They are offering this app for free download on Smartphones in Iran to circumvent the Iranian government's ability to shut off the Internet. The problem is this is an app that collects very granular and personal information in real time for the CIA. Talk about a Trojan Horse. If you're Iranian and you want to criticize present-day Iran as being misogynistic, you will get all the coverage (or publication) you want in the U.S. (From personal experience I highly doubt the majority of Iranian men really care about women's freedom of movement.) But if you want to really explore the issues politically and talk about not what Iranians DON'T want but what they DO want, you will be shut off. It happened a few days ago very dramatically in a story on NPR. Such obvious censorship of the Iranian street and clearly part of NPR's policy to censor THOSE voices. The Arab Spring was not born solely of frustration on the street; it was a CIA-conceived action to destabilize Israel's enemies. And it worked. The same thing with the "civil war" in Syria. Also on the Israeli "to do" list and clearly stated as such before the main part of the destruction of Iraq was done.
There is one benefit to Westerners demonstrating on the streets in support of rebellions in the East and that is purely psychological. It gives one a short-lived warm and fuzzy feeling of not being alone, not being entirely ignored. But it also taints these movements by association with criticisms of being CIA-sponsored movements (which they predominantly are). Iranians would be wise to remember the central lesson of the 1978 Revolution. If you do not have something strong and competent and native to your country to fill the inevitable political vacuum caused by a revolution, act with care. Khomeini never would have succeeded if the left in Iran had stronger options for replacing the Shah and if they had more support amongst the undereducated rural poor. The CIA uses these vacuums to their own advantage and well-meaning Westerners haven't a clue what's really happening on the ground.
As Kit Klarenberg points out, mainstream press is not talking about Psiphon at all. No need to point out why, I should hope. Psiphon is the worm in the apple. Apple lovers, beware.
No I think the Arab Spring was organic and freaked out the CIA. They supported the overthrow of the Morsi government in Egypt. They never wanted Mubarak or Omar Suleiman ousted. They did their bidding on the war on terror. The people came out bravely on their own, and held the square despite the machinery of repression. The alphabet soup ppl couldn’t control it. The last thing they want is power to the Arab street. The first thing Egyptians did is burn Israeli flags and stop the “war” between Muslims and Christians, and the CIA only found it would be a propaganda disaster to openly oppose the people so they covertly opposed them (and Obama as well who was east to circumvent bc Presidents have very limited power) and once the show of “democracy” finished, they installed another brutal dictator by manipulating the protestors. The Arab Spring scared the sh*t out of Israel.
This is utterly disheartening. Many in the movement were people I knew whom I’m sure had no idea about this. I find it somewhat difficult to believe it was ENTIRELY orchestrated by the CIA et al, which itself as a narrative despoils the notion that people can ever rise up against the West and its toadies and win, when even a seeming win ended up to be just another Israeli-financed plan. This argument says “we did it ourselves” – the statement in the link that none of these expressed anti-Israeli propaganda is patently false. One of the first things to go was the Israeli flag wherever it had been placed to cheering crowds. All those involved were very much ardently pro Palestinian and had wanted an entirely different candidate certainly than Morsi, and many only cooperated with the Ikhwan in order to achieve victory, and didn’t want to rush the elections but rather wanted to bring in previously banned leaders with an interim “technocrat” government.
Maybe the actual ouster of Mubarak was too easy? Certainly however the strike against Egyptian industries, such as cotton workers in Mahala Al-Kubra, was a genuine internal rebellion. The assertion that it was “all orchestrated by the CIA” is also too good to be true — for the CIA. To strike such a claim is to strike at the heart of those in Egypt (and elsewhere – although it’s clear they were fighting tooth and nail for it all to fail) and the Arab world that all their efforts were actually NOT EVEN THEIRS but part of an overarching Israeli narrative in which they, the forever-subjugated little people, were nothing but pawns. This narrative too MUST BE OPPOSED and it seems this book uses lots of evidence — can the CIA not manufacture evidence? Are they not invested in controlling the narrative of invincibility? – but no actual statements or claims from the supposed leaders of the revolution, and claims about what happened on Twitter that actually contradict was was reported (and I heard from first hand witnesses) at the time.
That it was ruined by the CIA et al in the aftermath and latter days is undisputed. That the people themselves had nothing to do with it is pure bullsh*t. Don’t believe everything you hear. Oh, and that it was led by the middle class presupposes that the other “classes” were unsympathetic? Does not jive with what I saw on the ground. But it had to be those educated enough to do something. There may have been involvement, there always is, of anti-democratic “forces” especially Israeli interests, but there’s a powerful sense of “things getting out of hand” and people finding a voice. We don’t want to smother that… as if it was all under control and every detail according to alphabet soup’s and Zionists’ plan. This itself feeds despair.
