Obama’s Visit to Stanford University 2-17-2015

17, February 2015                  Obama’s Visit to Stanford University

It is no accident that the Titans of high technology chose to shun President Obama’s visit to Stanford University. It seems that Obama’s plea to have private industry become partners in thwarting future cyber-attacks ignores the CIA and the NSA’s dark history. In his book, ‘Lords of Security Lords of Secrecy: America’s Stealth Foreign Policy’, author Scott Horton, argues that the security agencies have grossly abused their power to enhance their own position in Washington and have thereby subverted the democratic process. Outgoing Democratic Senator Udall called for a purge of top CIA officials implicated in the abuses, including the firing of the current director, John Brennan. According to Kaspersky Lab the NSA has embedded spying devices deep inside hard drives in computers around the world targeting government institutions, oil and gas firms and the media.

President Obama would do well to heed the observation of the famous German sociologist, Max Weber, who wrote “that national security bureaucracies will use secrecy to cover up their mistakes and errors, and as a result, incompetent people will invariably rise to the top”.