The God's Eye View

by Barry Eisler

  “Guardian Angel, then?” Remar said.

  Senator McQueen nodded. “And I can’t think of a better man to run it than you, General. You know you will have my full support. Thank you for your service, and for your lifelong dedication to keeping the American people safe.”

  Remar offered a single, crisp nod. “Thank you, Senator. I’ll continue to do what I can. In fact, I know we all will.”

  AUTHOR’S NOTE . . . . . . . .

  I couldn’t have written this book without the benefit of what the public has learned from whistleblower Edward Snowden. Though if I had written it before Snowden’s revelations, I’m confident substantial portions would have sounded like tinfoil-hatted crazy talk.

  What we know instead is that most of what I’ve described in these pages is real. And while God’s Eye itself is speculative, anyone familiar with the record of J. Edgar Hoover, the history of COINTELPRO, the allegations of NSA analyst Russell Tice, or the workings of human nature generally will know that even God’s Eye is unlikely to be entirely imaginary.

  That said, I know here and there I’ve taken some minor institutional and technical liberties, mostly in the service of moving the plot along more crisply. Apologies for this to the experts (thanked below) who were kind enough to read and correct the manuscript before publication. As for the unintentional errors I’m sure I’ve made despite a fair amount of research and fact-checking, I’ll look forward to hearing from readers, and to posting corrections on my website at http://www.barryeisler.com/mistakes.php.

  For more on the facts behind my fiction, I recommend the following:

  PROLOGUE

  Timeline of NSA revelations

  http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/multimedia/timeline-edward-snowden-revelations.html

  “13 Ways the NSA Has Spied on Us”

  http://www.vox.com/2014/7/9/5880403/13-ways-the-nsa-spies-on-us

  One of the NSA’s least known and most potent surveillance tools: EO 12333

  http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/meet-executive-order-12333-the-reagan-rule-that-lets-the-nsa-spy-on-americans/2014/07/18/93d2ac22-0b93-11e4-b8e5-d0de80767fc2_story.html

  The false and propagandistic notion of an American “oath” of secrecy

  http://barryeisler.blogspot.com/2013/06/memo-to-authoritarians-oath-is-to.html

  Not so many burning Humvees in Desert Storm, true, but see Day 15 and Day 41

  http://armylive.dodlive.mil/index.php/2013/02/operation-desert-storm/

  How an undersea oil eruption became a “leak”

  http://barryeisler.blogspot.com/2010/07/its-just-leak.html

  “Enhanced Interrogation” sounds better in the original German

  http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2007/05/-versch-auml-rfte-vernehmung/228158/

  It’s almost as though all these “narcissist” hacks were working off the same set of talking points

  https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=snowden+a+narcissist&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

  Speaking of the “narcissism” talking points/projection, don’t miss Jay Rosen on the “Toobin Principle”

  http://pressthink.org/2013/08/the-toobin-principle/

  “They are using the exact same deny, degrade, distract, disrupt, destroy playbook against [Snowden] that his own revelations show are being used against every other activist.”

  https://occupysavvy.wordpress.com/2015/07/07/occupy-independence-forever/

  Our august lawmakers solicit the Defense Intelligence Agency for dirt they can use to undermine Snowden’s credibility

  https://news.vice.com/article/exclusive-inside-washingtons-quest-to-bring-down-edward-snowden

  1.2 million people on US government watch list

  http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/oct/11/second-leaker-in-us-intelligence-says-glenn-greenwald

  CHAPTER 1

  US/Turkish intelligence cooperation

  https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/08/31/nsaturkeyspiegel/

  More on NSA Special Liaison Advisors

  https://firstlook.org/theintercept/document/2014/08/31/foreign-relations-mission-titles/

  Webcam hacking

  http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/08/webcam-spying-goes-mainstream-as-miss-teen-usa-describes-hack/

  Mesh network CCTV surveillance systems are trivial to hack

  http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/08/11/surveillance-cameras-for-all/

