News & Analysis
Comes a Blond Stranger ...
The two sat quietly in the senior cafeteria in the basement of a big dusty building in Washington DC. It was mid-afternoon, and they nearly were by themselves, drinking coffee. The junior man had invited the senior man. He was eager to impress him.
The junior man had had a thought.
"What if we got a guy," he said in a low tone, "And made him into a star."
"What kind of star?" asked the senior man, encouraged that the junior man was doing some deep thinking. Anyone who "thought" at the Agency in this manner had a leg-up.
"An Internet star," the junior man said. "A dramatic guy with a weird background."
"Actually we've got a guy like that," the senior man said. "We don't but the Aussies do."
"Oh, really?" asked the junior man. "Where'd they get him?"
"He was in trouble in his youth," explained the senior man. "A lot of trouble and eventually they turned him."
"What kind of trouble?"
"He was a big hacker. An ethical hacker, they said. But he was a weird young guy generally. Claimed he went to 30 schools when he was young and lived on the run from his father."
"Sounds interesting," the junior man said. "Is he available to us?"
"They don't know what to do with him. He's meant for big things, but no one knows what."
"But he's still a young guy?"
"Very dramatic. Blond hair. Almost albino. And a low-key personality. Never smiles."
"Damaged, personality, huh. But dramatic."
"The real thing," the senior man said. "Smart as a whip. Probably borderline autistic."
"Sounds perfect," the junior man said enthusiastically. "But it's got be done carefully. And the build-up has to work, too."
"Well," the senior man said, "the build up would have to take place over a period of years."
"Of course," the junior man agreed and sipped some of his coffee before it got cold. "I knew that."
"Of course you did," the senior man said bitingly.
"He's got to have an air of mystery about him," the junior man said.
"Sure," the senior man said. "Just like with Supriem Rockefeller."
"Who?" The junior man was baffled.
"Supriem Rockefeller," the senior man said a little sharply. "The guy doesn't exist but we made him up and now he's all over the Internet."
"Oh," the junior man said vaguely. "Yeah, Supriem. Good job."
"Good job," the senior man said derisively to show he knew the junior man didn't know.
"I mean it's the same sort of idea," the junior man said lamely.
"It worked pretty good," the senior man continued, letting him off the hook. "El Supriem showed up on a lot of alternative news sites. Pretty funny actually."
"That's what you gotta do," the junior man said a little more enthusiastically. "Baffle them, hit 'em on all sides until they have no idea what's true and what it isn't. Discredit them completely, these crazy bloggers. They all work out of their basements anyway."
"Well, Supremo's not real, but this idea of yours – it's interesting."
"You've got the guy," the junior man said. "Sounds like you do. He should have a dramatic name by the way."
"That can be arranged."
"Something that rhymes with, say ... strange," the junior man said. "Just speaking off the cuff, of course. And his background should be as dramatic as possible. You said he was on the run from his father, but maybe he could be on the run from a cult as well."
"Not a bad idea," the senior man agreed.
"He should be a mythic character," the junior man said expansively. He settled back in his chair, too excited to drink more coffee. "He should live on the run, out of suitcases and have homes and apartments in a number of different countries. He should be a self-made millionaire but anti-social. But he should also work well with people even though he shuns them."
"Interesting concept," the senior man commented.
"He should set up a vast global network of anonymous servers," the junior man said. "And work out of safe rooms. He should be a hunted man and NATO should be after him. He should be wanted by powerful countries – America of course, and countries in Europe too."
"I like it," the senior man said. "It sounds dramatic."
"He should seek shelter in a small out-of-the-way country like, say, Iceland. Someplace you'd never think of. And maybe he should have his visa revoked, just to make the 'wanted' thing more of a cliff-hanger."
"How about this," the senior man said. "Make a big deal of it and then hand it back quietly."
"He needs to be leaking government documents," the junior man elaborated. "That's the real hook. Thousands of documents given to him by ... anonymous whistleblowers."
"You're on a roll," the senior man suggested. "But not real documents – or not top secret ones."
