Filed under: 1984, Airport Security, Big Brother, bush, chertoff, conflict of interest, Control Grid, corruption, DHS, Dictatorship, Empire, False Flag, Fascism, Flight 253, full-body scanners, George Bush, Homeland Security, inside job, michael chertoff, Military Industrial Complex, mutallab, neocons, orwell, Police State, qui bono, scandal, State Sponsored Terrorism, Surveillance, TSA, War On Terror | Tags: L-3, L-3 Communications, Rapiscan, Rapiscan Systems, skeletor
Chertoff Linked to Body Scanner Manufacturer
Boston Globe
January 2, 2010
WASHINGTON – Since the attempted bombing of a US airliner on Christmas Day, former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff has given dozens of media interviews touting the need for the federal government to buy more full-body scanners for airports.
What he has made little mention of is that the Chertoff Group, his security consulting agency, includes a client that manufactures the machines. Chertoff disclosed the relationship on a CNN program Wednesday, in response to a question.
An airport passengers’ rights group on Thursday criticized Chertoff’s use of his former government credentials to advocate for a product that benefits his clients.
“Mr. Chertoff should not be allowed to abuse the trust the public has placed in him as a former public servant to privately gain from the sale of full-body scanners under the pretense that the scanners would have detected this particular type of explosive,’’ said Kate Hanni, founder of FlyersRights.org, which opposes the use of the scanners.
Chertoff’s advocacy for the technology dates to his time in the Bush administration. In 2005, Homeland Security ordered the government’s first batch of the scanners – five from California-based Rapiscan Systems. Rapiscan is one of only two companies that make full-body scanners in accordance with current contract specifications required by the federal government.
Currently 40 body scanners are in use among 19 US airports. The number is expected to skyrocket, at least in part because of the Christmas Day incident. The Transportation Security Administration has said it will order 300 more machines.
In the summer, TSA purchased 150 more machines from Rapiscan with $25 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds. Rapiscan was the only company that qualified for the contract because it had developed technology that performs the screening using a less-graphic body imaging system, which is also less controversial. (Since then, another company, L-3 Communications, has qualified for future contracts, but no new contracts have been awarded.)
Filed under: 9/11, 9/11 commission report, 9/11 Explosions, 9/11 Mysteries, 9/11 Truth, C-Span, DHS, domestic terror, domestic terrorism, False Flag, FBI, Homeland Security, inside job, internet, Internet 2, internet police, michael chertoff, nano thermite, New York, Official 9/11 Story, patriot movement, Pentagon, State Sponsored Terrorism, thermite, Truth Action, truth movement, twin towers, War On Terror, World Trade Center
Chertoff: 9/11 Truth Is Akin To Holocaust Denial
Filed under: 1984, 2-party system, 4th amendment, 9/11, Airport Security, Barack Obama, Big Brother, biometrics, Control Grid, DHS, Dictatorship, DMV, domestic terror, domestic terrorism, Drivers License, Empire, Fascism, Hitler, Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, left right paradigm, michael chertoff, nanny state, national id, national socialist, Nazi, neocons, Neolibs, New World Order, NWO, obama, orwell, Police State, Real ID, RFID, right to privacy, S. 1261, Surveillance, US Constitution, War On Terror
REAL ID Back From The Dead
Richard Esguerra
Electronic Frontier Foundation
August 24, 2009
In February, the opponents of REAL ID were given a bit of hope when Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that she wanted to repeal the REAL ID Act, the federal government’s failed plan to impose a national identification card through state driver’s licenses. But what has taken place since is no return to sanity, as political machinations have produced a cosmetic makeover called “PASS ID” that has revived the push for a national identification card.
The PASS ID Act (S. 1261) seeks to make many of the same ineffectual, dangerous changes the REAL ID Act attempted to impose. Fundamentally, PASS ID operates on the same flawed premise of REAL ID — that requiring various “identity documents” (and storing that information in databases for later access) will magically make state drivers’ licenses more legitimate, which will in turn improve national security.
