{"id":8333,"date":"2020-03-07T18:02:40","date_gmt":"2020-03-08T03:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/?p=8333"},"modified":"2020-03-07T19:29:50","modified_gmt":"2020-03-08T03:29:50","slug":"oops-i-missed-week-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/07\/oops-i-missed-week-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Reads on the private spy industry aka Oops I missed week 9"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Note: In 2020, I\u2019m writing 52 blog posts, one per week<\/em>,<em> released on Mondays or so\u2026except when I\u2019m not: I missed week 9!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hey there, apologies, I missed another week of my blog. However, <a href=\"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/01\/oops-i-missed-week-8\/\">last week&#8217;s oops post<\/a> draws together an excerpt from Saint Augustine, Rachmaninoff, and Pussy Riot, so despite its oopsident status you might enjoy it\u2014and this one commenting on a tepid <em>New York Times<\/em> article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/03\/07\/us\/politics\/erik-prince-project-veritas.html\">published today<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"871\" height=\"709\" src=\"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/nyt.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8364\" srcset=\"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/nyt.jpg 871w, https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/nyt-300x244.jpg 300w, https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/nyt-768x625.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 871px) 100vw, 871px\" \/><figcaption>Generic bad guy, dressed as if for wedding, walks around looking stern<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A <em>New York Times<\/em> article reminds me of me and everyone else<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The piece, &#8220;Erik Prince Recruits Ex-Spies to Help Infiltrate Liberal Groups,&#8221; should be the stimulus of an article by me, though what makes near as much sense is to list related links under bolded subheads, as I&#8217;m about to do below. Sure, weaving the threads into a story would most excellently impart knowledge; however, I have lesson planning and grading to do this weekend, since I&#8217;m substitute teaching for a stint of a few weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I investigated and reported on private spies for years, namely Stratfor but not just them, Erik Prince&#8217;s sister Betsy DeVos heads the Department of Education under which I teach, plus I&#8217;m quite informed about coronavirus, including here in Seattle, as I&#8217;ll be posting about on my blog asap, and finally I&#8217;m very aware of what Seattle Public Schools&#8217; flimsy response to COVID-19 actually looks like on the ground. These topics, which may seem disparate, really do tie together&#8230;basically: fuck you, kill the poor first as well as all other humans plants and animals, and don&#8217;t hyperlink <a href=\"https:\/\/www.getgee.xyz\/\">solutions<\/a> because then people feel bad since their<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li> &#8216;already living my best life&#8217;<\/li><li>&#8216;I don&#8217;t care what anyone thinks; I already know everything, and need no one to tell me anything ever since I&#8217;m da best&#8217;<\/li><li>&#8216;I throw a fit if someone uses an unfamiliar word: <em>I don&#8217;t know what that means<\/em>&#8216;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>bubbles are punctured. But I can say it in more thorough, cited, and academic-except-upside-down language. Probably as an opinion piece so the most difficult thing maybe happens: my hyperlinks to solutions\/answers stay in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are many other reasons why I&#8217;m well-positioned to write about the material in the <em>NYT<\/em> article. What I don&#8217;t have these days is a commissioning editor. I could make a list of freelance pitch recipients for some of my readers to consider pinging, recommending they commission me? Just an idea&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Regardless, sure, I&#8217;ll spit out freelance pitches (yet again!) to the usual suspects in the corporate and corporate-imitating media, using the <em>New York Times<\/em> piece as a news peg (sadly, major events including wars and genocides are not considered news pegs, but corporate articles, as <em>major news events<\/em>, are)&#8230; but if any of you out there in our coronavirus world might be able to expedite things by connecting me with a commissioning editor, I might not backstab you and your antisocial friends, on behalf of the prosocial worldwide, for at least a few weeks! (I&#8217;m such a good businessman!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The private spy industry<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/SpyvsSpy.