Obama’s UFO Briefing

3
Nov/09
1

I am re-publishing this here, for those who have not yet seen it. It was recently released to the public by Dr Greer, CSETI, & The Disclosure Project.


SPECIAL PRESIDENTIAL BRIEFING

FOR

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

THIS BRIEFING CONTAINS SENSITIVE INFORMATION INTENDED FOR POTUS

BRIEFING DEVELOPED BY

STEVEN M. GREER MD

DIRECTOR

THE DISCLOSURE PROJECT

WWW.DISCLOSUREPROJECT.ORG

“Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change.” — Robert F. Kennedy, 1966 Speech

“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” — Albert Einstein


Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence

The Disclosure Project

Steven M. Greer, MD, Director and Founder

www.DisclosureProject.org www.CSETI.org

Copyright 2009 Steven M. Greer, M.D.

January 23, 2009

Dear President Obama,

Since the mid-1950s, classified projects connected to extraterrestrial matters have operated outside of constitutionally required oversight and control by the President and Congress. This constitutes a grave and ongoing threat to US national security and global security and peace.

The implications of this subject are such that no aspect of life on Earth will be unaffected by its Disclosure. We are acutely aware that this subject is highly controversial and suffers from great social opprobrium within certain elite circles and within the mainstream media.

Indeed, secrecy on the subject has, in part, been maintained by a carefully orchestrated psychological nexus of ridicule, fear, intimidation and disinformation that makes it difficult for any public figure to openly address the matter.

Moreover, the ‘bubble’ of security and access restrictions that surround the Office of the President makes it very difficult for POTUS to receive accurate information and advice on the subject. The consequences of this secrecy, combined with the psychological aspects mentioned above, have ensured that none of your predecessors have been able to effectively manage this problem. This has led to an unacknowledged crisis that will be the greatest of your Presidency.

Because of this misguided secrecy, the wondrous new sciences related to advanced energy generation, propulsion and transportation have been withheld from the people. These advances include the generation of limitless clean energy from the so-called zero point energy field and quantum vacuum flux field from the space around us, and propulsion that has been termed (incorrectly) anti-gravity. The field of electromagnetic energy that is teeming all around us and which is embedded within the fabric of space/time can easily run all of the energy needs of the Earth – without pollution, oil, gas, coal, centralized utilities or nuclear power.

The disclosure of these sciences and their wise application during your first term as President is the most pressing matter before you. These sciences will create a true new energy economy allowing mankind to solve our most pressing problems of global warming, poverty and resource depletion.

The constellation of problems that include global warming, biosphere degradation, air pollution, energy security, Mid-East policy, a collapsing geo-economic order, growing disparity between the poor and rich of the world, over-population and human sustainability on Earth, to name but a few, are all interconnected and directly affected by the secrecy surrounding this subject. The solutions lie not in old thinking and technologies but in a new consciousness applying new sciences. These sciences were born in the late 19th and 20th centuries but were abandoned and suppressed due to the lust for power, greed and out of fear of unsettling the status quo.

It is time for a new Emancipation Declaration – one that frees all of humanity from the shackles of economic slavery that results from secret centralized power, corruption and global economic hegemony. The world will not find justice and peace so long as half of the world’s population lives in poverty while the other half cannibalizes the Earth to maintain its standard of living. This dire situation can and must be transformed into a world of abundance, clean and plentiful energy and genuine sustainability. On this foundation, with these new sciences, technologies and a new consciousness, we can move forward as a people, united and in peace. Then and only then will we be welcome amongst the other civilizations of the cosmos.

That we are not alone in the universe is now a scientific given. That we have been visited already by advanced civilizations – whose interests here are likely ancient – is controversial. However, in my discussions with European, Vatican, Canadian and other leaders around the world, a growing consensus exists that we have been visited and the time for disclosing this information is long past due. More importantly, an appropriate diplomatic initiative is needed to communicate with these extraterrestrial visitors within a framework of universal peace, free from the past dominance of militarism and paranoia.

Insofar as upwards of 80% of the American people think that ‘UFOs’ are real, and that some aspect of the government is lying to them about it, continued secrecy redounds only to the benefit of the precious few who profit from such secrecy. This secrecy undermines the credibility of the US and other governments, and allows the cancer of unchecked covert power – forewarned by President Eisenhower in his last address to the nation – to metastasize throughout the world. It now threatens the very life of Earth.

