One that Sees from Afar
Deriving its name from the J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Palantir refers to magical 'seeing stones' wielded by wizards in the fantasy series. The fictional object allows one to see far off places and far away scenes.
It is also the name of Peter Thiel's secretive data analytics company. Thiel is a Pay-Pal co-creator, Facebook investor. The silicone valley tech investor is also connected to Carbyne, an Israeli tech firm developed by former Mossad and special Unit 8200 IDF members.
Palantir was founded in 2003 and made possible by seed money provided by the CIA's venture capitalist investment arm known as IN-Q-Tel. Although the company provides its services to a range of private entities, the bulk of the tech firm's revenues come from lucrative government contracts.
It was recently announced that the Silicone Valley data mining and analytics company was tapped by the Trump administration to help launch a national contact tracing program to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The news garnered little attention as Americans continue to be bombarded with an avalanche of COVID-19 related news filled with mixed signals and contradictions.
Over the last several years, Palantir has quietly emerged as a powerful player among private contractors integrating their software within key branches of the United States government.
Here is a brief summary of Palantir followed by important contracts held with various government agencies.
Origins
- Founded in 2003
- CEO - Alex Karp
- Founder tech investor Peter Thiel
- Peter Thiel former Pay-Pal co-founder / early Facebook investor
- Peter Thiel - Donald Trump donor
- Palantir Seed Funding from IN-Q-TEL (CIA)
- Big Data / Data analytics company
- Software developed by Palantir: Gotham, Foundry and Metropolis
- Industries using Palantir: Banking, Wall Street, intelligence, counter-terrorism, law enforcement, homeland security, military
- Palantir shared with the "Five-Eyes" (CAN, UK, NZ, AUS, USA)
- Palantir Software capable of interacting with 'anything', any data source
- CIA, GCHQ, NSA helped to develop Palantir software
- Estimated annual revenue: $1 billion
- Government contracts: $1.5 billion
- Company valued at $20-$40 billion
- Contract with JP Morgan, Merck
- Contract with NCMEC
- Multiple contracts with the USG (DOD, US Army, HHS)
Defense Industry Contracts
Contract with Department of Defense (DOD), US Army & Navy
- Joint contract w/ BAE Systems February 2020 - 823 million
- December 2019 - $111 million contract with US army
The Silicon Valley company will provide software to connect human resources, supply chains and other Army operations systems into a single dashboard.
- 2017 Navy Contract - $35.8 million
- 2015 Army Contract - $22.4 million
- 2014 Navy Contract - $23.7 million
- March 2019 $800 million US Army
[contract to] totally overhaul the Army’s “system-of-systems” that provides comprehensive data to “to assist the commander’s visualization and understanding of the threat and other relevant aspects of the operational environment.”
- July 2017 Project Maven
“As numerous studies have made clear, the department of defense must integrate artificial intelligence and machine learning more effectively across operations to maintain advantages over increasingly capable adversaries and competitors”
-Bob Work former Secretary of the DOD
Contract with United States Special Operations Command
- Fusion software 2016 - 222 million SOCOM
Palantir will provide All Source Information Fusion software licenses and offer associated support services to the Special Operation Forces Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, the Defense Department said in a release.
Contract with Homeland Security Investigations and ICE
- Current Contract - $38 million
Palantir “provided digital profiling tools” to Immigration and Customs Enforcement “as it carried out President Trump’s increasingly controversial policies for apprehending and deporting undocumented immigrants
Contract with the Department of Justice
- DOJ contract 2019 - 188.5 million
Contract with the Securities and Exchange Commission
- SEC contract 2019 - 84.7 million
Contract with the Internal Revenue Agency
- IRS contract 2018 - 14.4 million
Contracts with the US Department of Health and Human Services
- Contact Tracing 2020 Contract - To Be Announced*
- Gotham software for Hospitals - 17.3 million
Contract with US Coast Guard
- Palantir software order April 2020- 8 million
According to federal procurement records, Palantir’s tools will help the U.S. Coast Guard’s “Readiness System in response to [the] COVID-19 pandemic.”
