By Charles Makakala

On July 12, 2007, two US Apache helicopters attacked multiple sites in Baghdad during the insurgency that followed the American invasion of Iraq. The world hardly noticed until a leaked video in 2010 revealed what actually happened on that day.

In the footage, American soldiers are seen firing at a group of about 20 people, and later a van and a building, killing seven men and wounding others. They were all civilians and those killed included two journalists. Two of the three children in the van were wounded. Upon observing that, one soldier commented, Well, its their fault for bringing their kids into the battle.

The video was leaked by Private Bradley Manning, an intelligence officer with the US Army. For weeks, Manning had been conversing anonymously with an individual at WikiLeaks using an encrypted channel. At the other end was Julian Assange, an Australian computer programmer who had founded WikiLeaks. The decisions they made in 2010 transformed their lives Manning ending up in jail, and Assange spending the past decade fighting extradition to US.

For many people, Manning and Assange are considered activists and human rights heroes for their actions. The revelations of events such as the one above, plus many other American misdeeds, are used to substantiate that position. As a result, the duo have received countless awards for their standing and courage.

However, on June 17, 2022, a UK government minister signed an order to deport Assange to the US, the decision that would have brought to an end a decade-long legal saga about Assange. Assange appealed against the decision, and the world once again rose up in his support. The President of Mexico called for his release. In Germany, more than 70 MPs did the same. Amnesty International and other organisations have made similar calls.

It was, therefore, predictable to see many Africans adding their voices to the Free Assange chorus. Petitions have been signed and mobilisation is done through social media to put pressure on the UK and US governments to let Assange go. Africans are very tribal, especially if the matter at issue is against the US.

With every post by an acquaintance or a friend here or there announcing that they have signed such petitions and rallying others to do the same thing, I am reminded of how radically different my views are to theirs. From the very beginning, I have always considered Manning, Assange, and later Edward Snowden traitors who deserve to face justice.

On June 9, 2013, a video by Snowden appeared on the internet detailing how the US intelligence agency NSA, was spying on its citizens. Not surprisingly, the video catapulted Snowden into global stardom as a champion of citizens rights in an increasingly connected digital world. From Russia, where Snowden took refuge, he justified his actions as (informing) the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.

Manning and Assange have used similar arguments to defend themselves, but it doesnt add up.

A person who is motivated by ethical consideration is judicious. They will understand the gravity of their actions, and will be extremely careful in their approach. Considering the mercenary ways in which the documents released by Snowden and Manning were obtained, that is espionage. Moreover, considering the reckless manner in which thousands of secret documents are shared in the internet, without any regard for the implications, that is traitorous. Manning, for example, concealed the documents in a Lady Gaga CD case so as to pass through security and later sent more than 700,000 confidential documents to WikiLeaks including over 250,000 diplomatic cables going back to 1966.

That is anarchy.

Unfortunately, this is not a new phenomenon.

In 1986, Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli nuclear technician, disclosed details of Israels nuclear programme to the British media, expecting to be paid $1 million in return. Vanunu illegally smuggled a camera into the Negev Nuclear Research Facility and took photographs of the facility and shared them with the British press. The Mossad, Israels intelligence agency, lured Vanunu out of the UK through a classic honey-trap method, capturing him and subsequently sending him to Israel where he spent 18 years in prison.

Like others of his ilk, Vanunu justified his actions on account of his ethical consideration, in his case, his opposition to nuclear weapons. There is nothing wrong in principle with that ethical position, but if one is opposed to nuclear weapons, why would they pick a job developing nuclear weapons?

The business of the state requires a certain degree of secrecy and confidentiality. Diplomats have to report openly, security officers use clandestine means to gather intelligence, and leaders make tough decisions to stop wickedness. Yes, these privileges are often abused, but the need for increased accountability is not enough justification for anarchy.

We live in the world where people have become increasingly vain. Traditional values of loyalty and integrity are considered secondary to fame and pseudo-heroism. How can anyone confuse whistleblowing with dumping of millions of confidential documents on the internet? Moreover, how can anyone expect to do that and face no consequences? Finally, is Putins Russia, arguably your nations biggest security threat, the place that you would take refuge in?

Truly, as it is said, fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

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Julian Assange? Heres why I am not a fan of his - The Citizen

Few have vaulted from anonymity to the front pages more spectacularly than Edward Snowden, the former government contractor who revealed secrets from the National Security Agency's spying program.

NBC News will devote an hour of primetime on Wednesday to the first American television interview with Snowden, who disclosed secrets from the National Security Agency. Brian Williams, the anchor and managing editor of "NBC Nightly News," traveled to Moscow last week for an exclusive, wide-ranging interview with Snowden. The interview airs Wednesday at 10 p.m. Eastern/9 p.m. Central.

While some call Snowden a traitor who disclosed American secrets, others call him a patriot who exposed violations of the constitution.

Although his intense gaze and stubbled chin became the face of an international debate over privacy and security, many questions remain about his motivations, the exact extent of his removal of documents, and his future.

The impact of Snowden's disclosures, however, is already widespread. President Barack Obama appointed a review panel that criticized the NSA's domestic data collection. Obama recommended in March that the NSA end the warrantless collection in bulk of metadata on Americans, which can show the most intimate details of an individual's life and the patterns of movement and communication of millions. And the House recently passed a bill to end that bulk metadata collection.

Here, in anticipation of Wednesday's special report, is a primer on Snowden's life, his actions, and his impact.

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What did he disclose?

Snowden is a former systems administrator for the CIA who later went to work for the private intelligence contractor Dell, first inside a National Security Agency outpost in Japan and then inside an NSA station in Hawaii. In early 2013, he went to work for contractor Booz Allen Hamilton inside the same NSA center in Hawaii.

While working for the contractors, at some point Snowden began downloading secret documents related to U.S. intelligence activities and partnerships with foreign allies, including some that revealed the extent of data collection from U.S. telephone records and Internet activity.

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What are the key disclosures?

Among the revelations are the NSAs bulk collection of phone and internet metadata from U.S. users, spying on the personal communications of foreign leaders including U.S. allies, and the NSAs ability to tap undersea fiber optic cables and siphon off data.

Based on the Snowden documents, NBC News reported on Jan. 27 that British cyber spies demonstrated a pilot program to their U.S. partners in 2012 in which they were able to monitor YouTube in real time and collect addresses from the billions of videos watched daily, as well as some user information, for analysis. At the time the documents were printed, they were also able to spy on Facebook and Twitter.

NBC News also reported on Feb. 7, based on the documents, that British spies have developed dirty tricks for use against nations, hackers, terror groups, suspected criminals and arms dealers that include releasing computer viruses, spying on journalists and diplomats, jamming phones and computers, and using sex to lure targets into honey traps. According to the documents, which come from presentations prepped in 2010 and 2012 for NSA cyber spy conferences, the agencys goal was to destroy, deny, degrade [and] disrupt enemies by discrediting them, planting misinformation and shutting down their communications.