Moreover, there exists a secret, ‘unacknowledged’ operation that has used very advanced electromagnetic weapon systems to track, target, and on occasion, but with increasing accuracy, down extraterrestrial vehicles. This reckless behavior constitutes an existential threat to all of mankind and must be reined in immediately.

The so-called MJ-12 or Majestic group that controls this subject operates without the consent of the people, or the oversight of the President and Congress. It functions as a transnational government unto itself, answerable to no one. All checks and balances have been obliterated. While as a governing entity it stands outside of the rule of law, its influence reaches into many governments, corporations, agencies, media and financial interests. Its corrupting influence is profound and, indeed, it has operated as a very powerful and embedded global RICO whose power to date remains unchecked.

Upwards of $100 billion of USG funds go annually into this operation, also known as the ‘black budget’ of the United States – enough to provide universal health care to every man, woman and child in America.

When I first briefed Director of Central Intelligence James Woolsey on this matter in December of 1993, only a third of this governing group was in favor of what we were recommending: Disclosure of the fact that we are not alone in the universe and the careful release of advanced energy generation systems that would replace oil, gas, coal and nuclear power. Sources now inform me that upwards of two-thirds of this group now support such an initiative.

Interests in Europe, the Vatican and Asia, especially France and China, are urging Disclosure. If the United States does not move forward, these other interests will, and America will be left behind and become increasingly irrelevant in the world. This cannot be allowed to happen.

The European and Asian arenas will move with or without US involvement at some point in the very near future, as well they should. Six decades of secrecy is enough.

We are also morally obliged to warn you of an existing highly secretive plan to use advanced technologies to hoax an ‘alien attack’ on Earth. There exists within the direct control of this Majestic group assets capable of launching such a false flag operation and virtually every person on Earth, as well as most leaders, would be deceived by it. Components of this operation have been tested on the public over the past 50 years and include, but are not limited to:

  • Alien Reproduction Vehicles (ARVs) – these are advanced anti-gravity aircraft that have been fully operational since at least the late 1950s to early 1960s. Many so-called UFO reports by civilians and military personnel are of such ARVs. They constitute an unacknowledged or ‘black’ Air Force and these ARVs are capable of extraordinary speed, maneuverability and lift/hover. By 2009, these technologies had gone through many generations of refinement and, if deployed, could easily hoax or simulate an Extraterrestrial Vehicle (ETV). (Note that a UFO is a nonspecific term and could be either an ARV or an ETV.)
  • Programmed Life Forms (PLFs) – these are well-crafted alien-appearing creatures that, while completely manmade, often deceive unknowing people as ‘aliens’. The stagecraft, genetics and other sciences associated with these creatures are beyond the scope of this brief, but are very well developed. I have personally been briefed by multiple independent corroborating sources regarding the development and deployment of PLFs. These creatures, used in conjunction with ARVs, have convincingly launched the pop culture fervor over ‘alien abductions’. Victims of such paramilitary human-controlled abductions genuinely believe that they have been abducted by ‘aliens’ and often have physical stigmata and ‘implants’ to prove it. These implants are also manmade and we have information about the laboratory and corporation making these items. (See attached documents)
  • Chemical, optical and electromagnetic systems to assist with creating an alteration in awareness are components of the ’stagecraft’ used to hoax an ‘alien’ event.

The vast majority of information in the public domain on the UFO subject is, therefore, carefully orchestrated disinformation designed to prepare the populace, as well as our leaders, for a non-existent ‘alien threat’. The psychological warfare implications of this were described in the 1950s in CIA documents and are further elucidated by other documents and testimony. No less a figure than Wernher Von Braun warned of this cosmic deception.

The objective of such a false flag operation is the creation of an enemy in space that would unite the world behind a global military power against such an ‘alien threat’. President Reagan and other leaders have been targeted with such disinformation, which is designed to secure their silence or cooperation with the agenda of secrecy and space weaponization. The President needs to be careful to avoid being similarly deceived.

