DHS Should Focus on Criminal Activity, Not Beliefs

Nusrat J. Choudhury & Hina Shamsi
ACLU

Last week, The Washington Post reported that for the last two years, the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) intelligence gathering and analysis unit devoted to rightwing groups and militias has been "effectively eviscerated," while reports on so-called Islamic extremism "got through without any major problems."

The article raises serious concerns about DHS's failure to address the real need for fact-based assessments of where threats to our security lie. An internal DHS study last year concluded that "a majority of the 86 major foiled and executed terrorist plots in the United States from 1999 to 2009 were unrelated to al-Qaeda and allied movements" (emphasis added) and warned, "Do not overlook other types of terrorist groups." (It doesn't get any clearer than that!)

The War on Drugs and the Surveillance Society

NORML image

Jay Stanley
ACLU

June 2011 marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon's declaration of a "war on drugs" — a war that has cost roughly a trillion dollars, has produced little to no effect on the supply of or demand for drugs in the United States, and has contributed to making America the world's largest incarcerator. Throughout the month, check back daily for posts about the drug war, its victims and what needs to be done to restore fairness and create effective policy.

Wars have the effect of building the power of the government security establishment. World War I, World War II, the Cold War, and the “war on terror” helped transform America from a country that was deeply suspicious of standing armies, to today’s “Top Secret America” in which gigantic security agencies, shielded from public oversight by a veil of secrecy, have sweeping powers to spy on their own citizens.

These wars have transformed America from a place where most people’s interactions with employees of the federal government was limited to their postmaster, into one in which millions of citizens routinely face sometimes intimidating government agents checking their papers, ordering them about, searching them, groping their genitals, and putting their hands down their pants, as in today’s airline security lines.

There’s a Secret Patriot Act, Senator Says

Sen. Ron Wyden

Spencer Ackerman
Wired

You think you understand how the Patriot Act allows the government to spy on its citizens. Sen. Ron Wyden says it’s worse than you know.

Congress is set to reauthorize three controversial provisions of the surveillance law as early as Thursday. Wyden (D-Oregon) says that powers they grant the government on their face, the government applies a far broader legal interpretation — an interpretation that the government has conveniently classified, so it cannot be publicly assessed or challenged. But one prominent Patriot-watcher asserts that the secret interpretation empowers the government to deploy ”dragnets” for massive amounts of information on private citizens; the government portrays its data-collection efforts much differently.

“We’re getting to a gap between what the public thinks the law says and what the American government secretly thinks the law says,” Wyden told Danger Room in an interview in his Senate office. “When you’ve got that kind of a gap, you’re going to have a problem on your hands.”

What exactly does Wyden mean by that? As a member of the intelligence committee, he laments that he can’t precisely explain without disclosing classified information. But one component of the Patriot Act in particular gives him immense pause: the so-called “business-records provision,” which empowers the FBI to get businesses, medical offices, banks and other organizations to turn over any “tangible things” it deems relevant to a security investigation.

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Feds to Mandate Black Box on all New Cars

Editor's Note: See, the Patriot Act did create innovative technology. Congress says let's keep the surveillance-industrial complex strong for at least another 4 years.

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars

The Feds will mandate next month that all new cars be fitted with a black box, according to news reports. So-called black boxes record information about speed, seat belt use and brake application.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been involved in the use of black boxes since their introduction. In 2006, the safety administration encouraged but did not require automobile manufacturers to install the systems and also did not set a single standard for the way data would be recorded, according to the New York Times.

Got Bin Laden (Allegedly) and USA “Freaks Out” on Fear, False Alarms, and 911 style forfeiture of Liberties

Dees Illustration

Jack Blood
Deadline Live

So much for the John Wayne, or even Bruce Wayne style, “Cowboy Up” tough American settler myth/street smart caped crusader myth. Post Osama America suffers deja vu all over again as Government Officials, and bureaucracies fan the flames of fear, and discuss further potential clamp downs on transportation, and public events in a way that could even make George Bush blush.

Actually there is a famous antic-dote about John Wayne which if true does embody the former image of feral American life. It seems that the US Govt contacted Mr Wayne at some point during the “Cold War” to warn him of a Communist plot intercepted from the former USSR, to assassinated him; and with him the image of the rugged, No BS, Kill-em-all-and-let-God-sort-em-out American. The American Gov't offered to place John Wayne under their immediate protection. Wayne’s reply? No Thanks. “Me and the Boys are fully armed here. Tell them Ruskies to bring it on! We're ready, locked and loaded.”

In this story we can fully appreciate the Old world order American, while the NWO American begs for protection from a dead terrorist, whom was once a CIA asset (Tim Osman) running a P2OG / Gladio style group known as Al-CIA-da.

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Thermal cameras look inside homes to monitor energy efficiency

Pilot program in Boston part of home audit scheme to encourage compliance with green energy standards, drive business.