What is his background?

Snowden, now 30, was born June 21, 1983, in Elizabeth City, N.C., where he lived with his parents, Lonnie, a Coast Guard officer, and Elizabeth, known as Wendy. The family moved to Maryland in the early 1990s, while he was still in grade school, and his parents divorced. He lived outside Baltimore with his mother, a federal court employee.

Snowden was, by his own admission, not a stellar student. He dropped out of high school in his sophomore year. But by that time, he had developed a fascination with computers and technology and was able to develop considerable skills on his own, and via friends and online forums. After attending a community college off and on, he passed a General Educational Development test in the early 2000s, receiving a high school equivalency credential.

He enlisted in an Army Reserve Special Forces training program in 2004 with the intention of fighting in Iraq to fight to help free people from oppression, he later told Britains Guardian newspaper. But he said he broke his legs in a training accident, and Army records show he was discharged after just four months.

He also worked briefly as a security guard before beginning his intelligence work in 2006, when he was hired by the CIA as a computer systems administrator.

How did Snowden gain access to top-secret documents?

Despite being a high-school dropout who eventually received a GED equivalency credential, Snowden was granted top-secret clearance when he was hired by the CIA.

He maintained that clearance during subsequent jobs with CIA and NSA contractors Dell and Booz Allen Hamilton.

Removing the documents was not complicated for someone with his access and expertise, NBC News reported in August. When Snowden stole the crown jewels of the National Security Agency, he didnt need to use any sophisticated devices or software or go around any computer firewall. All he needed, said multiple intelligence community sources, was a few thumb drives and the willingness to exploit a gaping hole in an antiquated security system to rummage at will through the NSAs servers and take 20,000 documents without leaving a trace. Its 2013 and the NSA is stuck in 2003 technology, said an intelligence official.

NBC also reported in August that intelligence sources said Snowden accessed some of the secret documents by assuming the electronic identities of top NSA officials. Every day, they are learning how brilliant [Snowden] was, said a former U.S. official with knowledge of the case. This is why you dont hire brilliant people for jobs like this. You hire smart people. Brilliant people get you in trouble.

Whom did he give the documents to?

In late 2012, Snowden began to reach out to journalists, and in 2013 he leaked documents to Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian, Barton Gellman of The Washington Post, and documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras.

The Pulitzer Prize board in April awarded its highest honor, the medal for public service, to The Washington Post and The Guardian for their articles based on the documents provided by Snowden. The award echoed the Pulitzer given in 1972 to The New York Times for its reports on the Pentagon Papers, the secret history of the Vietnam War.

The executive editor of The Washington Post, Martin Baron, said when the Pulitzers were announced, "Disclosing the massive expansion of the NSAs surveillance network absolutely was a public service. In constructing a surveillance system of breathtaking scope and intrusiveness, our government also sharply eroded individual privacy. All of this was done in secret, without public debate, and with clear weaknesses in oversight."

Without the disclosures, Baron said, "we never would have known how far this country had shifted away from the rights of the individual in favor of state power. There would have been no public debate about the proper balance between privacy and national security. As even the president has acknowledged, this is a conversation we need to have.

Congressman Peter King (R-N.Y.) tweeted that "awarding the Pulitzer to Snowden enablers is a disgrace."

How much information did he take?

Government officials initially said that it could be up to 200,000 classified NSA documents, and later gave the estimate of 1.7 million. Officials, including NSA Director Keith Alexander, have assured the public that the government knows the scope of the leak.

But Snowden has not said how many documents he took, and NBC News reported in August that officials say the NSA has been unable to determine how many documents he took and what they are.

What was in the documents?

Among the revelations from documents in the Snowden trove are the NSAs bulk collection of phone and Internet metadata from U.S. users; NSA spying on the personal communications of foreign leaders, including U.S. allies; and the NSAs ability to tap undersea fiber optic cables and siphon off data.

Did anyone suspect he was taking documents?

Snowdens CIA supervisor at the CIA during his assignment in Geneva placed a critical assessment of his behavior and work habits in his personnel file and voiced the suspicion that he had tried to break into classified computer files to which he was not authorized to have access, the New York Times reported after he was identified as the leaker.

The supervisors cautionary note and the CIAs suspicions apparently were not forwarded to the NSA or its contractors, and surfaced only after federal investigators began scrutinizing Mr. Snowdens record once the documents began spilling out, the newspaper reported, citing unidentified intelligence and law enforcement officials.

And the Wall Street Journal reported in August 2013 that a federal review of his employment at the CIA and the intelligence contractors found the final security check that Snowden underwent in 2011 was inadequate. Investigators failed to verify Mr. Snowden's account of a past security violation and his work for the CIA, didn't thoroughly probe an apparent trip to India that he had failed to report, and they didn't get significant information from anyone who knew him beyond his mother and girlfriend, it said.

Separately, the U.S. Department of Justice has joined a whisteblowers lawsuit against USIS, the company that vetted Snowden, alleging the company faked 665,000 background checks it conducted for the Office of Personnel Management. It is not clear whether Snowdens check was among those that, according to the criminal complaint, were fraudulently classified as complete. (The case is still pending. The company told NBC News in January that "a small group of individuals" was responsible for the bogus checks and a source said they had been terminated.)

What is he charged with?

In a criminal complaint unsealed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on June 21, 2013, the U.S. Justice Department charged Snowden with theft, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person. The latter two charges are violations of the 1917 Espionage Act.

Each of the three charges carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years, for a total of 30 years. Additional counts could be added.

Snowden has retained a prominent Washington attorney who has represented several clients charged with violating the Espionage Act, reportedly in hopes of negotiating a plea deal.

Why did he do it?

Snowden has said in interviews that he acted out of the belief that the spying program was illegal and immoral.

"My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them," he told The Guardian in his first interview.

Snowden also has said he didnt trust the Obama administration, having seen it prosecute whistleblowers at an unprecedented rate.

Did he have foreign help?

Snowden has denied suggestions that he worked with or for foreign governments. NBC reported in January that law enforcement officials have not found any evidence that Snowden was working for Russia as a spy.

What damage did Snowdens leaks do to the U.S.?

That is a matter of considerable debate.

The man who leaked the Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg, has called the Snowden disclosures the most significant leak in U.S. history. "Edward Snowden has done more for our Constitution in terms of the Fourth and First Amendment," Ellsberg said, "than anyone else I know."

Privacy advocates say that Snowdens revelation of the extensive U.S. spying operations was a bold and necessary step that forced the federal courts, the Congress, and the Obama administration to re-examine the previously secret programs and, in some cases to reform them.

