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


  • Why And How to End the War in Ukraine
    Jacqueline Luqman
    Why And How to End the War in Ukraine
    22 Feb 2023
    Jacqueline Luqman was a panelist on the February 16, 2023 webinar Why and How to End the War in Ukraine, which was sponsored by Chicago Area Peace Action. These were her remarks.
  • Why the Russian Federation Recognized the Independence Movements in the Donbas
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Why the Russian Federation Recognized the Independence Movements in the Donbas
    22 Feb 2023
    Ajamu Baraka argued that the Ukrainian crisis was a “manufactured crisis” primarily created by the miscalculations of policy-makers in the U.S. and Western Europe who were blinded by the prospect of…
  • From Crisis to Catastrophe? What is To Be Done in Eastern Europe
    Dr. Gerald Horne
    From Crisis to Catastrophe? What is To Be Done in Eastern Europe
    22 Feb 2023
    According to Dr. Gerald Horne, greed and shortsightedness convinced the U.S. that it could achieve the strategic objectives of undermining German economic power by controlling the European market,…
  • The Truth About Abraham Lincoln: In His Own Words
    Richard S. Dunn
    The Truth About Abraham Lincoln: In His Own Words
    22 Feb 2023
    February is the designated month to honor presidents, but Black people should know better than to believe what they are told about any benevolence on the part of George Washington, Abraham…
  • Interview with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki – Part I
    Ministry of Information Eritrea
    Interview with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki – Part I
    22 Feb 2023
    The president of Eritrea gives a wide ranging interview on the U.S. regime change effort against neighboring nation Ethiopia using the TPLF, and long-standing U.S. hostility towards his country.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us