Black List

“We are. For all intents and purposes, ATS is the state. Caroline described that when people refer to a ‘shadow government,’ they’re actually talking about ATS, whether they realize it or not.”

“And they’re planning to target Americans simply because of ideas they hold?” Harvath asked.

“They’re not planning. It’s already happened. The Department of Homeland Security recently issued a report identifying ‘disgruntled’ military veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan as potential ‘right-wing’ terrorists. Supporters of politicians and political causes that called for smaller government with greater accountability to American citizens were also labeled as potential terrorists. Owning guns, ammunition, or more than a week’s worth of food now classifies you as a potential terrorist. Even certain political bumper stickers or flying the bright yellow Don’t Tread On Me Gadsden flag can now qualify you as a terrorist.

“No matter what you do, your government sees you as the greatest threat to its existence—greater than al- Qaeda or any foreign invader—and it will do whatever it needs to do to protect itself.”

“That’s crazy.”

“Is it?” Nicholas asked. “Under the rubric of ‘homeland security,’ Americans are being subjected to more invasive screening and intensive surveillance every day. TSA is now not only at airports but also train and bus stations. They’re even appearing at highway rest stops. You’re being told it’s for your own good, for your safety, while this framework, this cage is being built around you. Very soon, construction is going to be complete and the cage door is going to swing shut. When that happens, there will be no way out.”

“There’s got to be a way to stop this.”

“They’ve stacked the deck completely in their favor, right down to the federal court’s guaranteeing immunity from criminal and civil prosecution to any private companies that assist the government, i.e., the NSA and thereby ATS, in spying on American citizens.”

“I still don’t understand what this has to do with why the Carlton Group has been targeted.”

“From what Caroline uncovered, ATS is moving into some final phase of an overall plan to solidify its control.”

“What kind of plan?” Harvath asked.

“That’s where it gets interesting. According to her notes, the powers that be at ATS are obsessed with the Internet. They love social media because it does such a good job of mapping relationships for them. Online purchases, online searches, e-mails, all of it is invaluable. In that sense, the Internet has been a positive in their eyes. The ‘negative’ as they see it, comes from the free flow of ideas and information.

“In the days when there were only TV, newspaper, and radio, information could be controlled. That’s no longer the case. In essence, information is no longer bottled up. It’s no longer controlled. It has been unleashed, and that poses a danger to ATS.

“In Caroline’s notes, she cited multiple political movements from different parts of the spectrum. These, ATS believes, would never have been possible without the Internet as a means for organizers and participants to communicate. ATS sees something coming in the very near future, and they don’t want American citizens to be able to communicate about it. They want to deny Americans the primary vehicle by which they would likely organize and mount any sort of resistance.”

“Whoa,” interrupted Harvath. “Resistance? Resistance to what?”

“I haven’t been able to figure that out,” Nicholas replied. “I don’t even know if Caroline fully knew. All I can say for certain is that ATS views the Internet in its current form as very dangerous.”

“What does that mean, ‘in its current form’?”

“I’ve been looking through quite a few articles that Caroline saved covering the idea of some sort of a digital Pearl Harbor. From what I’ve discerned, ATS was heavily invested in promoting this concept.”

“Some sort of cataclysmic cyber attack?” said Harvath.

“Precisely. Whether ATS used it to spook clients into purchasing more hardware or software upgrades or consulting, I can’t tell. What the evidence does seem to show is that they worked very hard behind the scenes to push the idea of America’s vulnerability to such an attack. In order to bolster the gravity of the vulnerability, they enlisted the cooperation of former high-ranking government officials, now in the private sector, who would be in the know on the subject.”

“You don’t think America is vulnerable to that kind of attack?”

“Very much so,” Nicholas replied. “The FBI Director, the Director of National Intelligence, even the head of the NSA, have said so publicly. But what’s interesting is how badly ATS wants the American people to know. This goes beyond convincing the government. I think they already had them in the bag. The American people, though, needed more convincing, more of a campaign, in order for the narrative to take hold. That’s where the former high- ranking government officials came in.

“These officials were used to write attention-grabbing books about America’s cyber vulnerability. Others were booked on television programs and interviewed for newspaper articles. ATS went so far as to pitch a major cable news channel on a slick, two-hour televised war game entitled We Were Warned: Cyber- Shockwave.”

“I remember that,” said Harvath. “It was like a who’s who of former high-ranking government officials. National Intelligence, CIA, Homeland Security, the White House, even some military personnel and some folks from the Attorney General’s office, right?”

Nicholas nodded. “They were all assembled in a mock situation room to respond to a major cyber attack. According to Caroline, the program’s purpose was very straightforward, to precondition the American people.”

“Precondition them for what?”

“Number one for the attack, and number two for expanding government power in order to deal with it. Federalizing the National Guard, nationalizing power companies and other utilities in order to keep the NSA up and running; they thought of everything, even a host of new and expansive presidential powers, which they put forth as not only necessary but also ‘justified’ by the Constitution.”

“You’re saying the entire thing was a propaganda piece?” Harvath asked.

“An exceptionally well executed propaganda piece. It just happened to coincide with a widely reported, real- life computer virus that infected more than seventy-five thousand computers worldwide and ten U.S. government agencies. How about that for timing? People tuned into the program in droves.”

Harvath didn’t believe in coincidences. “So ATS has been prepping the battlefield for an actual real-life attack?”

“Yes. And based on Caroline’s notes, it’s going to be much worse than the mock scenario they dreamed up for TV. The real attack won’t focus just on the eastern seaboard, it will consume and cripple the entire nation.”

“Why? What could they possibly get out of that?”

“Remember all of the changes made in the aftermath of 9/11? Those will pale in comparison to how radically different the country will be after this digital Pearl Harbor. ATS wants to usher in a brand-new version of the Internet. They call it Internet 2.0 and it will be completely controlled by the government.”

“The government?” Harvath asked. “Or ATS?”

Nicholas smiled ruefully. “If Washington, D.C., is Oz, then ATS is the man behind the curtain.”

Harvath nodded and Nicholas continued, “To use Internet 2.0 for any purpose, no matter how small, you’ll be required to log on with a user-specific, government-issued identification number. Anonymity will be a thing of the past. Everything will be monitored: what you say, what you look at, all of it. The government, under the guise of ‘safety’ and ‘national security,’ will have sole discretion as to who should be allowed on the Net, and for what purpose. They’ll have a massive off switch that they can throw whenever they deem it necessary, and they could keep the older version of the Internet turned off indefinitely. It would be the ultimate curb on people’s ability to communicate and would strangle the free flow of ideas and information.”

It took a moment for all of it to sink in. Finally, Harvath said, “So if they control the Internet—”

“They’ll control everything,” said Nicholas, finishing his sentence for him.

“What is it that’s coming down the pike, though, that they need all this control?”

“Like I said, I don’t know. I don’t think Caroline even knew. All I can do is speculate.”

“So go ahead and speculate.”

“An attack of this magnitude, to take down the entire Internet in order to replace it, is pretty spectacular. But what follows has got to be even more spectacular.”