Proponents seem to be blind to the systemic impotence of such an identification card scheme. Individuals originally motivated to obtain and use fake IDs will instead use fake identity documents to procure “real” drivers’ licenses. PASS ID creates new risks — it calls for the scanning and storage of copies of applicants’ identity documents (birth certificates, visas, etc.). These documents will be stored in databases that will become leaky honeypots of sensitive personal data, prime targets for malicious identity thieves or otherwise accessible by individuals authorized to obtain documents from the database. Despite some alterations to the scheme, PASS ID is still bad for privacy in many of the same ways the REAL ID was. And proponents of the national ID effort seem blissfully unaware of the creepy implications of a “papers please” mentality that may grow from the issuance of mandatory federal identification cards. Despite token provisions that claim to give states the freedom to issue non-federal identification cards, the card will be mandatory for most — the PASS ID Act seeks to require everyone to show the federally recognized ID for “any official purpose,” including boarding a plane or entering a federal building.
At the moment, health care reform is commanding tremendous attention and effort on the hill, so the PASS ID Act seems to be on the backburner for now. But after the August recess, anything can happen. So stay tuned for more about PASS ID and critical opportunities to flag your opposition to this flawed national ID scheme.
Filed under: amnesty, Barack Obama, Canada, EU, european union, Felipe Calderon, George Bush, global elite, global government, global union, Globalism, globalists, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, Mexico, michael chertoff, NAFTA, NAFTA Superhighway, NAU, New World Order, North American Union, obama, Propaganda, public relations, SPP, SPP Summit, Stephen Harper, us sovereignty | Tags: Christopher Sands, North American Competitiveness Council
Obama To Launch Propaganda Campaign For North American Union
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
July 23, 2009
A new report out of left leaning globalist think tank the Brookings Institute confirms an agenda to re-brand the long running effort to merge the US, Canada and Mexico into a Federal superstate akin to the European Union.
The report was highlighted by author Jerome Corsi, who points out that the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America has become much maligned owing to it’s quasi secretive advancement of a North American integration agenda.
“Two top Washington think-tanks have now formally suggested in writing that the Obama administration should rename the SPP as a public relations ploy to advance the North American integration agenda without drawing so much flak from those of us interested in preserving U.S. sovereignty,” Corsi writes in his Red Alert newsletter.
In the Brookings Institute report, titled “Toward a New Frontier: Improving the U.S.-Canadian Border”, Christopher Sands, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, where he specializes on North American economic integration, suggests the Obama administration should continue the agenda of the SPP, but under a new name.
“Despite evidence that NAFTA has been beneficial on balance to American business, workers, and consumers the argument remains vilified by many as an unwarranted move to embrace globalization.” Sands writes.
“President Obama recognized this on the campaign trail in 2008, when he called for the renegotiation of NAFTA’s provisions to correct flaws in the original agreement. As a result, the Obama administration will most likely rename the SPP.” Sands concludes.
The report also suggests focusing more on the integration of the US and Canada as a priority, before bringing Mexico into the equation.
Sands suggests the following three courses of action:
1. “President Obama should borrow from the lexicon of the European Union and announce that the United States will proceed in negotiations with its two neighbors ‘at two speeds,’ moving ahead more quickly where possible with its developed neighbor Canada, and allowing Mexico to proceed more slowly as necessary.”
2. “The Obama administration is likely to want to ‘press the reset button’ on the SPP, an unpopular though valuable initiative that has improved policy coordination between the United States and its neighbors.”
3. “The SPP must be re-branded to win any kind of consensus support. The Obama administration recognizes this, and could take a few tactical steps to make the SPP (or its eventual successor) work better and win broader support.”
Sands defines his vision of the re-branded SPP as an effort “to build a truly ‘new frontier’ on the northern border,” adding that “President Obama’s community organizing experience suits him well for the task ahead.”
Sands is deeply entrenched in the integration agenda, being a member of the Advisory Committee to the U.S. Section of The North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), organized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to consult with U.S. government officials in negotiations under the SPP.
The NACC is essentially an elite advisory board comprised of 30 senior private sector representatives of North American corporations that were selected by the American, Canadian and Mexican governments at the June 2006 trilateral meeting in Cancun, Mexico.
Last year, one month prior to the SPP summit in April, documents were uncovered relating how the NACC was formed as part of a public relations overhaul to counter critics of the SPP.
The documents detailed how, through the NACC, corporate representatives were urged to “humanize” North American integration, promote NAFTA success stories to employees and unions and evolve the harmonization agenda “without fueling protectionism”.
The move was seemingly a response to the continued exposition of the integration agenda, which led to representatives within Congress petitioning the government on the secretiveness of the SPP and multiple states introducing resolutions calling on their federal representatives to halt work on the so called “North American Union”.
