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 note: if the remailer mangles it, formatted version is at: 
http://www.indymedia.org/print.php3?article_id=90576 

Welcome to The Identity State 



Convergence and Encirclement (Endocolonization) 

The department of justice strategy mirrors the global strategy. The 
strategy involves the decentralization of executive enforcement and 
information gathering while simultaneously providing a centralization of 
identity: a singular identity constructed from each apparatus 
contributing using a similar communication protocols. The 
territorialization of all spaces is accomplished through pervasive 
decentralized mechanisms which delimit the individual as an identity 
already within the territorialized space. If possible, existing networks 
of subjection are utilized: local territory based governments, 
currencies, banks, licenses, etc. are converted to identity based 
systems. This allows subversion and conversion without alarm, under the 
guise of bureaucratic efficiency and security. Identity is the exchange 
currency of the global network of subjection. 

The military/police (and all other apparatus) can share information and 
construct the identity profile. By utilizing all apparatuses, the 
identity-based system becomes omnipresent. All spaces, all services, all 
communication, all travel, all weapons, all computers, can be 
territorialized through the connection of the various identities which 
already exist to a singular identity. All identity-based platforms 
converge to a singular identity-based platform. Whether or not a national 
ID is issued. Control is achieved through: the 
objectification/delimitation of an identity, the access and power allowed 
to that identity, and the subjectification of the individual to the 
constructed identity. (Even and especially if the identity exists in the 
future, as a plan / delimited possibility / coded desire.) Local and 
national governments provide the legal structure of economic colonization 
and its enforcement. But more importantly, each local and national 
government provides enrollment without choice. The expansion of the 
global identity state is accomplished by utilizing existing state 
apparatus of spatial control. No country is to harbor a terrorist 
expands the global reach of the identity apparatus with the threat of 
military/economic retaliation. There is to be no space, no territory, 
no piece of earth exempted from subjection to the identity apparatus. 

The government is the enforcement arm, a military/police apparatus 
removed of social service (except those services that remain as apparatus 
of subjection). The judicial and enforcement arms are corrupted through 
the subversion of the legislative branch. The definition is subverted, 
and therefore the distribution, through judgment and execution, follows. 
A meta-structure of world domination at all levels is accomplished 
through a global economic regulation. The subversion of legislature is 
muscled in under the benefits to the economy, implemented by local 
executive branches. Perhaps even a subversion of the judicial system can 
be accomplished through the implementation of global tribunals for 
terrorists. The civil and criminal court become corporate and terrorist, 
court and tribunal. Perhaps the civil judicial system is needed to 
resolve dispute between corporations. The governments main function, 
however, is to execute and enforce the laws subverted. In other words, 
local executive branches, from the dwindling social service agencies to 
the expanding gargantuan military/police apparatus, do the dirty work 
(under the meta-threat of economic reprisal) while the corporations sit 
in an ethereal air, as if bloodless. Besides, native policing is always 
most effective, not to mention cost-effective. 

But this military/police convergence exposes and precipitates a greater 
convergence: that of the state and economy, government and capitalism, 
peace and war. All aspects of social life everywhere converge under the 
uniting principle of identity. This is not to say that facets do not 
remain. In fact, the illusion of separation expands. 

Identity is the consummation of the economic and military and police and 
all apparatus. It is BOTH the basis of exchange and control. Economy and 
state are revealed as one through their singular currency, the 
rationalized and delimited representation through which access and 
equivalence are constructed, and the individual subjected: the identity. 

The walls are falling. A massive convergence is happening right before 
our eyes. This is the establishment of international law, international 
reach, international enforcement of a (not-so-)international economic 
colonization. This expansion occurs not only internationally, but across 
all spectrums and mechanisms of social life. Nothing is exempted from the 
saturated omnipresent capitalist security state. Endocolonization to the 
nth. The military, without a stable enemy, turns to the police function. 
The convergence of military and police apparatus is only the symptom 
indicating that the enemy is no longer the other. The enemy is no longer 
beyond the borders. The enemy is omnipresent. The enemy is us. 



Prevention 

Prevention and disruption is set as the goal, and simultaneously (and by 
no coincidence) exempted from due process. A whole prevention system is 
legitimized and operated pre-judicially. Bypassing constitutional and 
human rights under the guise of war. The judicial system was based on 
crimes committed, not crimes (supposedly) about to be committed. Where is 
the burden of proof, the beyond the shadow of a reasonable doubt of 
probability profiles? Prevention is a whole new arena. The department 
of justice is put on a war footing. The judicial process is 
short-circuited. Invisible search, seizure and surveillance, detainment 
and indefinite imprisonment, total information sharing and identity 
profiling, and now... war tribunals? 