Contracts Throughout Europe
- Contracts with 30 European governments (France, Germany, UK, etc.)
- UK government contracts 2019 - £39 million
- France 2016 Intelligence contract for counter-terrorism
- Supplying Foundry Software
- Contact Tracing for COVID-19
Palantir, which has about 800 employees stationed in Europe, has contracts with governments in about 30 countries. It sells two types of solutions: one called Gotham, tailored for intelligence agencies, and Foundry, mainly used by the private sector. Both products are being proposed to health agencies in Europe, sometimes mixing the solutions depending on the clients’ needs, the person said.
RESPONDING TO COVID-19
We are humbled to be supporting a diverse range of institutions as they respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and adapt for the future.
Palantir Merge
Judging by the array of contracts listed above it would appear that Palantir software systems are steadily merging all divisions of the USG into a single, "all seeing", entity.
By integrating all the data points into a single ecosystem, Palantir will enable the concentration of unprecedented power and control into the hands of a small number of overseers.
If that wasn't worrying enough, Palantir has already demonstrated its sweeping surveillance potential in tracking, tracing and identifying possible dissidents with its 'predictive analytics' capabilities.
As reported by journalist Whitney Webb in 2018, the company has touted their software's capacity to anticipate whistleblowers and disgruntled employees by means of 'predictive analytics' or , in other words, 'pre-crime' detection. Consequently, preventing would-be whistleblowers and leakers from speaking out against government malfeasants.
Palantir has allowed the Orwellian concept of “pre-crime” to be put into practice. It tracks people the government suspects may commit crimes, including suspected “subversives.” Essentially, Palantir not only enables the government to catch leakers; by recording if classified information was improperly handled and by whom; it also predicts which government employees are most likely to blow the whistle, before it even happens.
Mintpress News
The same article outlines how Palantir along with two other firms, HBGary and Berico Technologies, were engaged in the planning of taking out the whistleblower publisher - Wikileaks. When HBGary emails were obtained by the hacktivist group Anonymous exposing the conspiracy, Palantir's CEO Alex Karp went into damage control mode making a concerted effort to disassociate the company with the plot. Karp defended his company by advocating that Palantir was a staunch defender of free speech. Karp apologized about Palantir's involvement stating:
"I have directed the company to sever any and all contacts with HBGary." Karp adds that "Palantir Technologies does not build software that is designed to allow private sector entities to obtain non-public information, engage in so-called 'cyber attacks' or take other offensive measures. I have made clear in no uncertain terms that Palantir Technologies will not be involved in such activities."
Forbes
The CEO's words ring hollow in light of what has transpired with respect to Wikileaks and its former editor-in-chief Julian Assange. In the years following the incident, a systematic multi-year campaign almost identical to the original plan Palantir was a party to, constructed to cut financial support for the organization and attack its public support base, was eventually realized.
Technocracy Rising
While Palantir's extensive government contracts pale in comparison to defense industry behemoths such as Lockheed, Boeing and Raytheon, its emergence coincides with an fast increasing integration with other major tech firms with the Federal government. The power of the nation's tech giants, Amazon, Google and Facebook is undeniable. At this point in time, it seems inevitable that these private entities will converge with the machinery of state power.
Another key figure in this shift towards technocratic control is the former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, who now plays a pivotal role in connecting Big Government with Big Data.
Since stepping down as CEO of Google in 2015 (remaining on the Board of Alphabet), Schmidt has been busy repositioned himself as a key broker between Silicone Valley and Washington. As head of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI), Schmidt has been instrumental in bridging key branches of government to the rapidly evolving private tech industry. At the forefront of this technological transformation is the incorporation of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in all parts of the government apparatus. Indeed, Schmidt has been continuously campaigning for an
unprecedented partnerships between government and industry.
...