But U.S. officials, members of Congress, and others have said that the Snowden disclosures harmed national security by enabling foreign spies.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said the revelations caused "huge, grave damage" to the nation's intelligence capabilities.

Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified in March that the Pentagon might need to spend billions to overcome the damage done to military security by Snowden's leaks of intelligence documents. Unnamed intelligence officials were quoted by AP saying that the agencies were scrambling to maintain surveillance of terror groups after they changed their methods of communication in the wake of Snowden's revelations.

The officials have not given details of any specific damage caused by the Snowden leaks.

The U.S. was also embarrassed by the disclosures or by the behavior being disclosed when the Snowden documents revealed that the U.S. has eavesdropped on the personal communications of foreign leaders, including allies.

Where is he now?

Since August of last year, Snowden has been living at an undisclosed location in Russia, under temporary asylum granted by Russian authorities as they consider his application for permanent political asylum.

What happens next?

His one-year temporary asylum in Russia expires on Aug. 1, but it could be extended if Moscow has not ruled on his request for permanent asylum.

It is also possible but considered unlikely that Russia would hand him over to U.S. authorities at that point.

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Who Is Edward Snowden, the Man Who Spilled the NSA's Secrets?

Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor and press freedom advocate who has lived in Moscow in exile since 2013, hasn't uttered a word publicly on Russia's move to criminalize independent reporting about its invasion of Ukraine.

Snowden is the president of Freedom of the Press Foundation, a California-based charity that tracks "press freedom violations" in the United States as minor as journalists being denied access to press conferences. As recently as Jan. 26, Snowden urged Danish citizens to resist their government after it threatened to impose lengthy prison sentences to members of the media who reported on state secrets.

RUSSIAN POLICE ARREST MORE THAN 3,000 PROTESTERS ACROSS 49 CITIES

But Snowden hasn't said anything publicly, let alone issued a call for active resistance from the Russian people, about the legislation signed into law by Russian President Vladimir Putin last week that threatens imprisonment of up to 15 years for spreading what the Russian government deems to be "fake information."

Examples of "fake information" in the eyes of the Russian government include any reporting about its invasion of Ukraine that isn't sourced directly from the Russian Defense Ministry.

The law has led numerous Western news outlets to suspend reporting in Russia in recent days.

The change to the criminal code, which seems designed to turn any independent reporter into a criminal purely by association, makes it impossible to continue any semblance of normal journalism inside the country, Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait said Friday.

Snowden and the Freedom of the Press Foundation did not return requests for comment.

Snowden issued numerous tweets in the lead-up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine criticizing the Biden administration for claiming Russia's invasion was imminent and blasting American media for "pushing for war."

"So... if nobody shows up for the invasion Biden scheduled for tomorrow morning at 3AM, I'm not saying your journalistic credibility was instrumentalized as part of one of those disinformation campaigns you like to write about, but you should at least consider the possibility," Snowden tweeted on Feb. 15.

Snowden hasn't posted a tweet to his 5.1 million followers since Feb. 27, three days after the start of Russia's invasion.

"I'm not suspended from the ceiling above a barrel of acid by a rope that burns a little faster every time I tweet, you concern-trolling ghouls," he said. "I've just lost any confidence I had that sharing my thinking on this particular topic continues to be useful, because I called it wrong."

The Russian government granted Snowden permanent residency in October 2020. Snowden says he has never cooperated with or received funding from the Russian government.

Snowden worked at the CIA prior to a stint as a contractor for the National Security Agency. In 2013, he left his job at an NSA facility in Hawaii, flew to Hong Kong, and soon disclosed hundreds of thousands of classified NSA documents to journalists. Snowden revealed not just domestic surveillance programs, but also exposed global national security operations by the U.S. and its allies. Snowden, who was granted asylum by Russia and lives in Moscow, was charged with violating the Espionage Act.

The House Intelligence Committee, which released a redacted 36-page report on Snowden in 2016, argued Snowden was not a whistleblower and was, and remains, a serial exaggerator and fabricator.

Snowden caused tremendous damage to national security, and the vast majority of the documents he stole have nothing to do with programs impacting individual privacy interests they instead pertain to military, defense, and intelligence programs of great interest to Americas adversaries, the HPSCI report read. He handed over secrets that protect American troops overseas and secrets that provide vital defenses against terrorists and nation-states."

The report also cast doubt on Snowden's timeline of events: Two weeks before Snowden began mass downloads of classified documents, he was reprimanded after engaging in a workplace spat with NSA managers. Despite Snowdens later claim that the March 2013 congressional testimony of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was a breaking point for him, these mass downloads predated Director Clappers testimony by eight months.

The report indicated that in June 2016, the deputy chairman of the Russian parliaments defense and security committee publicly conceded that Snowden did share intelligence with his government.

Snowden also gave a 2013 interview to the South China Morning Post while hiding out in Hong Kong, claiming that we hack network backbones ... that give us access to the communications of hundreds of thousands of computers. He also claimed that the NSA hacks Chinese cellphone companies and that U.S. spies hacked Chinese universities.

The committee sent a bipartisan letter to then-President Barack Obama, saying Snowden "took the material to China and Russia two regimes that routinely violate their citizens' privacy and civil liberties."

Among the signatories were current Democratic Chairman Adam Schiff, former Republican Chairman Devin Nunes, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, then a congressman.

Trump tweeted about Snowden dozens of times before becoming president, calling the leaker a traitor and a spy as he lamented that we are being embarrassed by Russia and China on Snowden.

Im not that aware of the Snowden situation, but Im going to start looking at it, Trump said after being asked about a possible pardon in August 2020.

Then-Attorney General William Barr said he was vehemently opposed to pardoning the traitor.

The day Trump left office without pardoning him, Snowden tweeted: I am not at all disappointed to go unpardoned by a man who has never known a love he had not paid for.

Originally posted here:
Why so silent? Edward Snowden has gone underground since Russia's ...

For kids across the country, its summer vacation time.

And in between days at the playground or family trips, some kids are staying busy learning advanced tech skills.

Though summer camps across the board saw a surge in early enrollment, one option popular with families is STEM camps, which offer training in science, technology, engineering and math.

The idea is that camps like these keep young brains active outside of school and could even inspire the next generation of tech leaders.

On the outskirts of Chicago, one summer camp is hoping to do just that. WBEZs Susie An has the story.

At a Code Ninjas center in suburban Chicago, kids are learning about robotics and how to program and code. Tensions are high as three teams race to build a cart out of Legos. The cart is attached to a computer program, but a bug was intentionally introduced into that program, and the kids have to fix it.

Jacob Liokumovich, whos headed to the sixth grade, has chosen to work alone.

I like building whatever comes to me while Im building. Thats how I build, he says.