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8369\" width=\"264\" height=\"198\"\/><figcaption>Cartoon for MAD Magazine&#8217;s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Spy_vs._Spy\">Spy vs Spy<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The short version of what activists need to know: if you take on some corporation or state, it&#8217;s not just them who will come at you in return, nor also the opposing activists who disagree or are simply envious of you since you manage to get out of bed and do something, but also the private mercenaries they hire, private spies who are professionals at defeating activists and laughing as they make I-refuse-to-read-outside-my-comfort-zone activists chase their own tails till extinction. These are ex-spy agency people, ex-special forces people, ex-supercop people, whoever gets off via a contract to hurt more massively than usual those who help themselves and others and refuse to comply. Don&#8217;t forget, these enemies will use the Duchin formula (see below) against you or already have, and your plan countering that is&#8230;?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are some reads on the private spy industry:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/whowhatwhy.org\/2013\/07\/17\/are-mexican-drug-lords-the-next-terrorist-targets-a-who-exclusive-series-part-i-of-iii\/\">DEA Plan to Kill Narcos<\/a>, by me at <em>WhoWhatWhy<\/em>, 17 July 2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/whowhatwhy.org\/2014\/02\/24\/el-chapo-arrested-now\/\">El Chapo Arrested\u2014Why Now?<\/a> by me at <em>WhoWhatWhy<\/em>, 24 Feb 2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/whowhatwhy.org\/2014\/07\/16\/exclusive-the-counterinsurgency-war-on-and-inside-our-borders\/\">The Counterinsurgency War On\u2014and Inside\u2014Our Borders<\/a> by me at <em>WhoWhatWhy<\/em>, 16 July 2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/whowhatwhy.org\/2015\/03\/09\/will-mexicos-oil-give-u-s-another-excuse-covert-intervention\/\">Will Mexico\u2019s Oil Give the U.S. Another Excuse for Covert Intervention?<\/a> by me at <em>WhoWhatWhy<\/em>, 9 March 2015<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Related generally, the book <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.greenisthenewred.com\/blog\/book\/\">Green Is the New Red<\/a><\/em> by Will Potter, 2011<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/georgiebc.wordpress.com\/2010\/11\/27\/the-intelligence-mafia\/\">The intelligence mafia<\/a>, by Heather Marsh, 27 November 2010<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mintpressnews.com\/divide-and-conquer-unpacking-stratfors-rise-to-power\/165933\/\">Divide and conquer: unpacking Stratfor&#8217;s rise to power<\/a> by Steve Horn at <em>Mintpress News<\/em>, 25 July 2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mintpressnews.com\/stratfor-strategies-how-to-win-the-media-war-against-grassroots-activists\/166078\/\">How to win the media war against grassroots activists<\/a> by Steve Horn at <em>Mintpress News<\/em>, 29 July 2013 &#8230; Standfirst from that one, on the Duchin formula:<\/p><p><blockquote><p>The playbook: isolate the radicals, \u201ccultivate\u201d the idealists and \u201ceducate\u201d them into becoming realists. Then co-opt the realists.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/freejeremy.net\">Free Jeremy Hammond<\/a>, the whistleblowing hacker who exfiltrated more than five million emails from Stratfor and is now doing extra time behind bars for resisting the federal grand jury into all that computer-y hacktivism\/transparency stuff. Also <a href=\"https:\/\/twintrouble.home.blog\/\">Twin Trouble<\/a>, Jeremy&#8217;s podcast from confinement (really!) with his twin Jason Hammond, known for his antifascist, antiracist successes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/georgiebc.wordpress.com\/2018\/05\/31\/transcript-of-whistleblowing-panel-censored-by-oxford-union\/\">Transcript of whistleblowing panel censored by Oxford Union<\/a>, by Heather Marsh, 31 May 2018 (See also my documentation of that censorship at <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailypublic.com\/articles\/05312018\/irony-oxford-union-wont-release-video-whistleblowing-panel\">The Public<\/a><\/em> and <em><a href=\"https:\/\/boingboing.net\/2018\/06\/01\/petulant-loser.html\">Boing Boing<\/a><\/em>, both in May\/June 2018.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pull quote from that transcript:<\/p><p><blockquote><p>security for them means immunity from criminal prosecution, not just for their actions against so-called enemies but against anyone. The current CIA head talks about a bureaucracy that slows down the CIA \u2013 that bureaucracy is our human rights and that is how they see our lives \u2013 as bureaucracy. If they kill too many of us at once they have to fill out a form. And that slows them down. Pompeo wants \u2018agile\u2019 assassins. He wants killers who \u2018fail fast and break things\u2019, as if they were writing stupid apps instead of murdering children. He wants \u2018disruptive\u2019 terrorism. And their security is the freedom to do this with impunity and in secrecy.