Deterrence turns to prevention. Deterrence was a peace that occurred 
through the infliction of the viral arms race on a government. Prevention 
is the infliction of the virus of identity onto a population. The 
population is told it has a virus, and that the cure ( or vaccine?) is 
within the delimitation of individual identity. But it is identity that 
is the virus inflicted. A trojan horse, a virus of impotence sold as 
cure. Before, prior, disrupt, deter, prevent... The individual is no 
longer judged on what one has done, but what one is capable of doing, is 
probable of doing. (A sort of speculative stock of identities, 
probabilities being based on world and market events and the particular 
identity profile, or groups or classes to which a profile belongs.) All 
possibilities are delimited. Individuals are limited to rationalized 
identities and their agglomeration. 

Identity is the basis of equivalence, and therefore of economics. The 
identity is always the political body, relative to, constructed within 
the space of politics. 

Socio-political identity becomes technological identity. Technological 
identity becomes physical identity. The final stage of endocolonization, 
after the apparatus has captured and constructed the physical space 
infrastructure of identity, is the capture of the body, the subjection of 
the individual to their representation. The forced participation of the 
body within a constant global mapping. 

The individual is seduced to limit the self in order to see the limits of 
the self, to construct a body in order to see his own body. Identity is 
always the consumer identity, constructed within the consumer 
environment. Identity is the inhabitation of the secured utopic space. 
Identity is always the loss of freedom, of production, of creation. 
Identity is the inhabitation of a pre-determined self, the body whose 
possibilities and choices are structurally pre-defined, always towards 
production/consumption. All choices of the identity involve 
commodification. The identity further determines its own limits through 
the consumption of limit-creation devices. The identity operates as the 
ideal pancapitalist organism. Furthering its own limits, its own 
efficiency, its own consumption. Further channeling the actions of the 
individual in line with predictable scripted routes. Further enabling the 
individual by further colonizing him. Further subjecting the individual 
to a manipulated and constructed representation. Multiple bodies, 
multiple vehicles, multiple identities, multiple belief systems, multiple 
devices are all allowed and encouraged with the stipulation that all 
extensions must link back to a centralized identity, a centralized point 
of control, namely the singular physical body and its participation and 
acceptance of the equivalence (economic) system. 



The prison inverts 

The anonymous are the excluded. The identified body lives within the 
utopic space. Predictable, surveilled, secure, safe. The defined body, 
identity, is projected back in a cannibalistic self-consumption. 

The body is only included, only admitted to this utopic prison, through 
its construction, through the definition of its limits. A system of 
belief whereby identity = truth = self. The identity, the body, the 
vehicle is defined by its limits: position, extents, access, action are 
all explicitly defined possibility scripts. With the promise that strict 
adhesion to the body, the mastering of its piloting within its confines, 
will result in its extension. 

The strategy of prison inversion up to this point had been that it is not 
necessarily mandatory to colonize the physical body per se, but that the 
individual be seduced to extend the physical body, revealing the position 
and limits of both the bodily extension and the linkage to and 
implication of the position of the physical body. For example, relatively 
low-tech assemblages of body to bodily extensions forced an exposure AND 
definition of the physical body = identity through licensure. 



Identity 

Identity = Visibility = Security = Access = Exchange = Economy 

Identity = Visibility 

Consumers have been suckered into buying platforms for consumption, why 
not platforms for subjectification to identity representations and 
security access mechanisms also? The user is seduced to personalize the 
commodity by commodifying the self. 

Identity = Security 

Both sides of the equation are sold. Each and every individual is a 
threat. All extensions, all representations of identity are combined to 
(re)make, (re)present the self in the profile, the singular identity. 
This singular identity IS the self. The singular identity is used in all 
aspects of social life. All aspects are recorded, profiled, added, and 
Predicted. This is the colonization of space and the body is forced to 
follow identity, the plan. 

Identity is the plan, masquerading as the map. 

Identity = Access 

Access is all that is needed for exchange. The identity is the basis of 
exchange, via access. The definition of limits, identity, is the mode of 
exchange. All elements of social space can be controlled via 
identity-based access. The personal check, the credit card, are 
preliminary steps away from the monetary unit to identity-based exchange. 
And we line up for it. On the one hand, (re)presentations are soldback to 
us as commodities, as extensions, as enablers, as personalization. On the 
other, they are forced on us as responsibilities, rights, privileges. 

Identity theft will become a prime target of enforcement 
(deterrence/disruption/punishment). As the identity-based system becomes 
more omnipresent, identity theft will be less tolerated, and all the more 
necessary for those unwilling to accept the identity received (earned). 

