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UID:Indybay-18820371
SEQUENCE:18965990
CREATED:20190114T213700Z
DESCRIPTION:Concord's campus visioning committee is contemplating military industrial 
 partnerships for research and development labs.  The public has the ability 
 to speak at the next meeting against such a proposal.\n\nJanuary 17, 2019, 
 6:00PM – 9:00 PM \nConcord Senior Center, 2727 Parkside Circle 
 (Concord)\n\nThe city of Concord has a committee to plan out a university 
 that will be built near North Concord BART.  The committee's mission 
 statement has 3 goals: \n1) Review, evaluate and discuss information and 
 concepts for developing a higher education campus at the former Naval 
 Weapons Station.  \n2) Assess the feasibility of a range of campus 
 development options, opportunities and strategies. 3)Develop 
 recommendations for the future campus district for consideration by the 
 Concord City Council. \n\nThe committee is set to meet for 8 sessions, of 
 which 3 have already taken place.  During this time, they are to explore 
 possible fields of study and research the future campus will be home to. In 
 the third meeting, they set a priority list titled 'Focus on Innovative 
 Fields and Growth Industries'.  This 'Focus' list includes cyber-security 
 and drone technology.  The list also includes considering government 
 partners such as Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL), and \nLawrence 
 Berkeley National Lab (LBNL), and "other federal partners within the 
 military industrial complex".  \n\nWhen the campus concept was first 
 announced, and later when the committee was first formed, nobody in the 
 public was told that the committee would have the authority to consider 
 partnering with military interests.  People were led to envision a normal, 
 small, quiet college campus. People were led to envision students taking 
 basic college science, learning a new language, reading poetry in the 
 library... typical mundane college stuff.  After the committee was formed, 
 they took it upon themselves to steer conversations towards military 
 industrial research and partnerships with corporations and government 
 agencies.\n\nThe committee is looking into entering a cybersecurity program 
 joining the work of the program at CSUB.  The program at Cal State 
 University of Bakersfield is sponsored by military contractors Raytheon and 
 Booz-Allen-Hamilton.  Edward Snowden was a BAH whistle-blower, who revealed 
 how BAH was spying on American citizens via a surveillance apparatus called 
 PRISM, violating privacy rights.  Prior to the Snowden leaks, Anonymous 
 (AntiSec) and Barrrett Brown revealed BAH's ties to what was called 
 Operation Metal Gear - a persona management program to manipulate social 
 media through fake online personas used to spread disinformation and 
 propaganda. As a field, cybersecurity is often linked to the field of 
 cyberwar.\n\nA drone lab in Concord could potentially have researchers 
 developing drones not only for policing agencies, but also for warfare.  
 The Concord campus committee wants to look into other possible development 
 projects for the military asides from drones.  Money, resources, and 
 facilities that would be prioritized for military projects.  One of the 
 campus committee members is from the Council for a Strong America.  CSA has 
 a program called 'Mission Readiness', which promotes militarism in 
 education.  \n\nThe next campus committee meeting will be Thursday January 
 17th from 6PM till 9PM.  These committee meeting are monthly, with the 
 final being in May.  Final recommendations will be taken to city council 
 for discussion and eventual vote into policy.   Members of the public can 
 speak during these meetings, and share opinions on the work the committee 
 is doing.  The meetings are at the Concord senior center at 2727 Parkside 
 Circle.  \n https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2019/01/14/18820371.php
SUMMARY:Concord committee discussing military research partnership
LOCATION:Concord Senior Center\n2727 Parkside Circle\nConcord
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2019/01/14/18820371.php
DTSTART:20190118T020000Z
DTEND:20190118T050000Z
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