Andre Damon — Defense Secretary “Mad Dog” Mattis visits Google and Amazon

The censorship algorithms rolled out by Google no doubt figured prominently in Mattis’ discussions with tech executives. The nominal purpose of his visit, however, was to integrate Silicon Valley firms even more closely into the booming and lucrative business of waging war.

On Thursday, Mattis met with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos at the tech giant’s headquarters in Seattle.

On Friday, he spoke at the headquarters of Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DUIX), a Defense Department unit located two miles from the Google campus in Mountain View, California. Among the unit’s advisors is Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Google’s parent company, Alphabet.

Mattis said the Pentagon’s partnership with Silicon Valley via DUIX would make the US military “more lethal and more effective” than ever before. DUIX awards military technology contracts to US hi-tech firms.

The operation has already awarded more than $100 million in contracts for 45 pilot projects in areas such as artificial intelligence, autonomous machines and outer space. Its web page encourages technology firms to “tap into a $100+ billion market.”

The entrepreneurial state at work.

Here's on project:

Even more important to the Pentagon than the utility of the tech giants in waging war abroad is the use of their communication infrastructure to shape public opinion and block the expression of antiwar and oppositional sentiment. A major player in this sphere is a think tank called Jigsaw, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet. Jigsaw is headed by Jared Cohen, a former State Department advisor to both Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton.

Jigsaw’s most prominent project is a web commenting censorship system called “Perspective API,” which it calls “a new tool for web publishers to identify toxic comments that can undermine a civil exchange of ideas.”

Developed in cooperation with major US newspapers, Jigsaw has already been implemented to flag comments for deletion in the New York Timescomments section. This week, WikiLeaks noted that a comment containing the language “The CIA armed Islamists in Syria, killing thousands” would be flagged as 66 percent “toxic” by Perspective API. A comment declaring that “the US government is wonderful” is labeled zero percent “toxic,” while “the US government is corrupt” is flagged as 71 percent “toxic.”…

The goal: Control of the population through control of the narrative.

In a study titled “Social media, the vital ground: Can we hold it?” published in April, the Army War College noted, “The impact of social media on the media environment has been widely recognized, as has the ability of extremist and adversarial organizations to exploit the media to publicize their cause, spread their propaganda, and recruit vulnerable individuals.”

It went on to conclude that “Social media will increasingly have a direct impact on virtually all aspects of military operations in the 21st century,” and that the military had to expand its control over social media, “in particular, its use in deception and Psychological Operations (PSYOPS).”

Control over online communication will become increasingly significant amid what one Defense Department report published last month warned was an “increasing chasm between governments and their governed over the basic right to rule.”

That report concluded, “Today, all states are experiencing a precipitous decline in their authority, influence, reach and common attraction,” as populations are presented with “myriad alternative sources of political alignment or allegiance.”

Yet another report, published last year, warned that growing international antagonisms were leading to an intensifying crisis of “social order.”

It concluded that states “now all wrestle with one another over competing interests while standing on quicksand—threatened” not only by national rivals, but by “the fragile and restive social order they themselves rest on.”

As the danger of a major new war mounts, free and unfettered access to information becomes increasingly vital to the mobilization of the working class in opposition to the war plans of the capitalist ruling elite. We call on all our readers to share WSWS articles on social media and sign up to join the fight against Google’s censorship of the Internet.

WSWS
Defense Secretary “Mad Dog” Mattis visits Google and Amazon

Andre Damon

See also

Insurge Intelligence
How the CIA made Google

Why Google made the NSA

Nafeez Ahmed

Jan 22, 2015

Business Insider

14 cutting edge firms funded by the CIA

Paul Szoldra
Sep. 21, 2016

Zero Hedge — War Breaks Out Between Neo-Cons And Libertarians Over Trump's Foreign Policy

"These figures [necons and foreign policy idealists] all generally believe that the United States needs to take an active role in the world from the Middle East to East Asia to deter enemies and reassure allies."

In short, should this group prevail, it would be the equivalent of 4 more years of HIllary Clinton running the State Department.

The outsider group [Libertarians and foreign policy realists] sees things differently.

They want to revamp American foreign policy in a different direction from the last two administrations. Luckily, this particular camp is also more in line with Trump’s views questioning the value of NATO, a position that horrified many in the establishment camp....

Trump realizes that the populist mood is America First and forget the foreign adventurism and attempts at state building — based on demonstrated results that have been clear failures.

