenth century, larger banks worked to get laws passed that would consolidate all paper money issuance under the control of just a few. After years of hard lobbying and manipulation, The banking élite made a major leap forward under the guise of a standardized national money. They were successful in 1863 with the passage of the National Banking Act. It allowed newly chartered (privately owned) national banks to create new uniform national bank notes. A few years later their efforts payed off again, getting the federal government to tax state bank notes out of existence. Then in 1873 another triumph in getting the government to stop all free coinage of metals. To fully establish this newly nationalized form of fiat (fraud) money it's creators began switching the backing of paper money from gold and silver to United States Certificates of indebtedness "United States Bonds". Forcing the government to create certificates of debt as security for the paper currency. Real money was removed from circulation first by government mandated confiscation in 1933 then by revaluation in 1973. Our "We the people" owned money was completely replaced with fiat money distributed by the unconstitutional and privately owned Federal Reserve Bank.
This 1914 series one dollar note is a good example of fiat (fraud) money. The note states on it's face "THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK (A private banking corporation) WILL PAY TO THE BEARER ON DEMAND ONE DOLLAR" However, it does not say what this dollar when demanded will be made of, if anything. It also says "SECURED BY UNITED STATES CERTIFICATES OF INDEBTEDNESS" You can now clearly understand why our government and private sector are so deeply in debt. All we use for money is (monetized) DEBTS. The switch from wealth based money to debt-based money was in the final stage of completion. All that was left was to remove all gold and silver based currency out of circulation."I cannot morally blame all Americans for allowing, for instance, the birth of the Federal Reserve System (a private cartel with full control over the issuance of national debt) and the money destruction that has followed. They are simply ignorant about it and don't know what happened or what is happening. They think that prices go up rather than that dollars go down. Unsound money imposes an environment of immorality, which in turn makes people behave in different ways for reasons they know not. Sometimes you can blame immorality for the imposition of bad structures (bad people do it with full knowledge of what they are doing), but sometimes it is simply stupidity. People revere democracy, but democracy ends in plunder by the majority. Are people immoral for supporting democracy? I think rather that they lack a deep understanding of its essence. At a very deep level, I would say that the reason such structures are created is due to both a lack of knowledge and a false morality, which in turn is due to a lack of knowledge."
President of Elliott Wave International
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Friday, December 9, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Friday, September 16, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
E-Verify 'Flags' Obama's Social Security Number
E-Verify 'Flags' Obama's Social Security Number
Fellow Patriot,
Barack Obama’s mysterious Connecticut-based Social Security number does not pass E-Verify.
We even have a copy of the affidavit signed by the private citizen who entered Obama’s Social Security Number into the “Self Check” section of the E-Verify website only to find Obama’s Social Security Number flagged as likely being fraudulent.
As you are probably aware, E-Verify is the electronic system created by U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to verify if prospective employees have the required authorization to work legally in the United States. Recently, we brought it to your attention that Barack Obama was issued a Social Security Number set aside for applicants in Connecticut though there is no record he ever lived in or even had a mailing address in that state.
And let’s not forget, Barack Obama’s Social Security number was issued between 1977 and 1979, yet Obama’s earliest employment reportedly was in 1975 at an ice cream shop in Hawaii…
Now, following the entry of Obama’s Social Security Number into the E-Verify Self Check, the system indicated Obama’s Social Security Number produced a mismatch that warranted a visit to the Social Security Administration to investigate the discrepancy. A closer look at the flag shows the checked reason for the mismatch notice: “SSA record does not verify. Other reason. SSA found a discrepancy in the record.”
After further investigation, we found out that the response is to be interpreted as “Special indicator present.”
As of August 2008, there were nine special indicator codes, eight of which are related to fraud:
- False Identity
- Noncitizen Not in Status
- Multiple SSNs with Different Identities
- Scrambled Earnings with New SSN Assigned
- SSN Obtained Using Fraudulent Documentation
- SSN Assignment Based on Harassment/Abuse/Life Endangerment
- Fictitious Identity
- Fraud – OIG Investigated
- Fraud SSN Misuse
And so the plot thickens…
There has even been a push by conservatives in Washington to mandate that all employers use E-Verify, but so far it has been slow-going on Capitol Hill.
But we’re here to change that.
With the jobs numbers getting worse by the minute and Obama forcing Amnesty down our throats, we need your help.
Here at Minuteman PAC, we’re rallying your fellow Patriots across America to demand a congressional investigation of the E-Verify’s inability to confirm Obama’s Social Security Number and demand the E-Verify mandate.