Aaron Dykes
Infowars

The city of Boston has been taken to task by the ACLU over concerns about a roll-out of thermal imaging cameras being used to monitor energy efficiency inside homes. A pilot program to take aerial and street-level photos of heat loss in Boston was part of a scheme to encourage participation in home energy improvement programs, as well as to drive consumers towards green companies.

According to CBS, the project had been halted following public outcry about invasions of privacy, namely that “infrared cameras would reveal information about what’s going on inside the homes.” Further objections have been raised about potential violations of the Fourth Amendment (but what’s that anyway?). Officials reportedly “planned on sharing the photos and analysis with homeowners, and were hoping the findings would increase enrollment in efficiency programs and also create business opportunities.”

MIT, who helped develop the technology’s use for energy tracking, has already thermally-mapped the entire city of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Their press writers brag that automated cameras attached to vehicles would collect data “similar to the way Google Street View vehicles obtain visual imagery.” This 55 second video provides a glimpse at their system:



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No surveillance without oversight

Given the FBI's record of fallibility – and without genuine safeguards for citizens – this $1bn biometrics project is alarming

Biometrics/Wikimedia image

Jay Stanley
Guardian

The FBI recently announced that its Next Generation Identification System (NGIS) has "reached its initial operating capacity". This vast new biometrics project, for which Lockheed Martin won a $1bn contract in 2008, encompasses not only fingerprints but also, possibly, such biometrics as iris scans, face recognition, bodily scars, marks and tattoos.

Such a system raises a number of concerns from a civil liberties perspective. Many types of biometrics are of particular concern because they allow individuals to be tracked secretly and at a distance. For instance, facial recognition may allow a person to be tracked by various CCTV cameras across a city. Worse, in the future, this may be automated and done by computers.

The FBI is rushing ahead with this system in a larger context that is very troubling. Since 9/11, we've repeatedly seen the government throw together new identity and tracking systems without building in the necessary protections to make sure innocent people aren't caught up in them. A good example is aviation watchlists. Countless travelers have found themselves trapped in a Kafkaesque nightmare – improperly listed as suspected terrorists, hassled, arrested or worse, and with no way to clear their names in the eyes of the government's secretive security bureaucracies. The problem is not just errors and mistaken identification, or the lack of due process or rigorous procedures for keeping the lists accurate, but also the possibility that government bureaucrats have used a "when in doubt, thrown a name on the list" approach.

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What the Patriot Act Does For You

Wikimedia Commons image

Philip Giraldi
AntiWar

Incessant warmaking overseas will someday end when the United States runs out of money or soldiers or both.  But less well understood is the collateral damage here at home where the consequences of the global war on terror will linger on in the form of a shattered constitution.  The Patriot Act is generally promoted as the principal legislative tool being used to fight international terrorism.  It is, in reality, a devastating and poorly conceived bit of legislation originally approved just after 9/11.  It will soon be up for an extension in the US Senate.  President Barack Obama, who criticized it while he was a candidate but apparently has had a change of heart since that time, favors its renewal.  Most members of Congress, few of whom have ever read the entire act, want it renewed.  The mainstream media likes it because who can resist patriotism?

That is the bad news.  But there is also some good news. Libertarians, traditional conservatives, progressives, and even some tea partiers are for the first time uniting to stop the extension.  Senator Rand Paul led the charge in the Senate back in February, resulting in a temporary 90 day continuation of key provisions of the act that will expire in May.  Before that happens, the Patriot Act will again be up for Senatorial approval but this time there will be an open debate in front of the full Senate and under the scrutiny of the media.  It will be the first time that has happened since 2001.  There will also be a roll call vote with each Senator having to come down for or against.  It is an opportunity not to be missed to roll back the tide of government intrusion in the life of every citizen.

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Domestic Drones Funded by You are Spying on You (Video)

Youtube

Facebook.com/JasonBermas
Youtube.com/JasonJustice911

RELATED ARTICLES:
How Close are We to a Nano-Based Surveillance State
Micro Drones to Fly Missions Over the US

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The Last Word on CCTV -- Big Brother (Video)

Corbett Report

What happens when the criminals control the cameras?

It’s difficult for us in this age of pervasive surveillance technology to appreciate just how thoroughly these technologies have altered our sense of the public and private spheres. Today Google can send Street View vans around the streets of our cities, snapping up pictures and wi-fi data alike, or the average person can share their most intimate details with social network “friends” who they’ve never even met. Now, with services like Google Latitude you can even allow these “friends” to track the precise GPS coordinates of your cell phone in real time. But 60 years ago, would-be purchasers of CCTV cameras had to be reassured that they didn’t need a special permit from the government to monitor their own property.



MORE VIDS by Corbett:
The Last Word on Overpopulation
The Last Word on Terrorism

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Military spending, collapse of US empire (VIDEO)

Fresh food that lasts from eFoods Direct (Ad)

Live Superfoods It is time to Wake Up! You too, can join the "Global Political Awakening"!

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