A.I. will open new frontiers in everything from biotechnology to banking, and it is also a Defense Department priority. … If current trends continue, China’s overall investments in research and development are expected to surpass those of the United States within 10 years, around the same time its economy is projected to become larger than ours.
The intercept
Arguing that the United States is in great danger of falling behind in the field of technological development, Schmidt fears without considerable investments of resources in technological innovation and integration the Chinese will dominate the future landscape and overtake the US within a decade.
In the current atmosphere of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the incessant push towards merging private tech conglomerates and the federal government is being conspiciously accelerated.
In recent weeks, Mr. Schmidt has been doing a PR blitz disclosing explaining how the workplace will have to be 'reimagined' echoing other technocratic 'new normal' prescriptions for the masses. The transformation of the workplace is only one of many solutions put forth by the former Google executive. Measures such as working remotely, receiving tele-health checkups and being remotely monitored form parts of Schmidt's short term vision. Schmidt believes these changes are logical and they are what people "have been asking for for years", adding that it's more "convenient for you as a patient" in the end. He goes on to claim that "all sorts of interesting social monitoring of one form or another" will need to occur to ensure public safety.
When the issue of access is raised Schmidt is quick to suggest government stimulus funding should be considered in order to provide broadband nationwide as a solution. More importantly though, he states that
"You can't participate in this new economy without access to the internet."
Ludicrous Speed - Technology is the Answer
Perhaps no other term encapsulates this frenzied rush towards technocratic future rule than "Operation Warp Speed".
Borrowing its name from the Star Trek Sci-Fi series, 'Warp Speed' promises to deliver a 'life saving' COVID-19 vaccine by January 2021. If we're to believe the experts paraded across the media landscape or the preposterous made for television Task Force lead by president Trump, it would seem that a Vaccine is the ONLY solution available to us.
As James Corbett (@corbettreport) has documented in his series on Bill Gates, another well known billionaire technocrat, a clear push towards a global control grid complete with vaccination programs and tracking the activity of every citizen on earth, is currently well underway.
The world around us is being transformed before our very eyes at such an overwhelming pace that its difficult to stop and ask questions, let only comprehend the impacts of the decisions being made on our behalf.
Certainly, the technocrats are pushing us towards their ready made solutions.
Naturally, for a technocrat, the answer is always - technology.
We're witnessing the merger of Big Date with the Military Industrial Complex which itself has already merged with the Surveillance Industrial Complex. At the same time, these very same military systems will synthesize with data streams from all corners of government and the public sphere: education, health, the economy, and a range of social functions. From these data flows society will be digitized, identified, tracked, mined, processed, stripped, monitored and dissected within a single control system.
An all knowing system.
An all seeing eye.
Sources
https://www.usaspending.gov/#/recipient/8faa3bf8-d9e9-fec1-9195-f9000c98e8ec-C/latest
https://www.defense.gov/Explore/News/Article/Article/1254719/project-maven-to-deploy-computer-algorithms-to-war-zone-by-years-end/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-25/peter-thiel-s-palantir-wins-role-in-823-million-government-contract
https://amp.businessinsider.com/palantir-looking-41-billion-ipo-2019-2018-10
https://theintercept.com/2017/02/22/how-peter-thiels-palantir-helped-the-nsa-spy-on-the-whole-world/?comments=1
https://theintercept.com/2019/05/02/peter-thiels-palantir-was-used-to-bust-hundreds-of-relatives-of-migrant-children-new-documents-show/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2020/04/08/the-us-coast-guard-just-ordered-palantir-tech-for-help-with-covid-19-readiness/#5a8c8cca3b9e
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-administration-turns-to-peter-thiels-palantir-to-track-coronavirus
https://www.mintpressnews.com/palantir-the-paypal-offshoot-becomes-a-weapon-in-the-war-against-whistleblowers-and-wikileaks/236545/
https://21stcenturywire.com/2020/04/22/covid-world-order-trump-hires-thiels-palantir-to-track-americans-with-chinese-style-surveillance-app/
https://www.businessinsider.com/palantir-providing-cdc-with-coronavirus-tracking-software-report-2020-3?op=1
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2020/04/09/palantir-eyes-1b-in-revenue-and-a-break-even-year.html
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-01/palantir-in-talks-with-germany-france-for-virus-fighting-tool
https://www.palantir.com/covid19/
Yes indeed! And it's only the beginning of the exit from the Information Age, to the Artificial Intelligence Age, that will usher in the AI driven cyber war games industrial complex! Don't worry, because it's all for our safety:) You know, that virus! As we all know, Palantir has always been one the main contributors in the software technological fields when it comes to black budget government programs, which also included a big influence in the possible execution of 9-11 itself, by using back doors that were embedded into government department technological infrastructure;)
On a side note, the idea for J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, comes from Plato's the Republic in the story of the Ring of Gyges.
