A secret service with too much power is a danger for any democracy
© 7 March 2017 Marthijn Uittenbogaard
Today WikiLeaks leaked documents providing us with information how the American secret service CIA operates. The CIA has software to spy on peoples Internet activity, but also can they listen to the conversations in your home using the microphone in your Samsung smart TV. And they can hack cars and take over the wheel, if they want. My mind immediately thought about the suspicious car accident that killed Michael Hastings in 2013.
Many people say: 'I don't care about my privacy, I do nothing wrong.' Well, but what if you were a gay man or woman in the 1950's? Or today in Saudi Arabia? Or a political activist in a dictatorship? Or in the western world? And what about fair capitalism. Formerly leaked CIA-documents proved much activity in the financial region Frankfurt, Germany. That is - I believe - spying on a befriended nation for financial gain: to help United Stated businesses and to hinder their European concurrents. And what to think about this. In the Netherlands our government decided to buy American war airplanes: the Joint Strike Fighters. This is a deal that involves billions of euro's. Why did they choose for the American planes and not for the French ones? We don't know what went on behind the scenes. A lot of politicians were against this deal. In the end there was a majority in parliament but again, what happened behind the scenes? It's possible that secret services already knew which politicians would be in favor of this deal and who wouldn't. When the secret service has information about politicians that can ruin their careers, they can selectively leak this information (or maybe blackmail people). When they leak it only when a politician is a pain in the butt for them, then they negatively are influencing our democracy. In this way they are a danger to democracy. The secret services have so much information to change many outcomes if they want to. And I think they do.
In France, Dominique Strauss-Kahn was a candidate for the presidency. He was leading the polls. His run for presidency came to an abrupt end. From Wikipedia: 'On 14 May 2011, Nafissatou Diallo, a 32-year-old maid at the Sofitel New York Hotel, alleged that Strauss-Kahn had sexually assaulted her after she entered his suite.' Who knows this was a set up by a secret service knowing already much about Strauss-Kahn's sexual life. When a secret service has billions and billions to spent then they have much power to infiltrate mass media, to have far to many hobbies that are not in the best interest of the people. So even if you have nothing to hide, a secret service can always misuse their power to influence a democracy. Where politicians have to be elected and re-elected, the secret services are not hold responsible at all by the population. So being an employee of a secret service gives you an enormous responsibility. I'm afraid, a responsibility people at the top of many secret service organizations are incapable to handle.
I mentioned the death of journalist Michael Hastings. Is it appropriated to even think or write about a scenario in which the CIA is responsible for his death? Well, don't be naive. In many parts of the world the CIA has a bad reputation. They influenced elections in South and Mid American countries. With militarily interventions, they killed leaders they did not like (anymore). The killing list is almost endless. They lied about mass destruction weapons in Iraq. For oil, and for the weapon industry only, they killed hundreds of thousands of people. In France, in the 1980's, the secret service bombed a ship owned by Greenpeace, killing a man on board of this ship. Greenpeace protested against nuclear tests done on an island far away from France. Not in my backyard French leaders would have thought. Joseph Doucé, a gay Baptist activist for pedophiles and other sexual minorities, was murdered by the French secret service around the same time as the Greenpeace bombing.
In the USA in the McCarthy era the secret service saw everywhere a communist, and everyone of them was like the devil him- or herself, they believed. They also infiltrated human rights organizations. Organizations in favor of black people's rights. They infiltrated environment organizations. They infiltrated Trade Unions. Not only did they infiltrate to find out what's going on but they terrorized the organizations in a way that their work was slowed down or ruined completely. Which is of course not a good thing in a free democracy.
I myself are being followed (by police cars, or police motor cycles when a car is not allowed to drive there) everywhere I go in The Netherlands for over ten years now. They only can not follow me if I (or the people I'm with) leave my mobile phone at home. They knew I was going to marry my friend before I even told my parents. They called me on the phone. They were given this information and said they could not say more than that. They were afraid of riots if the people in my hometown would find out. When I was spotted in a town called Deventer, a week or so before they called me, riots broke out over there. Yes, The Netherlands is going nuts. When we started a political party (PNVD), two people in suits said that we should not go on with this, otherwise it would have bad consequences for us. Which consequences they could not say and they said they were not from the police. They were at the police station where one of us had an appointment because of the many death threats we received. Afterwards I found out that I could not open a bank account anymore by all the major banks in my country.
