24 Comments
Oct 11, 2023Liked by Andrew Cockburn

Thank you for this slice of the wonderful Cockburn clarity to weigh against all the evidence-free speculation and BS.

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Oct 15, 2023Liked by Andrew Cockburn

"The system knows everything about him: where he went, who his friends are, who his family is, what keeps him busy, what he said and what he published. Using artificial intelligence, the system analyzes behavior"

I would not be the least bit surprised if the above "behavior analysis" is literally as stupid as sucking in all the target's Tweets (and his family/friends) and "analyzing" them. How else do you get easily consumable data about behavior? Location info doesn't tell you behavior, only location. Call activity and transcripts only tell you what the subject wants you to hear, if they know they are under surveillance - and I am 100% HAMAS people know they are under surveillance.

This kind of thing is typical ivory tower/nerd nonsense.

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Ex NYT: “Hamas took advantage of that weakness by sending aerial drones to attack the cellular towers that transmitted signals to and from the surveillance system, according to the officials and also drone footage circulated by Hamas on Saturday and analyzed by The New York Times.”

“Without cellular signals, the system was useless. Soldiers stationed in control rooms behind the front lines did not receive alarms that the fence separating Gaza and Israel had been breached, and could not watch video showing them where the Hamas attackers were bulldozing the barricades. “

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I am surprised that Israel relied so heavily on electronic surveillance. Gaza is quite small - 5 miles by 25 miles. Israel's population is 9 million. You would think Israel, with a 100% military trained population would be able to station enough troops along the wall to keep human eyeballs on the situation. Even just a couple hundred troops would be enough to keep watch. This shows either Israel's hubris or perhaps even weakness.

Or maybe having a large amount of troops on what is effectively concentration camp guard duty is something even the Israeli military is squeamish about, and they jumped at the chance for the remote surveillance option to replace humans with technology. It is more endurable to commit inhuman actions the fewer people you have doing it and the more removed they are from the actual dirty business itself.

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Very good points........machine surveillance feels no pity. Human beings have a hard time eradicating their empathy and hardening their hearts to the suffering of fellow human beings.

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They might have understood that this situation was unsustainable if they used the Human Intelligence that Bob Dylan offered us a long time ago, "When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose".

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We all could use a revisit to his early composition "With God on Our Side". It offers a perspective on war in general, though what we've allowed our proxy military power in the middle east to do to the indigenous people of Palestine seems to me the end game of that bogus idea that a Creator would choose one people over another.

That none sense comes out of the heads of the false prophets....its flattering but false.

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Indeed one of Dylan's magisterial "finger pointing" songs, exposing the deep hypocrisy and blasphemy of humanity taking on the role of God. Humanity seems to constantly forget the key truism of Creation: God is God and we are not. Peace.

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This report certainly lends credence to my oft pronounced outrageous claim that 'artificial intelligence does not exist'. Makes me feel like a prophetess, but I'd best be careful....I don't want to fall down the same narcissist mole hole of the total surveillance nuts.

Putting all our faith in machines...whether they be bulldozers, smart bombs or algorithmic mimics of the human mind.........is STUPID. Machines are bits of metal and electrical connectors...computers can be very useful at gathering massive amounts of data....but let's use our native intelligence.

IF YOU ARE SURVEILLING EVERYONE, SPYING EVERYWHERE AND ACCUMULATING MEGA BITES OF IRRELEVANCE...you don't have the analytic strength to accurately analize anything. What's important gets buried in the trivial. But here's a brainwave!!!! Get AI to do the analysis.

Saves on having to create intelligence jobs....and everyone knows our man made algorithms are smarter than people.

No way people can outsmart them.

Whatever we think of Hamas......its starting to look like they might be strategic, determined, and .....let's admit it....rather brilliant. Too bad we had to kill them rather than pay for their university education.

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Really Andrew? You're falling for this? Many sources are already speculating, with persuasive logic that was no failure but intentional to give Israel reason to attack Hamas. I'm disappointed that you don't include this as part of your assessment.

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You're on the edge of conspiracy theory here David. The rulers in Israel may be genocidal in their intentions, but they aren't the evil genius' your theory is imagining. You do realize I assume, that Israel is going to lose the propaganda war on this current attack on civilians kettled in their own land???

As much as msm, and slitty eyed Biden declare unreserved support for Israel....the world's people are witnessing in real time a heavily armed military power destroy civilians who are completely disempowered.

After that mega power was completely hoodwinked by the people they thought they had safe in an open air prison.....it's hard not to see the bombing of Gaza as mindless vengeance...by sloppy fascists more intent on taking over their own court system, than protecting their own civilians.

