position:military contractor

Dernier rapport de « Inspector General for #Afghanistan Reconstruction » (SIGAR) : les #talibans, les trafiquants de drogue et les contractuels privés des #Etats-Unis ne se sont jamais aussi bien portés

The Taliban is stronger now than at any time since Afghanistan war
▻https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2018/11/1/afghan-forces-losing-kabul-control-to-taliban-us-watchdog

“From the period of May 1 to the most current data as of October 1, 2018, the average number of casualties the (Afghan forces) suffered is the greatest it has ever been during like periods,” it said. 

The report also noted that “the Taliban now controls more territory than at any time since 2001”.

Afghanistan : le contrôle des autorités au plus bas depuis 2015, selon un rapport - L’Orient-Le Jour
▻https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1141602/afghanistan-le-controle-des-autorites-au-plus-bas-depuis-2015-selon-u

Military contractor received $1.6 billion to advise Afghans but results unknown | Ottawa Citizen
▻https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/military-contractor-received-1-6-billion-to-advise-afghans-but-result

https://postmediaottawacitizen2.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/afghanistan-1-e1508788192527.jpg

The Afghan mission continues to be a money pit for the U.S. government and a cash cow for private military contractors. On Wednesday, the U.S. government’s Afghan mission watchdog produced a report on the Pentagon program to advise the Afghan Ministry of Defence (MOD) and the Afghan Ministry of the Interior (MOI).

Afghanistan : un rapport déplore le cuisant échec de Washington dans la lutte contre l’opium — RT en français
▻https://francais.rt.com/international/55077-afghanistan-rapport-denonce-retentissant-echec-washington-dans-lu

Washington a dépensé 8,8 milliards de dollars depuis 2002 contre le trafic de drogue, selon un organisme public américain. Résultat ? La production d’opium a connu un essor rapide, permettant aux talibans de tenir tête à Kaboul.

Connecting Cambridge Analytica, Mercers, Steve Bannon, Nigel Farage, Donald Trump And Russia – Gronda Morin
▻https://grondamorin.com/2017/07/24/connecting-cambridge-analytica-mercers-steve-bannon-nigel-farage-donald

https://grondamorin.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/social-engineering-maxresdefault.jpg?w=1200

On May 20, 2017/ last updated on June 14, 2017 Carole Cadwalladr of the Guardian (The Observer) penned the following exposé, “The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked.”

Excerpts:

“This is not just a story about social psychology and data analytics. It has to be understood in terms of a military contractor using military strategies on a civilian population. Us. David Miller, a professor of sociology at Bath University and an authority in psyops and propaganda, says it is “an extraordinary scandal that this should be anywhere near a democracy. It should be clear to voters where information is coming from, and if it’s not transparent or open where it’s coming from, it raises the question of whether we are actually living in a democracy or not.”

“Paul and David, another ex-Cambridge Analytica employee, were working at the firm when it introduced mass data-harvesting to its psychological warfare techniques. “It brought psychology, propaganda and technology together in this powerful new way,” David tells me.”

#boycott_facebook versus #deletefacebook

July 24, 2017

Uh, Did Someone Leave US Surveillance Drone Feeds Live on the Public Internet ?
▻https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/did-someone-leave-us-surveillance-drone-feeds-live-on-the-public-i

If it isn’t a live feed, then what is it ? A simulation ? A prerecorded loop ? The US government apparently recently streamed, possibly live on the public internet, footage from at least one military-style drone flying over Florida’s panhandle. The drone appeared to be flying thousands of feet over the coast, aiming its high-tech camera at random civilian boaters as part of what could have been some kind of test—or maybe a demonstration by a military contractor. The footage is still up on (...)

#drone #aérien #frontières #surveillance #vidéo-surveillance

The great British Brexit robbery : how our democracy was hijacked
►https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/07/the-great-british-brexit-robbery-hijacked-democracy

A shadowy global operation involving big data, billionaire friends of Trump and the disparate forces of the Leave campaign influenced the result of the EU referendum. As Britain heads to the polls again, is our electoral process still fit for purpose?