It's 1984 for many years now. It's time to restore human rights and to restore democracy.
Does the above text accidentally contain a typing, spelling, grammatical or factual error?Many people say: 'I don't care about my privacy, I do nothing wrong.' Well, but what if you were a gay man or woman in the 1950's? Or today in Saudi Arabia? Or a political activist in a dictatorship? Or in the western world? And what about fair capitalism. Formerly leaked CIA-documents proved much activity in the financial region Frankfurt, Germany. That is - I believe - spying on a befriended nation for financial gain: to help United Stated businesses and to hinder their European concurrents. And what to think about this. In the Netherlands our government decided to buy American war airplanes: the Joint Strike Fighters. This is a deal that involves billions of euro's. Why did they choose for the American planes and not for the French ones? We don't know what went on behind the scenes. A lot of politicians were against this deal. In the end there was a majority in parliament but again, what happened behind the scenes? It's possible that secret services already knew which politicians would be in favor of this deal and who wouldn't. When the secret service has information about politicians that can ruin their careers, they can selectively leak this information (or maybe blackmail people). When they leak it only when a politician is a pain in the butt for them, then they negatively are influencing our democracy. In this way they are a danger to democracy. The secret services have so much information to change many outcomes if they want to. And I think they do.
In France, Dominique Strauss-Kahn was a candidate for the presidency. He was leading the polls. His run for presidency came to an abrupt end. From Wikipedia: 'On 14 May 2011, Nafissatou Diallo, a 32-year-old maid at the Sofitel New York Hotel, alleged that Strauss-Kahn had sexually assaulted her after she entered his suite.' Who knows this was a set up by a secret service knowing already much about Strauss-Kahn's sexual life. When a secret service has billions and billions to spent then they have much power to infiltrate mass media, to have far to many hobbies that are not in the best interest of the people. So even if you have nothing to hide, a secret service can always misuse their power to influence a democracy. Where politicians have to be elected and re-elected, the secret services are not hold responsible at all by the population. So being an employee of a secret service gives you an enormous responsibility. I'm afraid, a responsibility people at the top of many secret service organizations are incapable to handle.
I mentioned the death of journalist Michael Hastings. Is it appropriated to even think or write about a scenario in which the CIA is responsible for his death? Well, don't be naive. In many parts of the world the CIA has a bad reputation. They influenced elections in South and Mid American countries. With militarily interventions, they killed leaders they did not like (anymore). The killing list is almost endless. They lied about mass destruction weapons in Iraq. For oil, and for the weapon industry only, they killed hundreds of thousands of people. In France, in the 1980's, the secret service bombed a ship owned by Greenpeace, killing a man on board of this ship. Greenpeace protested against nuclear tests done on an island far away from France. Not in my backyard French leaders would have thought. Joseph Doucé, a gay Baptist activist for pedophiles and other sexual minorities, was murdered by the French secret service around the same time as the Greenpeace bombing.
In the USA in the McCarthy era the secret service saw everywhere a communist, and everyone of them was like the devil him- or herself, they believed. They also infiltrated human rights organizations. Organizations in favor of black people's rights. They infiltrated environment organizations. They infiltrated Trade Unions. Not only did they infiltrate to find out what's going on but they terrorized the organizations in a way that their work was slowed down or ruined completely. Which is of course not a good thing in a free democracy.
I myself are being followed (by police cars, or police motor cycles when a car is not allowed to drive there) everywhere I go in The Netherlands for over ten years now. They only can not follow me if I (or the people I'm with) leave my mobile phone at home. They knew I was going to marry my friend before I even told my parents. They called me on the phone. They were given this information and said they could not say more than that. They were afraid of riots if the people in my hometown would find out. When I was spotted in a town called Deventer, a week or so before they called me, riots broke out over there. Yes, The Netherlands is going nuts. When we started a political party (PNVD), two people in suits said that we should not go on with this, otherwise it would have bad consequences for us. Which consequences they could not say and they said they were not from the police. They were at the police station where one of us had an appointment because of the many death threats we received. Afterwards I found out that I could not open a bank account anymore by all the major banks in my country.
It's 1984 for many years now. It's time to restore human rights and to restore democracy.
Or do you want to react to it? Then I hope you will get in touch.