After very careful review of all data and documents and after interviewing hundreds of top secret witnesses, we have concluded that the actual extraterrestrial presence is distinctly non-hostile. In light of the reckless and aggressive nature of many of our covert military actions and the extraordinarily advanced technologies that permit interstellar travel by these extraterrestrial civilizations, if they were hostile, human civilization would have been dealt with decisively at the dawn of the nuclear era.

These visitors, however, appear to be very concerned with unchecked human hostility, war-making and weapons of mass destruction, combined with our early potential for space travel. The tendency for people to engage in anthropocentric projection leads many to assume a threat where none exists. It is more likely that humanity may be seen as a threat to the cosmic order, insofar as we have failed to restrain the expansion of weapons of mass destruction while attempting to push farther and farther into space. Moreover, we have failed to initiate an enlightened and peaceful diplomatic mission to these extraterrestrial visitors. This needs to change immediately.

Disclosure of this subject must be very carefully planned and positioned as a hopeful and elevating moment in human history. A poorly positioned Disclosure that demonizes these visitors or frightens the public may prove more harmful than secrecy.

As you may know, my uncle was the senior project engineer who worked on the Lunar Module that took Neil Armstrong to the moon. The reason we were not welcome in space then is because the passport to traverse the universe is a stable peaceful world civilization that will go into space united and in peace.

In this regard, world peace and universal peace are two sides of the same coin. Once we vow to live peacefully on Earth and go into space only in peace, we will be welcome with open arms. Until then, a type of cosmic quarantine exists – rightly – around the Earth.

Unfortunately, the media and movie industry are highly penetrated by interests loyal to the Majestic group, which has used the media to, in turns, ridicule the subject and present terrifying images of ‘alien invasion’. In short, the populace is almost thoroughly brainwashed on the matter, and this presents a further hurdle that must be carefully taken into account when planning Disclosure.

Nevertheless, the status quo can no longer hold and fundamental change is urgently needed. To this end, we urge the President to undertake a number of initiatives as soon as possible. We recommend that the President:

  • Appoint a Special Presidential Task Force to investigate this matter, identify covert facilities and assets (see attached summary) and reassert Executive control over these projects;
  • Identify and immediately stand-down operations that are covertly targeting Extraterrestrial Vehicles, weaponizing space and engaging in rogue disinformation projects;
  • Develop response plans to minimize the risks related to potential false flag operations that intend to hoax a hostile ‘alien’ presence, including preparations with military, intelligence and international institutions;
  • Form The Council on Interplanetary Relations to coordinate a peaceful, forward looking and non-militarized response to the extraterrestrial presence. The Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (see www.CSETI.org) has an 18 year ongoing project to establish such contact and can assist with this process. CSETI, working with other governments and world figures, will form such a Council if the US government decides not to do so within the next 12 months;
  • Immediately fund the study, development and careful release of those new energy technologies that can quickly replace fossil fuels and nuclear power. (See www.TheOrionProject.org). Note that these technologies, since they acquire energy from the zero point energy field of space/time, will allow for the retirement of the electric energy grid. We are in possession of documents and information regarding key facilities and assets connected to these technologies (see attached documents). We recommend that the propulsion and transportation aspects of these technologies (electro-magneto-gravitic systems) be released at a later time when the world security situation has improved;
  • Establish high-ranking liaisons with Congress, the UN and other governments to coordinate these projects and the release of the new energy technologies;
  • The National Security Council needs to form a section specifically addressing the international, interplanetary and macroeconomic implications of this disclosure and urgently prepare for the release of these technologies;

The Orion Project (www.TheOrionProject.org) has identified key scientists to assist with the development of these new energy technologies. They have agreed to work with us, but are being prevented from doing so, one by a compartmented operation (TS SCI) to which he is assigned. We request an action by the Office of the President to specifically permit them to work with us with the full support and protection of the President. We cannot over-emphasize how important it is that these people be assigned to this critical task: In less than 1 year, we would have new energy generators developed to run America free from oil, gas, coal or nuclear power.

President Obama, we stand ready to assist you and your Administration with these and other tasks, and pledge to you our full support. I will personally fulfill any request from your office with the utmost integrity, discretion and confidentiality.

