NSA SEEKING TO PENETRATE THE ROYAL BANK OF CANADA?
This was shared by Mr. S.D., and it is a significant enough story that it must be passed along. First, a little context. Regular readers of this site already know what my personal high octane speculation on the subject of electronic surveillance is, namely, it has as much to do with financial surveillance as it does with international terrorism. Indeed, the two, to some extent, go hand in hand. The best way to track and uncover impending terrorist operations would be precisely to track the financing for them. But this, of course, implies an ability to do something elsem namely, to monitor financial transactions and markets in real time, and ultimately as former Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Catherine Austin Fitts, others, and I have argued from time to time, this implies the ultimate insider trading mechanism.
To put this point somewhat differently, as I argued last year at the San Mateo Secret Space Program conference, the American intelligence community was put directly into the banking business by President Truman when he took the decision to keep recovered Axis loot a "state secret" and to use it as a mechanism of funding a covert operations project against the Communist bloc, and as a funding mechanism for secret long-term black projects research into exotic propulsion, and presumably weapons, technologies. By keeping all of this secret, the intelligence community not only was put into the banking business directly, but into the financial auditing business. With the expansion of electronic financial clearing systems, one must perforce entertain the idea that the expansion of this auditing capacity expanded with it. In short, the auditing came first; its application as a mechanism of tracking terrorist schemes and plots was merely an adaptation of that capability.
In that context, then, consider the article that Mr. S.D. shared:
NSA trying to map Rogers, RBC communications traffic, leak shows
The article puts the implications of this system of financial surveillance "country simple":
"The U.S. National Security Agency has been trying to map the communications traffic of corporations around the world, and a classified document reveals that at least two of Canada’s largest companies are included.
"A 2012 presentation by a U.S. intelligence analyst, a copy of which was obtained by The Globe and Mail, includes a list of corporate networks that names Royal Bank of Canada and Rogers Communications Inc.
"The presentation, titled “Private Networks: Analysis, Contextualization and Setting the Vision,” is among the NSA documents taken by former contractor Edward Snowden. It was obtained by The Globe from a confidential source."
Once again, this appears to be more fallout from the Ed Snowden affair. Before considering the implications of these revelations, consider the scale and significance, for the implication is that the NSA is spying not only on a close ally of the USA - Canadian troops hit the beaches of Normany along side their British and American counterparts after all - but on one of the world's major economies's central bank as well. And what the NSA can do to the Royal Bank of Canada, it can probably do to the Bundesbank, the Bank of England, Bank of France, and so on, including the Federal Reserve.
Now, to set the record straight, I do not presume for a moment that the USA or the NSA is alone in electronic surveillance skullduggery of all sorts. Britain's similar capability at its GCHQ is well known. And it is rash to assume that the other major powers do not have similar programs. Russia and China are known to have large cyber-warfare programs, and this implies a similar capability. The Snowden Affair has only served to focus attention on the USA's capabilities while giving other countries, for the moment, a free pass on their own programs.
It is, however, the implication here that disturbs, for the inevitable economic consequence of such revelations is the breakdown of trust and confidence in the financial trustworthiness of western financial institutions and the security of their clearing. The police-national security state inevitably works in a counter-productive manner to the economic good of the very people and society it claims to protect. For this reason Brazil and other nations have called for, and are trying to implement their own independent internets, the U.K. and Germany are joing China's Asia development bank as founding members.
Over the long term, transparency, or at least a degree of translucence has to be restored to the system in order to restore confidence and trust. It remains to be seen how, if at all, the BRICSA nations - and especially China - will accomplish this.
See you on the flip side...
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Is this the same Royal Bank of Canada that the reorganized board of Enron sued a few years ago because they were part of the fraud package of the Enron traders/management when they went bankrupt Dec 2001?
The Royal Bank of Canada is not the “central bank” of Canada – – which is the Bank of Canada.
The Royal Bank is a large bank know also as the RBC which figured in the HFT saga “Flashboys” as a (relatively) “good guy” bank.
Love high octane but let’s get the right bank, guys – – it might make a difference
Ladies and Gentleman,
US and Canada are close allies and there is no reason for any of this.
I would take this article with lots of reservation.
Respectfully
MDC
Kerp your enemies close your friends closer
How in the heck is the legal profession going to have any confidence in the confidentiality of communications across the legal spectrum?
Good point. I guess there isn’t any confidentiality for anything discussed electronically these days. If there’s anything I’ve learned it’s if the Feds want you, they’ll get you, law and warrants be damned.
yup, NSA seeks to penetrate
The national security state has never worked for the common good of the people….brave new world was a satire, something that flew over the cuckoo heads, and keeps on ringing there bell. Feel sorry for those nice potatoe head kids that enter that field and the damage they go through….as the good book says, those that lead into slavery go into slavery.
Best line that has been overlooked is “lawyers were children once I suppose”, from “to kill a mockingbird”….prose…seems only the no bell gets it, when it matters that is.
I was glancing over the globalist killing 3 d printer concept and my blood froze while reading wiki that the intellects in the know were worried about releasing this technology in the 50s and its implications on society and its dwindling relationship with the traditional work setting. I guess that is why they gave us 20 years of unfettered access too historically forbidden texts before releasing it.
Smart people always get there way…
I’m only puzzled by why your headline ends with a question mark.
There are hardware and software back doors into all OS’s and network comm devices. This includes cell phones, pads etc. They’ve even found preloaded malware in USB devices. The SHA2-xx encryption algos(the underpinnings of BitCoin) were developed by NSA. And they have back doors too.. So, the hardest thing NSA, CIA, DOA, MIA and the other alphabet agencies have to do is collect the data.. To be filed under we’ve been farmed. We need to walk away from the system and start anew.
All code can be backed door. The secret is in knowing the source code.
They can collect all the data they want, the fact of the matter is most people have good intentions in all pursuits. Those that haven’t been fed corrupted code that is.
Very true jedi.
In fact, the system is purposely designed to be replete with holes/back doors. Software programs haven’t got a snow ball’s chance in hell. The new software, upon release, is like a virgin being thrown into a forest of Big Bad Wolves; waiting to corrupt her first, so as to set-up shop & immediate protection against other wannabe pimps.
That why other countries want to start from the grassroots up; so that it to designed to be open source and quickly fixed, if corrupted. The perpetra(i)tors would be found, taken-out of commission; not promoted, given villas, and an American Express black card.
So if one desires to remain anonymous what can they do? I have a feeling they’ve cracked TOR. So if software isn’t the answer, is it custom/patched hardware?
As I am writing this comment I listening to Max Keiser on rt and found out that the UK sold it postal service to Germany. Just wondering to whom the USA will sell our postal service to in the future along with the rest of the country government included. Who do our intelligence agencies really answer to or to put this another way who is writing out their paychecks and who are their real bosses.
Finance & Intelligence have been bed fellows for millennial upon millennial. They, for all practical purposes are one coin; head I win, tails you loose.
Hence the ultimate spyware?
The Russian typewriter.
mixing intelligence with finance makes bad bedfellows.
Some dude in Japan is locked away for 2 years for making available to the public 3d printed guns, design etc…I guess that is a type of competition the command and control crowd squelches out with bad code.
The Royal bank, what a joke…the bank that steals, but what bank doesn’t? …it does have the unicorn as its symbol.
cronism is one stinky virus.
The Public Bank.
It could issue credit, just like the private bank; but be used to pump currency into the local communities it would serve. Like in The Twilight Zone “To Serve Mankind”. The Private Bank serves mankind on a platter, with a cook book of recipes. The Public Bank serves mankind; where money becomes his servant[Public], rather than his master[Private].