  Harvard secretly installs cameras in its classrooms

  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/07/us/secret-cameras-rekindle-privacy-debate-at-harvard.html

  Gunshot-detecting microphones

  http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21617018-how-gunshot-detecting-microphones-help-police-curb-crime-calling-shots?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/callingtheshots

  Identifying people via biometric data like height, stride length, and walking speed

  http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/12/4-seconds-of-body-cam-video-can-reveal-a-biometric-fingerprint-study-says/

  “New Surveillance Technology Can Track Everyone in an Area for Several Hours at a Time”

  http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/new-surveillance-technology-can-track-everyone-in-an-area-for-several-hours-at-a-time/2014/02/05/82f1556e-876f-11e3-a5bd-844629433ba3_story.html

  Facial recognition technology is everywhere, even in churches

  http://fusion.net/story/154199/facial-recognition-no-rules/

  Who is this Marcy Wheeler?!

  https://www.emptywheel.net

  CHAPTER 2

  Intelligence agencies achieve greater openness by prohibiting officials from talking to media

  http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304049904579516103606857772

  Those damn subversives the director is so upset about

  Barrett Brown—http://frontburner.dmagazine.com/author/barrettbrown/

  Sarah Harrison—https://wikileaks.org/Profile-Sarah-Harrison.html

  Murtaza Hussain—https://firstlook.org/theintercept/staff/murtaza-hussain/

  Angela Keaton—https://twitter.com/antiwar2

  Jason Leopold—https://news.vice.com/contributor/jason-leopold

  Janet Reitman—http://www.rollingstone.com/contributor/janet-reitman

  Trevor Timm—https://freedom.press/about/board-staff/trevor-timm

  Marcy Wheeler—https://www.emptywheel.net

  How the NSA tracks cell phone locations

  https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/10/nsa-tracked-americans-cell-locations-two-years-senator-hints-theres-more

  A lost dog identified three thousand miles from home via a microchip implant. Coming soon to babies everywhere, no doubt

  http://www.aol.com/article/2014/09/18/lost-dog-found-3-000-miles-away/20964319/

  Amazingly, about a day after I wrote the scene where the director ruminates about using a kidnapping to persuade Americans to have microchips implanted in their children, this was published (and quickly debunked)

  http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/09/23/i-helped-save-a-kidnapped-man-from-murder-with-apples-new-encryption-rules-we-never-wouldve-found-him/

  Another place the government used the all-seeing eye of providence was as part of the design for the Total Information Awareness program. The Latin means “knowledge is power”

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientia_potentia_est#/media/File:IAO-logo.png

  The brilliant cartoonist Tom Tomorrow summed up Total Information Awareness perfectly . . . all the way back in 2002

  https://twitter.com/tomtomorrow/status/613187965737660416/photo/1

  Inventing ever scarier-sounding terrorist groups to justify more bombings. Heard of the Khorasan group lately?

  https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/28/u-s-officials-invented-terror-group-justify-bombing-syria/

  https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/05/28/called-khorasan-group-doesnt-exist/

  CHAPTER 6

  United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture finds Chelsea Manning’s treatment cruel
and inhuman

  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/mar/12/bradley-manning-cruel-inhuman-treatment-un

  Yemenis seek justice in wedding drone strike

  http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/01/yemenis-seek-justice-wedding-drone-strike-201418135352298935.html

  The best coverage of America’s drone wars ever is courtesy of comedian John Oliver

  http://www.motherjones.com/mixed-media/2014/09/john-oliver-drones-obama-harvey-keitel

  Detaining someone assisting in journalism under the pretext of antiterrorism

  http://barryeisler.blogspot.com/2013/08/david-miranda-and-preclusion-of-privacy.html

  Hacking a car and turning it into a drone

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D6jxBDy8k8&feature=youtu.be

  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/business/10hack.html?_r=1&

  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/24/michael-hastings-car-hacked_n_3492339.html

  http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/07/24/hackers-reveal-nasty-new-car-attacks-with-me-behind-the-wheel-video/

  http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21654954-computer-networks-cars-are-now-targets-hackers-deus-ex-vehiculum

  https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150721/08391831712/newsflash-car-network-security-is-still-horrible-very-dangerous-joke.shtml