Earlier this week we revealed that president Obama is scheduled to attend this year’s SPP meeting in Mexico in August 9-10, slated as the “North American Leader’s Summit”.
“The key to understanding what is going on with the SPP under the Obama administration is the realization that globalists always proceed under a stealth agenda,” Jerome Corsi comments.
“Globalists typically mask their real plans to produce regional governments out of trade agreements by changing names and designing different structures when initial attempts to destroy nation-states are exposed and stalled by citizens who are still patriotic enough to cherish what remains left of their national sovereignty.”
Filed under: 1984, 1st amendment, 9/11 Truth, Airport Security, Anti-War, Australia, Big Brother, biometrics, Bloggers, Britain, California, cashless society, cell phones, Censorship, China, Cold War, Congress, Control Grid, copyright, Darpa, data mining, DHS, Dictatorship, Dissent, Echelon, Empire, Europe, european union, facebook, False Flag, free speech, George Bush, Germany, global elite, global government, Globalism, google, gps, Homeland Security, inside job, internet, Internet 2, internet blackout, internet censorship, Internet Filtering, internet of things, internet police, IOT, IP, ISP, John McCain, john roberts, korea, london, Media, michael chertoff, microchip, microchips, Microsoft, nanny state, New World Order, New York, Oppression, orwell, Pentagon, Police State, Propaganda, RFID, RIAA, Science and technology, south korea, Spy, Surveillance, Tony Blair, uav, United Kingdom, US Constitution, Verichip, War On Terror, White House | Tags: HP, incheon, intel, internet regulation, john reid, korea, motorola, National Intelligence Council, new songdo city, NIC, NWO, paul otellini, privacy, Recording Industry Association of America, seoul, u-city, Ubiquitous computing, Ubiquitous living, Ubiquitous positioning, utopia, Video and Image Retrieval and Analysis Tool, VIRAT
Australia To Enforce Mandatory Chinese-Style Internet Censorship
Government to block “controversial” websites with universal national filter
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
October 29, 2008
The Australian government is set to impose Chinese-style Internet censorship by enforcing a universal national filter that will block websites deemed “controversial,” as part of a wider agenda to regulate the Internet according to free speech advocates.
A provision whereby Internet users could opt out of the filter by contacting their ISP has been stripped from the legislation, meaning the filter will be universal and mandatory.
The System Administrators Guild of Australia and Electronic Frontiers Australia have attacked the proposal, saying it will restrict web access, raise prices and slow internet traffic speeds.
The plan was first created as a way to combat child pornography and adult content, but could be extended to include controversial websites on euthanasia or anorexia,” reports the Australian Herald Sun.
Communications minister Stephen Conroy revealed the mandatory censorship to the Senate estimates committee as the Global Network Initiative, bringing together leading companies, human rights organisations, academics and investors, committed the technology firms to “protect the freedom of expression and privacy rights of their users”. (Complete black is white, up is down, double talk).
Human Rights Watch has condemned internet censorship, and argued to the US Senate “there is a real danger of a Virtual Curtain dividing the internet, much as the Iron Curtain did during the Cold War, because some governments fear the potential of the internet, (and) want to control it.”
Speaking from personal experience, not only are “controversial” websites blocked in China, meaning any website that is critical of the state, but every website the user attempts to visit first has to pass through the “great firewall,” causing the browser to hang and delay while it is checked against a government blacklist.
This causes excruciating delays, and the user experience is akin to being on a bad dial-up connection in the mid 1990’s. Even in the center of Shanghai with a fixed ethernet connection, the user experience is barely tolerable.
Not only are websites in China blocked, but e mails too are scanned for “controversial” words and blocked from being sent if they contain phrases related to politics or obscenities.
Googling for information on certain topics is also heavily restricted. While in China I tried to google “Bush Taiwan,” which resulted in Google.com ceasing to be accessible and my Internet connection was immediately terminated thereafter.
The Australian government will no doubt insist that their filter is in our best interests and is only designed to block child pornography, snuff films and other horrors, yet the system is completely pointless because it will not affect file sharing networks, which is the medium through which the vast majority of such material is distributed.
If we allow Australia to become the first “free” nation to impose Internet censorship, the snowball effect will only accelerate – the U.S. and the UK are next.