"Announce that they are top secret," the junior man decided. "But then it turns out they're only secret. And they'll need to show the US doing some bad things, of course."
"But not too bad."
"Just bad enough to make it believable. Leathernecks abusing civilians, but nothing that people don't already suspect. Let's not break any new ground here. But set up the first data dump with something sexy. Say a video of a shooting, a massacre, a war crime or something. Something dramatic, but nothing new. Something people already know about."
"You mean to build credibility. That can be arranged."
"And then let 'em have the big one! But arrange the data dump so it works in our favor. Maybe gives Pakistan the business – reveal the funny stuff going on around the border and how Pakistan is protecting the Taliban. Really drill 'em."
"Give us a pretext to invade. Iran, too," the senior man said thoughtfully. "Should have something about Iranian cooperation with the Taliban just to cover all the bases."
"Sure," the junior man said. "Enough to justify arresting the guy if it comes to that."
"He'd have to be well compensated though," the senior man pointed out.
"Goes without saying," the junior man agreed. "Anyway, it gives policy-makers a lot of options. They can use the info as a pretext to heat the war up or cool it down. Might want to throw in the names of some Afghan informers just to make it seem real," he added casually.
"That could cost lives – "
"Afghan lives," the junior man said contemptuously. "Too many of 'em anyway. Hey, maybe throw in a sighting or two of Bin Laden. How about that?"
"That's stretching it a bit," the senior man said coolly. "He's been dead nearly five years now."
"What's the difference," the junior man said. "Throw enough on the wall and something is bound to stick. Justify all the crazy tapes we've been releasing, supposedly from Al Qaeda."
"Exactly how is all this information supposed to be released?" queried the senior man.
"Maybe through newspapers," the junior man said. "How about the New York Times. Give 'em some credibility if anything can. They can make a big fuss, treat it as something daring."
"What about that Pentagon Papers guy?
"Does he work for us?" the junior man inquired.
The senior man shrugged. "Let him say something nice. Maybe says the new guy is just like him – a real daredevil."
"I like it," the junior man said. "I think it's a winner."
The senior man nodded and finished his coffee. He sat back with a thoughtful expression on his face.
"Let's summarize," he said. "We got an albino misfit with a strange name running around from country to country and leaking confidential information onto hundreds of anonymous servers. We'll fund the operation, but he'll pretend to be aided by generous anonymous donors who believe in the cause. He'll stay on the run because he's a wanted man, moving from safe-house to safe-house and taking advantage of Internet technology. He'll be the final decider of what's leaked so he can maintain control, and we can provide some employment muscle if necessary so the operation looks big-time. He'll seem like a real new-wave cool cat."
"A cool cat, definitely. Once he's got credibility, he should also make some additional points," the junior man added suddenly.
"Oh, you mean something about how 9/11 isn't really scientific," the senior man said thoughtfully, "and that there are plenty of other conspiracies to examine without making 'truther' stuff up."
"Right," the junior man agreed. "Talk down the 9/11 truthers. And the Bilderberger crackpots, too. Say, this guy doesn't trust anything that's not numeric."
"OK ... Maybe he represents a new kind of journalism."
"Data dump journalism!" the junior man said, enthused. "Right from the original source. No need to interpret. Reporting is so yesterday."
"The guy is an icon," the senior man elaborated.
"A myth!"
"A legend," the senior man agreed. "Do you really think it will work?"
"Sure," the junior man said. "The bigger the lie the more credible it is."
The above is a work of fiction. It is NOT about Julian Assange; though certainly it is an exploration of how elite promotions could animate an Assange-like figure. As for Mr. Assange himself: We will only state at this juncture that we admire his tremendous courage and what appears to be his almost Christ-like willingness to sacrifice his very life on the altar of his cause – for all of us, for a better society; we are very sorry he is in jail and hope he gets out shortly. Why on earth did he head back to Britain?