Please be assured of my heartfelt prayers on your behalf for your guidance, protection and success as you begin your historic role as President of the United States.

Respectfully,

Steven M. Greer, MD
Director
The Disclosure Project

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  1. u.c.
    2:37 am on November 4th, 2009

    how strange,I was reading this letter yesterday afternoon after googling Dr Greer

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Disclosure by French Government

11
Jun/09
0

According to Macedonian International News Agency, the French Government will announce, on Friday June 12th 2009, that “Nous ne sommes pas seules” (we are not alone). Apparently, the USA has been putting pressure on many nations to delay disclosure until America feels it is ready for the event… but many nations believe they have waited too long already. Rumour has it that a telephone hot-line has been set up in Paris to deal with queries from panicky citizens, and that a special division of France’s police department has been established to handle UFO reports.

I hope this is true, but I guess I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out for sure. If any prominent French politicians die tonight, and disclosure doesn’t happen tomorrow, you’ll know why.

In related news, the Government of Kazakhstan is building the world’s first (publicly known) alien embassy, near Almaty. The plans include a UFO landing pad, guesthouse and translation service.

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Peter Jennings

25
Feb/05
8

I saw his UFO Documentary. The only “new” information it gave me was that Project Bluebook was only staffed by about 5 people, and only had *1* scientist! Also, that that skeptic scientist later became a huge UFO advocate, despite the fact that all of his “Bluebook Findings” made it appear as if he did not believe in them. Very interesting.

I just wish Jennings would have seen and/or interviewed the people in The Disclosure Project’s video. Amazing stuff. Saw it at a big conference at U of T.

Ever seen anything weird?

Comments (8) Trackbacks (0)
  1. mom
    10:14 pm on February 25th, 2005

    its weird that when i click on your back button, i get a blog from 3 weeks ago…….who is tampering with your blog #?!

  2. uncle charles
    2:41 am on February 26th, 2005

    cant resist this comment

    “I thought Dereks early =problem=after leaving hospital had CLEARED now,obviousley not.

    Its a classic

  3. mom
    7:58 am on February 26th, 2005

    seriously though, i hardly know of anyone in this area that has not seen some kind of unidentified flying object. the police have had many reports . apparently blue point, 20 min from here is an area that has had the most sitings in ontario, or so i have read.

  4. uncle charles
    11:04 am on February 26th, 2005

    disclosure website v.interesting.We have a nuclear sub refit base here in Plymouth UK (naval port) and from time to time we see very strange lights in the sky above or near the base that stay for a while and then zoom off in different directions forming up higher in the sky. we are very familiar with known aircraft etc in this area and we all know its not that however a good friend of mine has worked for years in the artic and antartic on radar and some very wierd stuff and claims never to have seen or tracked a u.f.o. Im open minded

  5. mom
    11:45 pm on February 26th, 2005

    You always were open minded, glad its not changed, there are just too many things in this world that can’t be explained. hugs

  6. mom
    9:15 am on March 1st, 2005

    i find it weird that of all the people that read your site, only your family has seen something weird!!!really

  7. uncle charles
    2:16 am on March 3rd, 2005

    this blog page not opening properly.at first no writing shown but it appears only when cursor run over area or page scrolled up and down a bit then some text still hidden or only partially shown.alien interference i reckon.

  8. mom
    8:36 am on March 3rd, 2005

    i have had a virus so i thought it was just happening on my computer, good to know. or perhaps charles is right?

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Comments (8) Trackbacks (0)
  1. mom
    10:14 pm on February 25th, 2005

    its weird that when i click on your back button, i get a blog from 3 weeks ago…….who is tampering with your blog #?!

  2. uncle charles
    2:41 am on February 26th, 2005

    cant resist this comment

    “I thought Dereks early =problem=after leaving hospital had CLEARED now,obviousley not.

    Its a classic

  3. mom
    7:58 am on February 26th, 2005

    seriously though, i hardly know of anyone in this area that has not seen some kind of unidentified flying object. the police have had many reports . apparently blue point, 20 min from here is an area that has had the most sitings in ontario, or so i have read.

