by John Galt
June 27, 2009
The death of an Iranian protester. Outside of the members of that protest, the Iranian exiles worldwide, and a few “human rights” socialists, does anyone really care?
No.
The gift we have now and have taken for granted was seen as a “news source” and voice of freedom for exactly one week’s worth of a news cycle after the Iranian election. The mullahs and their fascistic power hungry minions thought they had the off switch to the internet under control but alas, there were gaps. Sadly for the dead protester above, peace in that region and America, they found their holes and have patched them.
Why do I say “sadly for America” you might ask? Simply put we have no influence in that region despite the popular protestations of hypocritical conservatives and allegedly concerned human rights liberals. As I outlined in another commentary here last week we could have changed the story but instead we decided to just depend on the citizens of Iran to take care of things on their own. However this editorial is not about rehashing the failures of thirty years of U.S. foreign policy in the region it is about information control and flow. It is also about this editorial, as every word you read now is subject to the control, review, editing and oversight of a computer, an agent or even a disgruntled local politician looking to make a splash.
Welcome my friends to the Goebbelsnet.
The internet is a fantastic tool. I remember using the original DARPANet (what we called it in college aka ARPANet) and all of us were absolutely fascinated as sophomores trading small bits of data and documents via dedicated lines with other students at UCLA. Ah, those were the days as we received information, printed it up on green bar and then attempting to explain it to family and friends. Fast forward to the early 1990’s and the Bulletin Board craze which lead to America Online and the World Wide Web. Thankfully American capitalism got its hands on the internet first during this period and while 2400 bps sounds slow now back in the mid-1990’s that was smoking when using the original Netscape!
As our now beloved “web” evolved the dangers of free speech became apparent not just to our government but to nations worldwide. Message boards, email, Twitter, Facebook, you name it all appeared and along with cell phone interfaces and once again private enterprise had leaped ahead of the concept of ‘control’ which makes governments and politicians nervous everywhere in the world. As information flowed faster, fiction and fact becomes distorted and as long as the politicians have total control, that is acceptable. If they need to introduce ‘doubt’ into a citizenry it is as easy as having an apparatus such as a cabinet level department leak information to a media outlet and presto, bango, a story appears that creates doubt or worry in the sheeple or masses. If a bureaucrat is instructed to ‘flush out’ troublemakers, they use their agents to mix with the crowd, introduce a fictitious story with supporting evidence on the web and some idiot will make a flagrantly felonious statement and “BOOM” the problem is picked up, sent to jail and does not collect $200.
Thus why Iran is a lesson for Americans. Our dependency on information flow for everything from business transactions to paying our bills at home, from emailing Mom to emailing an idiot politician, and from buying movie tickets to downloading music is all at the mercy now of one three letter word:
OFF
Don’t believe me? Go to an Iranian news site for anyone opposed to the mullahs, let me know how that error message works out for you; and I do mean an Iranian site, not an opposition site here in the West. You see after their original blunder, the mullahs figured out that their camels could not turn off the internet. So they sent out their technical experts and shut it down. No information in, no information out. No propaganda in, no pleas for help out. The protesters feel exactly like those in 1956 Budapest, 1968 Prague and 1970’s Cambodia; abandoned by the West. Right or wrong, that is just how they probably should feel, yet what happens when it hits our nation? What happens when ‘the BIG emergency’ hits the United States?
The American people are under this false impression that there is no “OFF” switch for our internet, our phone system, our radio broadcasters, or our television broadcasting system. Ah ye of little understanding, comprehension or awareness. There are systems in place started since the 9-11 attacks for FEMA and other agencies to intervene and take over every aspect of communications for the allegedly ‘free’ citizen. The problem is we have never been tested so how would we know what it was like? Joseph Goebbels would know and he understood that during his time period, that was critical to controlling the masses.
Map courtesy of: http://www.exxun.com/index.html
By now you’re wondering how a dead Iranian protester, a map of shortwave radio density by region/nation, and Joseph Goebbels might tie together with how America is now totally susceptible to an information blackout and why you had best prepare to either accept the ‘facts’ as presented by the mainstream media or had best open your mind up immediately to hearing what other nations and broadcasters have to offer.
Let’s take it from the Iranian situation and track backwards for a bit of discovery. First and foremost, how many Iranian internet non-governmental broadcasters with the opposition point of view can be heard now? Uh, yeah, zero. If you were in the region, how many mediumwave (that’s A.M. FYI) and F.M. broadcasters do you think are now under opposition control? Uh, yeah, zero. How many cell phone towers are allowed to freely interact with Iraqi and other nations to broadcast or transmit unauthorized data? Uh, yeah, zero.
Now what happened to the Western news media as soon as the information flow was restricted by the Iranian government? “We” went silent on the elections. You could probably find a story or two in your nearly bankrupt newspaper on page A13 right underneath the July 4th bra and pantie sale at Sears. In reality the coverage though in our broadcast media has been supplanted by the death of a freak, a Charlie’s Angel, and a gentleman who introduced a late night legend. Thus in the average American’s mind, the problem in Iran must be solved because you do not see people getting shot on television every night now. Yet in reality, mass graves are being constructed and executions under way. Can I prove that? No. But it is not a reach when dealing with a psychotic regime which is the equal of a Nazi nation that bows to Mecca daily. They announced they would crush the protests and the VEVAK shall enforce the actions desired by the embittered old fools that run that nation.
