Posted on 02/26/2020 5:46:46 AM PST by Kaslin
PARIS -- If the UK allows Chinese multinational Huawei to participate in building a new-generation cellular communications network, the CIA is going to take its ball and go home. That's the message Mick Mulvaney, U.S. President Donald Trump's acting chief of staff, delivered in a speech at the Oxford Union last week just before his meeting with British officials.
Mulvaney and Trump are concerned that your selfies and your mom's Facebook rants about the neighbor could be laughed at by some military intelligence officer in Beijing via secret backdoors installed in Huawei equipment. Those who don't know any better say they're thankful that the U.S. government is looking out for them.
Yes, it would be a noble gesture if the CIA hadn't beaten the Chinese to the possibility of peering at the direct messages you exchange with your high school ex.
A Washington Post report earlier this month revealed that the CIA teamed for years with the West German BND intelligence service on a decades-long spying operation. The two intelligence agencies secretly owned a Swiss company called Crypto AG that sold encryption machines to more than 120 governments worldwide. The machines were rigged with backdoors so that codes could easily be broken. The Swiss government has launched an investigation into the alleged CIA front company's activities.
It's probably best to just assume that all governments are spying online and behave accordingly to minimize your exposure if you're concerned about it. Meanwhile, the U.S. government will keep prattling on about Huawei in an attempt to negate a Chinese competitive advantage on the global economic playing field.
All the noise about national security is meant to obscure the panic that the U.S. can't compete with Huawei's technology at a time when the entire world is on the verge of upgrading to 5G networks. Economically speaking, the U.S. has no goalie and no players on the ice, leaving China free to score into an empty net -- over and over again, all over the world.
Attorney General Bill Barr recently suggested that the U.S. buy controlling shares in Huawei's only two 5G competitors: Finland's Nokia and Sweden's Ericsson.
"Putting our large market and financial muscle behind one or both of these firms would make it a more formidable competitor and eliminate concerns over its staying power," Barr said. "We and our closest allies certainly need to be actively considering this approach."
Barr's remarks have been poorly received here in Europe. The suggestion that the U.S. should buy controlling shares of two European multinationals is being viewed in the context of a longstanding U.S. effort to economically colonize Europe by buying its industrial know-how piece by piece and using it to further American interests. The recent use of U.S. anti-corruption laws to selectively prosecute European multinationals -- in some cases leading to the buyouts of the weakened firms -- have exasperated European industry.
The case of Alstom here in France is one example of a U.S. buyout that has led to European wariness. In 2014, the U.S. Justice Department extracted a record $772 million from the French power and transportation company to settle foreign bribery charges. A year later, Alstom's power division (and French nuclear assets and know-how) were sold to General Electric, the highly subsidized U.S. multinational and defense contractor sometimes jokingly referred to as "Government Electric."
Before anyone argues that Alstom (or France) deserved the punishment because it shouldn't have acted corruptly in the first place, consider that Nigeria, which ranked 146th of 180 countries on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index for 2019, enjoys $9 billion in bilateral trade with the U.S., which is also Nigeria's largest foreign investor. And despite Nigeria having a corruption ranking on par with that of heavily sanctioned Iran, which the U.S. considers a persistent global menace, the U.S. can't seem to find any corruption in Nigeria to prosecute. Funny how that works, isn't it?
National security threats blown out of proportion have become a tool for frustrated hustlers looking to sabotage deals. Huawei is the latest example, but we've seen it before. Just last year, America's NATO ally, Turkey, purchased the Russian-made S-400 air defense system, widely regarded as the best in its class as a result of Russia prioritizing electronic warfare research even after the Cold War. Trump responded by threatening Turkey with sanctions over what Washington described as a security vulnerability for NATO and for the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet. So much whining and complaining. How about just building a better F-35 jet without such vulnerabilities?
Countries grow stronger in a diverse, multipolar world where there are competing options. This concept lies at the very heart of capitalist philosophy. China and others are now playing the game that we've always wanted them to play. They've leveled up. Washington needs to stop whining about it.
On Town Hall, even.
Not terribly long ago The military and, I believe, one or more of the airlines began a process of purging all of their electronics of Chinese derived parts as the military had found some leakage in several different components in different systems.
Point 4 Kaslin:
As regards the French company Alstom:
“The record criminal bribery penalty comes after more than six years of investigations into Alstom from law enforcement in 10 countries. The company and its subsidiaries’ schemes lasted for more than a decade, into at least 2011, with the firms admitting to more than $75 million in bribes to help secure more than $4 billion in Alstom projects in countries including Indonesia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Bahamas.”
