An Interview with Richard "Hollis" Helms, Founder and CEO, Abraxas Corp. // The Entrepreneur Center @ NVTC Not to be confused with the other Richard Helms (who headed the CIA under Nixon), “Hollis” Helms was with the CIA for nearly 30 years until October 1999, including 12 years overseas in several postings in the Mideast and South Asia. He was also one of the original assignees to its Counter Terrorism Center in the mid-1980s. He started Abraxas Corp. four years ago. Headquartered in McLean, it now has 225 employees. Helms has a BA and MA (in national security policy) from American University. Bisnow on Business: This is some retirement – you left the government and became an entrepreneur. So what does Abraxas do exactly? Who would use you for what? What’s the deliverable? Choosing to put your own money up first is a risk. So you don’t believe that early money is like yeast? You really draw from the early entrepreneurial spirit of aviation. You have a product with an intriguing name: TrapWire. Is TrapWire a service or a product, or what does it look like exactly? Which was?
TrapWire's Alleged Corporate and Government Connections Grow As TrapWire searches out and scrubs all references in the mainstream media to its global surveillance system, new connections between it and other tracking technologies are being uncovered. Tartan is software designed by Ntrepid Corporation that “exposes and quantifies key influencers and hidden connections in social networks using mathematical algorithms for objective, un-biased output. Our analysts, mathematicians and computer scientists are continually exploring new quantification, mining and visualization techniques in order to better analyze social networks.” According to RT, Tartan “aims to track down alleged anarchists by specifically singling out Occupy Wall Street protesters and the publicly funded media — all with the aid of federal agents.” The Tartan website proudly admits this use of its technology. Unlike other elements of the central government’s cybersurveillance program, word about TrapWire was not leaked by Obama administration insiders. Exactly what is TrapWire?
Jeff Connaughton The Payoff Justice Department And Wall Street The Gentleperson's Guide To Forum Spies 25 February 2014. Related: GCHQ Full-Spectrum Cyber Effects: 24 February 2014. GCHQ DISRUPTION Operational Playbook: 29 January 2014. (18MB) 4 March 2012. 12 July 2012 The Gentleperson's Guide To Forum Spies A sends: The Gentleperson's Guide To Forum Spies (spooks, feds, etc.) 1. COINTELPRO Techniques for dilution, misdirection and control of a internet forum.. There are several techniques for the control and manipulation of a internet forum no matter what, or who is on it. Technique #1 - 'FORUM SLIDING' If a very sensitive posting of a critical nature has been posted on a forum - it can be quickly removed from public view by 'forum sliding.' Technique #2 - 'CONSENSUS CRACKING' 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
TrapWire: Internet rumors about the "surveillance" software aren't based in reality. Photo by YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/GettyImages Internet activists have whipped up a storm on Twitter in recent days over TrapWire, which they claim is a secret international facial-recognition and social-media monitoring network for use by governments. It sounds like an outrageous infringement of our rights. Unfortunately—or, perhaps, fortunately—most of it is rooted in hyperbole and misinformation, heavier on fiction than fact. Ryan Gallagher is a journalist who reports on surveillance, security, and civil liberties. Follow The hysteria began last week after WikiLeaks published a series of internal emails from Stratfor, a security and intelligence think tank. So what is TrapWire? In essence, TrapWire is a kind of intelligent database. What makes TrapWire stand out is what it does with the stored information. Since 2003, so-called Fusion Centers in U.S. cities have been gathering, sharing, and analyzing “threat-related information” on a federal and local level.
US democracy: The power of money - Empire The US presidential elections in November 2012 are expected to become the most expensive in history. One estimate by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) goes as high as $11bn. The vast majority of this political money has come from a handful of super-rich supporters of the Republican Party dwarfing the attempts by citizens, associations or labour unions to do the same. Many on the right claim deregulating campaign financing as a victory for free speech whilst most on the left fear the changes are corrupting democracy. Controversial campaign funding rule changes brought in after a Supreme Court ruling in 2010 have opened the floodgates to billionaire donors with the potential to buy influence all the way to the White House. The new system is rarely challenged in the mainstream media. But more fundamentally, in a free market society where the richest 400 people have more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans, Empire asks if money transforms or distorts the whole political process.
Les techniques secrètes pour contrôler les forums et l’opinion publique Attention, c'est du lourd ! Le 12 juillet dernier, le site Cryptome, sorte d'ancêtre à Wikileaks, qui publie des documents que les gouvernements et les sociétés n'aimeraient pas voir sur le net, a mis en ligne le témoignage et les explications techniques d'un ex-agent de Cointelpro. Cointelpro est une organisation US liée au FBI dont la mission était de faire de la désinformation et de foutre le bordel parmi les groupes d'activistes. Officiellement, Cointelpro a disparu en 71, mais l'organisation a juste changé de noms. Maintenant en plus d'infiltrer de manière classique des groupes d'activistes, cette ou ces organisations gouvernementales officient sur Internet pour enterrer les bad buzz et noyer le poisson sur les forums d'activistes. Le 18 juillet, ce témoignage sur Cryptome a été mis en avant sur Slashdot par un contributeur de longue date. Mais peu importe... Techniques pour manipuler les forums sur Internet Technique #1 – " FORUM SLIDING " Technique #2 – " CONSENSUS CRACKING " 1. 1.
I think we need to ask 'our' representatives who voted to purchase and implement #trapwire : ukpolitics Activists warned to watch what they say as social media monitoring becomes 'next big thing in law enforcement' - Crime - UK John Cooper QC said that police are monitoring key activists online and that officers and the courts are becoming increasingly savvy when it comes to social media. But, speaking to The Independent, he added that he also expected that to drive an increase in the number of criminals being brought to justice in the coming months. "People involved in public protest should use social media to their strengths, like getting their message across. But they should not use them for things like discussing tactics. They might as well be having a tactical meeting with their opponents sitting in and listening. "For example, if antifascist organisers were discussing their plans on social media, they can assume that a fascist organisation will be watching. Mr Cooper QC's warning comes after a New York court ordered Twitter to hand over messages posted on the site by a demonstrator belonging to the Occupy Wall Street movement in America. Mr Cooper QC added: "activists are putting themselves at more risk.
Forget PRISM: FAIRVIEW is the NSA's project to "own the Internet" According to Thomas Drake, a former National Security Agency senior executive who blew the whistle on the agency’s reckless spending and spying in 2006, a previously unknown NSA surveillance program known as FAIRVIEW aims to “own the Internet.” Last month, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked a series of PowerPoint slides to the Washington Post and the Guardian revealing that the agency was engaged in a large-scale Internet surveillance program, dubbed PRISM, that collects Americans’ chats, emails, photos, and videos. One of the slides, only later released by the two papers, made reference to a group of additional “upstream” collection programs, including two named FAIRVIEW and BLARNEY, but gave no further details about their function. Drake, who was prosecuted under the Espionage Act for his whistleblowing, explained the upstream programs to the Daily Dot. “Upstream means you get inside the system before it’s in the Internet. Illustration by Fernando Alfonso III