Indeed, Prime Minister Tony Blair called for Internet censorship last year.
In April 2007, Time magazine reported that researchers funded by the federal government want to shut down the internet and start over, citing the fact that at the moment there are loopholes in the system whereby users cannot be tracked and traced all the time. The projects echo moves we have previously reported on to clamp down on internet neutrality and even to designate a new form of the internet known as Internet 2.
Moves to regulate the web have increased over the last two years.
– In a display of bi-partisanship, there have been calls for all out mandatory ISP snooping on all US citizens by both Democrats and Republicans alike.
– In December 2006, Republican Senator John McCain tabled a proposal to introduce legislation that would fine blogs up to $300,000 for offensive statements, photos and videos posted by visitors on comment boards. It is well known that McCain has a distaste for his blogosphere critics, causing a definite conflict of interest where any proposal to restrict blogs on his part is concerned.
– During an appearance with his wife Barbara on Fox News in November 2006, George Bush senior slammed Internet bloggers for creating an “adversarial and ugly climate.”
– The White House’s own de-classified strategy for “winning the war on terror” targets Internet conspiracy theories as a recruiting ground for terrorists and threatens to “diminish” their influence.
– The Pentagon has also announced its effort to infiltrate the Internet and propagandize for the war on terror.
– In an October 2006 speech, Homeland Security director Michael Chertoff identified the web as a “terror training camp,” through which “disaffected people living in the United States” are developing “radical ideologies and potentially violent skills.” His solution is “intelligence fusion centers,” staffed by Homeland Security personnel which will are already in operation.
– The U.S. Government wants to force bloggers and online grassroots activists to register and regularly report their activities to Congress. Criminal charges including a possible jail term of up to one year could be the punishment for non-compliance.
– A landmark November 2006 legal case on behalf of the Recording Industry Association of America and other global trade organizations sought to criminalize all Internet file sharing of any kind as copyright infringement, effectively shutting down the world wide web – and their argument was supported by the U.S. government.
– A landmark legal ruling in Sydney goes further than ever before in setting the trap door for the destruction of the Internet as we know it and the end of alternative news websites and blogs by creating the precedent that simply linking to other websites is breach of copyright and piracy.
– The European Union, led by former Stalinist John Reid, has also vowed to shut down “terrorists” who use the Internet to spread propaganda.
– The EU data retention bill, passed after much controversy and implemented in 2007, obliges telephone operators and internet service providers to store information on who called who and who emailed who for at least six months. Under this law, investigators in any EU country, and most bizarrely even in the US, can access EU citizens’ data on phone calls, sms’, emails and instant messaging services.
– The EU also proposed legislation that would prevent users from uploading any form of video without a license.
– The US government is also funding research into social networking sites and how to gather and store personal data published on them, according to the New Scientist magazine. “At the same time, US lawmakers are attempting to force the social networking sites themselves to control the amount and kind of information that people, particularly children, can put on the sites.”
Governments are furious that their ceaseless lies are being exposed in real time on the World Wide Web and have resolved to stifle, regulate and control what truly is the last outpost of real free speech in the world. Internet censorship is perhaps the most pertinent issue that freedom advocates should rally to combat over the course of the next few years, lest we allow a cyber-gag to be placed over our mouths and say goodbye to our last medium of free and open communication.
DARPA building search engine for video surveillance footage
Ars Technica
October 21, 2008
The government agency that birthed the Internet is developing a sophisticated search engine for video, and when complete will allow intelligence analysts to sift through live footage from spy drones, as well as thousands of hours worth of archived recordings, in order to spot a variety of selected events or behaviors. In the past month, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced nearly $20 million in total contracts for private firms to begin developing the system, which is slated to take until at least 2011 to complete.
According to a prospectus written in March but released only this month, the Video and Image Retrieval and Analysis Tool (VIRAT) will enable intel analysts to “rapidly find video content of interest from archives and provide alerts to the analyst of events of interest during live operations,” taking both conventional video and footage from infrared scanners as input. The VIRAT project is an effort to cope with a growing data glut that has taxed intelligence resources because of the need to have trained human personnel perform time- and labor-intensive review of recorded video.