It is very disheartening. But the Iranian Revolution did succeed, no matter how it has been framed by the West (nor how Khomeini was used by Reagan/Bush to make sure Carter had no chance of a second term, unfortunately). They used the mosque to win that Revolution. It was against the law for 3 people or more to gather at the time. Khomeini's people smuggled in cassette tapes that were played in the mosques. There's more political background re mosque vs. bazaar (business) class that's specifically Iranian and goes back to Reza Shah. But it can be done. The "Arab Spring" was too easy in Egypt. You have to kick the Americans out entirely. Even though there are well-meaning Americans, you have to get rid of all of them. You have to take back your country.
This is not to denigrate what ordinary Egyptian citizens accomplished. The CIA has grown into a hydra that no branch of the U.S. government oversees, monitors, controls, etc. And the billionaire class allows this to happen. Economic inequality is a threat to everyone--not just the poor and not just the billionaires. It is inevitable that we have social and political unrest. The CIA is in social media. I'm sure they're monitoring this conversation. Zippity doo da.
Israel has way too much power in the U.S. government. It's not all-knowing, all-powerful. It has lost a lot of support in the U.S., which I think is a miracle. If that can happen, anything is possible. It is now showing its hand and the general population in the U.S. is repulsed by what they're seeing. Israelis aren't reproducing their population so their days are numbered. Either they change or they die out. They say they are 9 million. They're actually around 6.8 million. People are leaving that country every day, for good.
The CIA cannot accomplish anything without bodies. They are very big on psychological manipulation.
Don't despair. Each generation moves forward a little bit on the efforts of their parents and grandparents. Look at what Egypt managed to do to the British Empire in 1956! Amazing. The U.S. is fighting to survive. The ruling class doesn't want everyone to know how close it is to imploding financially. That's what its hostility towards Russia and China is about; it's what its hostility to Iran and Iraq and Venezuela was about. When the US dollar is no longer the reserve currency, we're going to see the emperor is butt naked. The dollar will lose most of its value and Americans are going to have to learn how to work for a living. Forget Starbucks. And forget the 900 bases in foreign countries. They're trying to pass another bill with huge amounts of funding for the military. I'm sure a lot of hidden funding is in that bill which will go to the CIA.
You cannot undo history. Egyptian culture has changed. Have faith in the future.
Thanks for your very thoughtful, insightful and balanced reply. Your last words are what sustains me in fact. And I think on some level Egyptians realize they were duped, but that people power can actually be a thing that works; they have to work differently.
Are you old enough to have been alive when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait over their theft of Iraqi oil? The American public was split on the issue of attacking Iraq. So President Bush (Sr.) hired a PR firm (I think it was Hill Knowlton) to make up a story about Iraqi soldiers throwing babies in their incubators out of hospital windows. The "eye witness" was the teenage daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador who lived in D.C. (and was not honestly identified). Americans do not acknowledge their racism against Middle Easterners. They would be far more skeptical if the same thing was said about American soldiers. Bottom line, I tell people if they cannot imagine themselves doing the same thing that is being attributed to a group they don't know much about, it's probably a lie. Even Amnesty International bought the incubator story. I haven't given them a penny since.
Don't take it personally. look at what happened to the enormous change the Baby Boomers effected in the 60's and 70's in the West. By the 1980's Reagan was installed as President and all those changes were turned into commodities by corporations. Same thing has happened to the ecological movement. Now electric cars are the "answer"? I think not. Global warming is primarily a problem of American "culture" of over-consumption and rabid exploitation of natural resources. What is their solution? Create technological answers that pollute the earth even more. It's a pathological culture but most Americans are not willing to go there. Nature, or reality, has a way of taking care of things. Egyptians need to focus on becoming as self-sufficient as possible, to rely as little as possible on Western powers. I know Egypt, like most Middle Eastern countries, has many religions and sects, but I do think the core Islamic values of brother- and sisterhood are what we need for the future. Unfortunately, sibling rivalry is part of our nature. People power does work but the people need to educate each other and refuse top-down solutions.