  Airplanes are vulnerable to cyberhacking, too

  http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/04/17/security-expert-pulled-off-flight-by-fbi-after-exposing-airline-tech/

  Everything in a high-end car is microprocessor-controlled—even the steering

  http://auto.howstuffworks.com/car-driving-safety/safety-regulatory-devices/self-parking-car1.htm

  Hertz puts cameras inside some of its rental cars

  http://arstechnica.com/cars/2015/03/hertz-puts-cameras-in-some-of-its-rental-cars-but-it-never-meant-to-be-creepy/

  CHAPTER 7

  It’s possible Manus has seen this video on concealing a handgun inside a vehicle

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odT-CfS7lQs

  CHAPTER 8

  How Western media is manipulated by ISIS into spreading jihadist propaganda

  http://www.juancole.com/2014/09/media-politicians-should-stop-letting-isil-manipulated-them.html

  The real starship Enterprise-like “Information Dominance Center,” used by former NSA chief Keith Alexander, is at Fort Belvoir, not Fort Meade. But I couldn’t resist moving it

  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/15/nsa-mind-keith-alexander-star-trek

  See how excited Brian Williams gets when the government permits him a peek inside the (gasp) Situation Room!

  http://rockcenter.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/05/04/11539949-inside-the-situation-room-a-guided-tour

  CHAPTER 9

  If you think Brian’s interview of the director was deferential to the point of parody, you probably haven’t seen Wolf Blitzer’s version, with FBI director James Comey

  https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/624612963064807428/photo/1

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=204&v=7RyVXLKO0DM

  Pakistani government forces cell phone users to turn over fingerprints or lose their service

  http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/pakistanis-face-a-deadline-surrender-fingerprints-or-give-up-cellphone/2015/02/23/de995a88-b932-11e4-bc30-a4e75503948a_story.html

  CHAPTER 10

  ACLU rendition of just how powerful a tool location data can be

  https://www.aclu.org/meet-jack-or-what-government-could-do-all-location-data

  Leaving your cell phone at home when you go out? Using encryption? The NSA might think you’re a terrorist

  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/09/berlins-digital-exiles-tech-activists-escape-nsa

  NSA spied on US senators

  http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/09/25/secret-cold-war-documents-reveal-nsa-spied-on-senators/

  “We Kill People Based on Metadata”

  http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/may/10/we-kill-people-based-metadata/

  CHAPTER 11

  ISIS waterboarded journalist James Foley

  http://www.ibtimes.com/james-foley-waterboarding-us-journalist-was-tortured-isis-using-same-techniques-cia-used-1673268

  CHAPTER 12

  Obama prosecutes whistleblowers under the 1917 Espionage Act more than twice as many times as all administrations in history combined

  http://theweek.com/article/index/246029/is-obama-abusing-the-espionage-act

  Here’s what the Constitutional law professor and Nobel Peace laureate did to whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling

  https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/01/27/torture-must-circumstances-call-new-york-times/

  https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/06/18/jeffrey-sterling-took-on-the-cia-and-lost-everything/

  Secret FISA “court” is nothing but an administrative rubber stamp

  http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/24/the-secret-fisa-court-must-go.html

  FISA “court” approves 99.97 percent of government surveillance requests

  http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/06/fisa-court-nsa-spying-opinion-reject-request

  CHAPTER 13

  Journalists relying on face-to-face meetings and human couriers

  http://barryeisler.blogspot.com/2013/08/david-miranda-and-preclusion-of-privacy.html

  NSA spends billions to weaken international standards, install backdoors, and otherwise subvert encryption

  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/07/us/politics/legislation-seeks-to-bar-nsa-tactic-in-encryption.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

  NSA intercepts shipments of Internet-ordered computers; infects them with malware

  http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nsa-uses-powerful-toolbox-in-effort-to-spy-on-global-networks-a-940969.html

