Posted originally on the CTH on July 4, 2023 | Sundance
A federal judge chose the 4th of July to deliver a key ruling blocking Biden administration agencies and officials from meeting and communicating with social media companies. [Read 7-page Injunction HERE]
The temporary injunction targets an ongoing legal battle brought by the state of Louisiana and Missouri against federal agencies for collaborating with social media to censor speech content against the interests of the federal government. The final ruling on govt involved censorship could have profound effects on the First Amendment.
Judge Terry A. Doughty, has not made a final ruling in the case, but he wrote that the Republican attorneys general “have produced evidence of a massive effort by Defendants, from the White House to federal agencies, to suppress speech based on its content.” The ruling may have implications for tech companies, which have been exposed in recent months/years for regular communication with government officials.
“This Preliminary Injunction precludes said named Defendants, their agents, officers, employees, contractors, and all acting in concert with them from the aforementioned conduct. This Preliminary Injunction also precludes said named Defendants, their agents, officers, employees, and contractors from acting in concert with others who are engaged in said conduct.” (link)
Obviously, trying to stop the government from coordinating with social media groups to suppress information adverse to both their interests is a little like squeezing Jello in a closed fist; they will find an angle out of the limitations.
During my trip to DC in the summer of 2020 there were a myriad of disconcerting datapoints assembled; revelations that made sense of the madness and disappointments found everywhere. However, one of the key notations for future reference was to watch the political evolution of Dept of Homeland Security (DHS) and spot the jump where the ideological outlook turns into specific government action.
With that in mind, this recent discovery of a 2010 to 2015 DHS contract to a very well-known USG defense contractor, General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems Inc., surfaces.
As many are now becoming aware, DHS is the lead agency behind all of the engagements with Twitter and other social media.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), specifically created as an outcome of the post-911 Patriot Act, is the pivot point on the surveillance radar sweep.
Prior to the DNI the general Intelligence Community (IC) surveillance faced offshore and swept foreign adversaries. If any threat was picked up that included the potential for domestic terrorism, the identified contact transferred from the CIA, NSA, DoD into the DOJ and FBI. The DOJ then used the FISA Court to request transfer of targeting from foreign to domestic.
However, after 911 it was determined the national security surveillance radar needed to sweep a full 360° to include domestic surveillance. The ODNI was the office created to manage the pivot point. As a specific outcome of the Patriot Act, American citizens were now under the same surveillance as foreign adversaries. The new definition of American citizens being threats to the national security state is ultimately what led to our taking off shoes at TSA checkpoints in airports. TSA is a subsidiary agency of DHS.
Offshore surveillance now flowed from the CIA, DoD, NSA, IC into the ODNI, who then filtered it, and if needed transferred it to the newly created DHS.
As the design was laid out, the DHS would then contact the DOJ or FBI while affording the U.S. person (target) in question their duly constitutional protections against unlawful searches and seizures. The sketchy legal dynamic is what created the need for the DOJ National Security Division (DOJ-NSD).
At the same time, onshore domestic surveillance would be conducted by DHS through new systems like the Transportation Safety Administration etc. Local, state and federal law enforcement would identify issues or investigative targets, then send the targeting data upstream into the DHS database. DHS transfers the finding to the ODNI who cross-reference it with CIA, NSA, etc. This was the original design.
However, it was specifically Barack Obama and Eric Holder who saw an opportunity with the newly created system. The result, DHS domestic surveillance was weaponized. The timing of this DHS contract (2010) to General Dynamics for “media monitoring and social media support” fits perfectly in line with the known timeline of how DHS was weaponized.
Barack Obama and Eric Holder did not create a weaponized DOJ and FBI; the institutions were already weaponized by the Patriot Act. What Obama and Holder did was take the preexisting system and retool it, so the weapons of government only targeted one side of the political continuum.
This point is where many people understandably get confused.
Elevator Speech:
(1) The Patriot Act turned the intel surveillance radar from foreign searches for terrorists to domestic searches for terrorists.
(2) Obama/Biden then redefined what is a “terrorist” to include their political opposition.
Lee Smith makes an important point in this brief podcast excerpt. {Direct Rumble Link Here} We have outlined his point on these pages for several years.
Essentially, the point Lee Smith drives home is how the U.S. Corporate Media, and the Big Tech monopolies, are the front force of the new national security and intelligence state. It is a relationship that extends far beyond the customary leanings of media, and now covers a full synergistic relationship. WATCH:
“We’re all familiar with the fact that the press has historically leaned to the left. That’s not what we’re looking at now. We’re looking at something very, very different. We’re looking at the press as being a part of the intelligence community. They are the ones who is putting these operations out there.”
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The New York Times and Politico are the public relations firms for Main Justice, the DOJ and FBI. The Washington Post handles the needs of the Intelligence Community (IC) and the Central Intelligence Agency. Meanwhile CNN is managed by the needs of the U.S. State Dept. These direct relationships have been discussed here for several years.
Centinel2012 