<\/p>\n\n<p>And who is this nation they want security for? The US were supposedly enemies with Syria and allies with Canada when they were abducting Canadians to be tortured in Assad\u2019s prisons. Their allegiances change at the drop of a hat and they all have each other\u2019s secrets anyway. That is the whole point of their industry. The entire supranational intelligence community has access to each other\u2019s secrets \u2013 they need security from the rest of us finding out. And their nation is anyone with enough money to pay them, corporations or states. You had Erik Prince speaking here a while back, the crown prince of mercenary contractors. He made his fortune at the top ranks of US military and intelligence and then contracted all that information to supposedly US enemy China. I believe David Shedd is also now in international private practice. Their nations are whoever can pay. We didn\u2019t really need the US Patriot Act to tell us our intelligence agencies may be allies but the people in our states are certainly not their allies.<\/p>\n\n<p>This is not national security. It is certainly not security for my nation. My nation consists of the caregivers of communities and the environment all over the world. They aren\u2019t spying on corporations and telling communities what corporations are up to, they are spying on communities and selling that information to corporations. The victims of Jeffrey Epstein, all the victims whose abusers are protected by official secrets and taxpayer funded NDA\u2019s, none of these victims are part of their nation. Their nation is the international intelligence community and the politicians and corporations who can afford to pay them. This is not national security. It is a mafia protection racket available to the highest bidder.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Erik Prince<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A billionaire connected with Trump and also a lot of dead bodies killed especially illegally and unethically in exchange for dolla dolla bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This has been known for the last 10 to 15 years; furthermore, more scrutiny should be placed on Prince&#39;s relationship with Guiliani and the FBI workers Union. As well as allegations of weapons trafficking &amp; murder of witnesses in Iraq. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/SGu4gEtSrO\">https:\/\/t.co\/SGu4gEtSrO<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Anonymous (@YourAnonCentral) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/YourAnonCentral\/status\/1236437533908590594?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 7, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Democracy Now<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/topics\/erik_prince\">topic tag for Erik Prince<\/a>, though there&#8217;s probably a lot better out there, maybe try an   &#8220;Erik Prince&#8221; site:aljazeera.com    Google search for starters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Betsy DeVos<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=betsy%20devos%20from%3Arachelannelevy&amp;src=typed_query&amp;f=live\">Articles, other<\/a> involving the head of the Department of Education, Betsy DeVos, Erik Prince&#8217;s sister, linked by Rachel Anne Levy, a writer, teacher, and education activist in Virginia<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I would also try searching        &#8220;Betsy DeVos&#8221; site:democracynow.org      on Google. <em>Democracy Now<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/topics\/betsy_devos\">doesn&#8217;t seem<\/a> to have a tag for Betsy DeVos the way they do for her brother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>And now back to me&#8230;and Jaco<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I wonder if people benefit from <a href=\"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/category\/oops\/\">these shorter oops posts<\/a> as they might the longer, less improvisatory ones. What&#8217;s your reaction? Is it <a href=\"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/2018\/02\/26\/leaflets-facebook-profiling-solutions-getgee\/\">Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad, Angry or maybe even real<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyway, if anyone who knows a commissioning editor with access to a large audience, I&#8217;ll write all this up into a &#8216;tell a story&#8217; format, an article that looks mostly like hard news but the publisher can put in the opinion section, with more thoroughness and whatnot than this post, but until then, I&#8217;m working on my forthcoming COVID-19 blog post, another blog post concluding my <a href=\"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/category\/digitalnomad\/usbubble2019bc\/\">USian escapes the bubble series<\/a> about my Summer 2019 adventure to British Columbia, and lesson planning + grading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, gonna listen to the late jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius, who died far too early, in 1987, essentially as a result of what got diagnosed as manic depression, or better put, the lack of effective support for him and everyone else on this planet. Below, two videos that transmit, much like classified information, some transmutation into good moods for me and you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Gimme A Gig - Jaco Pastorius (1985)\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pqRWv26EqXY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption>Bassist Jerry Jemmott interviews Jaco Pastorius in the 1985 Jaco Pastorius Bass Guitar Instructional Video, Modern Electric Bass<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jaco Pastorius - Three Views Of A Secret.wmv\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/O6VehyiTOTI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption>&#8220;Three Views of a Secret&#8221; composed by Jaco Pastorius and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Word_of_Mouth_(Jaco_Pastorius_album)\">released<\/a> in 1981. Not sure when this live performance is from. <a href=\"https:\/\/musicaficionado.blog\/2017\/03\/07\/three-views-of-a-secret-by-jaco-pastorius\/\">Story behind the song<\/a> by The Music Aficionado<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Liberty City (Birthday Concert Version Remastered)\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5w5rtoSx4Sk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption>&#8220;Liberty City&#8221; composed by Jaco Pastorius and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Word_of_Mouth_(Jaco_Pastorius_album)\">released<\/a> in 1981. This version from his 1981 live &#8216;birthday concert&#8217;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/cc.primary.srr.gif\" border=\"0\"><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\" rel=\"license\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-width: 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/i.creativecommons.org\/l\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/88x31.png\" alt=\"Creative Commons License\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This blog post, <em>Reads on the private spy industry aka oops I missed week 9<\/em>, by <a href=\"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/07\/oops-i-missed-week-9\/\">Douglas Lucas<\/a>, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (<a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">human-readable summary of license<\/a>). The license is based on a work at this URL: <a href=\"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/07\/oops-i-missed-week-9\/\">https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/07\/oops-i-missed-week-9\/<\/a> You can view the full license (the legal code aka the legalese) <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/legalcode\">here<\/a>. For learning more about Creative Commons, I suggest <a href=\"http:\/\/www.locusmag.com\/Features\/2007\/11\/cory-doctorow-creative-commons.html\">this article<\/a> and the Creative Commons <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/faq\/\">Frequently Asked Questions<\/a>. Seeking permissions beyond the scope of this license, or want to correspond with me about this post otherwise? Please email me: <a href=\"mailto:dal@riseup.net\">dal@riseup.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-flattr-button\"><a class=\"FlattrButton\" style=\"display:none;\" href=\"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/07\/oops-i-missed-week-9\/\" title=\" Reads on the private spy industry aka Oops I missed week 9\" rev=\"flattr;uid:DouglasLucas;language:en_GB;category:text;tags:Activism,Music,Oops,Politics,Stratfor,Writing,blog;\">Note: In 2020, I\u2019m writing 52 blog posts, one per week, released on Mondays or so\u2026except when I\u2019m not: I missed week 9! Hey there, apologies, I missed another week...<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Note: In 2020, I\u2019m writing 52 blog posts, one per week, released on Mondays or so\u2026except when I\u2019m not: I missed week 9! Hey there, apologies, I missed another week of my blog. However, last week&#8217;s oops post draws together an excerpt from Saint Augustine, Rachmaninoff, and Pussy Riot, so despite its oopsident status you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,41,201,24,90,23],"tags":[125,121,202,111,163,110],"class_list":["post-8333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-music","category-oops","category-politics","category-stratfor","category-writing","tag-activism","tag-music","tag-oops","tag-politics","tag-stratfor","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8333"}],"version-history":[{"count":59,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8399,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8333\/revisions\/8399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}