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Speaker 1: You were listening to Carrie Letz's Financial Survival Network, where

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you get valuable information you just can't find anywhere else

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to thrive in today's trying times. You need the Financial

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Survival Network now more than ever. Go to Financial Survivalnetwork

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dot com and get your free newsletter and gift. Financial

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Survival Network now more than ever.

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Speaker 2: Hey, Carrie, this is Robert Ian with conker Change dot com.

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This past week, there was a State Department interview with

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio. I met Secretary Rubio, then

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Senator Rubio in twenty fifteen when he was in Las

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Vegas for Freedom Fest. President Trump had just declared his

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presidential run for twenty sixteen and was delivering one of

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his first speeches as a newly minted candidate, along with Rubio,

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who was running in the primary opposite to Trump. I

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caught up with Rubio not at the conference, but at

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a semi private local event where he gave a lengthy,

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well articulated stump speech and provided an up close and

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personal Q and A session following his talk. Now fast

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forward ten years to the interview he gave this past week,

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which was all about freedom and referred to a momentous

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day in the history of the State Department, as the

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US government begins the process of restoring free speech. Rubio declared,

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we have ended government sponsored censorship in the United States

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through the State Department. From a timeline perspective, he recapped

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how followed nine to eleven. The idea was to go

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after messaging of hostile geopolitical groups trying to radicalize people,

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which he said at the time sounded plausible. This apparatus

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was then expanded and escalated to include the idea that

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there was quote interference in the twenty sixteen election. Then

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by twenty twenty, he said, it evolved into a movement

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to go after individual American voices. Here's how it worked.

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The State Department was using NGOs, which stands for non

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governmental organizations and other third party groups, as proxies and

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pass through entities, who in turn were tagging and labeling

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voices in American politics as foreign agent's. In other words,

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the State Department was funding attack dogs to silent's American voices,

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many of whom were deplatformed from social media in the

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months leading up to the twenty twenty election and as

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a result, rendered unable to communicate their ideas and opinions.

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According to Rubio, the censorship group within the State Department,

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identified by the host later within the interview as the

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Global Engagement Center, was disbanded before Trump took office. An

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archived State Department web page says the Global Engagement Center

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closed on December twenty third of twenty twenty four. In

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my opinion, it should state that it conveniently closed on

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that date. Rubio stated the principle by which the State

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Department would be operating on a go forward basis, namely

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that the best way to counter disinformation is with free speech.

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He said, what's true must have an equal or greater

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chance to counter what isn't true, in particular when disinformation

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gets turned into a political weapon to go after people

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you don't like. He said, every day he watches mainstream

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media where they put out material they know is disinformation.

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He cited instances in Western countries right now where people

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are being arrested for social media posts, with officers sent

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to their home to tell them they're going to jail

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for sixty days for posting something online. Going forward, his

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State Department is defunding and restructuring the censorship unit to

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share pro American messaging with the world, not attack and

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jail citizens for exercising their free speech. An effort is

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underway to document what happened and so it doesn't happen again,

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he said. People in the US who were harmed not

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only need to know how it happened, but also be

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able to prove they were harmed to restore their reputations

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and livelihoods. He reiterated that fifteen years ago the idea

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to combat radicalization may have seemed reasonable enough, but in

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a short amount of time that process metastasized into what

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we have today. It was turned into something else by

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someone else when the people in charge changed. He's promised

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that an in depth transparency process is underway, not just

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in high profile censorship cases, but with many more everyday

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American citizens who were suddenly labeled. One example is when

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people were deplatformed near the beginning of the pandemic. He

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wants to find out who ordered them to be deplatformed,

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who within the State Department and elsewhere tagged people to

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be silenced, he said. Unpacking the depth and scope of

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what happened will be made known. The interviewer then specifically

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asked as the State Department is repositioned as the global

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beacon for free speech and liberty. Threats exist from censorship

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laws coming out of the European Union, of which many

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countries have taken the efforts of what he referred to

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as Global Engagement Center ecosystem partners, many of whom were

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funded by the US State Department and are now shaping

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foreign censorship laws. He asked, how will the State Department

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restore free speech in a world where places like the

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European Union are targeting Americans and interfering with their free speech.

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Rubio says the number one priority is Americans. He doesn't

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want to see an American living in London, for example,

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post something online about US politics or any politics for

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that matter, and then suddenly they are facing ramifications in

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the European Union, like being denied entry into a country

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or getting arrested because they posted something while living overseas.

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He said, one of the things that's supposed to link

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us to places like Europe are shared values. One of

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those values is supposed to be freedom of expression. If

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that's eroded, then one of the fundamental pillars of that

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shared interest, beyond military cooperation, is under attack. Apparently, this

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very issue was raised with the Prime Minister of England

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when he visited the Oval Office. The mere fact it

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had to be raised indicates how far the problem has

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gone and how big it has actually become. He calls

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it a foreign policy irritant and impediment. I call it

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escalating totalitarianism that clearly illustrates their philosophical underpinnings. It's not

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just that censorship saber rattling is happening with high profile people,

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like how the EU Commissioning Body recently tried to strong

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arm and essentially threatened both the President and Elon Musk

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to not talk about recent protests in the UK. He said,

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everyone is at risk, citizens, commentators, journalists, everyday, people talking

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about world events, and even officeholders in the US. It's

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a very wide and punitive net that could impact even

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this discussion on the topic. What I found refreshing, though

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and promising about this conversation is the energy and spotlight

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Rubio is bringing to this critical issue. He underscored, the

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State Department is there to serve the American people and

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protect their interests, not use stealth and arbitrary power to

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go after those who disagree. For the vague and nebulous

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concept of misinformation. The approach is not to shut other

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people down. It's to say, here's how they're lying, and

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here's the truth in reality. That's always been the way

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until it wasn't and hasn't been over the past to

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get decades of incremental information weaponization on the surface, it

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looks like the censorship gun is getting laid down. Or

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is it? Time will tell, But the good news is

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we'll be able to tell very quickly and until next time.

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This is Robert Ian with conquer Change dot com. Thanks Carrie,

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thanks for listening to carry Letz's Financial Survival Network, your

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solution to today's trying times.

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Speaker 1: For the latest, go to Financial Survivalnetwork dot com. Financial

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Survival Network now more than ever,