The DARPA overview emphasizes that VIRAT will not be designed with “face recognition, gait recognition, human identification, or any form of biometrics” in mind. Rather, the system will search for classes of activities or events. A suggested partial list in the prospectus includes digging, loitering, exploding, shooting, smoking, following, shaking hand, exchanging objects, crawling under a car, breaking a window, and evading a checkpoint. As new sample clips are fed into the system, it will need to recognize the signature features of new classes of search terms.
EU Set to Move ‘Internet of Things’ Closer to Reality
Daniel Taylor
Old-Thinker News
November 2, 2008
If the world-wide trend continues, ‘Web 3.0′ will be tightly monitored, and will become an unprecedented tool for surveillance. The “Internet of Things”, a digital representation of real world objects and people tagged with RFID chips, and increased censorship are two main themes for the future of the web.
The future of the internet, according to author and “web critic” Andrew Keen, will be monitored by “gatekeepers” to verify the accuracy of information posted on the web. The “Outlook 2009″ report from the November-December issue of The Futurist reports that,
“Internet entrepreneur Andrew Keen believes that the anonymity of today’s internet 2.0 will give way to a more open internet 3.0 in which third party gatekeepers monitor the information posted on Web sites to verify its accuracy.”
Keen stated during his early 2008 interview withThe Futurist that the internet, in its current form, has undermined mainline media and empowered untrustworthy “amateurs”, two trends that he wants reversed. “Rather than the empowerment of the amateur, Web 3.0 will show the resurgence of the professional,” states Keen.
Australia has now joined China in implementing mandatory internet censorship, furthering the trend towards a locked down and monitored web.
The Internet of Things
Now, the European Union has announced that it will pursue the main component of Web 3.0, the Internet of Things (IoT).
According to Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media for the EU, “The Internet of the future will radically change our society.” Ultimately, the EU is aiming to “lead the way” in the transformation to Web 3.0.
Reporting on the European Union’s pursuit of the IoT, iBLS reports,
“New technology applications will need ubiquitous Internet coverage. The Internet of Things means that wireless interaction between machines, vehicles, appliances, sensors and many other devices will take place using the Internet. It already makes electronic travel cards possible, and will allow mobile devices to exchange information to pay for things or get information from billboards (or streetlights).”
The Internet of Things consists of objects that are ‘tagged’ with Radio Frequency Identification Chips (RFID) that communicate their position, history, and other information to an RFID reader or wireless network. Most, if not all major computer companies and technology developers (HP, Cisco, Intel, Microsoft, etc.) are putting large amounts of time and money into the Internet of Things.
Cisco and Sun Microsystems have founded an alliance to promote the Internet of Things and further its implementation.
South Korea is at the forefront in implementing ubiquitous technology and the Internet of Things. An entire city, New Songdo, is being built in South Korea that fully utilizes the technology. Ubiquitous computing proponents in the United States admit that while a large portion of the technology is being developed in the U.S., it is being tested in South Korea where there are less traditional, ethical and social blockades to prevent its acceptance and use. As the New York Times reports
“Much of this technology was developed in U.S. research labs, but there are fewer social and regulatory obstacles to implementing them in Korea,” said Mr. Townsend [a research director at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, California], who consulted on Seoul’s own U-city plan, known as Digital Media City. ‘There is an historical expectation of less privacy. Korea is willing to put off the hard questions to take the early lead and set standards.’”
An April 2008 report from the National Intelligence Council discussed the Internet of Things and its possible implications.
A timeline shown in the April 2008 NIC report
The report outlines uses for the technology:
“Sensor networks need not be connected to the Internet and indeed often reside in remote sites, vehicles, and buildings having no Internet connection. Smart dust is a term that some have used to express a vision of tiny, wireless-connected sensors; more recently, others use the term to describe any of several technologies that range from the size of a pack of gum to a pack of cigarettes, and that are widely available to system developers.
Ubiquitous positioning describes technologies for locating objects that may reside anywhere, including indoors and underground locations where satellite signals may be unavailable or otherwise inadequate.
Biometrics enables technology to recognize people and other living things, rather than inanimate objects. Connected everyday objects could recognize authorized users by means of fingerprint, voiceprint, iris scan, or other biometric technology.”
These trends towards internet censorship and the internet of things are undoubtedly going to continue, but restricting your free speech and violating your privacy will be harder with your outspoken resistance.