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Posted by Victor Barney on 12/10/10 07:42 AM
Daily Bell, you have great reason to be concerned because from what I saw last night on Glenn Beck's TV Show, you guys are in big, big trouble, as u.s. all, especially Jacob's people(3 1/2 years of tribulation)! If you're not, you're one of them there MARXISTS too! Watch! p.s., Great article!
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Posted by JonnyMuffin on 12/07/10 09:54 PM
Oh, and also now all the real whistleblowers will contact our guy, we will be the gateway for the whistleblowers, we can let the info through, if it's not too harmful and/or fits our agenda, or if it's a guy that knows too much, we can whack them. I'm sure you can word it much better, but nice work!
Reply from The Daily Bell
Thanks. You have a point.
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Posted by BilderbergGrp on 12/01/10 11:25 AM
In this day and age, manipulation can be a useful tool to "deliver the goods" so to speak. Hence, this story may not be too far off the mark.
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Posted by Roy on 11/30/10 07:53 PM
Hell Yeah!!!!
Click to view link
Could even be as I've mused: How to sell something everyone already has at three times the price....
Reply from The Daily Bell
Interesting blog.
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Posted by JG on 10/23/10 02:29 PM
You could not have been more spot on! Unbelievable.
Reply from The Daily Bell
Thanks.
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Posted by Pimpernel on 08/01/10 08:51 AM
The word on the street in the U.S. is that Obama is fixing to use these docs to justify an invasion of Pakistan... Cf. Matthew 7:15-16a
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Posted by AmanfromMars on 07/31/10 05:31 AM
McChrystal Retired? Oh please, you cannot be serious. He'll be freelancing and probably making a dodgy fortune for some equally dodgy private sector mercenary outfit, which doesn't have to put up with the bull--it dished out in daily briefings by those milking and bilking the public purse whilst they are being played for sub-prime fools by those who deliver them their paper wages.
Reply from The Daily Bell
Good point. This is very well written. Why can't you write like this all the time?
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Posted by Gundee on 07/30/10 05:44 PM
Where is McChrystal in all of this?
Reply from The Daily Bell
Retired.
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Posted by AmanfromMars on 07/30/10 01:37 AM
And here's a very recent headless chicken transcript .....
Click to view link
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Posted by AmanfromMars on 07/30/10 01:13 AM
""A cool cat, definitely. Once he's got credibility, he should also make some additional points," the junior man added suddenly."
"Ah yes, .... and just to encourage vital and viral enthusiasm, would all really fine additional points be extremely expensively rewarded, thus to make everything so much easier for all, should we imagine ourselves to be in a position of Control with Comments that Command in IT and Media Player Circles/Bilderberger Groepen/Trilateral Commissions/Instant Messaging Fonts.", offered the senior, "for as any old fool knows", he said, " give a man and/or a woman what they want and need and you will control them with their feed and/or greed, whilst the Spooky Super SMARter Ones Control Everything with your/their Requirements matching their/your Demands/Feeds/Needs/Wants.
The Intelligently Designed Enigmatic Ambiguity in that Situation is an Interesting Singularity for Entangled String Pluckers and Novel Thread Theorists alike, and is Virgin Magical Mystery Turing Territory to more than just a Few who would be Well Versed in ITs XSSCodeXXXX.
Are you XSSXXXXPerienced in such Travels and Travails?
"Reply from the Daily Bell:
Are you referring to our article yesterday? Yes, generally we believe the Internet is giving the PTB and Pentagon headaches and we think these data dumps are too. " ....
Amen to that, DB. They're running around like headless chicken whilst Stealthy Foxy NOCs* steals all the golden eggs. Retired General Michael Hayden takes a pounding here, .......
Posted Friday 30th July 2010 02:55 GMT ...
Click to view link ....
although to be perfectly fair, he does appear at least to realise the significance of the new Paradigm and the US Admin's Daily Catastrophic Vulnerability to ITs ZerodDay Opportunity Briefings.