Identity = Exchange 

Credit card bills, phone records, internet logs, building security logs, 
criminal records, driving records, school records, medical records, 
psychiatric records, work records, organizational records, photographs, 
gps tracking, cell phone tracking, shoe size, fingerprint, and dna are 
all now (or soon to be)available to construct the singular identity. (The 
fuhrer has called for the construction of a common communication 
platform.) The rise of the security state is synonymous with the identity 
economy. The identity IS the exchange. Identity is no mere abstraction or 
representation. Identity is the very construction on which economy is 
based. 

Identity = Economy 

The constructed identity is our greatest subjection. It is the invisible 
line with which we delimit self and other, ours and theirs. It is the 
basis of all economies, from currency to authorship. It is the means by 
which we tie strings to our gifts of writing, programming, etc. in 
order to extend the identity through visibility. (Read the GPL for a good 
example of a non-currency identity based system that creates an economy 
of exchange of identity visibility.) There are numerous forms of 
exchange, be it visibility of the constructed self through mapping, or 
access to a utopic space, or protection of an interior. Identity is the 
form of exchange and serves as the basis of all economy. 



Privacy 

Privacy will not be negated. It will be manipulated. Privacy has two 
important functions to play in the identity economy. 

One, privacy allows the further delimitation of the identity and the 
individuals subjection to the constructed identity. Privacy is used to 
legitimize the specific definition identity access to protect private 
data, commodities, etc. through the creation of a delimited identity that 
is in fact the revealment of these data through their definition, and 
through backdoor access. Usually look for rhetoric explaining how the 
further tying of the self to representation through authentication will 
provide greater privacy. Look for key escrows, for digital certificates 
and signatures, for hardware identification devices, for commerce 
encryption (since gov. already has access to banks and credit cards 
anyway). All in all, expect to hear a lot more in the media about the 
dangers of identity theft. One is told they have an identity to steal 
which must be protected. Never mind that one did not create the 
identity, nor does one have any real control the representation. Thus, 
one signs up for further subjectification to and extension of identity 
services under a belief that one is protecting the self. The 
representation of the self is substituted for the self, and the self is 
subjected to it, for fear of losing the (represented) self. 

Two, privacy allows an opacity of identity-based functions and power 
structures. This is most important, as a true transparency would imply a 
right to know and a second guessing of the identity-based power 
structure. Instead, through the construction of massive privacy 
discrepancies, power structures are shielded from the gaze reflected 
back. This occurs through various specific devices, but for instance, 
members of a corporation hide behind a filter that funnels certain 
aspects back to their identity, while hiding the visibility of their 
identity to public eyes. Military/police rely on a more direct method of 
constructing identity profiles, while disallowing the viewing of 
(relevant parts of) the profiles, and disallowing visibility or profiling 
of either members of the military/police apparatus, or the apparatus 
itself. The power structures endeavor to conceal the structure of their 
mechanisms. 



Anonymity and the non-differentiated, non-delimited group (mass) 

Privacy, in the above manipulated form, is desirable to the 
identity-based apparatus. Anonymity will be portrayed as a separate 
issue. This first round has focussed mainly on the foreigner as 
terrorist, yet the machine is being set up to surveill all. Many of the 
civil liberties that have fallen for the non-citizen will soon fall for 
the citizen, as interior terrorism will become a greater threat, as the 
vice clampens. How long till the protesters = terrorists? In the media, 
they have already been cast as a loose network of anarchists. The 
network suits the security/identity state well, as network really 
implies nothing more than communication while preserving the idea of 
identity. Actual group-work, actual (hidden) structure and unilateral 
action, as occurs in sectors of government or corporations, are negated. 
The invisibility shields are denied to the network. Anonymous actions 
and works are declared cowardly despite the fact that such action/work 
eliminates the possibility of economic gain to the individuals who 
created the work. In fact, anonymous works refuse participation in the 
economy of works by negating the basis of economy: the linkage to the 
singular identity. It is precisely for this reason that anonymous action 
is called cowardly. Non-conformity to the economic basis is seen as a 
threat, as the purpose of the anonymous action does not (directly, at 
least) translate into any economical gain, and worse, cannot be 
translated into an equivalence to base an economy, as the definition of 
the singular is lost. Is it one or many? Is there an original? How can 
one quantify and build equivalence without the basic unit of identity? Is 
economy and distribution possible without identity? How can one assure 
quality, make a particular pre-judgment, without the authors name / 
brand name? Is hierarchy and division possible without identity? 
Anonymous action and/or group action threaten the identity economy and 
the security state. 

