WikiLeak Exposes CIA Operation, Consumer Items Being Used To Spy On American Citizens
Posted by Sam Di Gangi | Mar 8, 2017 | Breaking News
When it was published and shown that then F.B.I. Director, James Clapper, put tape over his computer’s camera, everyone in the world should have taken notice. Few news sites lean more left than NPR does without falling over, and even they report that the F.B.I. has used malware to hack into cameras to spy on targets. Now Wikileaks is saying that the government frequently uses hacking tools to spy into computers, cell phones, and even Smart TVs. This means that should this data ever be compromised, which is common with malware, there is no telling where the data will go.
Our computers are on while we walk around our own homes in various states of undressing and the video game system is recording the children. This is worrisome for a number of reasons that go far beyond crime fighting and into the realm of why the Fourth Amendment exists. Warrants can be obtained for fighting crime, but this level of observing, tracking and spying is simply wrong.
The leaks expose what is called “clandestine methods” for overcoming encryption and sneaking past virus finding programs. With these “clandestine methods,” going dark is like going to a sunlit beach on a summer day. Our leaders are saying that they need to go into our phones to protect the children, but they already have the technology that they are claiming to not have. This is the kind of double-speak that Assange exposes and that makes the Wikileaks head a hero to the world.
For Donald Trump, this matters greatly because he uses many of the same tools, equipment, and software that has been breached by the government. While, in theory, things like his Twitter account are safe after going through the people who handle White House IT needs, who tests them? For that matter, who knows for sure if another nation has hacked us or if one ever does if it was caused by our own government making holes? Once a system is breached, it is done. There is no rewind option. Therefore, exposing every system to Big Brother spying is going to tear great holes in the security of everything for everyone.
The CIA, in tandem with the NSA and other “eye chart” organizations, have been jumping the security measures of “Apple’s iPhones and iPads, Google’s Android phones and the Microsoft Windows operating system for desktop and laptop computers.” There is also exposed in the leak conversations about how to turn modern TVs into eavesdropping devices and a chilling bit of talk about hacking cars.
Many will remember that Michael Hastings died due to what was likely a hacked car, as he was being loathed by the government for exposing truths that they wanted to remain hidden forever. Even Richard Clarke called the crash,”consistent with a car cyber-attack.”
Republican California Rep. Devin Nunes, who heads the House Intelligence Committee, is said to be “very concerned” about the information found within the leak. He is also seeking more information regarding it. Former CIA Director Mike Hayden claims to have only taken a brief look, but said that the information if true, would prove to be a “very extensive file of the tactics, techniques, procedures, targets and other political rules,” regarding the rules and practice which the CIA employ. He also said, “If it is that, it would be very, very damaging.”
It is also “very damaging” that all of this is working to prove “crazy, no-nothing, midnight tweeter” Trump correct in his allegations of a vast government spying machine that is out of control. The actual tools that would cause harm were not released “‘until a consensus emerges’ of the political nature of the CIA’s program and how such software could be analyzed, disarmed and published,” according to the Japan Times.
Also, Wikileaks has only said the information came from “an isolated, high-security network” from within the C.I.A. This means that, thankfully, America has spies who spy on those who spy on us. It does level the playing field a bit. It also makes the C.I.A. focus on the real threats a bit more.
Unfortunately for America, they see the people’s leader, President Donald J. Trump as a real threat. This is because shadowy denizens have been leading America long enough now that they find it to be their birthright. Today, however, a man is in the White House who is returning the rule to the people and those organizations want him dead, just as they did JDK for warning us of them as they dug in.
Wikileaks did say, “The archive appears to have been circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive.” All of this has lead to quite a flurry of movement within companies like Microsoft, who have just found AGAIN that they have been breached by the government. It is somewhat amusing to note that Microsoft spends so much money every year to stop the average American from obtaining their operating system for free, while the government hacks it at will almost daily.
Then again, the government has been granted some great forgiveness clause that, while absent to the letter from the Constitution, is engraved in stone within most Americans. Why our forefathers warned us of the dangers of a large and dishonest government only for us to ignore to refuse their warnings is anyone’s guess. Some will suggest that the government-run schools did it to shield themselves from children who would grow into adults and restrain them. This is part of the problem, but the issue is far deeper. Today Wikileaks has again warned us, as Snowden had prior, that our own government is using the products that we buy against us, and against our president.
