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Communiqués

IDENTITY POLITICS (US)

Air Force ordered software to manage army of fake virtual people
Friday, February 18, 2011 by Stephen C. Webster

These days, with Facebook and Twitter and social media galore, it can be increasingly hard to tell who your “friends” are.

But after this, Internet users would be well advised to ask another question entirely: Are my “friends” even real people?

In the continuing saga of data security firm HBGary, a new caveat has come to light: not only did they plot to help destroy secrets outlet WikiLeaks and discredit progressive bloggers, they also crafted detailed proposals for software that manages online “personas,” allowing a single human to assume the identities of as many fake people as they’d like.

The revelation was among those contained in the company’s emails, which were dumped onto bittorrent networks after hackers with cyber protest group “Anonymous” broke into their systems.

In another document unearthed by “Anonymous,” one of HBGary’s employees also mentioned gaming geolocation services to make it appear as though selected fake persons were at actual events.

“There are a variety of social media tricks we can use to add a level of realness to all fictitious personas,” it said.

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Government involvement

Eerie as that may be, more perplexing, however, is a federal contract from the 6th Contracting Squadron at MacDill Air Force Base, located south of Tampa, Florida, that solicits providers of “persona management software.”

While there are certainly legitimate applications for such software, such as managing multiple “official” social media accounts from a single input, the more nefarious potential is clear.

Unfortunately, the Air Force’s contract description doesn’t help dispel suspicions. As the text explains, the software would require licenses for 50 users with 10 personas each, for a total of 500. These personas would have to be “replete with background , history, supporting details, and cyber presences that are technically, culturally and geographacilly consistent.”

It continues, noting the need for secure virtual private networks that randomize the operator’s Internet protocol (IP) address, making it impossible to detect that it’s a single person orchestrating all these posts. Another entry calls for static IP address management for each persona, making it appear as though each fake person was consistently accessing from the same computer each time.

The contract also sought methods to anonymously establish virtual private servers with private hosting firms in specific geographic locations. This would allow that server’s “geosite” to be integrated with their social media profiles, effectively gaming geolocation services.

The Air Force added that the “place of performance” for the contract would be at MacDill Air Force Base, along with Kabul, Afghanistan and Baghdad. The contract was offered on June 22, 2010.

It was not clear exactly what the Air Force was doing with this software, or even if it had been procured.

Manufacturing consent

Though many questions remain about how the military would apply such technology, the reasonable fear should be perfectly clear. “Persona management software” can be used to manipulate public opinion on key information, such as news reports. An unlimited number of virtual “people” could be marshaled by only a few real individuals, empowering them to create the illusion of consensus.

You could call it a virtual flash mob, or a digital “Brooks Brothers Riot,” so to speak: compelling, but not nearly as spontaneous as it appears.

That’s precisely what got DailyKos blogger Happy Rockefeller in a snit: the potential for military-run armies of fake people manipulating and, in some cases, even manufacturing the appearance of public opinion.

“I don’t know about you, but it matters to me what fellow progressives think,” the blogger wrote. “I consider all views. And if there appears to be a consensus that some reporter isn’t credible, for example, or some candidate for congress in another state can’t be trusted, I won’t base my entire judgment on it, but it carries some weight.

“That’s me. I believe there are many people though who will base their judgment on rumors and mob attacks. And for those people, a fake mob can be really effective.”

It was Rockefeller who was first to highlight the Air Force’s “persona” contract, which was available on a public website.

A call to MacDill Air Force Base, requesting an explanation of the contract and what this software might be used for, was answered by a public affairs officer who promised a call-back. No reply was received at time of this story’s publication.

Other e-mails circulated by HBGary’s CEO illuminate highly personal data about critics of the US Chamber of Commerce, including detailed information about their spouses and children, as well as their locations and professional links. The firm, it was revealed, was just one part of a group called “Team Themis,” tasked by the Chamber to come up with strategies for responding to progressive bloggers and others.

“Team Themis” also included a proposal to use malware hacks against progressive organizations, and the submission of fake documents in an effort to discredit established groups.