Once we have lost anonymity, we have lost the war. 

Anonymous systems are being destroyed. Capitalism results in the 
privatization of all appropriated systems. Privatization has, as the base 
of its economy, the singular individual to whom privileges are or are not 
dispensed (access). In the endocolonized world, access replaces exchange. 
The destruction of anonymous systems is legitimized as the destruction of 
local space-based distribution. This is not to say that such systems do 
not still exist. They do and they prosper. (The gated community is only 
in its infantile stages.) But space or area-based distribution has its 
inherent limits, namely geo-political limits and relative stasis 
(non-dynamic, non-fluid). Identity-based distribution systems have no 
such limits. The technological identity-based distribution system can 
distribute to any point on the globe. Identity-based distribution systems 
allows the apparent transversal of the limitations of the state, 
simultaneously inhabiting and extending the global capitalist economy. 
Identity-based technological freedom implies and necessitates complete 
and total territorialization of all aspects, of all spaces. Empowerment 
= extension of the power structure. The individual sets up virtual agents 
for collection/distribution. The individual remotely accesses and 
controls the flow of capital. The subjectification of the individual to 
the economy through machinic enslavement is consummated with the 
construction of the global identity-based distribution system. The 
controlling mechanism of identity-based distribution is access. All 
systems everywhere link back to a centralized identity. There is no 
escape. 





Excerpts 

------------------ 

http://www.politechbot.com/p-02792.html 

Ashcrofts speech on opening NSA, CIA databases to police Attorney General 

John Ashcroft spoke today to an "Anti-Terrorism Coordinators Conference" 
organized by the Executive Office for United States Attorneys 
(http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/eousa/). An excerpt from Ashcrofts prepared 
remarks: 

..The attacks of September 11 have redefined the mission of the 
Department of Justice. Defending our nation and its citizens against 
terrorist attacks is now our first and overriding priority. ... We are 
engaged in an aggressive arrest and detention campaign of law breakers 
with a single objective: to get terrorists off the street before they 
can harm more Americans. ... Last week I announced a sweeping wartime 
reorganization of the Department of Justice that places a high priority 
on cooperation and coordination between Washington and state and local 
prosecutors and law enforcement. ... We will re-focus our resources on 
front-line positions. The war on terrorism will be fought not in 
Washington but in the field, by agents, prosecutors, investigators and 
analysts. ...Our new mission requires not just a new structure but a new 
approach to our jobs. In evaluating the merits of a prosecution, 
Assistant United States Attorneys must consider more than the scale of 
the case but the likelihood that the prosecution may disrupt and 
dismantle terrorist networks. In the changed world in which we now live, 
a seemingly routine prosecution of an immigration violation may be much 
more important than a million-dollar fraud case, because the immigration 
prosecution or minor_ identity_ theft_ case_ may_ remove_ a_ terrorist_ 
operative_ from_ our_ community. This is not a randomly chosen example, 
but a new subjectification to identity. 

It is critical that we begin to view our responsibilities as justice 
officials in the fight against terrorism from the standpoint of the 
culture_ as_ a_ whole_, not_ just_ the_ individual_ case the cultural 
whole is evoked to legitimize the loss of individual liberties 

at hand Anti-Terrorism Task Force Coordinators will be responsible for 
ensuring that federal, state, and local law enforcement are communicating 
regularly regarding potential terrorist activity. You will be 
responsible, as well, for insuring that the information highway is not a 
one-way street. Just as federal officials must have access to information 
collected at the state and local level, Task Force members from state and 
local police must have access to appropriate information available to 
federal agencies. The battle against terrorism will require an 
unprecedented level of cooperation among all members of the law 
enforcement community and beyond. ... Prevention_ of_ terrorist_ 
attacks_ - even_ at_ the_ expense_ of_ prosecution - must be our 
priority. Note that prevention and disruption is being set up as the 
goal, and simultaneously being exempted frome due process. A whole 
prevention system is being legitimized and operated pre-judicially. The 
judicial system was based on crimes committed, not crimes (supposedly) 
about to be committed. Where is the burden of proof, the beyond the 
shadow of a reasonable doubt of probability profiles? Prevention is a 
whole new arena. 