  4. uncle charles
    11:04 am on February 26th, 2005

    disclosure website v.interesting.We have a nuclear sub refit base here in Plymouth UK (naval port) and from time to time we see very strange lights in the sky above or near the base that stay for a while and then zoom off in different directions forming up higher in the sky. we are very familiar with known aircraft etc in this area and we all know its not that however a good friend of mine has worked for years in the artic and antartic on radar and some very wierd stuff and claims never to have seen or tracked a u.f.o. Im open minded

  5. mom
    11:45 pm on February 26th, 2005

    You always were open minded, glad its not changed, there are just too many things in this world that can’t be explained. hugs

  6. mom
    9:15 am on March 1st, 2005

    i find it weird that of all the people that read your site, only your family has seen something weird!!!really

  7. uncle charles
    2:16 am on March 3rd, 2005

    this blog page not opening properly.at first no writing shown but it appears only when cursor run over area or page scrolled up and down a bit then some text still hidden or only partially shown.alien interference i reckon.

  8. mom
    8:36 am on March 3rd, 2005

    i have had a virus so i thought it was just happening on my computer, good to know. or perhaps charles is right?

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UFOs & Energy Crisis

29
Sep/02
0

The Cover-up: UFOs

Mercury & Gemini Astronaut, Colonel Gordon Cooper
A saucer flew right over [us] and landed out on the dry lakebed. [The cameramen] went out with their cameras towards the UFO. I had a chance to hold [the film] up to the window to look at it. Good close-up shots. There was no doubt in my mind that it was made someplace other than on this earth.—-Video interview. Transcribed in Disclosure, Steven M. Greer, MD., ed., pp. 226 – 227.

FAA Division Chief of Accidents and Investigations, John Callahan
The UFO was bouncing around the 747….Well, I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ve been involved in a lot of cover-ups with the FAA. When we gave the presentation to the Reagan staff, they had all those people swear that this never happened. But they never had me swear it never happened. I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ve got a videotape. I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ve got the voice tape. I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ve got the reports that were filed.—Video interview and Disclosure, pp. 80 – 85.

Russian Air Force, Space Communications Center, General Vasily Alexeyev
They came up with a table with pictures of all the shapes of UFOs that had ever been recorded ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú about fifty?¢‚Ǩ¬¶.The study of UFOs may reveal some new forms of energy to us, or at least bring us closer to a solution.?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù-Disclosure, pp. 345 – 347.

Former Director of CIA, Admiral R.H. Hillenkoetter
Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about the UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense. To hide the facts, the Air Force has silenced its personnel.?¢‚Ǩ‚ÄùThe New York Times, Sunday, February 28, 1960: ?¢‚Ǩ?ìAir Force Order on ?¢‚ǨÀúSaucers?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ Cited,?¢‚Ǩ? p. L30. See also Disclosure, p. 58.

Corporate Manager of Fairchild Industries, Spokesperson for Wernher Von Braun, Dr. Carol Rosin
Von Braun [rocket science pioneer] told me [in 1974] the reasons for space-based weaponry were all based on a lie. He said the strategy was that first the Russians, then the terrorists are going to be considered the enemy. The next enemy was asteroids. ?¢‚Ǩ?ìThe last card is the alien card, and all of it is a lie.?¢‚Ǩ??¢‚Ǩ¬¶.I was at a meeting in Fairchild Industries in the War Room. The conversation [was] about how they were going to antagonize these enemies, and there was going to be a Gulf War. Now this is 1977!?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù-pp. 255 – 259.

More Cover-up: Advanced Technologies Developed from UFOs

US Army, General Stephen Lovekin
Colonel Holomon brought out a piece of what appeared to be metallic debris. He explained that this was material that had come from a New Mexico crash in 1947 of an extraterrestrial craft?¢‚Ǩ¬¶.I got an opportunity to travel with the President [Eisenhower]. He was very, very interested in what made [the UFOs] go?¢‚Ǩ¬¶.But Eisenhower got sold out. He realized that the [study of these technologies] was not going to be in the best hands. That was a real concern.?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù-Video interview and Disclosure, pp. 230 – 236.

US Marine Corps, Captain Bill Uhouse
The [flight] simulator was for the extraterrestrial craft they had?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùa 30 meter one that crashed in Kingman, Arizona, back in 1953. I was inside the actual alien craft for a start-up. There are probably two or three dozen [flying saucers] that we built.?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù-pp. 384, 385.

