Google's Role In
The Growing
Military Industrial
Complex
May 15, 2014
Google has long played its part in proliferating the growing military-industrial complex. Not only have they contributed to the surveillance state by releasing user records to government agencies (see: PRISM), acting as a for-profit spy agency (in violation of SEVERAL municipal, state and federal laws), spying on you through the microphone and camera on your Android phone or Chrome laptop and building robots for the U.S. military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), but the relationship between the tech giant and the U.S. government goes deeper than most would care to know. Google has nearly 400 publicly-listed contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).
The CIA was a strategic investor in Keyhole, Inc., whose technology is now known as Google Maps, and is integrated into a plethora of U.S. military weapons technology. In 2008, Google partnered with the U.S. military’s National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and GeoEye (now known as DigitalGlobe), the U.S.’ largest commercial satellite operator (harboring business ties with longtime U.S. defense contractors Raytheon and Lockheed Martin).
Google provides infrastructure support for multiple U.S. federal agencies including the Navy, Army, Department of Energy (DoE), Coast Guard, Department of the Interior (DoI) and many more. They also provide infrastructure support for numerous municipal and state governments as well. They have been working in conjunction with and receiving contracts from the U.S. government for over a decade.
Some of Google’s partner companies and corporations under its umbrella that have worked with U.S. military and intelligence agencies include:
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Blackbird Technologies (has CLOSE ties to the
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private paramilitary group Academi, formerly
-
known as Blackwater)
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Science Applications International Corporation (top 5 CIA contractor with 40,000+ employees that have federal security clearance)
The tech giant has upped its political presence in
Washington by spending a record amount on federal
lobbying; more than Apple, Facebook, Amazon and
Microsoft COMBINED. They spent nearly $16
MILLION in 2013 alone, and over $18 MILLION in
2012 (and these are only the publicly-disclosed dollar
amounts that we KNOW about).
Many of Google’s employees are former members of the U.S. military and intelligence agencies:
1) MICHELE R. WESLANDER QUAID: Google’s Chief Technology Officer of the Public Sector
-- Former CIA and defense contractor at Scitor Corporation. Former executive at the U.S. military’s NGA, National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
2) SHANNON SULLIVAN: Google’s Head of Defense & Intelligence
-- Graduate of the U.S. Air Force Air University’s School of Advanced Air and Space Studies. Former Senior Military Adviser for the U.S. Air Force’s C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) Acquisition and Test, Space Operations and Foreign Military Sales units. Former Defense Director for defense subcontractor BEA Systems. Former Combat Command Director (COCOM) for the U.S. Army and Air Force at defense contractor Oracle.
3) JIM YOUNG: Google’s U.S. DoD Sales Manager
-- Former CIA and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) analyst at the Directorate of Science and Technology (DST).
This list could go on for days …
Other tech giants are also in bed with the U.S. government and its intelligence agencies (Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Oracle, IBM, Yahoo, etc,), but what sets Google apart is the sheer amount of PERSONAL INFORMATION that it has on MILLIONS of people, as well as the prominent role that it plays in the life of the everyday individual. From Gmail to Android to spy satellites, it is nearly impossible to hide from the prying eyes that are Google.
~ MERIT
