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US APPETITE FOR ACCESSING INFORMATION INSATIABLE, SAYS FORMER CIA ANALYST
09:20 10/07/2013 " INTERVIEWS
Press TV has conducted an interview with David MacMichael, former
senior CIA analyst, about new revelations showing that the US has
reached an agreement with a private company to maintain its spying
activities against American citizens. What follows is an approximate
transcription of the interview.
- First of all, the revelation by Edward Snowden followed by the
Director of National Intelligence backtracking on his statements made
to Congress and now this. Sir, where does it stop?
- Well I do not know where it stops, I think I can tell you about
where it started. It is interestingly enough this during the United
States civil war hundred and fifty years ago, it had came just at
the time with the big advance in telecommunications, the telegraph,
the wire telegraph system had begun and the United States government
immediately sent its agents into all telegraph offices throughout
the United States and demanded and received access to all messages
sent through the telegraph.
So you are asking where did it begin, that is I would say a good place
to say it began and where will it end, frankly I do not think it is
going to end anywhere. This Team Telecom that you referred to, well it
is a ... by the United States when a foreign controlled agent company
was buying the firm Global Crossing which is one of the major fiber
optics firms and this was during the decade beginning in the 1990s
when fiber optics essentially begin, replaced the under ocean cables
and other transmission means with a new technology and what the United
States government has insisted upon before the Federal Communications
Commission would approve this sale and the operation of this company in
United States was a team composed of representatives of the Pentagon,
of the National Security Agency, the CIA, the military and the US
Federal Communications Commission was added to the management of
this new firm in Global Crossing so that the United States could
have access to all of this and to use it and of course this is now
incorporated into what Edward Snowden has revealed, the NSA system.
- Mr. MacMichael, what is the fact now? Is it there is a lot of spying
going on?
EU officials are subject to spying, the Chinese are subject to data
espionage, even the American citizens, ordinary American citizens
are being spied on. The question that comes to mind is what is the
US looking for?
- Well it is this insatiable appetite on the part and this is
historically on the part of people in authority, governments if you
will, and I do not care whether they are in the West, the East, Asian
or capitalist..., these governments have an insatiable appetite for
accessing information and it goes beyond any rational consideration of
what most people would consider national security or national interest.
And I have said this before I think in talking with you and others
that well over fifty years ago the French scientist and political
philosopher Jacques Ellul emphasized that whatever technology was
introduced, no matter how beneficial it was, if it could be used for
an adverse or an evil purpose, it would be and this is a fact of life
and as you said yourself spying goes on.
Source: Panorama.am
09:20 10/07/2013 " INTERVIEWS
Press TV has conducted an interview with David MacMichael, former
senior CIA analyst, about new revelations showing that the US has
reached an agreement with a private company to maintain its spying
activities against American citizens. What follows is an approximate
transcription of the interview.
- First of all, the revelation by Edward Snowden followed by the
Director of National Intelligence backtracking on his statements made
to Congress and now this. Sir, where does it stop?
- Well I do not know where it stops, I think I can tell you about
where it started. It is interestingly enough this during the United
States civil war hundred and fifty years ago, it had came just at
the time with the big advance in telecommunications, the telegraph,
the wire telegraph system had begun and the United States government
immediately sent its agents into all telegraph offices throughout
the United States and demanded and received access to all messages
sent through the telegraph.
So you are asking where did it begin, that is I would say a good place
to say it began and where will it end, frankly I do not think it is
going to end anywhere. This Team Telecom that you referred to, well it
is a ... by the United States when a foreign controlled agent company
was buying the firm Global Crossing which is one of the major fiber
optics firms and this was during the decade beginning in the 1990s
when fiber optics essentially begin, replaced the under ocean cables
and other transmission means with a new technology and what the United
States government has insisted upon before the Federal Communications
Commission would approve this sale and the operation of this company in
United States was a team composed of representatives of the Pentagon,
of the National Security Agency, the CIA, the military and the US
Federal Communications Commission was added to the management of
this new firm in Global Crossing so that the United States could
have access to all of this and to use it and of course this is now
incorporated into what Edward Snowden has revealed, the NSA system.
- Mr. MacMichael, what is the fact now? Is it there is a lot of spying
going on?
EU officials are subject to spying, the Chinese are subject to data
espionage, even the American citizens, ordinary American citizens
are being spied on. The question that comes to mind is what is the
US looking for?
- Well it is this insatiable appetite on the part and this is
historically on the part of people in authority, governments if you
will, and I do not care whether they are in the West, the East, Asian
or capitalist..., these governments have an insatiable appetite for
accessing information and it goes beyond any rational consideration of
what most people would consider national security or national interest.
And I have said this before I think in talking with you and others
that well over fifty years ago the French scientist and political
philosopher Jacques Ellul emphasized that whatever technology was
introduced, no matter how beneficial it was, if it could be used for
an adverse or an evil purpose, it would be and this is a fact of life
and as you said yourself spying goes on.
Source: Panorama.am