Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Surveillance in the Service of Corporate Rule
03 Jul 2013
🖨️ Print Article

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

It should now be clear to everyone that “the advent of al-Qaida did not give rise to the U.S. surveillance regime.” 9/11 was merely a pretext for American state lawlessness. “The U.S. was already treating the whole planet as if it were occupied by enemy peoples.”

Surveillance in the Service of Corporate Rule

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

“The greatest fear of the capitalist is a world in which the game is not rigged in his favor.”

The logic of imperialism is that, ultimately, the Empire enters a state of war with everyone in the world, without regard to nationality, social system or reasonable possibilities of threat. Every capitalist yearns to achieve monopoly, to corner all markets, all the time. The capitalist imperial state is the political expression of the monopoly capitalist class, whose ambition is to dominate and profit from every aspect of human existence. Far from thriving on competition, the greatest fear of the capitalist is a world in which the game is not rigged in his favor. The state’s job is to ensure that the fix is always in. Governments controlled by capitalists are obligated to subvert, literally, the entirety of the rest of the planet.

Therefore, it should surprise no one that the United States spies on the citizens, governments and businesses of every nation on earth, including the home population, which is potentially the most dangerous population of all, if for no other reason than proximity.

The U.S. corporate media narrative, which is identical to the narrative of the corporate state, is that 9/11 was a kind of crack in time, the beginning and end of things, the equivalent of the divide between BC and AD. But the advent of al-Qaida did not give rise to the U.S. surveillance regime. The opposite is true. The international jihadist network was given birth by the Americans and their minions in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, at the turn of the Eighties. If U.S. rulers really believed Muslim jihadists posed a serious threat to American empire, Washington would not be in its fourth decade of arming and financing the jihadists, who serve as both foot soldiers and pretexts for U.S. militarism and fascism.

“U.S. complaints of Chinese industrial espionage were simply a diversion from America’s own criminal behavior.”

In the June 27 issue of Counterpunch, indispensable political thinker William Blum republished parts of an essay he wrote in the year 2000. Titled “The Inalienable Right to Snoop? Eavesdropping on the Planet,” the piece reminds us that PRISM, the National Security Agency’s omnivorous mechanism for worldwide data mining and the mapping of human social networks, is a direct descendant of the pre-911 NSA system called ECHELON, launched in the 1970s. By the late Nineties, it had become clear to the Europeans that ECHELON was largely preoccupied with stealing trade secrets from European companies, and passing them on to favored American enterprises. German wind power technology wound up under patent to American rivals. French Airbus lost big contracts to U.S. outfits. A 1998 report of the European Parliament found that the U.S. was using its control of encryption software for wholesale industrial espionage against its purported allies. French military intelligence concluded that Bill Gates’ Microsoft was virtually created by U.S. intelligence agencies. 9/11 was still years away, but the U.S. was already treating the whole planet as if it were occupied by enemy peoples.

In this light, it should have always been obvious that U.S. complaints of Chinese industrial espionage were simply a diversion from America’s own criminal behavior. The global surveillance regime is a creature of a moribund empire that not only cannot compete, but refuses to countenance the very idea of fair competition and the rule of law. Osama bin Laden was always a sideshow on the road to American global dictatorship.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.



Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20130703_gf_PRISM.mp3

More Stories


  • Jill Stein campaign
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Dr. Jill Stein: A Ballot Challenge to the Crimes of Empire
    06 Dec 2023
    Dr. Jill Stein stepped up to compete for the Green Party presidential nomination after Dr. Cornel West decided to run as an independent. Ann Garrison spoke to her for Pacifica Radio’s “Capitalism,…
  • Alan Pelaez Lopez
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Alan Pelaez Lopez’s Book, “When Language Broke Open”
    06 Dec 2023
    In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book. This week’s featured author is Alan Pelaez Lopez. Dr. Lopez is an assistant professor at the University of…
  • An Afghan boy mourns next to a grave of his little brother who died due to an earthquake.
    Black Alliance for Peace Solidarity Network Afghanistan Committee
    Afghanistan News Update #20
    06 Dec 2023
    The latest Black Alliance for Peace Afghanistan update provides an overview of the worsening conditions in the country since the US/NATO withdrawal
  • Screenshot of Electronic Intifada video
    Ali Abunimah
    Watch: Debunking Israel's "Mass Rape" Propaganda
    06 Dec 2023
    This is a deceptive campaign based not on evidence but an appeal to racist notions that Palestinians are inherently violent and cruel.
  • Protesters march in Lima
    Clau O'Brien Moscoso
    One Year Anniversary of Coup Regime Marks International Day of Solidarity with the Peruvian People
    06 Dec 2023
    On the anniversary of the Monroe doctrine, the struggle against the repressive Boluarte coup in Peru regime enters its second year. National Strike, Day 364
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us