After all, we U.S. Citizens employ the President of the United States, do we not?
For America,
Minuteman PAC
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Greece Decriminalize Drug Use
Decriminalization of Drug Use
Posted on 02 August 2011 by Ioanna Stergaki
The Greek government made the first big step regarding decriminalization of drug use. Justice Minister Miltiadis Papaioannou presented to the Greek Parliament the basic ideas of a new law concerning drugs. He announced that, for the first time, drug use will be fully decriminalized in Greece, on the condition that the drugs used harm only the behavior and the condition of the user. However, the Minister noted, the possession and supply of drugs and cultivating of cannabis remain punishable actions.
The Minister explained that these actions would be now regarded as misdemeanors, as long as it effects only the user and no others. Minister Papaioannou noted that the law had to be changed because of the minor danger of specific actions. In this way, police will have the ability to deal more quickly and easily with more severe issues. The Minister stressed that the law has a therapeutic approach to the issue and every drug user will be treated as an addicted person who needs help rather than punishment.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
Visa’s “Just Wave and Go” Commercial aka The Human Cattle in a Cashless Society
Monday, 15 August 2011 06:06
'Yes, this is an ideal vision of the future. ** Takes deep breath ** A bunch of brain dead, robotic humans who move and act in sync, to the beat of conformity, giving the dirty look to whoever dares not to be part of the cattle by not using a credit card that is owned by a private company part of the Bilderberg group and that holds billions of people by the balls due to high interests fees on debt which is, by the way, the single most effective way to keep people subjugated to the rule of big bankers.'
LONDON RIOTS
The London Riots and How They Will be Used to the Elite’s Advantage
By VC | August 10th, 2011 | Category: Latest News, Vigilant Reports | 270 commentsOriginally triggered by a case of police brutality, the London riots soon became a generalized expression of malcontent from today’s young proletariat. The cramming of the unprivileged into neighbourhoods resembling ghettos combined with continued police oppression has always been an explosive combination. The Los Angeles riots of 1992 and the French riots of 2010 took place in very similar circumstances. While it is obvious that many rioters have absolutely no political agenda except for the looting of a few bottles of liquor, the riots are nevertheless the accumulated result of years of segregation of the poor and minorities in conjunction with the type of police oppression not found in well-to-do suburban areas.
While the media seems focused on portraying the rioters as a bunch of drunk hoodlums who have nothing else to do, it is obvious to the citizens of the area that the growing tensions with the police would lead to this kind of outburst. Here’s an interview describing the “other side of the story” (I don’t think that the BBC was expecting this kind of response).
Order Out of Chaos
That being said, the London riots might be exactly what the ruling class needed to further a few agendas. The elite’s motto is Ordo Ad Chao, meaning Order Out of Chaos. Time and time again, chaotic situations have been “allowed” – if not totally engineered – by the elite in order to create fear and panic within the general population. The distraught masses then beg the elite for an intervention and a prompt solution. The result of these interventions is almost unequivocally the same: the introduction of rules and regulations disadvantaging the average citizen while giving more (undemocratic) powers to the elite.
The new policies would not normally be accepted by the general population, but due to the panic generated by the crisis, the policies are not only accepted but welcomed with open arms. The Great Depression of 1929 allowing the Rockefellers and the Morgans to hijack the banking system, 9/11 clearing the way for the PATRIOT act, the bailout “crisis” that handed $700 billion of tax-payer money directly to a few favored companies … the same pattern repeats itself continually. Create a crisis, make it last long enough to get the population worried and introduce the solution that was, in fact, part of the agenda all along. And the population falls for it, every single time.
Using mass media, it is easy to create widespread panic. Simply interrupting a TV show with “Breaking News” featuring a red banner at the bottom of the screen and bold letters is enough to raise the collective heartbeat of a nation, and to make it aware of a situation in a matter of minutes. In the days that follow, all media outlets constantly remind the population of this particular situation. The constant hammering makes the situation almost seem as unbearable by the population who hear about it continuously on TV and read about it in the newspapers and the internet. After a while, the average citizen will want just one thing: the awful, nauseating feeling created by the situation to go away, whatever that takes. After the problem has dragged long enough, the media present one or several solutions. Not fully understanding this solution, but tired and annoyed, most people think: “Well, if that’s what it takes for them to shut up about this and move on to something else, then I’m all for it.”
