Episode 366 - THE LOOMING OCTOPUS

In what is being hailed as one of the largest leaks of CIA
documents in history, WikiLeaks' Vault 7 release
shines a spotlight on the agency's creeping surveillance reach.
Featuring thousands of classified documents, the dump—dubbed
Year Zero—not only exposes a vast array of hacking tools and
malware but also unveils the CIA's stealthy backdoor control of
everyday technology.

From smart phones and televisions to gaming systems, these devices
have been turned into live microphones, making personal privacy
almost non-existent.Clyde Lewis of Ground Zero dissects the
alarming revelations, confirming the long-suspected extensiveness
of government spying. The consequence is that countless conspiracy
theories that referred to such large-scale surveillance are now no
longer theories but disturbing truths.

The spookily named Weeping Angel program turns Samsung smart
TVs into surveillance bugs that can listen in even when the device
appears off. Intelligence agencies can dive into the cyber realm
with programs like Operation Hammer Drill and Project
Hive, insidiously breaching our supposed digital
sanctuaries.

Perhaps the most unsettling prospect is the sinister
Umbridge project that freely borrows and modifies
cyberattack techniques from other countries.

By emulating these methods and leaving behind falsely incriminating
digital footprints, the CIA can conduct their own covert operations
and point fingers at another nation, essentially constructing a
modern-day cyber Reichstag fire.

An earlier investigatory work by reporter Danny Casolaro, based on
the so-called Octopus Conspiracy, seems to meet vindication
through these disclosures. Casolaro tragically died while delving
deep into a secret network that he believed permeated the
government and further afield, with agencies like the CIA forming
part of a tentacled system of control and subterfuge.

In a sinister echo of the past, the Vault 7 release suggests that
his theory about the 'octopus's' reach is no longer a product of a
bygone paranoid era but a reality of the present digital age.With
the stakes higher than ever in the Intelligence community's chess
game of data and deception, Clyde Lewis implores listeners to
recognize the importance of scrutinizing the government's
surveillance appetite.

As the lines blur between national security and invasive spying,
citizens' privacy hangs in the balance, reduced to collateral
damage in the quest for control.The truth behind the octopus is now
unmasked—its tentacles stretch out, omnipresent, turning our own
devices against us in a way that would seem inexcusably dramatic,
were it not so chillingly real.

Originally Broadcast On 2/14/17

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