DARPA spies on analyst brains; hopes to offload image analysis to computers
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20..-image-analysis-to-computers.html
Security services want personal data from sites like Facebook
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/oct/15/terrorism-security
UK.gov says: Regulate the internet
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/20/government_internet_regulation/
Filed under: 2008 Election, 9/11 Truth, Afghanistan, airstrikes, al-qaeda, biden, Bill Clinton, catastrophic event, Colin Powell, Coup, DHS, Dictatorship, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, egypt, Empire, False Flag, FBI, food crisis, food shortage, George Bush, Great Depression, Homeland Security, Hugo Chavez, inside job, Iran, Israel, joe biden, John McCain, Lebanon, Madeleine Albright, Martial Law, michael chertoff, middle east, Military, military strike, Mossad, nation building, neocons, Neolibs, New World Order, Nuke, NWO, obama, occupation, palestine, Russia, State Sponsored Terrorism, Syria, Taliban, Tehran, US Economy, us military, Venezuela, War On Terror, World Trade Center, WW3, ww4 | Tags: cuban missile crisis, Emad A. Salem, greek, Heracle, international crisis, Ramzi Yousef, roman
Biden Predicts “International Crisis” Within First 6 Months Of Obama Presidency
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars
October 20, 2008
In a striking moment of candor, Joe Biden tells us would-be president Obama will face “an international crisis within his first six months in power and he will need supporters to stand by him as he makes tough, and possibly unpopular, decisions,” Matthew Jaffe reports on ABC News’ Political Radar blog. Speaking at a Seattle fundraiser, Biden said this “test” would likely unfold in the Middle East or Russia. It would likely be coupled with the economy.
“Gird your loins,” Biden told the crowd. “We’re gonna win with your help, God willing, we’re gonna win, but this is not gonna be an easy ride. This president, the next president, is gonna be left with the most significant task. It’s like cleaning the Augean stables, man. This is more than just, this is more than – think about it, literally, think about it – this is more than just a capital crisis, this is more than just markets. This is a systemic problem we have with this economy.”
It is interesting Biden would mention Greek mythology to make his point. Augeas, one of the Argonauts, is best known for his stables, which housed the single greatest number of cattle in the country and had never been cleaned until the great hero Heracles came along. Apparently Biden would have us believe Obama is Heracles, the son of Zeus, know for his extraordinary strength, courage, ingenuity, and sexual prowess with both males and females. Biden also put the senator from Illinois in the same league as John F. Kennedy.
Biden said Obama, if elected, will do something extremely unpopular within the next year and will trend down in the polls. “I promise you, you all are gonna be sitting here a year from now going, ‘Oh my God, why are they there in the polls? Why is the polling so down? Why is this thing so tough?’ We’re gonna have to make some incredibly tough decisions in the first two years. So I’m asking you now, I’m asking you now, be prepared to stick with us. Remember the faith you had at this point because you’re going to have to reinforce us,” said Biden.
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
October 22, 2008
Joe Biden’s “guarantee” that an “international crisis” will unfold shortly after President Obama takes office conjures up several different possibilities, but it seems the likely outcome will revolve around an announcement that Iran has developed a nuclear bomb, prompting a potential military attack.
“It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy,” Biden told an audience in Seattle this past weekend.
“Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”
The assured tone with which Biden delivered his forecast was staggeringly convincing, and left the observer in no doubt that there will be a major world crisis shortly after Obama takes office. “Mark my words, mark my words,” Biden stressed, adding that “tough” and “unpopular” foreign policy decisions will have to be made.
“I promise you it will occur,” Biden added, “As a student of history and having served with seven presidents, I guarantee you it is going to happen.”
Biden’s use of the word “generated” is even more startling. One of the dictionary definitions we find for the word “generated” is “to bring into existence; cause to be; produce,” which begs the question, will this be another staged and manufactured crisis like the 9/11 attacks, which occurred less than 8 months after Bush took office?
Or will it be something even more serious, a nuclear conflagration involving Russia or Iran?
John McCain raised the specter of nuclear war yesterday when he warned that the United States faces “many challenges here at home, and many enemies abroad in this dangerous world,” before mentioning the 1962 Cuban Missile crisis.
Echoing Biden’s comments, McCain said the next president “won’t have time to get used to the office” and “I know how close we came to a nuclear war and I will not be a president that needs to be tested. I have been tested. Senator Obama has not.”
