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<nettime> Welcome to The Identity State



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Welcome to The Identity State 
Convergence and Encirclement (Endocolonization) 


The department of justice strategy mirrors the global strategy. The
strategy involves the decentralization of executive enforcement and
information gathering while simultaneously providing a centralization of
identity: a singular identity constructed from each apparatus contributing
using a similar communication protocols. The territorialization of all
spaces is accomplished through pervasive decentralized mechanisms which
delimit the individual as an identity already within the territorialized
space. If possible, existing networks of subjection are utilized: local
territory based governments, currencies, banks, licenses, etc. are
converted to identity based systems. This allows subversion and conversion
without alarm, under the guise of bureaucratic efficiency and security.
Identity is the exchange currency of the global network of subjection.

The military/police (and all other apparatus) can share information and
construct the identity profile. By utilizing all apparatuses, the
identity-based system becomes omnipresent. All spaces, all services, all
communication, all travel, all weapons, all computers, can be
territorialized through the connection of the various identities which
already exist to a singular identity. All identity-based platforms
converge to a singular identity-based platform. Whether or not a national
ID is issued. Control is achieved through: the
objectification/delimitation of an identity, the access and power allowed
to that identity, and the subjectification of the individual to the
constructed identity. (Even and especially if the identity exists in the
future, as a plan / delimited possibility / coded desire.) Local and
national governments provide the legal structure of economic colonization
and its enforcement. But more importantly, each local and national
government provides enrollment without choice. The expansion of the global
identity state is accomplished by utilizing existing state apparatus of
spatial control. No country is to harbor a terrorist expands the global
reach of the identity apparatus with the threat of military/economic
retaliation. There is to be no space, no territory, no piece of earth
exempted from subjection to the identity apparatus.

The government is the enforcement arm, a military/police apparatus removed
of social service (except those services that remain as apparatus of
subjection). The judicial and enforcement arms are corrupted through the
subversion of the legislative branch. The definition is subverted, and
therefore the distribution, through judgment and execution, follows.  A
meta-structure of world domination at all levels is accomplished through a
global economic regulation. The subversion of legislature is muscled in
under the benefits to the economy, implemented by local executive
branches. Perhaps even a subversion of the judicial system can be
accomplished through the implementation of global tribunals for
terrorists. The civil and criminal court become corporate and terrorist,
court and tribunal. Perhaps the civil judicial system is needed to resolve
dispute between corporations. The governments main function, however, is
to execute and enforce the laws subverted. In other words, local executive
branches, from the dwindling social service agencies to the expanding
gargantuan military/police apparatus, do the dirty work (under the
meta-threat of economic reprisal) while the corporations sit in an
ethereal air, as if bloodless. Besides, native policing is always most
effective, not to mention cost-effective.

But this military/police convergence exposes and precipitates a greater
convergence: that of the state and economy, government and capitalism,
peace and war. All aspects of social life everywhere converge under the
uniting principle of identity. This is not to say that facets do not
remain. In fact, the illusion of separation expands.

Identity is the consummation of the economic and military and police and
all apparatus. It is BOTH the basis of exchange and control. Economy and
state are revealed as one through their singular currency, the
rationalized and delimited representation through which access and
equivalence are constructed, and the individual subjected: the identity.

The walls are falling. A massive convergence is happening right before our
eyes. This is the establishment of international law, international reach,
international enforcement of a (not-so-)international economic
colonization. This expansion occurs not only internationally, but across
all spectrums and mechanisms of social life. Nothing is exempted from the
saturated omnipresent capitalist security state. Endocolonization to the
nth. The military, without a stable enemy, turns to the police function.  
The convergence of military and police apparatus is only the symptom
indicating that the enemy is no longer the other. The enemy is no longer
beyond the borders. The enemy is omnipresent. The enemy is us.



Prevention

Prevention and disruption is set as the goal, and simultaneously (and by
no coincidence) exempted from due process. A whole prevention system is
legitimized and operated pre-judicially. Bypassing constitutional and
human rights under the guise of war. The judicial system was based on
crimes committed, not crimes (supposedly) about to be committed. Where is
the burden of proof, the beyond the shadow of a reasonable doubt of
probability profiles? Prevention is a whole new arena. The department of
justice is put on a war footing. The judicial process is short-circuited.
Invisible search, seizure and surveillance, detainment and indefinite
imprisonment, total information sharing and identity profiling, and now...
war tribunals?