So how hard would it be to manipulate information here? Not hard at all. Look at the map above for some idea about shortwave radio ownership and activity by region. Then ask your neighbor if they listen to the Voice of Russia, China Radio International or Radio Australia. The first thing they probably will reply is something like “Is that on Dish or Direct TV?”
The consolidation of information control while expanding information access is the double edged sword that all regimes, be they “democratic” or totalitarian have always dreamed of. The ability to restrict the flow of news and information to citizens allows these governments to create a perpetual power base, creating a nightmare that keeps either party in power and destroying the ability of new ideas to contaminate their sandbox. Thus the dangers of information rationing throughout history become obvious. Americans, and by extension, the “West” have become slovenly in their desires to seek out the truth, ignoring non-approved opinions and ideas. History is replete with examples of the old media assuming the role of history revisionists and thus power brokers for the elite. For example, I was listening to 820 WWBA in Tampa on Thursday morning drive and Steve Roberts the ABC-Radio political reporter tried to justify the weak approach the media took towards Obama by claiming that Clinton despised the mainstream media because it was “their exposure of the Lewinsky story” that caused him all the problems he endured for two years plus. That is a bald faced lie, misstatement, or manipulation of the facts though. It was Matt Drudge at the Drudge Report who blew that whistle and exposed the fact that Michael Isikoff at Newsweek was sitting on the story for weeks.
Yet nobody cares about the lie, the changing of facts or by extension what else they might be lying about.
Thus our mainstream media, by and large, is now an extension, as Rush Limbaugh likes to joke, of a state controlled media, allowing political dissent to be “heard” but dismissed as the rantings of an elite class of ignorant people who just pay more taxes and shut up.
Meanwhile, as I type this, I am sure another hundred Iranians met their fate with a bullet to their heads.
So just how do I tie Rush Limbaugh, mass murdering mullahs, Steve Roberts with ABC radio and shortwave all together?
Think people. The internet has now been demonstrated multiple times as a compromised source of information. If the Iranians can read every email, control every portal and disseminate only information favorable to the regime, then what would stop our much more technologically savvy NSA from doing the same? Nothing, nothing nor one soul at all.
This leaves you limited outlets for information and limited time to learn how to bypass the Goebbelsnet. F.M. and mediumwave (A.M.) radio are limited in their broadcasting range and also already have been set up for government control to usurp the private owners and create a massive ‘emergency’ network for the Federal Government. This leaves shortwave radio as your last source and trust me, if you are a ham radio operator in these times, you are on the same “list” as message board owners, gun owners and broadcasters who refuse to cooperate with a sudden emergency that violates the U.S. Constitution.
Thus a shortwave radio, just to listen might save you. The Iranians thought that the U.S. Information Agency’s broadcasts of Radio Farda would provide needed information in the past but in reality, it is a joke. In recent years the programming staff at USIA due to budgetary restraints has gotten lazy and even broadcast original Iranian government news and information back into Iran instead of our own propaganda! Talk about a huge waste of money and most Iranians would agree. This lesson should not be lost on you though. You have to understand that as America disintegrates, information independent of all sides no matter the bias, could keep you alive. You must learn where, how and what to listen to. Do not trust the government, do not trust your neighbor, do not believe every word being uttered or you could end up like the dead man at the top of this commentary.
Then reflect on the map above again. The “third world” is replete with shortwave radios owned by the citizens yet America thinks that internet streaming is the solution to reach them. Really? Any “streaming” into China is blocked by our own hardware and software inventions. Radio Canada International, about as neutral a nation as there is leases time on Chinese transmitters to broadcast to the region in other languages not to China yet their website is blocked to prevent them from hearing Chinese language broadcasts! Thus the foolishness of using the internet as the “cheap” solution to information providers and governments outside of a particular nation. Also you learn what Goebbels learned back in the early 1930’s; broadcasting to other nations in their languages is the key to creating disruptions in their population and the feelings about their own governments.
Thus the off switch on the internet now takes an even more prominent role.
Public opinion in those nations with huge shortwave radio ownership can easily be moved if a nation desires to. China broadcasts to all of them in their own languages while the United States and the West continue cutting those broadcasts back due to budget constraints. Thus, just who do you think has more influence in those resource rich regions? You guessed correctly if you screamed Chow Mein.
You, the reader, has to take a minute and divorce the Goebbelsnet if you wish to survive. You must learn about alternative means of communications, information gathering, and most importantly other languages if possible to hear the truth after our nation collapses. The debate might rage for years or just months about the pace of our collapse but with the currency about to implode, the lack of cohesiveness and unity in our nation and the Balkanization of our citizens for political exploitation being the rule of the day, it does not take much of a reach to expect the worst here and soon. Learn and learn fast my friends.
Your family’s lives might just depend on it.