Highly recommend anyone concerned about this issue read this link about Psiphon being used in Iran: https://kitklarenberg.substack.com/p/beware-psiphon-cia-tool-fueling-global
They are offering this app for free download on Smartphones in Iran to circumvent the Iranian government's ability to shut off the Internet. The problem is this is an app that collects very granular and personal information in real time for the CIA. Talk about a Trojan Horse. If you're Iranian and you want to criticize present-day Iran as being misogynistic, you will get all the coverage (or publication) you want in the U.S. (From personal experience I highly doubt the majority of Iranian men really care about women's freedom of movement.) But if you want to really explore the issues politically and talk about not what Iranians DON'T want but what they DO want, you will be shut off. It happened a few days ago very dramatically in a story on NPR. Such obvious censorship of the Iranian street and clearly part of NPR's policy to censor THOSE voices. The Arab Spring was not born solely of frustration on the street; it was a CIA-conceived action to destabilize Israel's enemies. And it worked. The same thing with the "civil war" in Syria. Also on the Israeli "to do" list and clearly stated as such before the main part of the destruction of Iraq was done.
There is one benefit to Westerners demonstrating on the streets in support of rebellions in the East and that is purely psychological. It gives one a short-lived warm and fuzzy feeling of not being alone, not being entirely ignored. But it also taints these movements by association with criticisms of being CIA-sponsored movements (which they predominantly are). Iranians would be wise to remember the central lesson of the 1978 Revolution. If you do not have something strong and competent and native to your country to fill the inevitable political vacuum caused by a revolution, act with care. Khomeini never would have succeeded if the left in Iran had stronger options for replacing the Shah and if they had more support amongst the undereducated rural poor. The CIA uses these vacuums to their own advantage and well-meaning Westerners haven't a clue what's really happening on the ground.
As Kit Klarenberg points out, mainstream press is not talking about Psiphon at all. No need to point out why, I should hope. Psiphon is the worm in the apple. Apple lovers, beware.
Snowden already laid out the real agenda many years ago. Collect all the data on the planet. And use it to manipulate people on social media.
He revealed that almost a decade ago. And yet it seems nobody has grasped it.
No I think the Arab Spring was organic and freaked out the CIA. They supported the overthrow of the Morsi government in Egypt. They never wanted Mubarak or Omar Suleiman ousted. They did their bidding on the war on terror. The people came out bravely on their own, and held the square despite the machinery of repression. The alphabet soup ppl couldn’t control it. The last thing they want is power to the Arab street. The first thing Egyptians did is burn Israeli flags and stop the “war” between Muslims and Christians, and the CIA only found it would be a propaganda disaster to openly oppose the people so they covertly opposed them (and Obama as well who was east to circumvent bc Presidents have very limited power) and once the show of “democracy” finished, they installed another brutal dictator by manipulating the protestors. The Arab Spring scared the sh*t out of Israel.
https://ahmedbensaada.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=333:the-arab-spring-made-in-the-usa
This is utterly disheartening. Many in the movement were people I knew whom I’m sure had no idea about this. I find it somewhat difficult to believe it was ENTIRELY orchestrated by the CIA et al, which itself as a narrative despoils the notion that people can ever rise up against the West and its toadies and win, when even a seeming win ended up to be just another Israeli-financed plan. This argument says “we did it ourselves” – the statement in the link that none of these expressed anti-Israeli propaganda is patently false. One of the first things to go was the Israeli flag wherever it had been placed to cheering crowds. All those involved were very much ardently pro Palestinian and had wanted an entirely different candidate certainly than Morsi, and many only cooperated with the Ikhwan in order to achieve victory, and didn’t want to rush the elections but rather wanted to bring in previously banned leaders with an interim “technocrat” government.
Maybe the actual ouster of Mubarak was too easy? Certainly however the strike against Egyptian industries, such as cotton workers in Mahala Al-Kubra, was a genuine internal rebellion. The assertion that it was “all orchestrated by the CIA” is also too good to be true — for the CIA. To strike such a claim is to strike at the heart of those in Egypt (and elsewhere – although it’s clear they were fighting tooth and nail for it all to fail) and the Arab world that all their efforts were actually NOT EVEN THEIRS but part of an overarching Israeli narrative in which they, the forever-subjugated little people, were nothing but pawns. This narrative too MUST BE OPPOSED and it seems this book uses lots of evidence — can the CIA not manufacture evidence? Are they not invested in controlling the narrative of invincibility? – but no actual statements or claims from the supposed leaders of the revolution, and claims about what happened on Twitter that actually contradict was was reported (and I heard from first hand witnesses) at the time.