Deterrence turns to prevention. Deterrence was a peace that occurred
through the infliction of the viral arms race on a government. Prevention
is the infliction of the virus of identity onto a population. The
population is told it has a virus, and that the cure ( or vaccine?) is
within the delimitation of individual identity. But it is identity that is
the virus inflicted. A trojan horse, a virus of impotence sold as cure.
Before, prior, disrupt, deter, prevent... The individual is no longer
judged on what one has done, but what one is capable of doing, is probable
of doing. (A sort of speculative stock of identities, probabilities being
based on world and market events and the particular identity profile, or
groups or classes to which a profile belongs.) All possibilities are
delimited. Individuals are limited to rationalized identities and their
agglomeration.

Identity is the basis of equivalence, and therefore of economics. The
identity is always the political body, relative to, constructed within the
space of politics.

Socio-political identity becomes technological identity. Technological
identity becomes physical identity. The final stage of endocolonization,
after the apparatus has captured and constructed the physical space
infrastructure of identity, is the capture of the body, the subjection of
the individual to their representation. The forced participation of the
body within a constant global mapping.

The individual is seduced to limit the self in order to see the limits of
the self, to construct a body in order to see his own body. Identity is
always the consumer identity, constructed within the consumer environment.
Identity is the inhabitation of the secured utopic space.  Identity is
always the loss of freedom, of production, of creation.  Identity is the
inhabitation of a pre-determined self, the body whose possibilities and
choices are structurally pre-defined, always towards
production/consumption. All choices of the identity involve
commodification. The identity further determines its own limits through
the consumption of limit-creation devices. The identity operates as the
ideal pancapitalist organism. Furthering its own limits, its own
efficiency, its own consumption. Further channeling the actions of the
individual in line with predictable scripted routes. Further enabling the
individual by further colonizing him. Further subjecting the individual to
a manipulated and constructed representation. Multiple bodies, multiple
vehicles, multiple identities, multiple belief systems, multiple devices
are all allowed and encouraged with the stipulation that all extensions
must link back to a centralized identity, a centralized point of control,
namely the singular physical body and its participation and acceptance of
the equivalence (economic) system.



The prison inverts

The anonymous are the excluded. The identified body lives within the
utopic space. Predictable, surveilled, secure, safe. The defined body,
identity, is projected back in a cannibalistic self-consumption.

The body is only included, only admitted to this utopic prison, through
its construction, through the definition of its limits. A system of belief
whereby identity = truth = self. The identity, the body, the vehicle is
defined by its limits: position, extents, access, action are all
explicitly defined possibility scripts. With the promise that strict
adhesion to the body, the mastering of its piloting within its confines,
will result in its extension.

The strategy of prison inversion up to this point had been that it is not
necessarily mandatory to colonize the physical body per se, but that the
individual be seduced to extend the physical body, revealing the position
and limits of both the bodily extension and the linkage to and implication
of the position of the physical body. For example, relatively low-tech
assemblages of body to bodily extensions forced an exposure AND definition
of the physical body = identity through licensure.



Identity

Identity = Visibility = Security = Access = Exchange = Economy

Identity = Visibility

Consumers have been suckered into buying platforms for consumption, why
not platforms for subjectification to identity representations and
security access mechanisms also? The user is seduced to personalize the
commodity by commodifying the self.

Identity = Security

Both sides of the equation are sold. Each and every individual is a
threat. All extensions, all representations of identity are combined to
(re)make, (re)present the self in the profile, the singular identity.  
This singular identity IS the self. The singular identity is used in all
aspects of social life. All aspects are recorded, profiled, added, and
Predicted. This is the colonization of space and the body is forced to
follow identity, the plan.

Identity is the plan, masquerading as the map.

Identity = Access

Access is all that is needed for exchange. The identity is the basis of
exchange, via access. The definition of limits, identity, is the mode of
exchange. All elements of social space can be controlled via
identity-based access. The personal check, the credit card, are
preliminary steps away from the monetary unit to identity-based exchange.  
And we line up for it. On the one hand, (re)presentations are soldback to
us as commodities, as extensions, as enablers, as personalization. On the
other, they are forced on us as responsibilities, rights, privileges.

Identity theft will become a prime target of enforcement
(deterrence/disruption/punishment). As the identity-based system becomes
more omnipresent, identity theft will be less tolerated, and all the more
necessary for those unwilling to accept the identity received (earned).

