TechXGeopolitics #13: Oracle's Intelligence Roots
Also featured: Israel's "Iron Beam" laser weapon, color revolution tactics in Georgia, and expanding space infrastructure
Welcome to my newsletter, where I set out to highlight significant, yet un- or underreported recent news and trends at the intersection of geopolitics and tech.
Why the intersection of technology and geopolitics? The future of geopolitics will be shaped by today’s tech advances, yet the two topics are often isolated from one another in journalism and geopolitical analysis. This newsletter strives to bridge the gap while also spotlighting relevant work by emerging and veteran writers in independent media.
Feedback on this newsletter’s format and content is more than welcome — please feel free to comment on this page, or write to me at stavroula.pabst@proton.me. Thank you for reading!
The Tech Giant Looking to Store Governments’ Data on its Servers Has Sketchy Intelligence Ties
Recently approved as one of a few cloud vendors to store secret-level US Defense Department data, prominent computer technology corporation Oracle’s snatching up agreements to host myriad governments’ private data on their cloud servers.
An October 2023 Oracle press statement announcing an EU-Oracle collaboration elucidates the extent of the agreements, which bring opaque, unaccountable private infrastructure up to the task of government operations and data storage:
European Union Institutions, Bodies and Agencies can now join more than 1,000 public sector organizations, including the UK Government, the Government of the Netherlands, the Australian Federal Government and the US Department of Defense that use Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to modernize their operations and accelerate digital transformation.
In a similar vein, Oracle recently announced a partnership with secretive In-Q-Tel- and Peter Thiel-backed data firm Palantir (effectively a CIA front) to “jointly sell and support cloud and AI services across government and commercial industries” internationally. (In-Q-Tel is the CIA’s venture capital firm).
Oracle is adamant the data’s safe with them. But the company’s track record is questionable at best. In addition to myriad controversies surrounding its data practices, including spying on US-based protestors with CIA-funded software Endeca and creating extensive information profiles for a whopping 5 billion people, Oracle’s very roots lie in the CIA, perhaps compromising its ability to store governments’ sensitive data as a neutral third party.
Namely, in addition to highlighting Oracle’s extensive Israel ties in previous MintPress News reporting, Alan MacLeod and Lowkey explore Oracle’s intelligence roots and how government contracts bolstered Oracle’s growth (and Oracle founder Larry Ellison’s wealth) from the beginning.
MacLeod and Lowkey call Oracle “the CIA in all but name,” highlighting the apparent revolving door between the two organizations and writing the following:
“Our very first customer was the Central Intelligence Agency,” Ellison boasted, telling the story of how, in 1977, the CIA commissioned his firm to build them a database. From there, Ellison immediately began pitching to other wings of the national security state, and within months had secured contracts with Navy Intelligence, Air Force Intelligence and the NSA. The bottomless pit of money available for the military has helped turn Oracle from a tiny operation to a $46 billion dollar per year behemoth.
In this respect, 2002 New York Times reporting on Oracle’s thorough record-keeping practices are also revealing, and even led NYT reporter Jeffrey Rosen to ponder whether Larry Ellison “was proposing to reconstruct America's national security strategy along the lines of Oracle's business model”:
Ellison is not a shy or enigmatic billionaire. He is entertainingly indiscreet -- he answered every question with a torrent of confident opinions. ''The Oracle database is used to keep track of basically everything,'' he said. ''The information about your banks, your checking balance, your savings balance is stored in an Oracle database. Your airline reservation is stored in an Oracle database. What books you bought on Amazon is stored in an Oracle database. Your profile on Yahoo is stored in an Oracle database.''
…Ellison wants to consolidate the hundreds of separate state and federal databases into a single Oracle database, using the centralized credit-card databases as a model. ''We already have this large centralized database to keep track of where you work, how much you earn, where your kids go to school, were you late on your last mortgage payment, when's the last time you got a raise,'' he said. ''Well, my God, there are hundreds of places we have to look to see if you're a security risk.'' He dismissed the risks of privacy violations: ''I really don't understand. Central databases already exist. Privacy is already gone.''
As per Oracle’s new Palantir collaboration and the organization’s numerous agreements to store myriad governments’ and adjacent organizations’ data on its servers, it appears the strategy Rosen described over twenty years ago has subsequently and successfully gone global — in the hands of an organization heavily affiliated with US intelligence.
And Oracle’s not the only major tech company with such roots. As MintPress news had highlighted in 2023: “Here at MintPress, we have exposed how Facebook’s top ranks are filled with former FBI and CIA agents, how ex-Israeli spies have found roles working for Microsoft and Google, and uncovered what we termed a “NATO to TikTok pipeline.”
Certainly, Oracle’s intelligence ties warrant further investigation. In the meantime, it is clear that, in Larry Ellison’s own words, “privacy is already gone.”
(Additional reading: Suppressed History: How the CIA and NSA Helped Create Google to Spy on Citizens by Kit Klarenberg at Sputnik International).