A. Nigeria though a country with a lot of corruption has nothing on the grand global scale of the corruption committed by Alstom.
B. GE and Alstom were in talks for their own best interests. GE was looking to expand in the areas it wanted to keep while it shed lines of business it wanted to get out of. Alstom was in more than just electric energy & power grid business lines and wanted capital to expand in the transportation and transport infrastructure sectors.
C. GE and Alstom were set to make their agreement, for their own best interests, regardless of the corruption charges later logged at Alstom - after Alstom’s talks with multiple suitors, including GE, had already been going on. Alstom (and the French government) got what they wanted, Alstom sold only its electric equipment and grid business to GE and got the capital it wanted to expand in other lines of business it wanted to grow in. (A) If you look at Alstom today, you see it has done as it wanted to do, with the capital it got from GE - expanded in the transport sector, which has included the acquisition of Bombardier. (B) GE though it got Alstom’s power and power grid lines of business, it had a net capital loss because of the deal, with a negative $2+ billion between book value of what it acquired from Alstom and what it paid, and taking a $23 billion write off from the value of its power industry division, largely attributed to the Alstom purchase.
Point 5 Kaslin:
“The case of Alstom here in France is one example of a U.S. buyout that has led to European wariness.”
As far as European concerns about such a big U.S. acquisition, when the French government tried to make a decree which could have been used to block the Alstom-GE deal, the major FRENCH INDUSTRY group complained so strongly that the idea of such a decree was withdrawn.
Again, the line in the quote is more propaganda and less reality.
Yup. The author is a moron.
When you have this much bandwidth, camera's, microphones, point of sale appliances, and other appliances that will spy on you every moment. It will get to the point you won't even need a phone. Just speak "Uber" and a facial recognition camera will know who you are, where you are, where you are going, and where you have been. Speak "Chick Fil A" in your driver-less Uber and it takes you to the nearest Chick Fil A and you order the meal you want and it's automatically billed to you without even waving a phone because it knew who you were 20 minutes ago and how much your credit account has in it.
Let's say you don't want big brother to know what you are doing. You say "Uber stop" and get out of the car. It bills you atomatically and records the GPS you were dropped at. Camera's at the site pick you up and follow you walking. AI recognize who you are even you have a scarf on your face.
You have diabetes and you want to by a ice cream but the cashier won't sell it to you because they have your medical records saying you can't have certain foods. You can wave your phone in front of the payment device, but it won't sell you the ice cream. After 2 waves of the phone a NHS representative appears on your phone to warn you that the government pays for your healthcare so you have given up your rights to privacy. If you acquire the ice cream, they will fine you and make a report to the NHS to watch you. If your sugar gets to 180, you will be fined and lose health care for 6 months.
Now you try to make an anonymous complaint to the government and of course they already know who you are and change your social point rating on the network. If your number gets low enough, you will be sent to re-education camp. You continue to try to be free to eat ice cream and they finally take you off the grid. You now are unable to buy and sell and are forced into the underground economy to even live. No more housing, food, or any type of commerce until you submit to the government and get re registered with the government.
What all this is about is having so many "appliances" on the 5G network, you can't get aroung what the government builds. They sell it to you as being "Super Convenient", but in reality it just forces you to give up all privacy and freedom. People fought me when I said Alexa was listening all the time and phoning home. Now we all know the truth. It must always be listening to hear "Alexa", but it hears everything else along with it. When you have a smart refrigerator, somebody will know what you eat and how much. Every device that gets on the network has info on you and phones home with your life open for anyone that wants to look. Your car could be monitored where it goes, what time it moves, how fast you go, did you run the stoplight and did you get required maintenance. No safety sticker, no registration, no insurance, check engine light on, low tire pressure, and the car won't start until a registered mechanic unblocks the alarm.
Much of this is already in China and the re education camps are full. Do you want to be subject to Bernie Sanders and AOC "straitening you out"?
It's truly the Last days and we are willingly submitting to the Antichrist.
Knowing all this, who will turn down the auto banking and the convenience? What politician will refuse to collect data on their people? It's coming, get ready. BTW, they already know how many guns you have buried in the back yard. They have camera's that see through brick walls and recognize who you are and what room you're in so they can take you out a block away with a .50 cal. Drones can follow terrorists and take them out from miles away. Do you think they can't find you?
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