Identity = Exchange

Credit card bills, phone records, internet logs, building security logs,
criminal records, driving records, school records, medical records,
psychiatric records, work records, organizational records, photographs,
gps tracking, cell phone tracking, shoe size, fingerprint, and dna are all
now (or soon to be)available to construct the singular identity. (The
fuhrer has called for the construction of a common communication
platform.) The rise of the security state is synonymous with the identity
economy. The identity IS the exchange. Identity is no mere abstraction or
representation. Identity is the very construction on which economy is
based.

Identity = Economy

The constructed identity is our greatest subjection. It is the invisible
line with which we delimit self and other, ours and theirs. It is the
basis of all economies, from currency to authorship. It is the means by
which we tie strings to our gifts of writing, programming, etc. in order
to extend the identity through visibility. (Read the GPL for a good
example of a non-currency identity based system that creates an economy of
exchange of identity visibility.) There are numerous forms of exchange, be
it visibility of the constructed self through mapping, or access to a
utopic space, or protection of an interior. Identity is the form of
exchange and serves as the basis of all economy.

Privacy

Privacy will not be negated. It will be manipulated. Privacy has two
important functions to play in the identity economy.

One, privacy allows the further delimitation of the identity and the
individuals subjection to the constructed identity. Privacy is used to
legitimize the specific definition identity access to protect private
data, commodities, etc. through the creation of a delimited identity that
is in fact the revealment of these data through their definition, and
through backdoor access. Usually look for rhetoric explaining how the
further tying of the self to representation through authentication will
provide greater privacy. Look for key escrows, for digital certificates
and signatures, for hardware identification devices, for commerce
encryption (since gov. already has access to banks and credit cards
anyway). All in all, expect to hear a lot more in the media about the
dangers of identity theft. One is told they have an identity to steal
which must be protected. Never mind that one did not create the identity,
nor does one have any real control the representation. Thus, one signs up
for further subjectification to and extension of identity services under a
belief that one is protecting the self. The representation of the self is
substituted for the self, and the self is subjected to it, for fear of
losing the (represented) self.

Two, privacy allows an opacity of identity-based functions and power
structures. This is most important, as a true transparency would imply a
right to know and a second guessing of the identity-based power structure.
Instead, through the construction of massive privacy discrepancies, power
structures are shielded from the gaze reflected back. This occurs through
various specific devices, but for instance, members of a corporation hide
behind a filter that funnels certain aspects back to their identity, while
hiding the visibility of their identity to public eyes. Military/police
rely on a more direct method of constructing identity profiles, while
disallowing the viewing of (relevant parts of) the profiles, and
disallowing visibility or profiling of either members of the
military/police apparatus, or the apparatus itself. The power structures
endeavor to conceal the structure of their mechanisms.



Anonymity and the non-differentiated, non-delimited group (mass)

Privacy, in the above manipulated form, is desirable to the identity-based
apparatus. Anonymity will be portrayed as a separate issue. This first
round has focussed mainly on the foreigner as terrorist, yet the machine
is being set up to surveill all. Many of the civil liberties that have
fallen for the non-citizen will soon fall for the citizen, as interior
terrorism will become a greater threat, as the vice clampens. How long
till the protesters = terrorists? In the media, they have already been
cast as a loose network of anarchists. The network suits the
security/identity state well, as network really implies nothing more than
communication while preserving the idea of identity. Actual group-work,
actual (hidden) structure and unilateral action, as occurs in sectors of
government or corporations, are negated.  The invisibility shields are
denied to the network. Anonymous actions and works are declared cowardly
despite the fact that such action/work eliminates the possibility of
economic gain to the individuals who created the work. In fact, anonymous
works refuse participation in the economy of works by negating the basis
of economy: the linkage to the singular identity. It is precisely for this
reason that anonymous action is called cowardly. Non-conformity to the
economic basis is seen as a threat, as the purpose of the anonymous action
does not (directly, at least) translate into any economical gain, and
worse, cannot be translated into an equivalence to base an economy, as the
definition of the singular is lost. Is it one or many? Is there an
original? How can one quantify and build equivalence without the basic
unit of identity? Is economy and distribution possible without identity?
How can one assure quality, make a particular pre-judgment, without the
authors name / brand name? Is hierarchy and division possible without
identity?  Anonymous action and/or group action threaten the identity
economy and the security state.

Once we have lost anonymity, we have lost the war.

