EXTRACTS | SUMMARY
[For quotation purposes, confirm original article]
PART I
RE: Book
The WikiLeaks Files: The World According to U.S. Empire (Verso, 2015)
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SOURCE
Assange: What Wikileaks Teaches Us About How the U.S. Operates
By Julian Assange 8/28/15
http://www.newsweek.com/emb-midnight-827-assange-what-wikileaks-teaches-us-about-how-us-operates-366364
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Leaked US docs
lifted veil on
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Communication
Early empires
Stone
- transmission of compressed institutional rules
to be safely communicated
Early methods did not allow for:
- rapidly unfolding events
- official nuance or discretion
gaps addressed by:
- light and fast to create, but fragile
- easy to construct and transport, unifying occupied regions
- = rapid information flow | could:
- = feed reactive central management
- = integrate incoming streams of intelligence
- = swiftly project outgoing decisions
{but with tendencies toward short-termism & micromanagement}
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Absolute boundary to existence of empire:
= ability to project an empire’s:
- desires
- structure
- knowledge
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Hallmark of empire
= structured attempt at managing an extended
system
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USG DoS Empire Communications
| Vulnerable to Dissection
- records of these communications
( never intended to be dissected / especially vulnerable to dissection)
- form the basis for understanding nature of world’s sole remaining “empire.”
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Anatomy of US Empire
Where is it?
- 191 countries
- 276 fortified buildings
- 169 embassies & other missions of USG
- 71,000 people across those countries
- 27 different US govt ('USG') agencies
- 27 other USG departments ('depts') & agencies
incl:
- Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
- National Security Agency (NSA)
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
- US military (various branches)
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Embassy Components
Ambassador
= usually close to domestic US
- political;
- business; or
- intelligence
power
Career Diplomats
= specialize in
- politics;
- economy; and
- public diplomacy [propaganda];
of their host state.
Others:
- managers
- researchers
- military attachés
- spies under foreign-service cover
- personnel from other USG agencies
- *some embassies: may have
- covert special ops forces
Caretakers | Services
- contractors
- security personnel
- technicians
- locally hired translators
- cleaners
- other service personnel
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USG empire communication means:
- some communication USG mainland:
diplomatic and CIA cables
- some relay the communications of US military ships & planes
- others = NSA mass-intercept of
- mobile phones
- other wireless traffic
of host population
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USG Diplomatic Service History
- Dates back to the American Revolution 1765 - 1783 | here
- Modern US DoS came into being: post WWII
- 1973 - appointment of Henry Kissinger as secretary of state
concurrent appointed of Henry Kissinger as: national security advisor
facilitated tighter integration b/w following arms of USG:
- foreign relations
- military
- intelligence
- 1973 - cables transmitted in bulk, electronically *for first time*
US Department of State ('DoS')
UNIQUE - Among USA Bureaucracies
Other USG agencies
= one function admin
US DoS
= represents / houses
= all major elements of US national power
- = cover for CIA
- = buildings for NSA mass-interception equipment
- = office space & communications facilities for:
- FBI
- military
- other USG agencies & staff
Understanding US DoS
diplomatic apparatus
cannot properly understood from outside
- = directly involved in putting a friendly face on empire
- = ie concealing US DoS underlying mechanics
= outward propaganda
- $1 billion p.a. is budgeted by USA
for outward propaganda ('public diplomacy')
- USG DoS propaganda ('public diplomacy')
aims to influence:
1) journalists; and
2) civil society;
so that they serve as *conduits* for US DoS messaging
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USG DoS | Released Info | National Archives
national archives = impressive collections of internal state communications
BUT - material intentionally withheld
(or made difficult to access) for DECADES
aim: to strip info of potency
reason: potential 'blowback'
ie. timely, accessible archives of international significance
*would produce 'blowback' in the form of:
- withdrawn funding; or
- termination of officials
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Potency of Secret Communications Revealed
| The Naked Empire
publication
- = vivisection of a living empire
- = (showing what substance flowed from which state organ & when)
- = internal communications by-product of activities of US DoS
- = not produced in order to manipulate public
- = cables aimed at elements of rest of US state apparatus
- = therefore relatively free from distorting influence of public relations
- = reading US DoS cables (internal communications, stripped of propaganda / external influence intent) |
= much more effective way of understanding an institution like US DoS than reading reports by journalist (fed to them by likes of Hillary Clinton & Jen Psaki)
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Note however:
cables / internal communications
of US DoS officials
= must match their pens to the latest DC orthodoxies
= elements of political correctness
= noteworthy & visible to outsiders who are not sufficiently indoctrinated
Cables show how US DoS (& agencies that inter-operate with cable system)
= understand their place in the world
KEY to understanding:
Only by approaching this corpus holistically (above localised atrocity & individual abuses):
does the true human cost of empire heave into view
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COMMENT
Above extracts/summary are my way of distilling what is key (to me). Best to read the article itself, in case there's gaps in my understanding.
Following not clear to me:
serve as *conduits* for US DoS messaging
Is that the journalists & members of civil society to serve as conduits of US DoS messaging, as result of US DoS 'public diplomacy' propaganda? That's what I assumed.
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