Chapter 910 Prism Gate

What is the problem of America?

Many people say that America's manufacturing industry is hollowing out. After all, the "Rust Belt" was first proposed, referring to the Great Lakes region of America.

The so-called Rust Belt refers to the fact that after America's industry has been adjusted to be dominated by the tertiary industry, the traditional industrial areas, especially the heavy industrial areas, such as the Great Lakes region, including Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Milwaukee, Dayton, Cleveland, Chicago, Harrisburg, Bethlehem, Buffalo, Cincinnati and other industrial cities, have begun to decline. These once bustling and developed industrial cities, large areas of factory buildings and equipment have been idle, leaving only mottled rust.

There is no way around it. After all, the most developed industries in America now are the financial industry, the media industry, and the entertainment industry...

Almost all elites choose to enter the financial industry as their first choice, which is where they can really make a lot of money.

For capital, who would bother to make money by making machine tools, clothes, and electrical appliances when they can easily rely on America's global hegemony and make huge profits by sucking blood from the world?

In fact, this is true in any country, including Europe, Japan, South Korea, and China. Those who can control the financial industry are all closely related to power - after all, making money by using information can be said to be the easiest.

It's just that because of America's hegemonic position in the world, their financial capital is particularly strong.

The United States itself has entered such a cycle. With their dollar system and global hegemony, even if they have a lot of foreign debt, they can continue to harvest the world through finance.

As long as they can maintain such a position, there is no need to worry about the collapse of their own system. After all, the world will pay for its debts.

Therefore, Barron's industrial layout in the United States is also mainly based on finance, media, and entertainment industries.

Although the Sinclair Group is far from the top in terms of asset scale compared to Barron's other industries, it is also valued by Barron because of its media attributes.

That's why he didn't allow the Vanguard Group to get involved.

Before, if John Smith could always stand by his side, he wouldn't mind the Sinclair family continuing to control the company - after all, at some point, when the Sinclair Group was needed to help him "build momentum", the Sinclair family in the open would be more helpful in hiding his existence.

But unfortunately, John Smith finally made the wrong choice, which led to Barron having to remove him from the position of chairman of the group.

But now, Jenny has become the chairman of the Sinclair Group, and can also keep the Sinclair family in the company, which is a happy ending.

Of course, Barron will not allow the Vanguard Group to continue to expand its shareholding in the Sinclair Group, even if they can facilitate the Sinclair Group's acquisition of the Forum Media Group.

Under the current circumstances, even if the Vanguard Group is unwilling, it can no longer continue to oppose Barron, especially within the Sinclair Group, because of John Smith's accidental death, it can be said that their cooperation with the Sinclair family has also failed.

It's not that they didn't try to contact other people, but the result was very disappointing. In addition to Jenny's lack of willingness to talk to them, Quentin Smith and Barbara Smith also rejected them outright.

Speaking of which, at present, apart from Jenny, who is more of a symbolic chairman in the company, only Quentin Smith is in charge of one of the departments of the Sinclair family. Barbara Smith has long left the family group and is engaged in her own business.

Quentin Smith is not a person with too many ambitions, otherwise he would not have chosen to support his brother John Smith at the time, instead of confronting David Smith in person.

He naturally has a clearer understanding of the situation of the Sinclair Group. Whether in terms of funds or resources, the Sinclair family is not a match for Barron and the Vanguard Group. Only in the Sinclair Group, choosing Barron as a partner is naturally better than the Vanguard Group.

Next, Ivanta will personally come forward and discuss with the Vanguard Group the specific matters regarding the acquisition of Forum Media Group together with the new CEO of the Sinclair Group.

Barron naturally does not need to deal with these things personally. What he is focusing on now is another matter.

Entering June, the Prism Gate is about to break out.

In fact, as early as December last year, some European journalists received a letter signed by "Citizen Four" through encrypted emails. The other party claimed that he was a senior employee of the US intelligence agency and that he had some information and hoped to share it with the other party...

"From now on, every border you cross, every item you buy, every phone call you make, every mobile phone signal tower you pass, every friend you make, every article you write, every place you go, every word you type in the title bar, and every data packet you send are all under the control of a system. Its coverage is unlimited, but its protection measures are limited..."

This "Citizen Four" reminded the other party in the email that the emails between them are likely to be monitored by the US intelligence department, and warned the other party that once the other party obtains those documents, his life safety will be threatened.

Those who received this encrypted email included French documentary director Laura Poitras, British Guardian senior reporter Glenn Greenwald, and Independent reporter Lawson Wilson.

When Barron received the email from Lawson Wilson, he already knew that this "fourth citizen" was Edward Snowden, who was world-famous for exposing the "Prism" program in his previous life.

The Prism program (PRISM) is a top-secret electronic surveillance program implemented by the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States since 2007.

The official name of the program is "US-984XN". According to the documents later disclosed by Snowden, the National Security Agency of the United States has access to a large number of personal chat logs, stored data, voice communications, file transfers, and personal social network data.

Barron naturally understood how much impact the Prism Gate would have. It is no exaggeration to say that after exposing this program, Snowden became the primary target of the American intelligence department to get rid of him as soon as possible.

And he knew that as a senior intelligence officer, Snowden would definitely be able to make the "Prism" plan public, so there was no need for him to get involved.

Moreover, even if Snowden had not announced the plan, he was very clear about the content of the plan - after all, Woaw Technology, which he controlled, had to open the access interface of the relevant servers to the American intelligence agencies.

This is also a prerequisite for Woaw to operate smoothly in the United States and the world. After all, giants like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Apple have to do this. If you refuse, you will be investigated and sanctioned in various names in minutes.

Considering this situation, Barron did not let the reporter of "The Independent" participate in this matter. It was better to let Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald contact Snowden according to the development of the original time and space.