.. To facilitate this communication, today I am issuing a directive to 
all United States Attorneys mandating that they begin immediately to 
develop communications protocols for sharing information with state and 
local leaders. ... As you know, I have just directed the Task Forces to 
coordinate the interviews_ of_ individuals who we believe may have 
information helpful to our investigative or prevention efforts. By 
necessity, many, if not most, of these interviews will be conducted by 
members of state and local law enforcement. Task Force Coordinators will 
be responsible for collecting interview reports so that the information 
they contain may be thoroughly_ analyzed. i.e. profile 

We recognize that this will be a time-consuming and complicated task, but 
it is critical that we expand our knowledge of terrorist networks 
operating within the United States. ... The recently passed 
anti-terrorism legislation-the USA Patriot Act of 2001-- accomplished 
much to improve the effectiveness of law enforcements efforts to 
intercept and stop terrorists. In particular, the new law gives us an 
expanded ability to share information between and within the law 
enforcement and intelligence communities. Our ability to share 
information is only as good as our capacity_ to_ identify useful 
intelligence. Therefore, today I am issuing a second directive to provide 
training to federal, state and local law enforcement in the use of all 
available resources in the war on terrorism, including training on 
foreign intelligence, how to identify it and with whom to share it. 
..Due to the high priority the Department places on disrupting 
terrorist activity, I am requesting that this report be submitted... 



--- 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/11/20011113-27.html1 

Military Order 

Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War 
Against Terrorism 

..Given the danger to the safety of the United States and the nature of 
international terrorism, and to the extent provided by and under this 
order, I find consistent with section 836 of title 10, United States 
Code, that it is not practicable to apply in military commissions under 
this order the principles of law and the rules of evidence generally 
recognized in the trial of criminal cases in the United States district 
courts. 

(a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to -- 

(1) authorize the disclosure of state secrets to any person not 
otherwise authorized to have access to them 

(2) limit the authority of the President as Commander in Chief of the 
Armed Forces or the power of the President to grant reprieves and 
pardons or 

(3) limit the lawful authority of the Secretary of Defense, any military 
commander, or any other officer or agent of the United States or of any 
State to detain or try any person who is not an individual subject to 
this order. 

(b) With respect to any individual subject to this order -- 

(1) military tribunals shall have exclusive jurisdiction with respect to 
offenses by the individual and 

(2) the individual shall not be privileged to seek any remedy or maintain 
any proceeding, directly or indirectly, or to have any such remedy or 
proceeding sought on the individuals behalf, in (i) any court of the 
United States, or any State thereof, (ii) any court of any foreign 
nation, or (iii) any international tribunal. 



---- 

http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/fr-cont.html 

Executive Order 13234 of November 9, 2001 

Presidential Task Force on Citizen Preparedness in the War on Terrorism 



Sec. 3. Mission. The Task Force shall identify, review, and recommend 
appropriate means by which the American public can: 

(a) prepare in their homes, neighborhoods, schools, places of worship, 
workplaces, and public places for the potential consequences of any 
possible terrorist attacks within the United States and 

(b) volunteer to assist or otherwise support State and local public 
health and safety officials and others engaged in the effort to prevent, 
prepare for, and respond to any possible terrorist attacks within the 
United States. 

legitimizing and extending identity state to pervade all aspects of 
social life, and encourage as many eyes as possible to assure compliance 
to identity 



---- 

http://www.house.gov/ways_means/socsec/107cong/ss-10wit.htm 

LIST OF WITNESSES TO APPEAR BEFORE 
COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS 
SUBCOMMITTEE ON SOCIAL SECURITY AND 
COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES 
SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS 
ON PREVENTING IDENTITY THEFT BY TERRORISTS AND CRIMINALS 


THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2001 - BEGINNING AT 10:00 A.M. 
2128 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING 



----- 

http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/bop_rule.html 

National Security Prevention of Acts of Violence and Terrorism Final 
Rule Department of Justice Bureau of Prisons 

...Monitoring of Communications With Attorneys To Deter Acts of 
Terrorism... 



------ 

And finally, lest we forget that anonymity is, at least currently, still 
a constitutional right. 

http://www.epic.org/free_speech/mcintyre.html 

McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission 

The freedom to publish anonymously extends beyond the literary realm. In 
Talley, the Court held that the First Amendment protects the distribution 
of unsigned handbills urging readers to boycott certain Los Angeles 
merchants who were allegedly engaging in discrimina- tory employment 
practices. 362 U. S. 60. Writing for the Court, Justice Black noted 
that -persecuted groups and sects from time to time throughout history 
have been able to criticize oppressive practices and laws either 
anonymously or not at all.- Id., at 64. Justice Black recalled Englands 
abusive press licensing laws and seditious libel prosecutions, and he 
reminded us that even the arguments favoring the ratification of the 
Constitution advanced in the Federalist Papers were published under 
fictitious names..... Under our Constitution, anonymous pamphleteering is 
not a pernicious, fraudulent practice, but an honorable tradition of 
advocacy and of dissent. Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the 
majority.



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