That it was ruined by the CIA et al in the aftermath and latter days is undisputed. That the people themselves had nothing to do with it is pure bullsh*t. Don’t believe everything you hear. Oh, and that it was led by the middle class presupposes that the other “classes” were unsympathetic? Does not jive with what I saw on the ground. But it had to be those educated enough to do something. There may have been involvement, there always is, of anti-democratic “forces” especially Israeli interests, but there’s a powerful sense of “things getting out of hand” and people finding a voice. We don’t want to smother that… as if it was all under control and every detail according to alphabet soup’s and Zionists’ plan. This itself feeds despair.
It is very disheartening. But the Iranian Revolution did succeed, no matter how it has been framed by the West (nor how Khomeini was used by Reagan/Bush to make sure Carter had no chance of a second term, unfortunately). They used the mosque to win that Revolution. It was against the law for 3 people or more to gather at the time. Khomeini's people smuggled in cassette tapes that were played in the mosques. There's more political background re mosque vs. bazaar (business) class that's specifically Iranian and goes back to Reza Shah. But it can be done. The "Arab Spring" was too easy in Egypt. You have to kick the Americans out entirely. Even though there are well-meaning Americans, you have to get rid of all of them. You have to take back your country.
This is not to denigrate what ordinary Egyptian citizens accomplished. The CIA has grown into a hydra that no branch of the U.S. government oversees, monitors, controls, etc. And the billionaire class allows this to happen. Economic inequality is a threat to everyone--not just the poor and not just the billionaires. It is inevitable that we have social and political unrest. The CIA is in social media. I'm sure they're monitoring this conversation. Zippity doo da.
Israel has way too much power in the U.S. government. It's not all-knowing, all-powerful. It has lost a lot of support in the U.S., which I think is a miracle. If that can happen, anything is possible. It is now showing its hand and the general population in the U.S. is repulsed by what they're seeing. Israelis aren't reproducing their population so their days are numbered. Either they change or they die out. They say they are 9 million. They're actually around 6.8 million. People are leaving that country every day, for good.
The CIA cannot accomplish anything without bodies. They are very big on psychological manipulation.
Don't despair. Each generation moves forward a little bit on the efforts of their parents and grandparents. Look at what Egypt managed to do to the British Empire in 1956! Amazing. The U.S. is fighting to survive. The ruling class doesn't want everyone to know how close it is to imploding financially. That's what its hostility towards Russia and China is about; it's what its hostility to Iran and Iraq and Venezuela was about. When the US dollar is no longer the reserve currency, we're going to see the emperor is butt naked. The dollar will lose most of its value and Americans are going to have to learn how to work for a living. Forget Starbucks. And forget the 900 bases in foreign countries. They're trying to pass another bill with huge amounts of funding for the military. I'm sure a lot of hidden funding is in that bill which will go to the CIA.
You cannot undo history. Egyptian culture has changed. Have faith in the future.
Thanks for your very thoughtful, insightful and balanced reply. Your last words are what sustains me in fact. And I think on some level Egyptians realize they were duped, but that people power can actually be a thing that works; they have to work differently.
Are you old enough to have been alive when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait over their theft of Iraqi oil? The American public was split on the issue of attacking Iraq. So President Bush (Sr.) hired a PR firm (I think it was Hill Knowlton) to make up a story about Iraqi soldiers throwing babies in their incubators out of hospital windows. The "eye witness" was the teenage daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador who lived in D.C. (and was not honestly identified). Americans do not acknowledge their racism against Middle Easterners. They would be far more skeptical if the same thing was said about American soldiers. Bottom line, I tell people if they cannot imagine themselves doing the same thing that is being attributed to a group they don't know much about, it's probably a lie. Even Amnesty International bought the incubator story. I haven't given them a penny since.
Don't take it personally. look at what happened to the enormous change the Baby Boomers effected in the 60's and 70's in the West. By the 1980's Reagan was installed as President and all those changes were turned into commodities by corporations. Same thing has happened to the ecological movement. Now electric cars are the "answer"? I think not. Global warming is primarily a problem of American "culture" of over-consumption and rabid exploitation of natural resources. What is their solution? Create technological answers that pollute the earth even more. It's a pathological culture but most Americans are not willing to go there. Nature, or reality, has a way of taking care of things. Egyptians need to focus on becoming as self-sufficient as possible, to rely as little as possible on Western powers. I know Egypt, like most Middle Eastern countries, has many religions and sects, but I do think the core Islamic values of brother- and sisterhood are what we need for the future. Unfortunately, sibling rivalry is part of our nature. People power does work but the people need to educate each other and refuse top-down solutions.