US immigration agents will have access to one of the world’s most sophisticated hacking tools after a decision by the Trump administration to move ahead with a contract with Paragon Solutions, a company founded in Israel which makes spyware that can be used to hack into any mobile phone – including encrypted applications.
The Department of Homeland Security first entered into a contract with Paragon, now owned by a US firm, in late 2024, under the Biden administration. But the $2m contract was put on hold pending a compliance review to make sure it adhered to an executive order that restricts the US government’s use of spyware, Wired reported at the time.
That pause has now been lifted, according to public procurement documents, which list US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) as the contracting agency.
The US deserves the vast majority of the blame here (along with Israel of course). The truth is though, for many in Germany and the UK including those at the highest levels of power they are if anything jealous to be missing out on the colonialism and genocide. Again, the US is absolutely the primary problem but… really? You are going to act like the US isn’t just following in the footsteps of the brutal colonial empires of England and Germany?
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/german-chancellor-defends-israels-dirty-work-comments-despite-criticism/3603583
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/germany-israel-dirty-work-merz-exposes-orientalist-roots-genocidal-zionism
Sounds like you’re jealous of Europe being the best place on earth for worker’s rights.
I mean, yes in so far as you can generalize, of course I am jealous of that!? You think I like being stuck at the bottom of a cruel hole lined with gold and bullet casings?
What I am saying is open your eyes to your own history and recognize it is part of the same system and process whether or not the locus of power is currently within your empire or not.
I don’t make this argument as a form of nihilistic relativism or try to rope other countries into the miserable complicity in yet another genocide the US has condemned itself too participating in. The US deserves FAR MORE blame than Germany, the UK, France or any other European country does.
My point however is, don’t lose focus of the fact that the US is a cancerous reflection of the same tendencies towards empire, fascism, ethnic cleansing and xenophobia European history is full of. US history unfolds directly out of the worst parts of European history, you cannot deny it and if you continue to do so you hamstring your capacity to understand the coming threat to Europe that will eat away at everything your society holds dear in the name of fear of terrorism and the silhouette of an immigrant threatening to join your community and become your neighbor…
Maybe if you stopped blaming all your problems on the West you’d be able to dig out of that hole.
When did I blame all of my problems on the West?
Do you think when I stub my toe that I proclaim “Damn you judeo-christian western european values!!” in anger at the sky?