Très longue enquête. Je note des extraits qui me paraissent particulièrement pertinents.

#surveillance #big_data

There are three strands to this story. How the foundations of an authoritarian surveillance state are being laid in the US. How British democracy was subverted through a covert, far-reaching plan of coordination enabled by a US billionaire. And how we are in the midst of a massive land grab for power by billionaires via our data. Data which is being silently amassed, harvested and stored. Whoever owns this data owns the future.

(…)

#Psyops

“That was before we became this dark, dystopian data company that gave the world Trump,” a former #Cambridge_Analytica employee who I’ll call Paul tells me. “It was back when we were still just a psychological warfare firm.”

Was that really what you called it, I ask him. Psychological warfare? “Totally. That’s what it is. Psyops. Psychological operations – the same methods the military use to effect mass sentiment change. It’s what they mean by winning ‘hearts and minds’. We were just doing it to win elections in the kind of developing countries that don’t have many rules.”

(…)

Finding “persuadable” voters is key for any campaign and with its treasure trove of data, Cambridge Analytica could target people high in neuroticism, for example, with images of immigrants “swamping” the country. The key is finding emotional triggers for each individual voter.

(…)

Tamsin Shaw, an associate professor of philosophy at New York University, helps me understand the context. She has researched the US military’s funding and use of psychological research for use in torture. “The capacity for this science to be used to manipulate emotions is very well established. This is military-funded technology that has been harnessed by a global plutocracy and is being used to sway elections in ways that people can’t even see, don’t even realise is happening to them,” she says. “It’s about exploiting existing phenomenon like nationalism and then using it to manipulate people at the margins. To have so much data in the hands of a bunch of international plutocrats to do with it what they will is absolutely chilling.

(…)

Complexe militaro-industriel

What’s been lost in the US coverage of this “data analytics” firm is the understanding of where the firm came from: deep within the military-industrial complex. (…) SCL/Cambridge Analytica was not some startup created by a couple of guys with a Mac PowerBook. It’s effectively part of the British defence establishment. This is not just a story about social psychology and data analytics. It has to be understood in terms of a military contractor using military strategies on a civilian population.

#Facebook

Facebook was the source of the psychological insights that enabled Cambridge Analytica to target individuals. It was also the mechanism that enabled them to be delivered on a large scale.

L’enquête détaille enfin comme différentes structures de la campagne pour le Brexit ont toutes acheté discrètement les services de Agregate IQ, entreprise canadienne appartenant à #Robert_Mercer et affiliée à Cambridge_Analytica.

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/108bfed583ac3f3f06fb7da9eab52c8f8fa6c410/0_0_3712_2779/master/3712.jpg?w=800&q=20&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&dpr=2&s=6ddc61325ea2ea6e4dfb12c2dd8b4e38

Pando: #Tor Project: The super secure anonymity network that will definitely keep you safe (as long as hackers don’t break the rules)
▻https://pando.com/2015/12/18/tor-project-super-secure-anonymity-network-will-definitely-keep-you-safe-long-hackers-dont-break-rules/c1b7de17171caa28f799fbab65bcd554d445c3dc

There have been plenty of people dumb enough to believe Tor — (...) a sad example of what happens when you mix toxic libertarian ideology, military technology and the snake oil promises of techno-liberation.

The Tor Project is looking to clean up its act by hiring a high profile executive director: Shari Steele, who ran EFF for more than a decade and is highly connected in Silicon Valley and Washington DC. But even this high level management shakeup won’t fix the core problem of the Tor Project: that it runs on deception, false promises and heaps of libertarian bullshit.

#silicon_army

““They have enormous opportunities to cash in on their Washington experience, sometimes in ways that fund further innovation and other times in ways that might be very troubling to many people,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director at the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. “Both sides like to maintain a myth of distant relations. The ties have been in place for a long time.””

▻http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/technology/the-pentagon-as-start-up-incubator.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1&

#siliconvalley #hacker #CIA #NSA #FBI #sécuritéinformatique