US Army, Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering, Colonel Thomas E. Bearden
Probably 50 inventors have invented [virtually cost-free energy systems]. If we use these systems, we can clean up this biosphere. But the entire structure of science, industry, and the patent office are against you?¢‚Ǩ¬¶.The more powerful the agency, the more they resort not only to legal, but to extra-legal means to suppress their competition.?¢‚Ǩ‚ÄùDisclosure, pp. 534?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú542. See also www.cheniere.org.

Disclosure Project, Founder and Director, Steven M. Greer, M.D.
The situation is so dire that senior Joint Chiefs of Staff leaders in the Pentagon who I have briefed have no more access to such projects than any other civilian?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùunless they are on the ?¢‚ǨÀúinside.?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ The government is really quite outside the loop. We have insiders and scientists who can prove that we do in fact possess energy generation systems capable of completely and permanently replacing all forms of currently used energy generation and transportation systems. Every single person who is concerned about the environment and the human future should call for urgent hearings to allow these technologies to be disclosed, declassified, and safely applied.?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù-Disclosure, pp. 14, 15, 567. See also Dr. Greer?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s websites at www.DisclosureProject.org, and www.SeasPower.com.

For full story see book Disclosure and witness videos at DisclosureProject.org.
Disclosure Project has over 400 government and military witnesses prepared to testify on this subject.

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P2P Terror – Shift Magazine

17
Dec/01
0

This article was originally written for and published on Shift Magazine’s website, Shift.com

P2P Terror: the people are the network

Although the RIAA won the war on Napster, peer-to-peer file sharing survives. Now the U.S. is going to war against a decentralized terrorist threat. Can they win?

Why is Jack the Ripper so famous? Why are there so many movies about him? Not because he killed many people — he only killed 5 — but because no one knew why he killed them, when he would strike next, or who he was. Jack was a terror machine.

Now, imagine thousands of Jack the Rippers in your country, coordinating their attacks through a communications infrastructure sufficiently complex and decentralized to withstand a nuclear attack — which is exactly what the internet was designed to withstand. This is the challenge that the U.S. is facing: A network of Rippers who understand what’s going on, a national defense system that doesn’t, people being attacked at random and a population of hundreds of millions of people living in fear.

Flip to the dawn of twenty-first century North America. Two key events in the last eighteen months have shaken things up considerably.

First, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) became infuriated by the millions of people using Napster to circumvent their revenue streams by downloading free music. Lucky for the RIAA, there was a central Napster server that was key to the whole revolution — and they were able to shut it down. Along the way, though, there was heaps of press coverage and the peer-to-peer (P2P) meme was propagated en masse. They had unwittingly elevated their “public enemy number one” to martyr status. The world would have their P2P file sharing. Even as Napster was closing down its operations, more modern software was being designed — this time fully peer-to-peer and not requiring a central server.

The other key event of the last year and a half was more of an anti-event. On October 12th, 2000, seventeen crew members of the U.S.S Cole were killed in a terrorist attack that ripped a hole in its hull. The U.S. subsequently implemented anti-terrorist training for its forces. Osama bin Laden was a suspect in the bombing, and former U.S. Army sergeant Ali Mohamed pleaded guilty to involvement, claiming he was an associate of bin Laden’s. So when Osama bin Laden warned the U.S. of impending attacks three weeks prior to the September 11th World Trade Center incident, perhaps they should have listened. But no effective action was taken.

At the same time Morpheus, the new peer-to-peer software, began to rule the fibre optics in North America and everywhere else with broadband net access. This time the genie in the bottle was stronger. Not only music, but software, images and movies are now frequently traded over the joint Morpheus/Kazaa network.

If the RIAA was able to Nuke Napster, why not Morpheus? Easier said than done: With truly peer-to-peer software such as Morpheus, files are transferred between users, unmediated by any central server. The term “peer-to-peer” means that every Morpheus user is both a server and a recipient of files. Thus, there is no central Morpheus server for the RIAA to shut down. The Morpheus network can live on even without the company that founded it — in order to take down Morpheus, you would have to take down or cripple millions of anonymous home computers running its software.