Soon to be seventh-grader Alarese Gaden and third-grader Oliver Liokumovich have joined forces.

I have a lot of Lego sets at home that I build with, Alarese says.

The youngest team is made up of three 8-year-olds.The goal is to see who can program the fastest cart.

The coding camps owner and director, Nawroz Pirani, says it wont be such a rude awakening for these kids once they go back to school. He also has kids building their own websites and designing games. This week of camp costs $349.

Its not your traditional type of learning, Pirani says. Theyre learning a coding language and STEM skills, and its going to be useful for them.

Pirani says those STEM skills are important now, but he predicts that in the next 10 or 15 years, itll be even more necessary for people to know some kind of computer language.

Back in the robotics class, the teams have constructed their carts and now theyre going through lines of code. But some are hitting a few snags. Alarese is disassembling the cart.

Im trying to fix it because this got taken off, and we have to re-add the wheels, she says.

Her partner, Oliver, isnt paying much attention.

The team of 8-year-olds is being squeezed for time. Twins Michael and Gabriel Mendez have become enamored with Fred and Fredalina, Lego characters they created who have an extensive backstory.

We need to deliver Fred and Fredalinas lunch, the twins say.

Teammate Henry Voicu tries to get them back on track.

Were not going to deliver food to Fred and Fredalina, Henry says.

In the end, everyone is able to successfully debug their cart programs, including the team of 8-year-olds. But the kids dont have enough time to see whose cart wouldve been the fastest. Although most suspect that Jacob, the sixth-grader who worked alone, wouldve won. But hes being modest about it.

I mean, its been the fastest for pretty much everything, but maybe. I really dont know, he says.

Hell be coming back to later sessions to test more of his skills.

We did a show last year with the CEO of one of the highest-profile student coding programs, Girls Who Code. CEO Tarika Barrett shared how the program adjusted during the pandemic to teach students in areas with limited internet access.

She said it took a lot of coordination.

One funder for some coding summer camps is the National Security Agency. Yes, the government.

Bloomberg has a piece on the program, called GenCyber, which consists of over 100 camps across the country. The agency funds them but does not set the curriculum. More than 20,000 students have attended the program, which was started in 2014, just a year after Edward Snowden first leaked secret NSA documents.

Lastly, if youre thinking about jumping into a brief coding boot camp for an income boost, we have an article from Vox all about the promise of the six-figure salary associated with adult coding programs and how those expectations might not line up with reality.

Excerpt from:
Kids spend the summer in STEM camp - Marketplace

From July 8 to September 4, 2022, UCCA Edge presents The Stutter of History,the first comprehensive survey of work by Thomas Demand (b. 1964, Munich, lives and works in Berlin and Los Angeles) in China. Capturing the uncanny intersections of history, images, and archtectonic forms, the exhibition features over 70 photographs, films, and wallpapers that span the arc of the artists career, and focuses on four important areas of his work: large-scale photographs depicting seemingly banal yet historically significant scenarios reconstructed from news images or other sources; Dailies based on images taken on his phone; photographic studies of paper models from other creative disciplines in Model Studies; and his moving image work. The exhibition is curated by Douglas Fogle for the non-profit organization the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography and is organized at UCCA Edge by Ara Qiu, Mason Zha, Zhang Yao, and Lin Luqi. UCCA Edge thanks audiences for their understanding regarding the impact of recent pandemic-related restrictions on the exhibitions originally planned opening date and duration.

For Demand, The Stutter of History lies in the gap between existing images that depict the world around us, the 1:1 paper models he meticulously builds to reconstruct these images, the photographs he takes of these models, the subsequent destruction of the models, and the para-photographic forms that then relaunch into the world. In the first section, Demands large-scale photographs depict scenarios from the margins of recent history, from the Gangway (2001) that Pope John Paul II descended on his visit to unified Berlin, to the polling centers for the contentious 2000 United States presidential election (Poll, 2001). A selection of works confront images associated with the Nazi regime and other traumas in German history, such as Room (1994), the site of a failed attempt to assassinate Hitler in 1944, and the ransacked Office (1995) of the Stasi. Closer to the present day, the Refuge series (2021) re-creates the bleak, generic Russian hotel room presumably occupied by American whistleblower Edward Snowden.

As a counterpoint to the public and monumental, the Dailies series (20082020), shown on the third floor, consists of photographs of paper models Demand reconstructed based on images taken with his iPhone. They depict the ordinary, sometimes humorous, and often overlooked moments that populate everyday lifea pile of unopened mail, a poster on a telephone pole, plastic cups stuck in a fence.

In his Model Studies, Demand enters into dialogue with models from other creative professions. The photographs on display here make fragmented and abstract studies of well-worn paper models from the architecture studio SANAA and the radical paper dress patterns of fashion designer Azzedine Alaa, offering an alternative dimension to the use and haptic materiality of models.

Finally, the exhibition investigates Demands commitment to the moving image in his explorations of stop-motion filmmaking, as demonstrated in the work Pacific Sun (2012). Housed in a specially built cinema-like intervention, Demand fastidiously reconstructed this epic, absurd stop-motion animation film from two minutes of security footage from the cruise ship Pacific Sun as it was hit by gigantic waves off the coast of New Zealand. Its frenzied moments of uncontrolled chaos culminate in climatic absurdity, a state that is central to the gulf between the disquieting, utopian potential of his paper models and the mass consumption of their photographic doppelgngers.

Apart from individual artworks, exhibition design is an integral part of Demands conceptual approach to artistic production. With his architectural use of textiles, wallpapers, and temporary structures, Demand creates an immersive environment for the spectator, in which image and world collide.

Accompanying the exhibition, the English-language catalogue The Stutter of History has been produced in collaboration between art director Naomi Mizusaki, the artist, and his longtime publisher MACK. The catalogue contains an introduction by Douglas Fogle, an essay by art historian Margaret Iversen, and an original prose fiction piece by author Ali Smith.

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Thomas Demand: The Stutter of History - Announcements - E-Flux

By Xin Ping

Hackddos, an Internet media outlet focusing on information security, recently released a report revealing that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has been stealing indiscriminate data from Internet users around the world. Using advanced technologies and tools, the NSA has intercepted 97 billion pieces of global Internet data and 124 billion pieces of telephone data in 30 days. It has also used submarines to conduct cyber theft from undersea fiber optic cables.

This is just one more disclosure of the numerous cyber attacks by the U.S. According to a report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a U.S. think tank, the United States has become the world's number one cyber superpower, especially in terms of cyber intelligence and cyber attack capabilities. As Mr. Edward Snowden revealed, the NSA organized and implemented at least 231 cyber attacks in 2011 alone, mainly targeting "adversaries" such as China, Russia, Iran and Venezuela. In 2010, U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies used the "ShockNet" virus to cripple Iran's nuclear facilities. In March 2019, a cyber attack by the U.S. caused a major power outage in Venezuela. Eighteen states across the country were affected and half the country was plunged into darkness, with power outages lasting more than 48 hours in some areas.