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Respectfully Ingamarie, I don't think I'm even close to "conspiracy theory" here. In fact I believe I'm standing on the overlook, gazing down into plausible reality. Do you really believe Israel will lose the propaganda war? You and I know what the truth is in Gaza. But I can tell you that everyone in my family, my synagogue and most of my jewish friends always reflexively support Israel, no matter what they do. And most people in the western world follow suit. If you believe the majority of the western world can't be convinced of Israels righteousness here, I'm sorry but you haven't been paying attention the last three years during Covid. With the "mainstream" media to support the narrative, it's easy for them. Check out this link if you're interested in an intelligent and thoughtful discussion on this topic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_IAH7PnS_E

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I'll stick with Scott Ritter on the surprise of the Hamas attack David...but you are correct that people who don't do much research will fall in with the dominant narrative du jour.

However, we in the west can be very prone to forgetting we're only about 20% of the world's population. I remember a conversation years ago about Cuba...where a native of that part of the world contradicted an Englishman's certainties....by referring to the citizens of the third world, what they know about us....and how they see conflicts we think we've got the skinny on.

From a planetary perspective, we're likely outnumbered...and the double standard that can lead us to be horrified by the Hamas attack, but brush off the far greater casualties involved in the collective punishment of the civilians in Gaza.......isn't necessarily shared by the citizens of the Middle East.........or South America........or South East Asia.

And finally........the hard work many will get busy on to convince everyone there was no intelligence failure in Israel....even if they have to posit a government that wanted over 1000 innocent Israeli's to die...amount to the laughable tactics of a partisanship that wants to believe it never makes a mistake. Never making a mistake is an impossibility for humans....and it turns out....our precious AI is no less gullible in certain circumstances.

That should give us Hope.

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I agree that we are outnumbered and most of the world does not support our policies. But......most of the world didn't support our invasion of Iraq and we did it anyway. And now we control their oil. Mission accomplished as Georgie boy said. Unfortunately we ARE the worlds sole superpower, for now. And our gov't is trying to keep it that way along with support from most of the EU countries. I never would have believed any gov't would intentionally let their citizens die for a greater objective. But I've lived for 65 years and seen enough to know they do. History, recent history too is replete with these atrocities. Again, look at Covid policy. Young boys are dropping dead from heart damage from the jabs and the Biden administration is still promoting them. Moderna is now running ads constantly on my favorite FM station here in "educated" Boulder Co to get the newest vaccine. There's ZERO doubt in my mind anymore that those in power will sacrifice their citizens to maintain their hegemony, sorry to say.

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I suspected you might be a conspiracy theorist. Listened to your link long enough to catch that part of the journalist being interviewed. Young boys are not dropping dead from the vaccine....that's BS.

But a deeper problem with your idea that the Israeli government knew about the Hamas attack and let it happen, is that you're endorsing the omnipotence of a fascist regime that in all likelihood is far less omniscient than you imagine.

Fascists can be brutal, and you are right that they don't really care about their citizenry....but Power does not equate with Knowledge....and the history of fascism is that it promotes a kind of simple think that quite quickly degenerates into a lazer focus that leaves out a lot of reality.

When you think you have all the answers...you're leaving yourself open to being broadsided from one of your several blind spots. Neten yahoo has been focused lately on emasculating the Israeli courts....a favourite project of fascists everywhere (check out the Republican American states)...

His laser focus on that has led to massive protests in the streets....as many Israeli's are too smart to fall for his move to create a police state...

But that struggle likely took up a lot of oxygen...and awareness. Add to that the belief that AI is fail safe, and you have a perfect storm in waiting.

Thinking you're a god does not make you one. Thank the Great Mother!!!

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OK then. Your view must be the right one, so I will take my toys and go home now.

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That is fair. I do not believe though that MSM will be able to manufacture enough consent to allow even Western supporters of Israel to turn a blind eye to a complete destruction of Gaza. 'Normal' US/EU residents who consume only mainstream news may give their consent at the moment, but if Israel flattens and kills half of Gaza's 2 million people, laying seige to Gaza like the Nazis laid seige to St. Petersburg, that could be a problem for Israel. There is also the question of how much military support money printing the US economy can sustain.

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I'm sorry Gavin but watching what's happening in Ukraine, I don't believe enough people can be horrified to change the course of these actions to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza. I really don't. How much military support you ask? How much have we given to Ukraine? How much did we squander in Iraq and in Afghanistan? And lastly, the analogy to the 1930's and 40's isn't apt IMO. The propaganda machine is so much more powerful today in the western world. We may have the internet but it's now a tool of the powerful. Again, as I mentioned look at how the Covid narrative has been controlled. I'm even amazed at how many are still blue pilled.

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We're leaving out 80% of the world's population when we do an analysis of support for Israel....the tide is likely already turning, and we in the west are too insulated to know it.

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