Morpheus is growing stronger, and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is getting scared. In fact, Hilary Rosen, the President and CEO of the RIAA, was quoted as saying, “We cannot sit idly by while these services continue to operate illegally, especially at a time when new legitimate services are being launched.” The only problem is that they cannot shut down every Morpheus user’s computer, and the millions of people who are currently getting music and files for free will not voluntarily start using a pay service.

Peer-to-peer decentralization, though new to the world of file-swapping software, has existed as a strategy for subversion and disruption for years, most notably in the realm of guerrilla warfare. Che Guevara wrote, in Guerrilla Warfare: “One of the favorite arms of the enemy army, supposed to be decisive in modern times, is aviation. Nevertheless, this has no use whatsoever during the period that guerrilla warfare is in its first stages, with small concentrations of men in rugged places. The utility of aviation lies in the systematic destruction of visible and organized defenses; and for this there must be large concentrations of men who construct these defenses, something that does not exist in this type of warfare.” Conventional weapons and attacks, such as those employed by the U.S., are only effective when attacking or defending larger centralized installations, and useless against scattered groups of soldiers or terrorists.

Now, like a child in the dark, the U.S. is searching for a corner to push its bed into, hoping to minimize the number of possible angles of “Monster-under-the-bed” attack. What it doesn’t know or care to confess is that the mattress itself is possessed. Sure, they’re hanging blankets from the bedposts and stringing cans around the room in an attempt to make a secure fort, but it’s because they want people to believe that the monsters are “out there,” not in here.

But the fact is that attacks are popping up here, and not just in one or two locations, but all over the place, tending toward strategic targets, and not originating from the same “server.”

Similarly, in Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on internet sites (the kind that have taken down Yahoo and MSN) the attacks also come from all over, but there are certain methods they use to infiltrate the server. Once the methods are known, they can be defended. However, that’s within a computer network, which is a controlled system. There are only so many ways people can attack a computer. In the real world, the number of possible targets and methods of attack are infinite, and without clues or known methods, stopping upcoming attacks is hard if not impossible. Jack the Ripper was never captured.

Whereas David Koresh’s Mount Carmel community outside of Waco, Texas was based on a centralized model, the current decentralized wave of terrorism consists of many mini-compounds, containing as few as one person each. There is no central server to take out, no big compound.

It’s impossible to protect every position in the free world at once. This is especially difficult because of the widely different military tactics being used by the opposing forces. There are, however, a few ways to counter these decentralized attacks: obliteration, assimilation, fortification, transformation, and integration.

Obliteration: This is the current approach, involving no negotiations. The U.S. is bombing Afghanistan, and the RIAA is suing every file-trading company that it can get its hands on. This strategy assumes that terrorists and file traders are in “bomb-able” clusters, and not living among our own citizens, and that file-sharing can be stopped by defeating for-profit corporations. What’s more likely is that many of the terrorists have been living in the U.S. for years, and that file-sharing will continue without the corporations. In order to end the terror, the U.S. Government would have to interrogate all 280 million Americans, and the RIAA would need to physically remove file-sharing software from everyone’s computers and all internet servers. This isn’t a solution by any means, but seeing bombs fall seems to make people feel safer, so it will continue.

Assimilation: Assuming you know who the enemy is, assimilation requires a bit of negotiatiation, but in the end you maintain complete control of the system. Enemies must live and breathe your rules and forget their own. The U.S. has already begun to drop its propaganda on the Afghan people, and the RIAA — with the help of Metallica, Disney and many more — is preaching the “wrongness” of file-sharing. The problem, though, is that the people don’t want to listen. If policies are not changed, and the roots of the conflict eliminated, the fighting will continue.

Fortification: When there are many attackers, some would choose to put all their eggs in one basket by making one large, secure base containing all critical centres of societal infrastructure. This protects “our way” with brute force. The World Trade Center was centralized — and when it went down, it hurt a lot. Similarly, the MPAA put all of its faith in the DVD encryption codec, and when it was cracked (DeCSS), all of their movies became available online. Centralization with fortification can fail, and has.