HBGary was also behind a plot by Bank of America to destroy WikiLeaks’ technology platform, other emails revealed. The company was humiliated by members of “Anonymous” after CEO Aaron Barr bragged that he’d “infiltrated” the group.

A request for comment emailed to HBGary did not receive a reply.

Update: HBGary Federal among bidders

A list of interested vendors responding to the Air Force contract for “persona management software” included HBGary subsideary HBGary Federal, further analysis of a government website has revealed.

Other companies that offered their services included Global Business Solutions and Associates LLC, Uk Plus Logistics, Ltd., NevinTelecom, Bunker Communications and Planmatrix LLC.

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Communiqués

Capitalizing on the Revolution: Post-Revolutionary Knowledge Economies

Capitalizing on the Revolution: Post-Revolutionary Knowledge Economies by Angela Harutyunyan February 23, 2011

“Capitalizing on the Revolution” and “University on the Square”: American University in Cairo gives birth to post-revolutionary culture industries, whereas during the protests all it did was remain silent. A “Historic Moment” was announced only when there were credible rumors of Mubarak’s  departure from power.
 
As I stand in the square, as I walk in the tense streets of downtown Cairo, as I take the metro full of worn out faces emotionally charged, but silent, I am haunted by a specter, the specter of a post-revolutionary culture industry and knowledge economy. As the exhilarated cries and jubilation approach their climactic finale with the Vice President’s abrupt and laconic announcement of Mubarak’s departure, I start envisioning greedy hands reaching for the biggest cut of the revolutionary pie, high-pitched moralizing attitudes and high-brow self-righteousness. But worst of all, I see an entire post-revolutionary knowledge economy based on a self-serving and pragmatic appropriation of the position of the moralizing hero- be those institutional or individual positions. 
 
 
In the specific modes of production and consumption of knowledge that follow certain economic patterns, and more concretely, the patterns of globalized circulation of goods, products, signs and images, a direct revolutionary action is both neutralized and multiplied. It is being recapped in the realm of representation, documentation, historiographical undertakings and post-revolutionary educational tourism. Moreover, the reclamation of the revolution by an institution that has done nothing but cooperate with the same corrupt regime they now feverishly discard, remained conspicuously silent throughout the uprising and merely bothered with the safety and entertainment of students and faculty, seeks to reassert its legitimizing function in the constellations of the post-Mubarak, post-Ben Ali and hopefully post-dictatorial Arab world.  But this legitimization does not remain merely at the level of cultural recognition and scholarship. It has its economy and politics as it strives to institutionalize and market the body of revolutionary knowledge and experience to be collected, reproduced and ultimately consumed.  
 
As AUC announces a new program “The University on the Square: Documenting History in Real Time”, an educational initiative to “Capitalize on Egypt’s Historic Developments”,  it attempts to erase the memory of its own complicit silence…
 
On February 17th I received an email from the Foundation for Arts Initiative informing me of an approved offer for a large sum research grant I never applied for, to “explore your own thoughts about contemporary cultural practice in Egypt’s transformed environment.”
 
I am wondering why I need funding to explore my thoughts…
 
Is this the same economy of knowledge AUC is trying to catch up with? How to deal with so much economic and ideological instrumentalization that is already traceable even before the revolution has crystalised as an event?

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Communiqués

Knowledge Against Financial Capitalism (Bifo)

Knowledge Against Financial Capitalism
by Franco Berardi on Sunday, February 20, 2011

For a New Europe: University Struggles Against Austerity
We, the student and precarious workers of Europe, Tunisia, Japan, the US, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Peru and Argentina, met in Paris over the weekend of the 11th-13th of February, 2011 to discuss and organize a common network based on our common struggles.
 
