The Gorgon Is Watching Everyone The Daily Beast
With Air Force's new drone, 'we can see everything' Washington Post by Ellen Nakashima and Craig Whitlock
Gorgon Stare: what a perfect name for a camera surveillance array to be introduced into drones currently being used in Afghanistan. Somehow I think that the USAF Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency was not aware of Peter Shaffer's play “The Gift of the Gorgon” or were they? Cast list and photo. December 1992
First performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican Pit in December 1992 directed by Peter Hall with Judi Dench it raised the conflict issues of revenge and retaliation versus reason, justice and forgiveness including an atrocious terrorist attack along the way as part of the dramatic argument. "The Gift of the Gorgon" review by Caroline Rees 30th December 1992
I saw the play after it transferred to the Wyndhams Theatre in March 1993 and was left stunned into silence by the performance. Somehow I think the play should be revived in light of this new piece of surveillance technology so that the philosophical arguments can be reignited.
“Maj. Gen. James O. Poss, the Air Force's assistant deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance [USAF ISR Agency]: "Gorgon Stare will be looking at a whole city, so there will be no way for the adversary to know what we're looking at, and we can see everything." “
“Questions persist, however, about whether the military has the capability to sift through huge quantities of imagery quickly enough to convey useful data to troops in the field.”
Surely they must have technology processes for this output. I cannot believe that they do not.
“Officials also acknowledge that Gorgon Stare is of limited value unless they can match it with improved human intelligence - eyewitness reports of who is doing what on the ground.”
Coupled with Tempest this will be a formidable surveillance tool and one that will be most effective including the ability to know who is saying what and where.
In April 1961 the USAF Secrutiy Service (predecessor to the current USAF ISR Agency) was able to monitor the blacked out and encrypted space flight communications between the ground and Yuri Gargarin in space by means of a satellite intercepting the telephone lines on the ground at the USSR space centre because it could intercept the very small electromagnetic radiation surrounding them. See “Body of Secrets” by James Bamford, Arrow Books, London, 2002, pps 154-5.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 the NSA spy ship USS Oxford was able to monitor the electromagnetic radiation surrounding the Soviety cryptographic equipment located near Havana harbour from about four miles at sea. Bamford, ibid, p 110.
Fifty years ago a ship could do this for electronic equipment 20,000 feet away. Today a drone can monitor the electromagnetic radiation emission from the human brain from that distance or less. In fifty years the process of Tempest emissions interception and decoding has progressed to the human brain.
It has been used against me for the past decade and can do everything including reading thoughts. All the senses can be monitored and feedback can be carried out. I also believe that this can be done by satellite as occurred in 1961 against telephone lines on the ground during the Yuri Gagarin space flight. Only today I believe that the human electromagnetic radiation brainwaves can be so monitored by satellite.
Although the USAF ISR Agency will not divulge this, I believe that it is a component in these drones to be used in tandom with Gorgon Stare. I wonder what they call it?
“The Air Force is looking to mount wide-area surveillance cameras on airships that can stay aloft for up to two weeks.”
This is where the Tempest emission intercept really kicks in with the video surveillane when it can be deployed on a platform like this for total monitoring of an environment.
“ "This is all cutting-edge technology that is being fielded in a short period of time," said retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, who served as deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
“"If you look into the not-too-distant future, what these technologies will allow us to do is remove more and more ground forces and replace them with sensors where we normally would have to rely on people going somewhere to find something out," he said.”
He's telling it exactly as it is here while not giving away the full surveillance technology available. There are those who object because they see the need for “boots on the ground” still. What they are missing is that Humint has combined with Comint with this application of Tempest emission intercept largely removing the need for personnel on the ground.
This is why, I believe, President Obama believes that he can remove troops starting this year and still be effective. He might be much more effective than in the past.
“Gorgon Stare is being tested now, and officials hope it will be fielded within two months. Each $17.5 million pod weighs 1,100 pounds and, because of its configuration, will not be mounted with weapons on Reaper aircraft, officials said. They envision it will have civilian applications, including securing borders and aiding in natural disasters. The Department of Homeland Security is exploring the technology's potential, an industry official said.”
And, this is where the big problem arises which means that the full body of technology must be revealed so that the democratic institutions in the US and the world can begin debating what is happening when this “Gift of the Gorgon” is fully understood. With all its implications for surveillance in war and domestically in peace as has been happening to me for the past decade in a most abusvie and destructive manner.