*"Non-official cover (NOC) is a term used in espionage, particularly by national intelligence services, for agents or operatives who assume covert roles in organizations without ties to the government for which they work. Such agents or operatives are typically abbreviated in espionage lingo as a NOC (pronounced "knock")" ..... Wikipedia ....... Real wolves in virtual sheeps' clothing/Deep Diving Sleepy Driver Moles, Wwwide Awake and HyperManically Active, although there will always be those who would blot the landscape and their copy books, with thoughts more Maniacal.
And I really enjoyed the Freudian slip, Ben, on 7/28/2010 10:51:21 AM, which no amount of cleaning up of that mess will dispel, although it may be something which is inherited and which you would personally have no control over ...... like one having a crazy old grandfather in the family, locked away for his own and everyone else's good.
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Posted by Lance E. Schultz on 07/29/10 02:11 PM
Master: "What doth thou say upon thy return?"
Spirit: "Master, as given me I have come to bring to thine ear what mine eyes have observed."
Master: "What sayest ye?"
Spirit: "Master, the Order still rings in wedlock to Rebellion and they cry out unto the sky in defiance of Thy Holy Name."
Master: "Suffer unto them, for they bringeth about My purpose and exerciseth Mine will."
Spirit: "But Master, how much longer must it travail thee, that I must be in the presence of thine enemy?"
Master: "Every creature made is given unto a purpose for the Father of them that maketh it."
Spirit: "Thy will be done. Master."
Master: "And what of the plan?"
Spirit: "It moveth with swift currency, Master. The people will soon stand ready at the gate and the great Rebellion which thy speakest so of will be at hand."
Master: "So it is written in the book."
Spirit: "So it is written."
Master: "Tender unto Thine shepherds to shepherd My flock whither she may goest until My coming in All Power and Glory."
Spirit: "Yes my Master. Thy will be done."
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Posted by Bill Ross on 07/29/10 10:45 AM
@MetaCynic
Echo DB's kudos and answer your question:
"Why is it that very bright people turn into a herd of morons once they start collecting a government salary?"
Because they are slaves caught in a command / control hierarchical structure with ZERO choice EXCEPT TO FOLLOW PROCESS. Any other choice has negative survival (at a minimum, loss of employment) consequences.
This has two REAL consequences:
a) If some choices are rejected as "not possible", well, it is a waste of time to think about them, making people STOOPID, or "morons", as you state. PROOF:
Click to view link
b) Darwin PROVED: Survival EQUALS ability to adapt to environment EQUALS ability to choose correctly EQUALS freedom:
Click to view link
These statist idiots have traded false security for the illusion of survival and, "we the people" have traded "avoiding terror of tyrant retaliation" for freedom.
In both cases (bureaucratic wankers and citizens), by forgoing freedom to choose, we have limited our perceptions AND thrown away SURVIVAL.
Surely, you have noticed the terrifying trends?
Subversion MUST be fought with TRUTH. And, the truth is: On present course, WE ALL LOSE.
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Posted by Pat Fields on 07/29/10 07:43 AM
Things as well as personalities can be elevated to 'savant' status. The internet is an example and it should be approached with that in mind.
It had been the predicate that what was in 'black and white' ('the' newspapers) was to be taken with muted criticism if not automatic acceptance and now that same allusion is being attached to select 'alternate' information sites on the net.
Usually the dead give-away is the extent and longevity of dissemination 'stories' emanating from these 'select sites' enjoy in the broader media. Sadly NOTHING revealed or speculated upon in our beloved Daily Bell, for instance, would find itself spread worldwide by the 'normal' media. For that reason ANYTHING cited from Wiki whatever, is suspect since such cites are suspiciously endemic and over-dramatically utilized among the 'big news' prognosticators.
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Posted by John Edwards on 07/28/10 11:23 PM
I meant to write 'Peace-nicks', not 'Beatnicks', but I think they could be included as scapegoats as well.
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Posted by John Edwards on 07/28/10 11:19 PM
It's become quite simple in a complex sort of way.
