Surveillance and Surveillance Detection : A CIA Insider's Guide (9781510756151) by Kiriakou John

Author:Kiriakou, John [Kiriakou, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510756151
Publisher: SimonSchuster
Published: 2022-09-15T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

Technological Innovations

SPECULATION ABOUT THE RISE OF THE surveillance state tends to focus on modern technology and assumes this development took place in the United States. Without a doubt, creation of the surveillance state has been driven by technology, but it may have taken place earlier than most observers think and in a far more remote region than assumed. Some would suggest that surveillance began in the Philippines in 1898.

The United States experienced a technological renaissance in the 1870s when Thomas Edison introduced the quadruplex telegraph and Philo Remington began marketing the typewriter. The invention of the electrical tabulating machine and the Dewey Decimal System gave us the ability to catalog and retrieve data efficiently. Add to this the growing availability of modern photography, and it is possible to see how we could not manage and transmit information in a systematic manner.

By themselves, these inventions did not immediately translate into essential components of a governmental apparatus. However, when the United States occupied the Philippines in 1898, the stage was set for creation of a system that could be used to accomplish important political goals. The goal in the Philippines was the suppression of a Filipino resistance movement that had become a thorn in the side of US authorities. In order to advance this objective, under the direction of Captain Ralph Van Deman, the United States created an amazing apparatus that could provide detailed information on Filipino leaders suspected of working with the resistance. With modern photography, the physical appearance of each person was recorded. Something as basic as the typewriter meant recorded information could be easily read. Other devices made it possible to have a comprehensive record of personal finances, family connections, and political associations. Eventually, this system had records on about 70 percent of the population of Manila.

The legal framework supporting the use of this system was created by the Sedition Act, which spelled out severe penalties for anyone engaging in subversive activities. The Philippine system was so effective that it was eventually imposed on the United States when the Wilson Administration faced domestic opposition to involvement in World War I. The necessary legislation in the United States was provided by the 1917 Espionage Act and the 1918 Sedition Act.

The military intelligence division created by Captain Van Deman cooperated with the American Protective League. Together, they compiled a million-page catalogue of reports on German Americans as well as other people who opposed Wilson’s policies. Over ten thousand people were arrested in nationwide raids led by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and J. Edgar Hoover. In 1919 Herbert O. Yardley founded the Cipher Bureau, better known as the Black Chamber. Its primary mission was to spy on foreign communications, including those of American allies. When the American public learned that most of the targets of this system were US citizens, there were demands to limit domestic surveillance, the State Department’s Cipher Bureau was abolished, and use of the Espionage and Sedition Acts was curtailed.

Today as in the past, new technologies

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