<nettime> Threat Matrix - the end of it all

[Nathan Hactivist <nathan@hactivist.com>]

sorry for the incoherent writing but i am baked on cold medicine right now
just wanted to get this out

I just got done watching what was the most offensive television show I have
ever seen...The Threat Matrix. If you don't know the premise, well it is
based on a secret section of the Dept of Homeland Security made up of select
FBI and CIA members set to protect America. Before I forget what I saw let
me try to write some of this out. In the beginning  a drug trafficker is
caught in Indonesia and he makes such statements as "You Americans and your
ethics" alongside statement about how stupid Americans don't understand the
link between drug trafficking and terrorist funding, etc. It's a nice little
monologue. Al Quaeda then makes its first appearance  along with the
government Echelon project (you know monitoring cell calls, email etc -
supposedly is a massive failure). Luckily Echelon works so well in this show
that they even use keywords "box" and "container" to find some terrorist
information. Oh wait, then there are the protesters. The G8 peoples are in
town in Chicago on the floor of some stock exchange and that is the
terrorist target but the helpful members of this elite team are held up
because of the G8 and WTO protesters referred to as "idiots". Oh also at one
point 14 year old kids from Jakarta are captured and they are terrorists,
the sensitive female character (who is played by an actress is used to like)
makes the statement that they need lawyers cause they are only 18 but the
main hero white guy says "they are terrorists" and "they are enemy
combatants" and says that they can remain on the military base and the press
won't be notified. He informs the woman to do something like set up the
great wall of china between the kids and the press...or something lame like
that. Oh what else makes an appearance, email encryption cracking.
Apparently some of the plotting was done using pgp email encryption which
the agents cracked.

This is really a first. Reality TV twice removed. It's scary thinking of the
target audience and knowing the show will be a hit. It is sort of like that
show 24 and the Matrix and COPS combined. Scary because it incorporates shit
that most average Americans might not even know about, but scary because it
reveals them in a way that justifies there existence. At one point the
"president" makes a statement to a reporter that questions "doesn't echelon
violate American's right to privacy". The prez responds with something like
"that would be illegal, we do not violate the rights of Americans..."
Basically it is a huge piece of propaganda with references to Mr. Ridge, etc
and in the course of one hour attacked protesters (dressed in hippy gear by
the way as the wardrobe dept sort of confused them with Vietnam era
protesters  and there were only like 100), charged people as enemy
combatants, used echelon effectively? decrypted pgp encryption, killed a
terrorist (disguised as a white guy), advertised a bunch of new tech
gadgets, and reinforced the drug link, and made Al Quaeda once again look
bigger than it might actually be.

God, this is the step that might have larger repercussions than the actual
war with Iraq.

Oh and the guards in some missile tank at the beginning are playing DOOM
videogame.

sorry back to Nyquil daydreaming

Nathan Martin
Hactivist Tactical Media Network : http://www.hactivist.com
Carbon Defense League : http://www.carbondefense.org
Creation is Crucifixion : http://www.creationiscrucifixion.com

My PGP Public Keyring
http://www.hactivist.com/pubkeyblock.asc

Next 5 Minutes 4 : http://www.n5m.org

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