Carbyne
Carbyne911 (or Carbyne), originally Reporty Homeland Security, was founded in 2014 by several veterans of Israeli military intelligence, and has been marketed as a solution for mass shootings in America that improves the intelligence first responders receive before entering an armed shooter situation by providing video-streaming and audio from civilian smartphones and other connected devices.
Carbyne, referred to as “the next generation of 911,” is a call-handling platform that encompasses IP-based communication features to help dispatchers analyze and process what is happening in real time, provide support and slash time-to-dispatch. The system integrates into already existing 911 technology.
Carbyne is a plug-in for 911 call centers, and has an app for consumers which provides access to a caller’s camera and GPS, affording the 911 dispatcher with a live video feed during crisis events.
Carbyne is described as a Next-Generation 9-11 (NG911) platform. A goal of NG911 goal is for all 911 systems to become interconnected. Therefore, even if Carbyne is not used by all 911 call centers using an NG911 platform, Carbyne might have access to the data used by all emergency service providers.
The system also automatically cross-references user identity with criminal or other records added to the database. The data collected includes the following:
"Device location, video live-streamed from the smartphone to the call center, text messages in a two-way chat window, any data from a user’s phone if they have the Carbyne app and ESInet, and any information that comes over a data link, which Carbyne opens in case the caller’s voice link drops out.”
Carbyne uses a similar “pre-crime” technology to that which is provided by Palantir.
Carbyne’s c-Records ("C-Lite") component stores and analyzes information on past calls and events that pass through its network. This “enables decision makers to accurately analyze the past and present behavior of their callers, react accordingly, and in time predict future patterns.”
Carbyne’s call-handling/crisis management platform has already been implemented in several U.S. counties and the company has offices not only in the U.S. but also in Mexico, Ukraine and Israel.
In New Orleans, citizens are being asked to opt into additional monitoring to ease COVID-19 response:
Carbyne relies on callers submitting themselves to self-surveillance via their own mobile phone. Once a caller uses their Android or iPhone to call 911 (85% of emergency calls now come from mobile devices), they receive a text message that asks for permission to get their precise location and access video from their smartphone camera.
One of the main lobby groups promoting the NG911 legislation, the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), has a “strong relationship” with Carbyne. Carbyne has also begun marketing its platform for non-emergency calls to governments, educational institutions and corporations.
Management, Backers, Investors
Investors include Israeli Prime Minister and former head of Israeli military intelligence Ehud Barak, and (the deceased) Jeffery Epstien, although this relationship was originally obfuscated.
Ehud Barak said:
“I saw the business opportunity and registered a partnership in my control in Israel. A small number of people I know invest in it…Since these are private investments, it wouldn’t be proper or right for me to expose the investors’ details.”
Peter Thiel is another financier of Carbyne. Thiel still owns a controlling stake in the company Palantir, which was initially funded with a $2 million investment from the CIA’s venture capital fund In-Q-Tel.
“Palantir tracks everyone from potential terrorist suspects to corporate fraudsters, child traffickers and what they refer to as ‘subversives’… it is all done using prediction.” Carbyne’s current CEO, Amir Elichai, served in Unit 8200 and tapped tasked Unit 8200 commander and current board member of AIPAC Pinchas Buchris to serve as the company’s director and on its board.
Carbyne co-founder, Lital Leshem, also served in Unit 8200 and later worked for Black Cube - another Unit 8200-associated company.
On the board of advisers are former the heads of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff (2005-2009), and Kirstjen M. Nielsen (2017-2019).
Other board of adviser members include R. David Paulison, former Director Federal Emergency Management Agency (2005-2009), Dr. Ricardo Corral-Luna; Former Deputy Secretary of the National Public Safety System of Mexico (2012-2018), Kevin Brock, Former Assistant Director for Intelligence, FBI; Ed Davis, the 40th Police Commissioner of the City of Boston (2006-2013); Jim McDonnell, Former Sheriff of Los Angeles County, California, the largest sheriff's department in the United States, leading over 18,000 employees and managing an annual budget of over $3.3 billion dollars; and former Palantir employee Trae Stephens.
Trump donor and New York real-estate developer Eliot Tawill was previously on Carbyne’s board, alongside Ehud Barak and Pinchas Buchris.
Carbyne announced a partnership with Cisco Systems April, 2019, with Cisco announcing that it would begin “aligning its unified call manager with Carbyne’s call-handling platform, allowing emergency call centers to collect data from both 911 callers and nearby government-owned IoT [Internet of Things] devices.”
“Carbyne’s platform will be integrated into Cisco Kinetic for Cities, an IoT data platform that shares data across community infrastructure, smart city solutions, applications and connected devices.”
The Carbyne platform aspires to combine the data it obtains from smartphones and other Carbyne-connected devices with “what’s available through nearby Cisco-connected road cameras, roadside sensors, smart streetlamps, smart parking meters or other devices.”
“Carbyne can also analyze data that’s being collected by Cisco IoT devices … and alert 911 automatically, without any person making a phone call, if there appears to be a worthy problem.” The referenced article also features hopes that soon most emergency calls will not be made by human beings but “by smart cars, telematics or other smart city devices.”
Carbyne has also partnered with Google for opportunities in Mexico, “to offer advanced mobile location to emergency communications centers (ECCs) throughout Mexico” following the conclusion of a successful four-week pilot program between Carbyne and Google.
“Carbyne will provide Google’s Android ELS (Emergency Location Service) in real time from emergency calls made on Android devices. Deployment for any ECC in the country won’t require any integration, with Carbyne providing numerous options for connection to their secure ELS Gateway once an ECC is approved. The Carbyne automated platform, requiring no human interaction, has the potential to save thousands of lives each year throughout Mexico.”
Chandra Viswas,