Students from Maghreb and Gambia tried to come but France refused them entry. We claim the free circulation of peoples as well as the free circulation of struggles.
In fact, over the last few years our movement has assumed Europe as the space of conflicts against the corporatization of the university and precariousness. This meeting in Paris and the revolutionary movements across the Mediterranean allow us to take an important step towards a new Europe against austerity, starting from the revolts in Maghreb.
We are a generation who lives precariousness as a permanent condition: the university is no longer an elevator of upward social mobility but rather a factory of precariousness. Nor is the university a closed community: our struggles for a new welfare, against precarity and for the free circulation of knowledge and people don’t stop at its gates.
Our need for a common network is based on our struggles against the Bologna Process and against the education cuts Europe is using as a response to the crisis.
Since the state and private interests collaborate in the corporatization process of the university, our struggles don’t have the aim of defending the status quo. Governments bail out banks and cut education. We want to make our own university – a university that lives in our experiences of autonomous education, alternative research and free schools. It is a free university, run by students, precarious workers and migrants, a university without borders.
This weekend we have shared and discussed out different languages and common practices of conflict: demonstrations, occupations and metropolitan strikes. We have created and improved our common claims: free access to the university against increasing fees and costs of education, new welfare and common rights against debt and the financialization of our lives, and for an education based on cooperation against competition and hierarchies.
Based on this common statement:
• We call for common and transnational days of action on the 24th-25th-26th of March, 2011: against banks, debt system and austerity measures, for free education and free circulation of people and knowledge.
•We will create a common journal of struggles and an autonomous media of communication.
•We will promote a great caravan and meeting in Tunisia because the struggles in Maghreb are the struggles we are fighting here.
•We will be part of the G8 counter-summit in Dijon in May.
•We will meet again in London in June.
Fighting and cooperating, this is our Paris Common!

Conoscenza contro il capitalismo finanziario
by Franco Berardi on Sunday, February 20, 2011

Per una nuova Europa: Lotte Universitarie Contro l’Austerità
Noi, studenti e lavoratori precari d’Europa, Tunisia, Giappone, USA, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Perù e Argentina, ci siamo incontrati a Parigi dall’11 al 13 Febbraio, 2011 per confrontarci e organizzare un network comune basato sulle nostre lotta comuni. Agli studenti dal Maghreb e dal Gambia è stato impedito di partecipare, perché la Francia ha rifiutato loro l’accesso. Noi rivendichiamo la libera circolazione delle persone e la libera circolazione delle lotte.
Negli ultimi anni i nostri movimenti hanno assunto l’Europa come spazio di conflitto contro l’aziendalizzazione delle università e la precarietà. L’incontro di Parigi e i movimenti rivoluzionari che attraversano il Mediterraneo ci permettono di fare un importante passo avanti verso una nuova Europa contro l’austerità, a partire dalle rivolte nel Maghreb.
 
Noi siamo una generazione che vive la precarietà come condizione permanente: l’università non è piu un ascensore per la mobilità sociale, ma una fabbrica di precarietà. E l’università non è un luogo isolato: la nostra lotta per un nuovo welfare, contro la precarietà e per la libera circolazione dei saperi e delle persone non si ferma ai suoi cancelli.
Il nostro bisogno di una rete comune è basato sulla nostra lotta contro il Processo di Bologna e contro i tagli all’istruzione che l’Europa sta usando come risposta alla crisi.
Dal momento che gli interessi pubblici e privati collaborano nel processo di aziendalizzazione dell’università, le nostre lotte non hanno l’obiettivo di difendere lo status quo. I governi salvano le banche e tagliano l’educazione. Noi vogliamo costruire la nostra università – una università che viva nelle nostre esperienze di autoformazione, ricerca autonoma e nel libero accesso. Si tratta di una università libera, gestita dagli studenti, dai lavoratori precari e dai migranti, una università senza frontiere.
Questo fine settimana abbiamo condiviso e discusso con diversi linguaggi pratiche comuni di conflitto: manifestazioni, occupazioni e scioperi metropolitani. Abbiamo creato e arricchito le nostre rivendicazioni comuni: il libero accesso all’università contro l’aumento delle tasse e le spese di istruzione, un nuovo welfare e diritti comuni contro il debito e la finanziarizzazione della nostra vita, e per una formazione basata sulla cooperazione contro i processi di gerarchizzazione.
Sulla base di questa dichiarazione comune:
Convochiamo i giorni comuni transnazionali d’azione del 24, 25 e 26 MARZO 2011: contro le banche, il sistema del debito e le misure di austerità, per il libero accesso e la libera circolazione delle persone e dei saperi.
Costruiamo una rivista comune delle lotte e un mezzo di comunicazione autonomo.
Organizziamo un grande carovana e un incontro in Tunisia, perché le lotte in Maghreb sono le lotte che stiamo combattendo qui.
Ci incontreremo di nuovo a Londra nel mese di giugno.
Prenderemo parte alle mobilitazioni contro il G8 a Digione in maggio.
Lotta e cooperazione, questo è il nostro comune di Parigi!
[translated by Claudia Tomassetti-Academy of Fine Art of Florence]

