Trapwire is a software program created by Abraxas, a US government contractor made up of former US Intelligence employees, who launched security firms to perform government work in the post 9/11 era.
Trapwire is billed as a predictive tool for combating terrorism and integrates surveillance cameras and facial recognition with other user data collected on the Internet to track the movement of individuals and theoretically stop crime before it happens.
We know abut Trapwire largely through a trove of emails, taken from another US Intelligence contractor HB Gary and leaked in retaliation for threat it's owner made against the collective of uber skilled cyber users known as Anonymous, defenders of the data held by WikiLeaks.
The best explanation of that series of events was done brilliantly by Steven Colbert last year on Comedy Central. It is well worth watching no matter what you know about the events that lead up to the US Government war on WikiLeaks which began with WikiLeaks release of a video showing a massacre of Iraqi civilians by US helicopter forces.
It is alleged the leaker is Private Bradley Manning who has been held for two years in US military prison and tortured by the US military according to international rights organizations including the UN inspector. It is suspected the hope is that Manning will provide a mechanism for the US to stop WikiLeaks from allowing the citizens of the world to see the very dirty laundry that is hidden under the guise of sensitive and classified for National security.
Steven Colbert explains what happened when US Government Contractor HB Gary planned an attack on Anonymous, WikiLeaks and its journalist supporters.
The result of the struggle between cyber powers was the demise of self proclaimed master of cyber realms Aaron Barr and the release by Anonymous of HB Gary emails. Independent researchers have poured through those emails and uncovered exchanges that helped reveal the existence, size and scope of the Trapwire network. Whew, hope you're still with me and appreciate the succinct brilliance of Colbert.
Trapwire Inc. website has more on the capabilities; my article Looking Behind Trapwire from last week delves into the details of outsourced contractor intelligence and includes an instructional video from Anonymous explaining how it works and why we should be concerned.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when alternate media began reporting about Trapwire and it's global Big Brother implications.
Typical of MSM who turn a blind eye and downplay stories for the benefit of their big six corporate owners Trapwire got little more than a passing mention as a hysterical over reaction to a very limited and useful tool that did not merit additional digging.
Then the researchers working with the WikiLeaks released emails made an additional claim, the Trapwire system was tied to Cubic Corporation who run transit systems globally. This caused quite a stir among those reporting on the story since everyone who uses mass transit then falls under the watchful eye of the Trapwire tracking system.
To steal a line from Steven Colbert, faster than you can say get these hornets off my penis, Cubic Corporation issued a press release denying any connection with the Trapwire program and asserting that the Abraxas Applications who actually owned and operated Trapwire were different from the Abraxas Corporation who is owned by Cubic Corporation.
Bear in mind the speed with which supposedly inaccurate, corporate information generates a response from the affected parties. The Cubic repose was issued when the story first appeared in alternate media. In cases where companies with similar names within an idustry sector are known to be confused with one another they very often add a standard disclaimer to their PR news to ensure the attribution does not get misapplied.
August 13, 2012 Press Release by Cubic denying the Trapwire Abraxas has any connection to the Abraxas they acquired. Screenshot from Cubic website taken September 1, 2012.
Arguments have been made by journalists close to the story and SEC documents cited, but very simply we can see in a series of PR Newswire releases by Abraxas Corporation and Abraxas Applications.
On its face Cubic's claim may seem to have a legitimate basis. There are many similar company names and tracking the web of details is something the average individual has neither the patience nor stamina to dedicate to unraveling, when in fact it is what journalists at media outlets are paid to do for us. Isn't it?
In fact the argument made by Cubic is a bold faced lie. There is no difference between the two different Abraxas companies; they simply use the time honored model of Big tobacco to create confusion and doubt and make it seem as if what is a simple fact may not be
If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull%$#@ as the saying goes. The trick is to replace certainty in unpleasant facts, like the prospect of losing market share for worries of cancer causing effects of smoking, with a revised public perception that there is no solid basis for putting faith in the evidence that generates profit killing behavior.
Manufactured doubt has mushroomed into a thriving industry of PR complete with astroturf front groups and political fraud. The real problem is that the truth seems subject to what serves those with the deepest pockets to promote whatever reality suits them.
But let me not digress to that endless rabbit hole and stay focused on exposing the lie of Cubic. It only takes a piar of eyes and is as simple as looking at the PR releases made by both Abraxas Corp and Abraxas Applications in years gone by, when boasts of high powered government connections and revolving door influence that translated into Federal contract awards very clearly show both to be the same operation.
My favorite is the 2006 PRNewswire announcement of Abraxas adding to their technical ability with "individuals of integrity" and both corporate names are used interchangeably. The clear bottom line is the founder and website are the same for Abraxas corporation and Abraxas Applications Trapwire.
Note this 2006 PR Newswite boasting of testing by the Marines and future roll out Nationwide cites Abraxas Applications as its source, but Abraxas Corporation website and Abraxas Corp name along with founder Helms give us no doubt at all that both are in fact the very same Trapwire company!
A turd by any other name still smells like the pile it was when it was dropped on you. Later additions of notables like Tom Ridge of Bush's Homeland Security just show revolving door wealth follows.
The Federal contract awards are also displayed in screenshots where Abraxas uses both names as well. Please not to the right in the display data for both Abraxas it counts several contracts to Cubic Corporation as connected.
That leads us to the question of why Cubic would promote such an idiotic and easily exposed lie, but lies are the new backbone of American government and corporate media and I will save more about revenue driven reality and revised history for another time.
It would be remiss of me not to mention that at the heart of all these revelations is WikiLeaks who have done nothing more than provide a conduit for information about corrupt and abusive practices of governments to make their way into the public for the kind of oversight any democracy depends on.
Of course WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been under attack and maligned with a laundry list of wild accusations as well, but those hold up under scrutiny as well as the rest of the lies promoted and protected by corporate government media troika.
There's a famous quote attributed to Ancient Greek philosopher Aeschylus that in War the first casualty is truth, but no doubt even he would be astonished to see it as a staple of society and lucrative industry, taxing its citizenry while purporting to be protecting free speech and democracy.
Look to the right hand column that notes Recipient as Gubic and also the address for Abraxas which on the map below a stones throw from CIA headquarters in Langley Virginia.
Note under recipient on the right side the 17 awards specifically show 2 for Cubic and this is the Abraxas Applications name which Cubic denied connection to. Not that it should matter when both are the same entity anyway, just humorous as a pathetic reflection of how truth plays no role in the front line of a theoretical war on terror and its defense of American freedom.
Abraxas Corporation detail of some Anonymizer contract awards with Cubic who is part of the entire Trapwire network despite lies to the contrary.
The Abraxas office is located by the balloon marked A by Google map feature and CIA is at 2 o'clock in the grey area just inside GW Parkway. That is not to suggest that proximity indicates anything specific but many people have very little idea that the US Government is simply office buildings and complexes in and around the Capitol area, Rightfully the name Beltway Bandits used to refer to Federal Contractors does accurately depict the fact that the area inside and around the Washington Beltway houses the incestuous community of Federal Agencies and those who feed on taxpayer funds as have exploded as a privatized, outsourced government drawing income and unelected, unaccountable power from our former Democracy.