The U.S. targets not only its rivals, but also its closest allies and even its own citizens. In 2013, the U.S. "Prism" surveillance program targeted the then German Chancellor Angela Merkel among many other dignitaries. In 2015, WikiLeaks revealed that the NSA had wiretapped three French presidents, Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande. In 1975, Frank Church, then Chairman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said that U.S. surveillance capabilities could be "turned around and pointed at the American people at any time, and no American would have privacy." In August 2013, three documents declassified by the NSA showed that the agency had collected 56,000 private emails and other communications from U.S. citizens with no relevance to terrorism each year between 2008 and 2011. The White House, however, argued that the targets of such surveillance programs were strictly "external" and that domestic intelligence was intercepted only "incidentally".

As an empire of hacking, the U.S. is not satisfied with simply collecting information through cyber surveillance. It has taken further steps to transform the new frontier of cyberspace into a new battleground for cyber attacks. On May 18, 2010, the U.S. Air Force announced the creation of an interim "Cyber Command". According to an article on the RAND Corporation website, the number of fully combat-capable U.S. cyber mission units will likely reach 167 by 2024, representing an increase of about 10 percent in personnel. And of course, the U.S. wastes no opportunity to conduct combat exercises of cyber war in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Paul Nakasone, commander of U.S. Cyber Command and director of the NSA, publicly admitted that U.S. Cyber Command was "helping Ukraine strengthen its cyber defenses" with cyber warfare operations such as "Cyber Hunt Forward Operations".

As a thief cries "stop the thief", the U.S. has always depicted itself as a victim of cyber attacks. Nevertheless, unrivaled in malicious cyber activities, the U.S. has been a major threat to global cyber security. It talks the loudest about freedom and security, but has undermined them more than anyone.

(The author is a commentator on international affairs, writing regularly for Xinhua News Agency, CGTN, Global Times, etc... He can be reached at xinping604@gmail.com)

The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of Xinhuanet.

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Empire of Hacking: U.S. is the Biggest Threat to Cyber Security - Xinhua

Edward Snowden quippedWednesday that were all going to be billionaires, while commenting on record inflation numbers made public the same day.

The former intelligence consultant said in a tweet that while people would turn billionaires a gallon of milk would cost $2.6 trillion as a result of steep price increases.

In a separate tweet, Snowden shared a Wall Street Journal headline that read U.S. Inflation Hits Four-Decade High of 9.1% and said he was trying to imagine the mindset of a kid graduating high school this year and realizing they're about to step into the world with the difficulty slider locked on Nightmare Mode.

Consumer Price Index grew 9.1% on a year-over-year basis in June compared with an estimate of 8.8% and Mays 8.6% number. This is the highest level of CPI in more than 40 years.

Read Next: Edward Snowden Reacts To Roe V. Wade: 'Someone May Have Put A Lot On The Line To Warn You Of This'

Photo: Courtesy of Gage Skidmore via Wkimedia

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Edward Snowden Says 'We Are All Going To Be Billionaires' But... - Benzinga - Benzinga

Former CIA software engineer Joshua Schulte, 33, was convicted by a jury in a Manhattan federal court on Wednesday of hacking top-secret US intelligence malware tools known as Vault 7 and leaking them to WikiLeaks in 2017.

The jury found Schulte, who defended himself in court, guilty on eight espionage charges and one obstruction charge after deliberating for three days. He faces a possible sentence of 80 years in prison.

Schulte has been the target of a malicious campaign by the US intelligence community, which initially could find no evidence against him directly related to the Vault 7 leak and instead brought possession of child pornography charges against him and locked him up. Meanwhile, a first trial in against Schulte ended in 2020 with a hung jury on the espionage charges and only found him guilty of contempt of court and lying to the FBI.

Schulte argued that he was being made a scapegoat for the CIAs staggering inability to protect its Vault 7 arsenal and wildly insecure intelligence servers that hosted it. Meanwhile, Schulte has been held in jail since 2018 without bail. He has complainedthat he was the victim of cruel and unusual punishment, awaiting the two trials in solitary confinement inside a vermin-infested cell of a jail unit where inmates are treated like caged animals.

The vicious pursuit of Schulte by the CIA, FBI and US Justice Department is part of the ongoing campaign to extradite WikiLeaks publisher and founder Julian Assange from the UK to the US to face numerous charges of violating the Espionage Act of 1917.

The effort to silence and prosecute Assange has been a bipartisan affair overseen by three successive Presidentsintiated under Obama, continued by Trump and now being waged by Biden. The aim of the US political and intelligence establishment is to make an example of anyone who dares to tell the truth about the US imperialism, especially the war crimes committed over the past 30 years.

The Vault 7 breach of 9,000 documents, the largest theft of classified US intelligence information in history, exposed the CIAs criminal violation of basic democratic rights by hacking Apple and Android smartphones and turning internet-connected televisions into listening devices, along with many other cyberespionage and malware tools.

At the time of the leak in 2017, Assange noted that the Vault 7 breach marked a massive security blunder by the CIA, which lost controlof its hacking arsenal including malware, viruses, trojans, weaponized zero day exploits, malware remote control systems and associated documentation.

A statement about the Vault 7 leakpublished by WikiLeakssays, This extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA. The archive appears to have been circulated among former US government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive.

In exposing Vault 7, WikiLeaks brought to the attention of the entire world the fact that the US government had developed and deployed electronic malicious surveillance tools that violate both the US Constitution and international law. At the same time, WikiLeaks chose to publish only the CIA documentation that proves the existence of such tools and not the code of the tools themselves.

As Assange explained, Comparisons can be drawn between the uncontrolled proliferation of such weapons, which results from the inability to contain them combined with their high market value, and the global arms trade.WikiLeaks then collaborated with technology firms such as Microsoft, Apple and Google to assist them in plugging the vulnerabilities in their systems that were being exploited by the CIA.

The WikiLeaks statement also explains that the source who shared the Vault 7 material did so because they wishedto initiate a public debate about the security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons.Once a single cyber weapon is loose it can spread around the world in seconds, to be used by rival states, cyber mafia and teenage hackers alike.

What this means is this: whoever it was that leaked the Vault 7 CIA trove to WikiLeakswhether it was Schulte or notshould be recognized as a whistleblower on a par with Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning for their courage and willingness to tell the truth about the criminal policies of US imperialism, instead of being prosecuted and sent to jail.

In his closing argument to the jury, Schulte said that he was singled out by the US governmenteven though hundreds of people had access to (the information). Hundreds of people couldhave stolen it. He added, The governments case is riddled with reasonable doubt. Theres simply no motive here.

