It Is Not Security, but Tyranny

Lost in a U.S. desert in Bluffdale, Utah, the government builds a Leviathan: the largest spy center on the planet — a huge structure to hide the latest technology designed to intercept, decode and analyze the networks of all global communications. The venture was kept secret until it came to light following an investigation by journalist James Bamford. It is the new base of the National Security Agency, the most powerful and enigmatic U.S. agency that now exceeds the CIA and FBI in resources, and possesses the controversial Echelon spy network based on satellites.

This new NSA bunker, which will be operational in 2013, will cost about $2 billion. The project originated with an initiative of the George W. Bush administration and became known as “Stellar Wind” but was so controversial that Congress overturned it. However, Washington is not the only government doing this; Brazil is also creating a military organization, the Center for Cyber Defense, officially joining in this “war of cyberspace” with Russia, China and Germany. In fact, while there is a decrease in traditional military spending, there is a marked increase in “defense” electronics, up from $50 billion in 2011.

In military parlance, cyberspace is the “fifth field of battle.” It happens that with computing, armies are left with huge complications (and peace guaranteed!) since they need secrecy to be effective. Having the most powerful weapon is useless against a mosquito if it can anticipate our movements and escape. Thus, the most militarized countries (most authoritarian) are the ones that impose the most major constraints on the network — regimes like Russia, Vietnam, China, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Cuba — while in others, such as North Korea, freedom is practically nonexistent. Those countries will be the ones asked to pass the Internet from private hands to the U.N. at the International Telecommunication Union Assembly to be held in Dubai in December.

The excuses are the usual ones of national security, attacks on banks and companies, the war on terrorism, etc. They are all a big lie. It is as false as the argument that, to defend freedom, violence is sometimes needed, when it is absolutely always liberticidal. World War II, for instance, as an example of “defensive” violence, installed the Stalinist dictatorship, the worst in human history. Without the Allies’ attack, the Nazis and the Soviet Union would probably have attacked each other until both would have sooner or later disappeared.

As for bank security, I was personally the victim of someone using a duplicate of my credit card, but precisely because of the Internet I was able to notice it immediately; I called the bank, the transaction was blocked, and the offender was traced — all without state intervention. In any case, if it had not been noticed in time, that is the reason insurance companies exist. Regarding terrorism, I remember the story of Pat Gilmore, a former Delta Airlines pilot, who identified Mohammed Atta, the leader of those who crashed the planes into the Twin Towers, months before the event but could not report him because nobody would take the complaint, since Atta had complied with all the documents and requirements imposed by the state security forces.