Great work as always!
I had no idea about the Plato connection, very cool.
I know you've done some deep dives into In-Q-Tel in the past, so it goes without saying that projects funded by the intelligence agency will certainly be leveraged for their own purposes. The integration of Palantir into all branches of the USG is worrying and it appears that AI will be the next stage, as you observe. Another thing connected to all this is that, apparently, for some in Silicone Valley, the belief in creating an all powerful AI that will lead humanity has taken on religious dimension for some industry leaders. I don't know much about this really, but I have read it being mentioned several times that some in Silicone Valley believe this to be inevitable or part of an evolutionary process.
Oh absolutely! That's also where the Qanon influence comes into it (I don't think the Q in the name of In-Q-Tel and Qanon are a coincidence, and that they are connected from an ideological and consciousness point of view). Even though the trans-humanist movement has a scientific face in the public arena, there has always been a big religious influence on the inside. They believe that they are doing god's work (that's why you hear that saying often amongst the elite classes), and they are being given the gift of immortality as a direct gift for their services and devotion to God. That has been used more covertly because religion has a lesser societal influence than it did in the past, so the technocratic movement has been used to fill that void. It is essentially a merging of the two, and a way to encourage the religious masses to embrace the idea - the masses that may otherwise be against it on face value.
Within the one world government agenda, there has always been the idea for a one world religion;) This is the merging of all ideas, into one grand scheme for an AI driven future. It will be interesting to see how this plays out from here, and how it will be sold to the masses in a way for us to embrace it all. Lot's of cool free stuff I guess....
Lol, yes. We love our free trinkets!
And we love to embrace our slavery, as long as it's marketed to us in the right way.
You just reminded me of the 'immortality' aspect of AI, this is a major focus for tech industry leaders, and lets not forget that Thiel is already invested in companies that provide blood transfusions from young 'donors'. He may also be a recipient of transfusions himself, I don't remember exactly but he's very much involved in life extension.
All of the above, and a lot more most likely! The one world religion will market AI as a way to achieve immortality through the lens of being accepted into 'paradise' and living into eternity with the love of God. Technocracy will use it as way to sell immortality through the lens of scientific achievement and advancement for humanity - the material side of the idea, with a spiritual angle interwoven throughout as a way to unify the two movements. That way, you get to merge the two together, to create a magical world of control and servitude through the social credit scores system, all linked to AI. It will be enticing and marketed to our desires, as it is obvious that most people don't like to be forced into an idea...They are not stupid at all, and they know this. That's what the spy agencies do with all the data they hoover up from the internet. They know exactly how we think and behave. It's the same method that was used to get trump into office during the last election cycle, and that's how he knew how everyone was 'thinking', to give him his talking points in his campaign speeches. It's also the perfect way to take any movement or anti-establishment thinking and turn it around to their advantage and lead people back into the loving arms of the establishment...
Unfortunately throughout time, people have mostly taken the words of our leaders at face value and placed way too much emphasis on their words alone, when in reality their actions (and inaction's) have always proven that they are fully aware of what's going on in the background and where we are heading.
