US still seeking full-spectrum dominance: American journalist

The new revelations that US and other Western spy agencies have developed plans to monitor smartphones used by people in some African countries in order to prevent “another Arab Spring” shows that the United States is “still pursuing the idea of total full-spectrum dominance”, says an American journalist and political commentator.

Don DeBar, an anti-war activist and radio host in New York, made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Friday when asked to give his opinion on the recent revelations made by Edward Snowden, former contractor of the National Security Agency (NSA).

The plans were developed by the NSA in cooperation with allies in Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, a group which is known as the “Five Eyes” alliance, according to documents released by Snowden.

The spy agencies developed the plan to be prepared to carry out surveillance operations in the event of more unrest in some Arab countries, particularly in the Africa region, especially Senegal, Sudan and the Congo.

However, they also targeted other countries, including France, Cuba, Morocco, Switzerland, the Bahamas, the Netherlands and Russia, showed the report, which was published by The Intercept and CBS News on Wednesday.

 “Snowden has given a very interesting peek behind the curtain of US intelligence operations,” DeBar said. “The fact is that we were informed that the US monitors all electronic communications.”

“Of course, anyone who thought about the nature of the infrastructure of the internet and telephony and such realizes that it’s possible and, of course, history including particularly the present shows us that there are people who will abuse whatever is available, essentially, including that infrastructure to service their power or to attain additional power,” he stated.

“So the fact that the US Intel would consider the communications between people as a potential threat if they were not mediated is hardly a surprise whether it is disclosed by Snowden or not,” he added.

“In addition to that, there are many that believe, and myself among them, that much of what was called the Arab Spring was actually part of a US Intel operation,” DeBar noted.

“If look at the aftermath, you have Syria in ruins, you have Libya destroyed totally, you have (former Egyptian President Mohamed) Morsi facing execution, you have all kinds of contradictions to the idea that there was a popular uprising that was fulfilled or actualized,” he pointed out.

“If it’s true that the US managed it, then they were already at the vanguard of using those same communications devices and organizing them, and we’ve seen them attempt to do that in Cuba; they were caught trying to organize that kind of activity and we saw them doing it in Ukraine as well,” he observed.

“So the idea now that they want to defend against it means nothing more than that they’re still pursuing the idea of total full-spectrum dominance, that these tools will only be available to them and they will interdict any other attempt to use them for people to organize themselves,” DeBar concluded.

AT/GJH

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