The Associated Press reported that Attorney Sabrina Shroff, who was Schultes adviser during the trial, told his mother that the verdict was a kick to the gut, the brain and heart.

The prosecution argued that Schulte, who was a developer of the cyberwarfare tools, was motivated to leak the documents to WikiLeaks because he believed the CIA had disrespected him by dismissing his workplace concerns. They said he tried to burn to the ground the very work he had helped the agency to create.

Assistant US Attorney David Denton claimed that Schulte attempted to cover up his crime because he had a list of chores that included an entry that said, Delete suspicious emails. US Attorney Damian Williams issued a press release which said, Schulte has been convicted for one of the most brazen and damaging acts of espionage in American history.

As in the case of Assange and the outrageous violation of his rights by the US and UK governments, the mistreatment of Schulte and the dubious character of his conviction has been justified and greeted with enthusiasm by the corporate media. One can search through pages and pages of news reports about Wednesdays jury verdict and not find a single word of criticism, much less a political analysis, of the purpose and implications of the Vault 7 cyberwarfare tools developed by the CIA.

In typical fashion, theNew York Timesreport said that Schulte was arrested after WikiLeaks disclosed the trove of confidential documentsdetailing the agencys secret methods for penetrating the computer networks of foreign governments and terrorists. As everyone knows by now, especially since the 2013 revelations by former intelligence analyst Edward Snowden, the spying techniques developed by the CIA and NSA are being used against everyone, US citizens and non-citizens alike.

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Joshua Schulte convicted on all counts in second trial over 2017 leak of Vault 7 cyberwarfare trove published by WikiLeaks - WSWS

In the Footsteps of Sonny Barger

The recent news of the death of Hell's Angels founder Sonny Barger triggered a distant memory.

When I stood trial for the Free Speech Movement occupation of Sproul Hall in 1964, I was among those who refused probationbecause it would have required that we not engage in political protests for a set period of time.

That precondition was clearly a denial of First Amendment rights, so myself and others opted to do time at Alameda County's Santa Rita prison. In my case, that meant I'd spend 25 days in jail but would emerge with the freedom to continue to demonstrate and agitate.

During my stretch at Santa Rita, I was assigned to work on an agricultural chain-ganghoeing a field of sugar beets under a blazing, ear-burning sun and under the watchful glare of several deputies armed with shotguns.

We usually were trucked to the field in a small bus but sometimes, I'd find myself bouncing down a road in the back of a pick-up truck. On one of these jaunts, I decided to stand up in the open bed of the vehicle while leaning forward on the roof of the cab to steady myself.

That's when I happened to look down and notice a number of messages scratched on the vehicle's roof over the years. The most prominent message read: "Sonny Barger was here."

Where Do the Warmongers Frolic?

David Swanson, Executive Director of World BEOND War, recently authored a timely article titled: "The Hard Work of Creating a Last Resort War on Iran." It began with the following riddle:

"Where do all the Lockheed Martin executives vacation?"

The answer: "At the Last Resort!"

I couldn't resist replying with a related riddle.

Q: "How do you get to the Last Resort"?

A: "You make a hard right on the Lost Causeway."

Manchin Fumes While the Earth Burns

Joe Manchin is not just a senator from West Virginia. He also profits from a family-owned fossil fuel company that has made him a millionaire. For 18 months, Manchin has used his position as a key Democrat swing vote to whittle Joe Biden's keynote Build Back Better agenda down to a pitiful cup of toothpicks.

Public Citizen has a message for Manchin and it comes in the form of a petition that reads: "Your decision right now will literally affect all humanity for generations to come. We urge you to reconsider your abandonment of what was left of Build Back Betters climate and energy proposals (which had already been scaled back multiple times to satisfy YOU). We are begging you. Humanity is begging you. Do you hear?"

Abby Martin Riffs on Abolishing the Supreme Court

Whistleblower Edward Snowden writes: "Every time I hear her, I am reminded @AbbyMartin has things to say that will never be spoken on the corpo media nightliesthe very definition of a 'dangerous voice'."

Robert Reich on SCOTUS' and Regulatory Anarchy

Nose News

We've all heard of duplicitous folk who "speak through both sides of their mouth" but how about people who blow through both sides of their nose?

I was recently surprised to realize that I had a previously unrecognized power: the ability to clear my nostrils (not only in a single prolonged twin blow but) one nostril at a time.

Turns out there's a medically recommended way to blow one's nose and here it is:

Credit Where Discredit Is Due

The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers have been getting a lot of ink lately owing to their militaristic posing and belligerent provocations but, when it comes to a terrorist organization with a proven track record, it's hard to compete with the anti-abortion extremists in The Army of God.

As the National Abortion Federation points out, over the past four decades (from 1977 to 2021) the Army of God's anti-abortion paramilitary have managed to bomb 42 clinics, set fire to 196 medical stations, and kill 11 doctors and staff. Good things never seem to happen when you put the words "God" and "Army" in close proximity. Thus, the contradictory modus operandi of packing weapons and planting explosives to commit mayhem and murder in order to protect "the sanctity of life." Think how much worse it could be if members of God's Army didn't hold life sacred.

Pentagon-Crazy: Printing Money by Monetizing Printers

Rep. Barbara Lee and other Democrats made a valiant try to reverse a bid to tack another $37 billion onto the Pentagon's beyond-bloated-budget. Despite 101 votes in favor of blocking the bucks, the War Machine got its extra gift of fiscal fuel.

For weeks, weapons-industry lobbyists have been swarming the halls of Congress like termites at a wood-chip factory. When all is sad and done [Note: not a typo], next years Pentagon budget could be a whopping $840 billion.

Rep. Lee's amendment would have cut Big War's ballooning budget back to the initial still-prodigious hike that President Biden had requested.

Embarrassing Fact: The Department of Defense has never passed an audit. The Pentagon is notorious for over-spending and under-performingfrom $435 hammers, to $650 toilet seats, and $9,341 leather chairs.

The Pentagons Inspector General recently revealed how the Army had billed taxpayers $90.2 million for 82 office printersin effect, charging a whopping $1.1 million for each $412 printer.

On July 14, Lee's amendment went down to defeat with 39 Democrats and 62 Republicans calling for the cutback. Eight California Democrats joined to support Lee's amendment. The complete roll call is available on the Congressional website.

Chronic Culls

The SF Chronicle has undergone some downsizing of late. A daily that use to arrive in four distinct sections (World, Bay Area, Arts, and Sports) now sometimes arrives with all four topics squeezed into just two supplements. The reporting is still top-notch (with a growing interest in New Yorker-style long-form journalism) and a fearless readiness to confront the feckless (as when criticism from Chron columnist Joe Garofoli forced Senator Dianne Feinstein to finally declare her support for ending the filibuster.)