  “Secret Documents Reveal NSA Campaign Against Encryption”

  http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/09/05/us/documents-reveal-nsa-campaign-against-encryption.html?_r=0

  “A Few Thoughts on Cryptographic Engineering”

  http://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2013/09/on-nsa.html

  The menace of “insider threats”

  http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/06/20/194513/obamas-crackdown-views-leaks-as.html

  Over 700,000,000 people changing their online behavior to evade NSA surveillance

  https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/12/over_700_millio.html

  US Postal Service logs all mail for law enforcement

  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/us/monitoring-of-snail-mail.html?_r=0

  CHAPTER 14

  Over 1.5 million people with top-secret clearances (more than the population of Norway)

  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/03/24/5-1-million-americans-have-security-clearances-thats-more-than-the-entire-population-of-norway/

  CHAPTER 16

  “New Hi-Tech Police Surveillance: The ‘StingRay’ Cell Phone Spying Device”

  http://www.globalresearch.ca/new-hi-tech-police-surveillance-the-stingray-cell-phone-spying-device/5331165

  CHAPTER 17

  In case you’re wondering how the director can come up with spare grenade launchers to trade like playing cards

  http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/pentagon-loses-sight-of-500-million-in-counterterrorism-aid-given-to-yemen/2015/03/17/f4ca25ce-cbf9-11e4-8a46-b1dc9be5a8ff_story.html

  NSA’s AURORAGOLD cell phone eavesdropping and encryption subversion program

  https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/12/04/nsa-auroragold-hack-cellphones/

  CHAPTER 18

  NASA’s SHARAD technology

  http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/technology/si_remote_instrumentation.html

  And other existing and coming means of peering through brick and concrete

  https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1505138-00-wallsensorreport-508.html#document/p20/a198024

  CHAPTER 20

  Mobile IMSI-catcher cell phone trackers

  http://arstechnica.
com/tech-policy/2013/09/meet-the-machines-that-steal-your-phones-data/

  CHAPTER 22

  Pakistani government forces cell phone users to turn over fingerprints or lose their service

  http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/pakistanis-face-a-deadline-surrender-fingerprints-or-give-up-cellphone/2015/02/23/de995a88-b932-11e4-bc30-a4e75503948a_story.html

  “We don’t know if it was terrorism” means “We don’t know if it was Muslims,” and other aspects of the “terrorism expert” industry

  http://www.democracynow.org/2015/1/13/glenn_greenwald_on_how_to_be

  If you think Barbara Stirr’s exchange with the director was deferential to the point of parody, you probably haven’t seen Wolf Blitzer’s version, with FBI director James Comey

  https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/624612963064807428/photo/1

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=204&v=7RyVXLKO0DM

  CHAPTER 23

  No one uses words like “homeland” accidentally

  http://intercepts.defensenews.com/2013/08/auvsi-dont-say-drone-no-really-dont-say-drone/

  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barry-eisler/its-just-a-leak_b_635570.html

  “US Military Drone Network in the Middle East and Africa”

  http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/world/us-military-drone-network-in-the-middle-east-and-africa/325/

  US automatically counts all military-age males killed as terrorists

  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/world/obamas-leadership-in-war-on-al-qaeda.html?_r=0

  ISIS claims US hostage killed in coalition air strike in Syria

  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/06/us-hostage-isis-coalition-air-strike-killed-syria

  On the CIA choosing its own pet reporters, by two great journalists for whom I’ve named characters in other books—Dan Froomkin and Scott Horton

  https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/01/09/democracy-people-dont-know-government/

  Wolf Blitzer is a particularly compliant tool

  https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/07/23/nbc-news-releases-long-awaited-trailer-summer-horror-film-isis/

  The New York Times helpfully publishes the government’s side of the story: Sure, American hostages were killed, but counterterrorism officials and analysts say the drone program overall is effective . . .

  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/25/world/asia/cia-qaeda-drone-strikes-warren-weinstein-giovanni-lo-porto-deaths.html