Zero Hedge
War Breaks Out Between Neo-Cons And Libertarians Over Trump's Foreign Policy

Submitted by Tyler Durden

Neil Clark — Follow the Money Trail For Source of 'Russian Threat' Paranoia

Certain people are trying to scare us witless about Russia and the ‘threat’ the country apparently poses. The hysteria reminds one to the build up to the Iraq war, when we were warned every day about the ‘threat’ of Saddam’s deadly WMDs, which - surprise, surprise - turned out not to exist.

Now, we can talk for hours about grand, highfalutin theories in the field of geopolitics and international relations in attempts to explain why this is happening.But ‘follow the money’ trail is all we really have to do. Ask yourself who benefits financially from all this scaremongering and then you’ll understand it.

This week, The Intercept revealed how US defense contractors have been telling investors that the so-called ’Russian threat’ was good for business.

Retired Army general Richard Cody, vice-President of the US’s seventh largest defense contractor, L-3 communications, bemoaned the fact that "when the old Cold War ended’ defense budgets went south". Now though a ’resurgent Russia’ meant an "uptick was coming".

There was a similarly upbeat message from Stuart Bradie, chief executive of CBR, who talked of the "opportunities" the current situation presents.

The case for higher defense spending to counter the ‘Russian threat’ has been made by a series of think-tanks. And guess what? The most hawkish of these lobbyists - sorry, ‘think tanks’ - receive sizable funding from US defense contractors!

See The Iron Law of Oligarchy.

RT
Follow the Money Trail For Source of 'Russian Threat' Paranoia 

Neil Clark

Sputnik International — US Spend $1Bln to Build Air Force Facilities Across 26 States - Pentagon

"Spreading the wealth"

Sputnik International
US Spend $1Bln to Build Air Force Facilities Across 26 States - Pentagon

Truthdig — U.S. Defense Contractors Tell Investors Russian Threat Is Good for Business

War and the treat of war is music to their ears. The US is not only the #1 arms buyer for the US military, but also the #1 arms exporter. Who said US manufacturing was dying?

Truthdig
U.S. Defense Contractors Tell Investors Russian Threat Is Good for Business

Sputnik — Sanders Delegate: Clinton’s Policy Determined by Military-Industrial Complex

Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy is determined by her pro-military donors, Bernie Sanders delegate Werner Lange told Sputnik at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

Lange joined other Sanders supporters and delegates in walking out of the convention after Clinton was officially nominated by the Democratic party for the US presidency on Tuesday night.

"[Clinton is] actually an appendage of the military-industrial complex," Lange said on Wednesday. "Her foreign policy is nothing but more and more war."

He explained that Clinton’s advocacy for military intervention was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in Libya.…

Sputnik
Sanders Delegate: Clinton’s Policy Determined by Military-Industrial Complex

Chuck Spinney — Why Are Defense Policy Wonks So Ineffectual?

Today, America’s foreign policy is a shambles. Its primary features are (1) a perpetual war on terror, and (2) the seemingly inevitable march into a new and unnecessary cold war against Russia and China. At the same time, President Obama is leaving his successor with a budget plan containing a front loaded and political engineered* procurement bow wave that guarantees steeply rising defense expenditures well into the next decade and possibly beyond. Such long term increases in the defense budget can only be justified by a new cold war. Yet the United States now spends far more on the military than any other country. Add in the expenditures of our allies, and the spending advantage over any conceivable combination of adversaries becomes overwhelming. Nevertheless, US citizens are more fearful than they were during the Cold War, and politicians and the yellow journalism of the mainstream media are hyping those fears to a greater extent than they did during the Cold War.
What is going on?

Goldman Sachs is not the only giant vampire squid. As always, follow the money.

Risking nuclear war, you say? Small potatoes given the enormous pile of $ on the table.

The Blaster
Why Are Defense Policy Wonks So Ineffectual?
Franklin C. "Chuck" Spinney, former Pentagon military analyst

Sputnik — Assange Says 80% of US National Security Agency Budget Privatized

Addressing International Media Forum "New Era of Journalism: Farewell to Mainstream", Julian Assange said that about 80 percent of the US National Security Agency budget is privatized. He also said that Google is engaged with the US White House and Hillary Clinton's elections campaign. Google has power to control information flow, he added.

As much as 80 percent of the US National Security Agency’s (NSA) budget is privatized, demonstrating the merger between Washington and corporate organizations, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Tuesday.

This is rather ominous, when considered along with the military-industrial complex. The entire military and intelligence establishments are largely privately owned, although the line between military and intelligence is blurred since US intelligence is largely operational rather than informational.

Should this be called "corporate statism" or "statist corporatism?" Whatever, it is scary for democracy, if that even exists in the US other than as a facade, with politicians for sale.

Sputnik
Assange Says 80% of US National Security Agency Budget Privatized