Transformation: Transform society so that it is decentralized. Right now society and communities are centralized and relatively easy to “take out,” like Napster. Morpheus is not. Similarly, it would be much harder to coordinate attacks against 100,000 targets, each with some security and some redundancy at other locations. Each attack has less impact. The Pentagon should have been five buildings, not one building with five wings. We have the technology to link the buildings together with high-speed fibre and video conferencing, so why not take advantage of that? Both the current terrorists and the file-traders are using this decentralized method of attack, so perhaps the U.S. would be wise to use a similar method of defense.

Integration: At the Campaign for Disclosure conference in Toronto on October 28, Dr. Stephen M. Greer, M.D. (Director, CSETI and the Disclosure Project) said: “Our whole geo-political system is like a house neglected; there is rot in the rafters and the roof is beginning to collapse. Because of September 11th, we cannot look away any longer. The world really is a small place and every nation is not an island unto itself. We can build a world where the events of September 11th couldn’t happen, wouldn’t need to happen. We must come together before the world can progress any further.”

Perhaps the current state of affairs would never have occurred, had the U.S. (and other nations) treated one another as neighbours and friends and not as “foreigners” and “enemies.” In a recent piece in the Guardian, Arundhati Roy said the September 11th attacks “could well have been signed by the ghosts of the victims of America’s old wars.” If we negotiate, collaborate a bit more, and listen to our neighbours’ perspectives, maybe we can reach some degree of global unity and egalitarianism.

If the RIAA’s fight against decentralized file-sharing is any indication of how successful the U.S.’s campaign against terrorism will be, the U.S. would be wise to start working toward integration as soon as possible, and divert funding from its planned Missile Defense (which is ineffective against decentralized domestic attacks) toward a global dialogue. Because just as Napster was succeeded by other more powerful decentralized systems, so too will be Osama bin Laden and his supporters.

File traders want a fast, cheap, label-independent way to get their music, just as the terrorists have their own beliefs that must be seriously considered. The RIAA and the United States both believe that they are big and tough enough to stick this out, but their excessive pride will get them nowhere. Ideological wars do not end overnight, and until those voices are heard and accommodated, we can only expect a future of increasingly intense chaos.

Unfortunately, though, Bush has publicly said, “If you’re not with us, you’re against us” and the RIAA is continuing its lawsuits. Neither are considering negotiating because it would require making their international policies more fair, ethical, or just, thus resulting in lower profits. Furthermore, war is good for the economy and increases the chances of the President for re-election. The odds are stacked against peaceful solutions.

If you still think that the U.S. can win this fight without peace and integration, look to the history books for the real deal. Time and time again decentralized battles — fought on more than one front line — have been lost. During the Punic Wars, Hannibal and his Carthaginian Army won the Battle of Cannae by attacking the Romans on two fronts at once. In France, Napoleon lost a two-front battle. In the Second World War, the Germans spread themselves too thin, were surrounded on multiple fronts and were defeated, battle by battle. Finally, in the sixties the U.S. itself was defeated in Vietnam because the entire jungle was the front, and because the power of the VC lay in the fact that even the “average” Vietnamese was opposed to the American presence. Everyone was a warrior. Their concept of “military” was decentralized such that it was able to include everyone. America was not fighting enemies wearing combats, but all members of the opposing society.

Peaceful integration is the only way to beat decentralized disruption, and until the U.S. and RIAA realize that open dialogue and meaningful offers of negotiation are the only sustainable solution, the opposition will continue to grow.

The dialogue must begin with you. Ask your international friends how they see the situation. Use the internet to find outside perspectives on the situations at hand. Look at websites run by “the other side,” to see how they view things. Be critical of media that may be tainted by political forces or corporate sponsorship — they often spin the truth to maintain the view that our potential neighbours are enemies.

Contact the government and the RIAA with letters explaining that they cannot defeat decentralization and that they must open a dialogue of integration. We must work together from now on in order to achieve meaningful outcomes. Until the powers that be listen, the attacks will continue, more people will die, and MP3 and DivX usage will skyrocket.

Without a global democracy striving for consensus, people will continue to be angered, and more powerful decentralized networks of rebellion and terrorism will emerge. United they may stand, but decentralized they will never fall.

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Derek Martin is a Social Technology Architect at TakingITGlobal.org

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