Meanwhile, there's been another change in reporting from the Chron and its agencies (Associated Press, The New York Times, etc.)an increase in editorial slip-ups. Here's a short collection of recent flubs.

July 8: In a report from Haiti, two Associated Press reporters noted that local gang killings had soared "ever since [former President Jovenel Moise] was shot to death shot last July 7." (Emphasis added. It was true, in fact, that Moise was shot multiple times.)

July 10: An Associated Press report on the jailing of a war protester in Russia described Alexei Gorinov appearing in court "behind inside a glass-walled defendant's dock."

July 10: A Chronicle News Services report on a conversation between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, described the event as "their first-to-face meeting since October." (Most likely, that was supposed to have read "their first face-to-face meeting.")

July 10: In Joe Garofoli's Sunday column citing criticisms of the Democrats for failing to take bolder political stands, California Labor Federation leader Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher suggested Biden could declare "a public health emergency emergency." (Granted, that's a demand that bears repeating.)

Her Name Should Be in Lights

Here's some interesting feedback triggered by the release of the stunning multi-galactic images captured by NASA's Webb Space Telescope. The success of the program prompted feminist historians to call attention to an unsung heroine of US astronomy.

For centuries, early astronomers believed there was only one galaxy in the Great Beyond. The astronomer who first proposed the existence of multiple galaxies in the universe was a Harvard scientist named Henrietta Leavitt (July 4, 1868 December 12, 1921). Leavitt was nominated for a Nobel Prize by Prof. Edwin Hubble (after whom NASA's Hubble Telescope was named) but she died before the prize could be awarded.

Feminist scholars allege that Leavitt and other female researchers were denied full access to Harvard's space telescope facilities "because they were women." Lauren Gunderson, America's "most-produced playwright" (for two years in a row, with 30 staged plays to her credit in 2021) has written a play about Leavitt called Silent Sky. Gunderson reflects on Leavitt's legacy in the following video:

On This Date in Peace History

Did you know that it was on a July 9th that Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell warned of the need to choose between war and human survival, that it was on July 10th that France bombed and sank the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, that July 11th is World Population Day, that this July 12th was Henry Thoreau's 205th birthday, and July 13th was the day the first wartime draft (and the resulting riots) began in the US?

You would know a lot more than that if you had a copy of World BEYOND War's Peace Almanac. You'd know what peace holidays to celebrate. You'd know historic anniversaries relevant to events you're planning. You'd know a great deal of history that few knowand few governments want you to know.

The print edition sells for $15.68 and a PDF version is available of $3.

(Full disclosure: I'm a WBW boardmember.)

Big Pharma's Fantasy Advertising

In most of the world, pharmaceutical companies are banned from promoting their drugs on radio or TV. The two exceptions: New Zealand and the United States.

As a result, American TV viewers are routinely overdosed with intentionally distracting ads for drugs claiming to relieve scores of scourges. In 2007, the Food and Drug Administration ruled that these broadcast ads had to reveal a drugs major risks in a "clear and fair manner." The result? The pill-pushers created of a new form of "distraction commercial" that buries verbal warnings of a pill's downsides beneath eye-catching visuals of lively social situations where smiling people prance through life with friends and pets, stroll along beaches, fly by on zip-lines, and enjoy backyard barbecues and family dinners.

In 2010, the FDA responded to these obfuscations with a call to ban all ads containing distracting representations intended to draw attention away from verbal background warnings about a drugs adverse effectsincluding "death." (One popular visual trope in many of today's ads involves ending a commercial with the camera slowly panning upwards into a cloudless, blue sky. An intimation of heavenly protection, perhaps?)

But here we are, 12 years on, and the FDA still hasnt "finalized" its rule! According to Michael Carome, the director of Public Citizens Health Research Group: The FDA has flouted the will of Congress by failing to finalize a rule requiring that direct-to-consumer prescription drug ads provide clear and balanced descriptions of the medicines major risks.

What We Can Do: Tell Congress to pass the Banning Misleading Drug Ads Act of 2022 by adding your name here.

TJ's Corny Cooking Contest

Trader Joe's in Berkeley has announced a Corn Recipe Contest where the top prize is a $200 TJs gift certificate. The rules are simple: use "5 or fewer" TJ food products; whip up your own recipe; submit same; include an Instagram photo of the competing dish. (As TJs PR punsters put it: "Aw, shucks. This oughtta be a-maizing!")

I'm thinking of a recipe for Popcorn Cobbler. I can't wait to hear the results. (Or, as the TJ PR team might put it: "I'm all ears.")

Sedition Edition on the Way to Perdition

SMITHEREENS: Reflections on Bits & Pieces (1800)

Gar Smith

In the Footsteps of Sonny Barger

The recent news of the death of Hell's Angels founder Sonny Barger triggered a distant memory.

When I stood trial for the Free Speech Movement occupation of Sproul Hall in 1964, I was among those who refused probationbecause it would have required that we not engage in political protests for a set period of time.

That precondition was clearly a denial of First Amendment rights, so myself and others opted to do time at Alameda County's Santa Rita prison. In my case, that meant I'd spend 25 days in jail but would emerge with the freedom to continue to demonstrate and agitate.

During my stretch at Santa Rita, I was assigned to work on an agricultural chain-ganghoeing a field of sugar beets under a blazing, ear-burning sun and under the watchful glare of several deputies armed with shotguns.

We usually were trucked to the field in a small bus but sometimes, I'd find myself bouncing down a road in the back of a pick-up truck. On one of these jaunts, I decided to stand up in the open bed of the vehicle while leaning forward on the roof of the cab to steady myself.

That's when I happened to look down and notice a number of messages scratched on the vehicle's roof over the years. The most prominent message read: "Sonny Barger was here."

Where Do the Warmongers Frolic?

David Swanson, Executive Director of World BEOND War, recently authored a timely article titled: "The Hard Work of Creating a Last Resort War on Iran." It began with the following riddle:

"Where do all the Lockheed Martin executives vacation?"

The answer: "At the Last Resort!"

I couldn't resist replying with a related riddle.

Q: "How do you get to the Last Resort"?

A: "You make a hard right on the Lost Causeway."

Manchin Fumes While the Earth Burns

Joe Manchin is not just a senator from West Virginia. He also profits from a family-owned fossil fuel company that has made him a millionaire. For 18 months, Manchin has used his position as a key Democrat swing vote to whittle Joe Biden's keynote Build Back Better agenda down to a pitiful cup of toothpicks.

Public Citizen has a message for Manchin and it comes in the form of a petition that reads: "Your decision right now will literally affect all humanity for generations to come. We urge you to reconsider your abandonment of what was left of Build Back Betters climate and energy proposals (which had already been scaled back multiple times to satisfy YOU). We are begging you. Humanity is begging you. Do you hear?"

