“…by means of ever more effective methods of mind-manipulation, the democracies will change their nature; the quaint old forms — elections, parliaments, Supreme Courts and all the rest — will remain.
The underlying substance will be a new kind of totalitarianism. All the traditional names, all the hallowed slogans will remain exactly what they were in the good old days. Democracy and freedom will be the theme of every broadcast and editorial. Meanwhile the ruling oligarchy and its highly trained elite of soldiers, policemen, thought-manufacturers and mind-manipulators will quietly run the show as they see fit.” – Aldous Huxley
“We are building the greatest weapon for oppression in the history of man, yet its directors exempt themselves from accountability.” -Edward Snowden
Citizenfour is an Academy Award-winning documentary about Edward Snowden, former CIA employee and NSA contractor and how he exposed the NSA for its nefarious data collection techniques on not just Americans, but the entire globe.
Being a systems administrator gave Snowden access to top secret information that a typical NSA employee would not have, thus exposing him to various segments of compartmentalized data that pieced together a bigger picture.
It’s eye opening, not only for its implications on the future of society but how it pulls back the curtain on the lies of the Obama administration and the propaganda tactics that duped millions.
Directed by Laura Poitra, she states that Citizenfour is the third part of a trilogy about America post 9/11. Laura was Snowden’s first successful contact in the operation to blow the whistle on the NSA. She states that because of her work she’s been put on a watchlist and at the end of the movie it is revealed that over 1.2 million individuals are on the watchlist. This author is possibly one of them, and so could you be too.
This documentary is well made, so well made in fact it almost feels staged. But in the face of any doubt the film successfully contributes to the work of all the countless revolutionaries in the world who are working to expose government corruption and salvage any hope of freedom.
Introduce Glenn Greenwald, lawyer and journalist. Working with The Guardian, a British newspaper, he is called on to interview Snowden and publish the leaked information that Snowden presented.
Introduce William Binney, former high ranking NSA official who turned whistleblower. In the beginning of Citizenfour he explains how the intelligence agencies began, after 9/11, to actively spy on every individual in America. This was initially done by extracting all of the telecom data from companies like AT&T, who provided 320 million records on private citizens EVERYDAY. I knew there was a reason I despise that company.
He also states that Nancy Pelosi was briefed on these operations, Mrs. ‘Plausible Deniability’ herself. Remember that if you still go to the polls, and keep some of these programs in mind as well:
Special Source Operations (SSO)
Presidential Policy Directive 20
Tempora
Introduce Jacob Applebaum. The scene where he speaks for the benefit of Occupy Wall Street activists on how to deal with being the victims of surveillance is quite chilling. He calls them ‘canaries in the coal mine’ because they are the new form of policy on how government will deal with dissidents.
His explanation of meta-data is really worth viewing. It seems like such a benign term but the truth is more troubling. ‘Linkability’ is the term used to ascribe any piece of data that can be traced to track your activities, e.g. when you make a purchase with your debit card and then use your cell phone you can be tracked on where you go, what you buy and who you spend your time with; this information will be gathered and ascribed to your profile for the rest of your life. You’ll have to keep your nose clean.
Check out Applebaum’s lecture at the Security Summit 2014.
Could Snowden and the leaked data simply be another propaganda tactic by the system to implement more control through fear? Has this all been contrived as another distraction to hide the ineptitude and impotence of a dying empire by giving the illusion of omniscience? Critical skepticism is important to maintain throughout.
It’s real easy to prey on a handful of people and make it look like this can happen to everybody. It’s important to remember that the secret society controlled government does not hold the upper hand…we do. This could all change tomorrow should we decide it. But first, people have got to get mad (thank you, Howard Beale).
I highly recommend Citizenfour, especially going into election season. If these points aren’t addressed, it’s business as usual.
Look for another new movie called Snowden to be released on December 25th, 2015. Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play the role of Edward Snowden and will be directed by Academy Award-winner Oliver Stone.
