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Interesting stuff, Coleman. Pretty  good job of digging, too.
On the US connection:
John Kneuer, senior VP for Rivada networks:
"What public safety needs most is not just 'infrastructure' or 'spectrum.' What it needs is capabilities such as priority access, survivability, and rapid recovery in a crisis, as well as specialized services to support their missions. All of these capabilities can be provided today by multiple vendors, leveraging existing infrastructure and spectrum. In fact, this is exactly what our company is providing reliably and affordably to major public safety and defense customers in more than a dozen US states, including Alabama, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, and Washington state.

The discussion of programs- military, agency and other- to cope with the (at least) embarrassing disclosures of the internet community, and to harness the power of the net to manage and manipulate events are everywhere- Raw Story, Truthout, Free press Newswire, etc.

A bit aside, it's fascinating to me how compelled we all seem to be to make light of or defend ourselves from the accusation of purveying conspiracy theories.

As several here (and elsewhere) have said, it's silly to think that people or organizations would spend lifetimes and fortunes to amass economic and political power--and then do nothing with it.

Power's purpose is to have your way. It's generally a good idea to get organized if you want to "have your way". Publicly influencing events to your advantage (and excluding that of others) is--er, bad PR. "Discretion" (secrecy) is therefore pretty obligatory,--no?

From Janes' also-

US intelligence and security officials have been able to circumvent EU institutions in many cases so far by relying extensively on formal and informal arrangements with the individual member governments. In addition, Washington has felt confident that its European allies would use their powers to veto unwelcome EU-wide proposals in areas related to security and defence. If adopted, the Lisbon treaty could threaten many of these arrangements.

Sometimes you turn over a flat rock, and you find-- interesting squiggly stuff.

Wear gloves.

Useful talking follows experience, the more experience the better. Talking that precedes experience is known as bullshit.

by geezer in Paris (risico at wanadoo(flypoop)fr) on Thu Apr 10th, 2008 at 06:49:07 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Well, I have no evidence that this guy is a CIA asset or something, so it would be entirely irresponsible to speculate. Still, he hangs with some pretty scary people, and it seems unlikely that he has Europe's best interests at heart.

I must write that diary on the structure of empire I keep promising.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Thu Apr 10th, 2008 at 07:03:26 AM EST
[ Parent ]
CIA asset? He doesn't need to be. He just knows who is buttering his bread. A Eurocentric security network not run by the Atlanticists and not run by complete morons would buy their digital goodies from somebody else.
by PIGL on Thu Apr 10th, 2008 at 07:24:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]
it would be entirely irresponsible to speculate.

We are, of course, speculating.
Every criminal investigation or indictment is preceeded  or begins with speculation about possible suspects. It then proceeds to possible motives, methods, -- jeez.

It would be irresponsible (not to mention deadly dull) NOT to speculate.

Useful talking follows experience, the more experience the better. Talking that precedes experience is known as bullshit.

by geezer in Paris (risico at wanadoo(flypoop)fr) on Thu Apr 10th, 2008 at 09:14:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]
But the flip side of that coin is that keeping secrets secret is rather hard to do. So if you want to judge the plausibility of a conspiracy theory, you'll need to keep in mind the number of people that are supposed to be involved in the conspiracy, and the length of time during which they have allegedly been keeping the lid on things.

In this case, conspiracy is not entirely impossible - we're talking about a fairly small number of people which are supposed to be co-operating with the military-intelligence of a single country. On the other hand, a conspiracy is unnecessary - as others have pointed out, blind atlanticism and fat business contracts would suffice.

</metadiscussion>

- Jake

Your representatives may not listen to you. But they do read your e-mail.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Thu Apr 10th, 2008 at 10:43:03 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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