In case you’re wondering why they’re going to such lengths to extradite Julian Assange:
So what are Uncle Sam and Her Majesty’s government protecting? Here’s one answer: Trapwire.
Wikileaks has revealed a plan to use spy cameras in public places and facial recognition software to keep tabs on everyone everywhere, 24/7. As always, terrorism and pedophilia provide the big excuses for transforming our society into the proverbial Orwellian nightmare.
Some have expressed doubts that Trapwire could really forecast terrorist acts based on data from cameras, but Rik Ferguson, security consultant at Trend Micro, said the software for such systems had existed for some time.
“There’s a lot of crossover between CCTV and facial recognition,” he said. “It’s feasible to have a camera looking for suspicious behaviour – for example, in a computer server room it could recognise someone via facial recognition or your gait, then can identify them from the card they swipe to get in, and then know whether it’s suspicious if they’re meant to be a cleaner and they sit down at a computer terminal.“
Let’s not be naive. Trapwire has nothing to do with “terrorism.” Trapwire is all about preventing a “1789” reaction when your new Libertarian overlords take away Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance and the minimum wage.
like a lot of emptywheel posts, i find the transition between points to be a little bit of a leap. trapwire is really scary, but what does that have to do with assange’s extradition? whether he ends up in swedish, or american, custody won’t change anything with regard to trapwire. nor will it stop wikileaks from reporting on it if it can–wikileaks has already revealed the trapwire plan even with assange hiding in the ecuadoran embassy and thus unable to assist his online organization.
(also the whole “rape charges were trumped up” line is really distasteful. i am far from convinced that the trumped up charges are true, despite reading endless attempts to attack the credibility of his accusers. attacking women who report rape is always gutter business, no less so here considering just how weak the attacks have been substantively)
Now that Ecuador has granted asylum to Assange what is Hillary’s next move? To demand that England storm the Ecuadorian embassy and drag Assange out?
So to cover up that guillotine I am building in the garage I will now wear a mask.