The power elite, fearing losing control of the situation in the Afghanistan, have set up this Asange bloke to filter through the harsh realities of this war to a receptive audience of the disaffected. Drawing them into a carefully orchestrated dialogue with the power elite in which they will cleverly move the moral limits to include us, the disaffected, as co-conspirators in the eventual outcome of this war.
In other words Asange is part of a psy-ops program initiated by Western Intelligence agencies to enable the power elite to blame 'us' for their failure in Afghanistan, if and when they decide to admit it.
Remember Vietnam was lost because of the 'Beatnicks' at home, according to a large swathe of the American population.
Gee, I wonder how that attitude got to be so entrenched ?!?
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Posted by Pandora on 07/28/10 10:28 PM
I was once in a Halls Mentholyptus manufacturing plant, and actually saw 1 cubic yard being kneaded by a machine. It smelled great and my sinuses were thanking me. Mostly sugar and eucalyptus oil, I gazed at the translucent Orange flavor being created, like a huge amoeba, constantly changing shape. Exposed like a huge incestuous blob on an operating table. The kneading elbows spinning ever so slowly like Clockwork. After about 1 minute, I closed my eyes, turned away and stumbled out of the room; my eyes streaming from the intense eucalyptus fumes. It took me a few minutes to recover.
It seemed so harmless and normal for that first minute, until my eyes realized what my nose had not. A lifetime supply of clear sinuses. But only if it was administered in small doses. It's OK, we're all getting better, faster now (:
You want conspiracy theories? Here's a lifetime supply! We are all going to have to turn away for a few minutes and get back to a new normal. But what could it be? Covering up the source with more symptoms?
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Posted by Gunter on 07/28/10 07:18 PM
I fail to see the objective that The Bell is trying to achieve with this, albeit well-written, short-story. It is confusing, while The Bell, in my mind, is for clarity.
What is The Bell? Clarity? Or confusion?
If this prose stands for clarity, then The Bell asserts that the so-called power-elite has some sort of plan. The leaking of 91.000 pages of info, through the elite's controlling interest in wikileaks, will have an objective. Another war perhaps? Anounced here at The Bell a while ago.
If not, then why deride Mr. Strange?
Or to put it in clarity; is wikileaks a "false flag?"
Did the journalists at The Bell do what journalists should do?
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Posted by Adam on 07/28/10 03:42 PM
Conspiracy as Governance -- me @ Click to view link (Julian Assange) December 3, 2006 (PDF)
'To radically shift regime behavior we must think clearly and boldly for if we have learned anything, it is that regimes do not want to be changed. We must think beyond those who have gone before us and discover technological changes that embolden us with ways to act in which our forebears could not. We must understand the key generative structure of bad governance[1].
- A man in chains knows he should have acted sooner for his ability to in?uence the actions of the state is near its end. To deal with powerful conspiratorial actions we must think ahead and attack the process that leads to them since the actions themselves can not be dealt with. We can deceive or blind a conspiracy by distorting or restricting the information available to it. We can reduce total conspiratorial power via unstructured attacks on links or through throttling and separating. A conspiracy sufficiently engaged in this manner is no longer able to comprehend its environment and plan robust action.'
Click to view link
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Posted by Adam on 07/28/10 02:32 PM
OK. I've read enough to know he is a perfect useful idiot candidate.
"The decision as to what should be enforced and what may be ignored is political. This does not mean that rights are unimportant, but rather, that politics (the societal control of freedom) is so important as to subsume rights."
Click to view link -- Sun 18 Jun 2006 : What are rights anyway?
Click to view link
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Posted by Adam on 07/28/10 02:28 PM
ClimateGate. I doubt it.
"We're going to have to run this planet." Sooner or later the message will sink in that Kyoto and other conservation efforts are too little, too late (and too expensive). Geo-engineering will be forced on the human race, luddites and all,by the climate change threat of the 21st century.
Click to view link -- Thu 08 Jun 2006 : Climate skepticism patterns
Click to view link
Reply from The Daily Bell
"ClimateGate. I doubt it."
Yeah, it doesn't quite seem his style. Wish it were so, though.
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