Did the elite allow the London riots to last long enough to create a sentiment of panic? There are already sources stating that the police were ordered to stand by as the riots took place (according an article from the Daily Mail entitled Why police were so soft on London looters: They ‘were ordered to stand and observe’ as capital burned (but in Manchester they were hunting looters within hours). Furthermore, we are already seeing in the media the emergence of a specific agenda and a call to the adoption of specific policies that, predictably, go against the interests of the general public.
The Blackberry Riots – The Underlying Agenda
After a single day or rioting, an obvious agenda emerged in the media and a specific culprit was singled out by the authorities: the privacy of mobile messaging. The same way a picture of bin Laden appeared on TV screens only a few minutes after 9/11, mobile instant messaging was outed as the main cause of the London riots. Several media outlets have even dubbed these events “the Blackberry Riots”. The media, being the right hand of power, steered the attention of the public towards a specific agenda.
According to news sources, the London riots were mainly orchestrated using Blackberry’s instant messenger service (known as BBM), which is a (relatively) private service as the communications are encrypted. Here’s a typical article pointing out Blackberry, this one is from Reuters:
The BlackBerry riots
MP calls for BBM suspension to calm UK riotsA lawmaker called on Tuesday for BlackBerry’s instant messaging service to be suspended after rioters used it to mobilize in London and other British cities.David Lammy, Member of Parliament for Tottenham, where London’s worst riots for decades began on Saturday, appealed on Twitter and on BBC radio for BlackBerry maker Research in Motionto suspend BlackBerry Messenger (BBM).“This is one of the reasons why unsophisticated criminals are outfoxing an otherwise sophisticated police force,” he tweeted. “BBM is different as it is encrypted and police can’t access it.”The riots, in which shops are being looted and cars and buildings set ablaze, spread to Britain’s second-largest city Birmingham and other centres.Politicians and police are blaming the violence on criminals and hooligans but some commentators and local residents say its roots lie in anger over economic hardship in a city where the prospects for many youths are dim.Many of the rioters favour BlackBerry Messenger over Twitter and other social media because its messages are encrypted and private, but the service is widely used and messages can easily be sent to groups.Research In Motion said in a statement on Monday: “As in all markets around the world where BlackBerry is available, we cooperate with local telecommunications operators, law enforcement and regulatory officials.”The company declined to say whether it was handing over chat logs or user details to police.Research In Motion’s Inside BlackBerry blog was hacked on Tuesday by a group going by the name of Teampoison. The group posted a warning to the company not to cooperate with police.“You Will tNOTt assist the UK Police because if u do innocent members of the public who were at the wrong place at the wrong time and owned a blackberry will get charged for no reason at all,” the statement said.“If you do assist the police by giving them chat logs, gps locations, customer information & access to peoples BlackBerryMessengers you will regret it, we have access to your database which includes your employees information; e.g – Addresses, Names, Phone Numbers etc. – now if u assist the police, we tWILLt make this information public and pass it onto rioters,” it said.YOUNGER CLIENTELESameet Kanade, analyst at Northern Securities in Toronto, said: “RIM will need the directive of the UK authorities and the cooperation of the carriers. Lawful intercept is the only valid legal reason that a carrier and handset vendor can intervene.“In terms of actual mechanism, RIM has always claimed that it is unable to de-encrypt/decipher messages routed through the BES or BIS servers. It may be able to disable the routing of messages at best, from what I understand.“Geoff Blaber, analyst with UK telecoms research firm CCS Insight, said: “One option would be to switch it off. But BBM is highly popular and has got a big installed base in the UK.“BlackBerry Messenger, or BBM as it is popularly known, has driven sales to new audiences for RIM in recent years as it expanded from its base as a tool for executives to a more consumer and younger clientele.It has more than 45 million active users worldwide, 70 percent of whom use it daily, sending billions of messages in total every month.Users with data plans can instantly pass text messages, pictures and other files without incurring charges from their network carrier.RIM has got into hot water in the past on the one hand for cooperating with governments seen as repressive, and on the other for not cooperating enough with the security needs of authorities in some countries.Its encrypted services, which it moves over its own servers via telecom carriers, have been blamed for aiding militant attacks in India and for allowing unrelated men and women to communicate in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.In August last year, a source close to talks between RIM and Saudi authorities said the Canadian company had agreed to hand over information that would allow monitoring of BBM.A deal was also reached in the UAE, averting a threatened ban on all BlackBerry services.The company says it cooperates with authorities around the world with a consistent standard.RIM has been relatively willing to provide authorities with access to its consumer services, such as BBM, but says it has no way of allowing monitoring of its enterprise email.In the case of India, RIM gave the authorities access to BlackBerry Messenger services but said it did not have the technical capabilities to provide interception of corporate emails on the popular device.India has demanded access to all BlackBerry services as part of efforts to fight militancy and security threats over the Internet and through telephone communicationsIn London, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stephen Kavanagh of the Metropolitan police said on Tuesday: “Police have got extensive monitoring of this BlackBerry messaging model and actually a lot of people who are seeing these Blackberry messages are forwarding them to the police.“Police did not immediately respond to a request for more details of how they were monitoring message traffic.
