The abundance of online discussions about WikiLeaks, has provoked me to
recall a conversation I had with an individual at an 'Internetworking'
meeting at the Carnegie Inst. in DC, in 1992. We met for the first
time, and quickly shared our interest in 'information warfare'. Though
he could not tell me what he did for a living, it was clear that he was
a civilian involved with military intelligence (DIA). I mentioned
recent past (Glasnost / Perestroika) conversations I'd had with other
'intelligence' agents, including former Soviet officials.
Bob told me that US/UK and the USSR secrecy practices of the Cold War,
had resulted in two to three generations of secrecy, deception and
obfuscation, which had cumulatively permeated all sectors of the
intelligence community; to the point that internally, agencies could no
longer function effectively. We were all lying to ourselves , as well
as to our enemies. A new strategy was determined by all. We could no
longer keep secrets from our enemies, so we would overwhelm them with
'information overload'. Too much raw and unprocessed (un-vetted)
information would mire our enemies in confusion and uncertainty. In a
networked local-global society, this would also permeate throughout our
own society; a top-down, best-practice for controlling large, diverse,
contentious and 'well informed' populations; the unruly democratic mob.
A few months earlier (pre-web 1991), immediately following the brief
Gulf War, through a source at the Pentagon, I received and then released
video to ABC News of recent, secret 'friendly fire' incidents that
occurred during that conflict. It went viral.
I'll save my story for another time, about the redacted web-art
project: www.nationalsecuritytesting.info
RL
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Richard Lowenberg
P. O. Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504
505-989-9110 off.; 505-603-5200 cell
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1st-Mile Institute, a program of Santa Fe Complex
New Mexico 'Broadband for All' Initiative
www.1st-mile.com [email protected]
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