The US Gives Israel $1.2B for Giant Laser Beam Weapon
In a new article for Responsible Statecraft, I discuss US funding to Israel’s “Iron Beam,” a directed energy weapon (DEW) that can destroy or damage incoming projectiles with a single laser fire. Once operational, Iron Beam, a kind of successor to Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system, appears likely to revolutionize both air defense and the nature of warfighting itself. Read.
Georgia’s Prime Minister Accuses the US of Color Revolution Tactics
“Spoke to @CounselorDOS [Derek Chollet, Counselor of the Department of State] and expressed my sincere disappointment with the two revolution attempts of 2020-2023 supported by the former US Ambassador and those carried out through NGOs financed from external sources. Had these attempts been successful, the second front line would have been opened in Georgia.
Besides, I explained to Mr. Chollet that false statements made by the officials of the US State Department about the transparency bill and street rallies remind us of similar false statements made by the former US Ambassador in 2020-2023, which served to the facilitation of violence from foreign funded actors and to the support of revolutionary processes back then.”
– Irakli Kobakhidze, Georgian Prime Minister, on X.
Last week, Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze publicly slammed United States foreign policy, accusing the country of two separate revolution attempts facilitated through Western-backed NGOs in recent years. He claims the revolution attempts, if successful, would have opened a second front in the ongoing Ukraine conflict, which has reached a kind of stalemate.
(As I had explained in previous Al Mayadeen English reporting, color revolutions are apparently genuine, but in fact foreign-concocted, mass movements that are conducted to enact a country’s geopolitical goals, or even regime change, in nations hostile or otherwise obstructive to their foreign policy. You can read more about Color Revolutions here.)
In recent weeks, protests in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi have swelled in opposition to a proposed anti-foreign interference bill which, if passed, would require organizations receiving substantive foreign funding to register as foreign agents. On one hand, the legislation’s opponents claim it could stifle free speech and political organizing in Georgia. On the other hand, as reporter John Miles highlights in Sputnik International, similar legislation is common in other countries as a measure to protect national affairs from foreign interference.
What’s more, the protests themselves enjoy apparent and disproportionate Western-backing. Namely, Miles elucidates how influential groups, like George Soros’ Civil Society Foundation, publicly support and amplify the protests. Likewise, the Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA), which also supports the protests, collaborates with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), an organization with a track record of operating as a US soft-power arm.
Zooming out, Georgian civil society has been flushed with western funding for decades. As John Miles highlights in Sputnik International, USAID has “poured a staggering $1.9 billion into the country since 1992,” with its Georgian Media Partnership Program backing numerous opposition-slanted media organizations in the country.
Many Georgians protesting have genuine issues with their government. In fact, a majority of Georgians support EU membership. But Georgia’s increased partnership with the west, if it is to occur, must be fostered organically with the genuine and thorough involvement of Georgian society, rather than Western meddling that inappropriately steers or undermines the country’s affairs and sovereignty.
Learn more:
Check out my 2023 reporting on Western-backed “color revolution” attempts in Georgia at Al Mayadeen English.
Georgia Foreign Interference Law Sparks Massive Protests on Active Measures by Kit Klarenberg and Alex Rubinstein. Listen.
Space Infrastructure – Bolstered by Venture Capital and Government Contracts
I highlighted the military industrial complex’s expansion into space in a previous article for Responsible Statecraft. Critically, the proliferation of space weapons and surveillance tech including the U.S. military’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) and Aerospace Startup True Anomaly’s Jackal Autonomous Orbital Vehicle, has meant that myriad companies and start-ups are anticipating and working to meet anticipated space infrastructure needs.
Such efforts may seem (literally) star-sighted, yet they’re raking in mass cash via extensive venture capital investments and government contracts, especially as talks of a new “space race” between the west and its adversaries proliferate. As Joanna Glasner at Crunchbase observed in February, “the past few quarters have been a sluggish period for funding to scads of startup technology sectors. Spacetech, however, is not one of them.”
As notable examples, Orbit Fab, a Colorado-based start-up, refuels military spacecraft and satellites in space to build the “in-space propellant supply chain,” securing defense contracts worth tens of millions to advance its mission. Venture capital powered, the organization’s received funds from Stride Capital, Industrious Ventures, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Tribe Capital, Good Growth Capital, and Massive Capital Partners as per Orbit Fab’s website.
Likewise, the Space Force-awarded Astroscale U.S. Inc. $25.5 million in September 2023 to advance Space Mobility and Logistics (SML capacities), capacities recently deemed a core competency by the US Space Force. Other “standouts” in raising funds have likewise focused on infrastructure, including Houston, Texas-based Axiom Space and Colorado based Sierra Space, both of which are working on commercial space stations.
Space is to be a shared domain. It seems, however, that wealthy tech investors, in an inextricable alliance with the military industrial complex, are increasingly working to take space for themselves while militarizing it in dangerous and unpredictable ways.
Press TV appearance: I recently appeared on Press TV to discuss Pro-Palestine encampments in the US and beyond. Watch.
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Further to particle/wave weapons, UK continues to 'lead the way'...
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/27938745/britain-unveils-drone-killer-radio-weapon/