Abby Martin Riffs on Abolishing the Supreme Court

Whistleblower Edward Snowden writes: "Every time I hear her, I am reminded @AbbyMartin has things to say that will never be spoken on the corpo media nightliesthe very definition of a 'dangerous voice'."

Robert Reich on SCOTUS' and Regulatory Anarchy

Nose News

We've all heard of duplicitous folk who "speak through both sides of their mouth" but how about people who blow through both sides of their nose?

I was recently surprised to realize that I had a previously unrecognized power: the ability to clear my nostrils (not only in a single prolonged twin blow but) one nostril at a time.

Turns out there's a medically recommended way to blow one's nose and here it is:

Credit Where Discredit Is Due

The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers have been getting a lot of ink lately owing to their militaristic posing and belligerent provocations but, when it comes to a terrorist organization with a proven track record, it's hard to compete with the anti-abortion extremists in The Army of God.

As the National Abortion Federation points out, over the past four decades (from 1977 to 2021) the Army of God's anti-abortion paramilitary have managed to bomb 42 clinics, set fire to 196 medical stations, and kill 11 doctors and staff. Good things never seem to happen when you put the words "God" and "Army" in close proximity. Thus, the contradictory modus operandi of packing weapons and planting explosives to commit mayhem and murder in order to protect "the sanctity of life." Think how much worse it could be if members of God's Army didn't hold life sacred.

Pentagon-Crazy: Printing Money by Monetizing Printers

Rep. Barbara Lee and other Democrats made a valiant try to reverse a bid to tack another $37 billion onto the Pentagon's beyond-bloated-budget. Despite 101 votes in favor of blocking the bucks, the War Machine got its extra gift of fiscal fuel.

Read this article:
SMITHEREENS: Reflections on Bits & Pieces:SMITHERMATAZ. Category: Public Comment from The Berkeley Daily Planet - Berkeley Daily Planet

HodlX Guest PostSubmit Your Post

In the span of a few short months, the crypto space has witnessed the collapse of its most prized stablecoin protocol, the insolvency of multiple billion-dollar centralized finance (CeFi) platforms, the liquidation of its most revered private capital fund and following in suit, the departure of its dearest thought leaders.

Deep in the red and approaching max pain, many crypto investors are finally arriving at a critical juncture of self-inquiry What am I even investing in?

Straightening such a question mark composes and defines the trying journey through a bear market, where depleted traders reevaluate their investment theses before determining whether to hang up their boots for good or gather capital to face the market anew.

For the traders that summon the strength to face the market once more, only genuine utility will be enough to weather their skepticism and restore enthusiasm let alone participation and capital.

As such, it is here in the suffocating bear market of 2022 where cryptos leading privacy protocols are poised to make their mark. With surveillance technologies and authoritarian initiatives on the rise, privacy is the truest and most tried form of utility the market has on tap no speculation required.

The crypto bear market of 2022

As in past cycles, notorious critics have leveraged this years abrupt market downturn to throw fire at many of cryptocurrencys suspect sectors most notably, CeFi. But for perhaps the first time, in 2022s bear market no critic has yet been bold enough to dispel cryptocurrency as a whole. From influencers to institutions, to the traditional finance (TradFi) mainstream, a consensus has been established the asset class is here to stay.

Traversing volatile market cycles

Bullish and bearish periods play complementary roles in the development of nascent technology.

Bull markets provide a surge of capital and human resources that attract new talent and spur further innovation but in a haphazard and frenzied fashion. Amid the winners, many unprepared, unprofessional and unstable projects receive funding and launch aggressive marketing campaigns.

During the bear market, capital and resources are drained and bull market beneficiaries battle to remain afloat. The bear market is a time of refinery and clarity. With speculation waning to a standstill, all attention turns to what platforms and protocols actually provide for their users. Investors query, Which platforms and technical solutions acquire and retain users when there is no promise of profit?

Such is the bear markets purest ultimatum. It is the foremost test of use case potential. To that end, the bear market cultivates a truly level playing field for projects new and old and replaces the noise and frenzy of the bull market with a true meritocracy for users and capital for adoption.

Beating the bear market inertia

In much the same way that profit margins serve businesses, tokenomic models act as the lifeline, keeping cryptocurrency protocols afloat during periods of macroeconomic distress.

With sentiment nearing historic lows, many tokenomic models have been exposed as speculative at best and dysfunctional at worst. As trust continues to decline across the crypto landscape, investors and users will withhold funds and demand a higher standard of professionalism from projects.

Whether ostensibly or in honesty, the champions of the 2020-21 bull market built ecosystems on the premise of profits decentralized finance DeFi and CeFi platforms offered staking yields, stablecoin protocols promised seigniorage and scalability solutions tantalized investors with good old-fashioned appreciation.

In 2022, retail has had enough. To pull cryptocurrency from the depths of bear market despair, projects must submit innovative value propositions absent from the usual profit ploys.

That is, they must demonstrate empirical utility and none answers the call like privacy.

Timely and imperative the undeniable utility of on-chain privacy

Kicking off with the Patriot Act, the twenty-first century has proven itself to be the era of mass surveillance. Now, its third decade is quickly becoming the era of draconian financial restrictions.

With many countries across the world nearing hyperinflation most recently Turkey banks and financial institutions are beginning to impose the usual measures restrictions on withdrawals and capital flight. And for the first time, they have the technologies and tools in place to enforce them.

As per the words of globally-renowned privacy advocate Edward Snowden in a recent interview,

We are increasingly scrutinized, tracked, quantified and measured. We are nudged, we are manipulated We have inverted the traditional model of how we protect society from power.

Setting the stage for the next wave

In recent years, citizens seeking to protect their wealth have successfully flocked to decentralized systemsmost notably to Bitcoin and Ethereum. But with a slew of rising blockchain data analytics companies scoring massive valuations and high-profile clients, individuals are more exposed and more at risk than ever before.

On-chain surveillance is now a well-defined science and accessible service, and on-chain privacy is fast transitioning from preferred to imperative among investors.

As bearish sentiment weighs heavier and the crypto market begins to form a bottom, conditions will materialize for new catalysts to emerge and carry crypto to new heights. In this prerogative, a pair of privacy protocols are best positioned to take the reins.

As in any free market, users will ultimately pick privacys finest to lead the next crypto market charge.

Alex Shipp, chief strategy officer at Offshift, is a strategist, writer and thought leader in the digital asset space with a background in traditional finance, economics and the emerging fields of decentralized finance, tokenomics, blockchain and digital assets. At Offshift, Alex contributes to platform tokenomics, produces content and conducts business development on behalf of the project.

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As Bear Market Turns All Eyes to Utility, Privacy Stands Poised To Lead Next Crypto Breakout - The Daily Hodl