Anonymous systems are being destroyed. Capitalism results in the
privatization of all appropriated systems. Privatization has, as the base
of its economy, the singular individual to whom privileges are or are not
dispensed (access). In the endocolonized world, access replaces exchange.  
The destruction of anonymous systems is legitimized as the destruction of
local space-based distribution. This is not to say that such systems do
not still exist. They do and they prosper. (The gated community is only in
its infantile stages.) But space or area-based distribution has its
inherent limits, namely geo-political limits and relative stasis
(non-dynamic, non-fluid). Identity-based distribution systems have no such
limits. The technological identity-based distribution system can
distribute to any point on the globe. Identity-based distribution systems
allows the apparent transversal of the limitations of the state,
simultaneously inhabiting and extending the global capitalist economy.  
Identity-based technological freedom implies and necessitates complete and
total territorialization of all aspects, of all spaces. Empowerment =
extension of the power structure. The individual sets up virtual agents
for collection/distribution. The individual remotely accesses and controls
the flow of capital. The subjectification of the individual to the economy
through machinic enslavement is consummated with the construction of the
global identity-based distribution system. The controlling mechanism of
identity-based distribution is access. All systems everywhere link back to
a centralized identity. There is no escape.





Excerpts

------------------ 

http://www.politechbot.com/p-02792.html 

Ashcrofts speech on opening NSA, CIA databases to police Attorney General 

John Ashcroft spoke today to an "Anti-Terrorism Coordinators Conference" 
organized by the Executive Office for United States Attorneys 
(http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/eousa/). An excerpt from Ashcrofts prepared 
remarks: 

..The attacks of September 11 have redefined the mission of the Department
of Justice. Defending our nation and its citizens against terrorist
attacks is now our first and overriding priority. ... We are engaged in an
aggressive arrest and detention campaign of law breakers with a single
objective: to get terrorists off the street before they can harm more
Americans. ... Last week I announced a sweeping wartime reorganization of
the Department of Justice that places a high priority on cooperation and
coordination between Washington and state and local prosecutors and law
enforcement. ... We will re-focus our resources on front-line positions.
The war on terrorism will be fought not in Washington but in the field, by
agents, prosecutors, investigators and analysts. ...Our new mission
requires not just a new structure but a new approach to our jobs. In
evaluating the merits of a prosecution, Assistant United States Attorneys
must consider more than the scale of the case but the likelihood that the
prosecution may disrupt and dismantle terrorist networks. In the changed
world in which we now live, a seemingly routine prosecution of an
immigration violation may be much more important than a million-dollar
fraud case, because the immigration prosecution or minor_ identity_ theft_
case_ may_ remove_ a_ terrorist_ operative_ from_ our_ community. This is
not a randomly chosen example, but a new subjectification to identity.

It is critical that we begin to view our responsibilities as justice
officials in the fight against terrorism from the standpoint of the
culture_ as_ a_ whole_, not_ just_ the_ individual_ case the cultural
whole is evoked to legitimize the loss of individual liberties

at hand Anti-Terrorism Task Force Coordinators will be responsible for
ensuring that federal, state, and local law enforcement are communicating
regularly regarding potential terrorist activity. You will be responsible,
as well, for insuring that the information highway is not a one-way
street. Just as federal officials must have access to information
collected at the state and local level, Task Force members from state and
local police must have access to appropriate information available to
federal agencies. The battle against terrorism will require an
unprecedented level of cooperation among all members of the law
enforcement community and beyond. ... Prevention_ of_ terrorist_ attacks_
- even_ at_ the_ expense_ of_ prosecution - must be our priority. Note
that prevention and disruption is being set up as the goal, and
simultaneously being exempted frome due process. A whole prevention system
is being legitimized and operated pre-judicially. The judicial system was
based on crimes committed, not crimes (supposedly)  about to be committed.
Where is the burden of proof, the beyond the shadow of a reasonable doubt
of probability profiles? Prevention is a whole new arena.

