In April former CIA director and retired general David Petraeus pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of handing over classified information to his mistress and biographer, Paula Broadwell. He was sentenced to two years probation and a $100,000 fine.

Petraeus had passed on several 5-by-8 inch black notebooks containing classified information to Broadwell.

Despite his conviction, the former general remains a trusted adviser to the White House on its strategy in Iraq.

He will represent the United States on security issues at the Bilderberg confab in Austria beginning Thursday.

Unlike Edward Snowden or Bradley Manning, Petraeus was excused for his transgression because he is a valued insider and a key player in the global elite’s plan for a mass surveillance grid.

“Senators, generals, ambassadors, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the owner of The Atlantic were in the roster of powerful voices who wrote to a federal judge to ask him to go easy on” Petraeus, writes Cora Currier.

The list includes former Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham and Admiral Michael Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“Dave is also humanly flawed, as many are, for which he has paid a huge price both personally and professionally,” Mullen said.

Double Standard

This attribute and excuse, however, was not extended to Snowden or Manning.

Snowden fled the United States and applied for political asylum to 21 countries after he leaked classified NSA information on mass surveillance. Vice President Joe Biden pressured the governments of those countries to refuse his asylum petitions. Snowden was eventually granted asylum in Russia.

Bradley Manning (now Chelsea Manning) was convicted in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses following his disclosure to WikiLeaks over 700,000 classified and unclassified but sensitive military and diplomatic documents. Manning was sentenced to 35 years’ imprisonment and was dishonorably discharged from the Army.

Julian Assange, the editor-in-chief of the website WikiLeaks where Manning’s cache of documents appeared, has been cloistered in the the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012. He applied for political asylum in the South American country but the British government says it will arrest and extradite him if he attempts to leave the embassy.

The fact David Petraeus will represent the United States at the Bilderberg meeting despite his criminal status demonstrates a double standard.

Government insiders handpicked by the global elite enjoy a special status while others, including a long list of whistleblowers, are routinely singled out by government for harsh and punitive treatment.

Petraeus Crucial to Surveillance Grid Agenda

In 2013, Petraeus attended the Bilderberg Group conference to push the “big data” agenda of the elite.

“The discussion about ‘big data’ is also likely to cover how social media can be used to launch more faux revolutions and social movements as it was in Egypt, which was aided in no small part by Google,”

Paul Joseph Watson wrote at the time.

As we have documented, the Internet of things is the process of manufacturing every new product with a system that broadcasts wirelessly via the world wide web, allowing industry and the government to spy ubiquitously on every aspect of your existence.

Petraeus has previously hailed the “Internet of things” as a transformational boon for “clandestine tradecraft”. In other words, it will soon be easier than ever before to keep tabs on the population since everything they use will be connected to the web, with total disregard for privacy considerations. The spooks won’t have to plant a bug in your home or your vehicle, you will be doing it for them.

It’s ironic that Petraeus is helping bolster the very same surveillance system that brought him down last year when details emerged of his extra-marital affair.