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<nettime> Welcome to The Identity State |
Comments: This message did not originate from the Sender address above. It was remailed automatically by anonymizing remailer software. Please report problems or inappropriate use to the remailer administrator at <abuse@hyperreal.pl>. note: if the remailer mangles it, formatted version is at: http://www.indymedia.org/print.php3?article_id=90576 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. # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net