Peter Thiel is obviously a big money player and venture capitalist (just like our friend Paul Singer) behind the private funding of these projects, and is a Libertarian who will drive technology as the way to solve the world's problems. All the finer details however, are hidden from our view...as always lol.
It was no accident that he invested a huge amount into Facebook and then went on to become a board member. Facebook has been experimenting with AI on it's platform for a long time now, just like Alphabet has.
Government is slavery. So many (most) of these companies referenced would have gone no where if it were not for the coercive thievery of the state and taxation to pay the government contracts. As a result, we are steadily sinking into greater and greater enslavement. Governments are the root of the problem for the surveillance and military industrial complex. What a different world it could be...
I totally agree that many of these companies would no longer be viable without massive government contracts but I see the corporations as being just as bad or worse in the context of this post. They have Zero accountability to anyone and once they're entrenched in the government, whether its Public Private Partnerships, or straight integration into the government body it will be near impossible to remove them. Already, this is the case as politicians are simply high-priced prostitutes but somehow I view the merge of private industry with the government to be just another step further towards fascist totalitarianism. It doesn't look good for us regular folk as they attempt to ram these solutions down our throats. We shall see if the people will finally be pushed to the brink and begin to take power back.
Thanks for dropping in!
No it doesn't look good. Predictions of corporations eventually ruling the world, a la Robocop style... or a mutual partnership, either way it's headed in that direction, and has been for decades.
Robocop! A classic dystopian 80s action flick... and the audience cheers and laughs along as the protagonist cyborg dishes out justice to human scum drug dealers, lol. What was the drug called in Robocop II, nuke, or something?
It’s been interesting... having caught glimpses of these types of news pieces a year ago that’d imply Palantir is intricately woven into the ‘Deep State’ machine, yet having across so many contradictory perspectives recently who feel they may actually be serving on the ‘White Hat / Alliance’ side...
If you’re on Twitter, @AltarOfEgo is a fantastic account on that wave you might find of interest...
Very nice write up.
Maybe you question; what will consciousness become?
Or maybe not, but I wonder, are you familiar with 'Bicameralism'?
I mean we are already experiencing the birth bangs of another bicameral system in my opinion, but this will bring it to the next level, the next phase, age, etc..
The Bicameral mind. Proposed by Julian Jaynes. If you haven't read his book 'The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind', I'd highly recommend it. You'd obviously get it, and if you want to dig into multiple sub-levels of metaphor that can be learned, it is amazing. However, more important is the 'system'. Everyone is connected to....something. Like our grid, for example, would be perfect for such a system.
When is the switch going to be flipped?
Has it already been, and we won't know?
Overview of Julian Jaynes’s Theory of Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind
https://www.julianjaynes.org/about/about-jaynes-theory/overview/
Anyways, great write up thank you.
Thanks for taking the time to reply.
I'll be honest, I've never heard of 'Bicameralism' before but you've definitely piqued my interest. So, I cannot really comment on it at the moment.
Since, the lockdowns I've been making more time to be offline and read as much as I can so I'll add this to my list. Much appreciated, thank you.
the Matrix Union strikes back!
The pre-crime system is beyond dystopian. I wonder if there is any way out of this mess. It seems like the train already left the building. On the other hand we are the creators of our creatrix. We picked a fascinating time to be alive.
It will be hard to put the genie back into the lamp now!
What's unfolding in front of us now is really creepy. I agree with you though, we are co-creators in all of this, we still have the power to shape our future if we want it.
The all seeing eye was in The Lord of the Rings, like an ominous omen of an otherworldy overlord. Now it's here.
I wrote a post about them a couple of years ago about a deal they had with New Orleans to apply their pre-crime technology. I'm not sure what ever came of it. These guys are dangerous -- another technological threat to liberty. It's looking a lot like Trump isn't the "stable genius" people are claiming his to be. He's either another globalist (which I still doubt) or he's listening to all the wrong people. Either way... Welcome to the Technocracy!