After a few days of repetition, the population is convinced: The riots are not the results of inequalities or police brutality; they are the result of too much privacy in mobile communications. This cancer must be stopped. The police, or whomever else that wants to, must be able to monitor all of our communication, at all times, or our cities will burn. This is the message that is being hammered to the public. Do all of the rioters own a Blackberry? I would not think so, but that is not important. The agenda was already set.
Singled out and facing bad publicity, RIM (the company that created the Blackberry) was pressured to violate the privacy of its subscribers and to divulge their personal information. Normally, this would have caused outrage, but now, due to the riots, the the general population believes that it that it is necessary to stop these riots and to prevent other ones from taking place.
The media’s focus on RIM, and the resulting pressure to hand over sensible information to the authorities, lead to the hacking of Blackberry’s official site on August 9th by a group who opposing this sharing of information.
This is the message left by the hackers to RIM:
Dear Rim;You Will _NOT_ assist the UK Police because if u do innocent members of the public who were at the wrong place at the wrong time and owned a blackberry will get charged for no reason at all, the Police are looking to arrest as many people as possible to save themselves from embarrassment… if you do assist the police by giving them chat logs, gps locations, customer information & access to peoples BlackBerry Messengers you will regret it, we have access to your database which includes your employees information; e.g – Addresses, Names, Phone Numbers etc. – now if u assist the police, we _WILL_ make this information public and pass it onto rioters… do you really want a bunch of angry youths on your employees doorsteps? Think about it… and don’t think that the police will protect your employees, the police can’t protect themselves let alone protect others…. if you make the wrong choice your database will be made public, save yourself the embarrassment and make the right choice. don’t be a puppet..p.s – we do not condone in innocent people being attacked in these riots nor do we condone in small businesses being looted, but we are all for the rioters that are engaging in attacks on the police and government… and before anyone says “the blackberry employees are innocent” no they are not! They are the ones that would be assisting the police- TriCk – TeaMp0isoN -
Despite the threats, RIM stated on August 10th that it would fully collaborate with the police force. This means that chat logs, the GPS locations and the customer information stored in RIM’s databases can be used by the police to track down and to prosecute suspected rioters. Caught up in the panic caused by the riots, most Britons will agree with these measures. They do not however realize that dangerous precedents are being created and the net result will be the reduction of privacy and freedom for all and a collective step towards a police state. These kinds of policies can only be introduced during periods of chaos. Instead of causing outrage, the population is actually applauding RIM’s compliance with the British government. Because, after all, what company wants to be on the side of these drunken looters?
Acceptance of a Police State
Dragging out the riots for several days serves another important agenda: the acceptance, and even the welcoming, of police state measures. Every additional day of rioting causes the average citizen to be increasingly favorable to the use of drastic measures by the government. At the time of writing this article, conservative elements of the government are already calling for the imposition of martial law and for the gunning down of rioters on sight, Here’s a poll (produced by NewsCorp’s Sun TV) that perfectly describes how a population can become favorable to oppression when chaos occurs (let’s not forget, of course, that it is possible for Sun TV to have tricked the numbers to give an illusion of consent regarding the use of force).
In Conclusion
If the London riots stemmed from deep social problems involving the exclusion of the unprivileged and police brutality, the powers that are seizing the opportunity to push a specific agenda. Do not be surprised if, in the near future, news of agent provocateurs being hired to incite violence popped up in the news. Violence justifies repression. In other words, the elite needs violence to make its policies acceptable. After just a few days of rioting (which was allowed to continue), a major shift in communication technology was introduced and accepted by the population: chat logs, GPS location and other private information can now be monitored by the authorities for “suspicious activities”. A few more days and the population will be ready to accept martial law and other tactics normally usually used in oppressive third world countries.
To be “for” or “against” the riots is, ultimately, an irrelevant debate. The most important thing to consider is the aftermath and the changes that will affect our nations for years to come. Whose interests will the riots ultimately serve? The poor people of London wanting a bigger piece of the pie? Or the ruling elite wanting to justify more control?
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