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Communiqués

LSE Students Occupy Against University’s Ties To Libyan Regime

At 7PM on February 22nd, Students at the LSE began an occupation of the Senior Common Room in the Old Building (Houghton St.) against the LSE’s regarding their association with the Libyan regime. 

In light of recent events the LSE administration announced that they would no longer be accepting the money from the Gaddafi family. They have already accepted £300,000 and were scheduled to receive and additional £1.2. 

Students are demanding:

a) A public statement by the LSE administration denouncing the recent gross violations of human rights by the Gaddafi regime and Saif Gaddafi’s violent threats against the protesters in Libya

b) A formal commitment by the LSE refraining from cooperating with the Libyan regime and any other dictatorial regimes that are known to be implicated in gross violations of human rights.

c) Rejecting the rest of the yearly installments that are being received from the £1.5 Million donation of the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation (GICDF) and work towards creating a scholarship fund for underprivileged Libyan students using the £300k that LSE has already accepted and not spent yet.

d) Revoking Saif Gaddafi’s LSE alumni status, as his public statement on Sunday 20th of February and the various reports issued by International Human Rights Organisations clearly demonstrate that he is implicated in the killing of innocent civilians as well as other human rights violations. His association with the LSE community and particularly its student body is a disgrace that is not tolerated by the LSE staff, students and alumni.
e) Publicly committing that no grants from officials of such oppressive regimes will be accepted in the future by establishing a set of standards and a process of democratic decision-making with student representation that determines whether or not the School should accept money coming from controversial donors.
Failing to do these would not only betray the LSE’s ethical values, it would also tarnish the School’s reputation in a region whose people are currently fighting to reclaim their freedom from corrupt dictatorships–and are winning the fight so far.
Following the publication of these demands LSE students will occupy a space on LSE campus.

LSE Occupation

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Communiqués

PRACTICALITIES OF REVOLT

PRACTICALITIES OF REVOLT
proposed by caleb waldorf
http://la.thepublicschool.org/class/3207

Practicalities of Revolt
This class would look at the nuts and bolts of revolution and insurrection to better understand (and have a roadmap) during the disarray of a popular revolt. For example, if all businesses are closed, where does one get food? Water? Medical supplies? What happens if the power grid is shut down? How do you make gear to protect from the onslaught of thugs/police (see Egyptian homemade helmets)? What are the basics of first-aid you should know? What do you do if the government shuts down mobile communications and access to the internet or is monitoring them to stop organizing before it begins? Also, what are useful things that can be done from abroad to assist in other people’s struggles? Spread information? Electronic Civil Disobedience? And on and on…
The answers to these questions would be different for specific situations, but could we develop some general information that would be useful? Perhaps develop a web platform to collect and gather knowledge that could be put to practical use in the future?
A couple examples that might be a good starting point:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/01/egyptian-activists-action-plan-translated/70388/
Leaflets that circulated in Egypt (shown by Ethan during the The Egyptian Revolution and its Historical Context class)
http://72hours.org/index.html
This is a guide from the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management of what to do in an emergency. They are coming from a different angle (!), but there is useful information here that is clearly explained and accessible. 
http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/egypt.html
Google Crisis Response for Egypt