.. To facilitate this communication, today I am issuing a directive to all
United States Attorneys mandating that they begin immediately to develop
communications protocols for sharing information with state and local
leaders. ... As you know, I have just directed the Task Forces to
coordinate the interviews_ of_ individuals who we believe may have
information helpful to our investigative or prevention efforts. By
necessity, many, if not most, of these interviews will be conducted by
members of state and local law enforcement. Task Force Coordinators will
be responsible for collecting interview reports so that the information
they contain may be thoroughly_ analyzed. i.e. profile

We recognize that this will be a time-consuming and complicated task, but
it is critical that we expand our knowledge of terrorist networks
operating within the United States. ... The recently passed anti-terrorism
legislation-the USA Patriot Act of 2001-- accomplished much to improve the
effectiveness of law enforcements efforts to intercept and stop
terrorists. In particular, the new law gives us an expanded ability to
share information between and within the law enforcement and intelligence
communities. Our ability to share information is only as good as our
capacity_ to_ identify useful intelligence. Therefore, today I am issuing
a second directive to provide training to federal, state and local law
enforcement in the use of all available resources in the war on terrorism,
including training on foreign intelligence, how to identify it and with
whom to share it.  ..Due to the high priority the Department places on
disrupting terrorist activity, I am requesting that this report be
submitted...



---

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/11/20011113-27.html1 

Military Order 

Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against
Terrorism

..Given the danger to the safety of the United States and the nature of
international terrorism, and to the extent provided by and under this
order, I find consistent with section 836 of title 10, United States Code,
that it is not practicable to apply in military commissions under this
order the principles of law and the rules of evidence generally recognized
in the trial of criminal cases in the United States district courts.

(a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to --

(1) authorize the disclosure of state secrets to any person not otherwise
authorized to have access to them

(2) limit the authority of the President as Commander in Chief of the
Armed Forces or the power of the President to grant reprieves and pardons
or

(3) limit the lawful authority of the Secretary of Defense, any military
commander, or any other officer or agent of the United States or of any
State to detain or try any person who is not an individual subject to this
order.

(b) With respect to any individual subject to this order --

(1) military tribunals shall have exclusive jurisdiction with respect to
offenses by the individual and

(2) the individual shall not be privileged to seek any remedy or maintain
any proceeding, directly or indirectly, or to have any such remedy or
proceeding sought on the individuals behalf, in (i) any court of the
United States, or any State thereof, (ii) any court of any foreign nation,
or (iii) any international tribunal.



---- 

http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/fr-cont.html 

Executive Order 13234 of November 9, 2001 

Presidential Task Force on Citizen Preparedness in the War on Terrorism 


Sec. 3. Mission. The Task Force shall identify, review, and recommend
appropriate means by which the American public can:

(a) prepare in their homes, neighborhoods, schools, places of worship,
workplaces, and public places for the potential consequences of any
possible terrorist attacks within the United States and

(b) volunteer to assist or otherwise support State and local public health
and safety officials and others engaged in the effort to prevent, prepare
for, and respond to any possible terrorist attacks within the United
States.

legitimizing and extending identity state to pervade all aspects of social
life, and encourage as many eyes as possible to assure compliance to
identity



----

http://www.house.gov/ways_means/socsec/107cong/ss-10wit.htm 

LIST OF WITNESSES TO APPEAR BEFORE 
COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS 
SUBCOMMITTEE ON SOCIAL SECURITY AND 
COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES 
SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS 
ON PREVENTING IDENTITY THEFT BY TERRORISTS AND CRIMINALS 


THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2001 - BEGINNING AT 10:00 A.M. 
2128 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING 



----- 

http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/bop_rule.html 

National Security Prevention of Acts of Violence and Terrorism Final Rule
Department of Justice Bureau of Prisons

...Monitoring of Communications With Attorneys To Deter Acts of
Terrorism...



------

And finally, lest we forget that anonymity is, at least currently, still a
constitutional right.

http://www.epic.org/free_speech/mcintyre.html

McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission

The freedom to publish anonymously extends beyond the literary realm. In
Talley, the Court held that the First Amendment protects the distribution
of unsigned handbills urging readers to boycott certain Los Angeles
merchants who were allegedly engaging in discrimina- tory employment
practices. 362 U. S. 60. Writing for the Court, Justice Black noted that
-persecuted groups and sects from time to time throughout history have
been able to criticize oppressive practices and laws either anonymously or
not at all.- Id., at 64. Justice Black recalled Englands abusive press
licensing laws and seditious libel prosecutions, and he reminded us that
even the arguments favoring the ratification of the Constitution advanced
in the Federalist Papers were published under fictitious names..... Under
our Constitution, anonymous pamphleteering is not a pernicious, fraudulent
practice, but an honorable tradition of advocacy and of dissent. Anonymity
is a shield from the tyranny of the majority.





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