What is the test to which McCain and Biden refer, and how can they be so sure that it will arrive shortly after Obama takes office should he win the election as expected? What was Colin Powell referring to on Meet The Press when he said, “There’s going to be a crisis which will come along on the 21st, 22nd of January that we don’t even know about right now.”
The most likely scenario seems to revolve around Iran announcing, or the U.S. government claiming, that they are ready to build their first nuclear bomb.
Indeed, the Mossad front news outlet Debka File reported yesterday that “Iran will be ready to build its first bomb just one month after the next US president is sworn in.” The very next sentence of the report ties this in with Biden’s promise of an international crisis immediately after Obama takes office.
“DEBKAfile’s military sources cite the new US timeline: By late January, 2009, Iran will have accumulated enough low-grade enriched uranium (up to 5%) for its “break-out” to weapons grade (90%) material within a short time. For this, the Iranians have achieved the necessary technology. In February, they can move on to start building their first nuclear bomb,” according to the report.
Of course, the legitimacy of these claims are likely to be completely fabricated – the official U.S. National Intelligence Estimate concluded in December that Iran had suspended its nuclear weapons campaign in late 2003 – but the Israelis may be laying the groundwork for a propaganda offensive similar to the “weapons of mass destruction” scam that preceded the invasion of Iraq.
Will the military assault on Iran occur not under the highly unpopular Bush administration, as many had predicted, but under an Obama presidency? Riding into office on a wave of popular approval and support, Obama will have the political capital to get the country behind the attack if the threat of imminent danger is cited – or at least stand by and allow Israel to do the dirty work.
Will a nuclear flash point on the scale of the Cuban Missile Crisis turn out to be the “international crisis” that Biden so vehemently promised? Or will the event take on a different characteristic.
Bush exploited 9/11 to realize the pre-set agenda of his Neo-Con masters months after he was inaugurated and Bill Clinton seized upon the Oklahoma City Bombing shortly into his second term to expand federal power. What will Obama’s crisis be that enables him to offer his contribution to building the American police state?
– A terror attack, or a series of attacks, on major American cities, possibly involving crudely designed nuclear bombs or dirty bombs?
– A complete economic collapse and a new great depression leading to food riots and the imposition of martial law?
– A military showdown with Russia should Russia attempt to invade Georgia or another pro-U.S. Russian satellite country?
– A nuclear showdown with Russia should Russia start a nuclear war with Ukraine, as has been threatened?
– The necessity for another military attack on Afghanistan should the Taliban continue to regain control of the country?
– A confrontation with Venezuela should it be revealed that Hugo Chavez is receiving nuclear bomb technology from Russia or Iran?
– A new escalation in the Middle East should Israel deploy its nuclear arsenal to attack Iran, Syria Lebanon, or even Egypt?
Whatever the new “international crisis” that we have been guaranteed turns out to be, you can bet your bottom dollar that the response to it will ultimately lead to more carnage and a further assault on the fast-disappearing freedoms that we still enjoy – and in that sense under an Obama presidency, the more things “change,” the more they will stay the same.
National Intelligence Spooks Promise Terror Attack For New President
Both Clinton and Bush exploited bombings within first year of taking office, Obama or McCain likely to enjoy the same opportunity
Prison Planet
May 27, 2008
National intelligence spooks are all but promising that history will be repeated for a third time running, and the new President of the United States – likely Barack Obama or John McCain – will be welcomed into office by a terror attack that will occur within the first year of his tenure.
“When the next president takes office in January, he or she will likely receive an intelligence brief warning that Islamic terrorists will attempt to exploit the transition in power by planning an attack on America, intelligence experts say,” according to a report in the Washington Times.
“Islamic terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in February 1993, in Mr. Clinton’s second month as president. Al Qaeda’s Sept. 11 attacks came in the Bush presidency’s first year….The pattern is clear to some national security experts. Terrorists pay particular attention to a government in transition as the most opportune window to launch an attack.”
Naturally, the Washington Times article makes out as if a terror attack within the early stages of a new presidency is a bad thing, but both Clinton and Bush exploited terror in America to realize preconceived domestic and geopolitical agendas.
The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was an inside job from start to finish – it did not come as a “surprise” to the U.S. government since they ran the entire operation, having cooked the bomb for the “Islamic terrorists” that they had groomed for the attack.
In 1993 the FBI planted their informant, Emad A. Salem, within a radical Arab group in New York led by Ramzi Yousef. Salem was ordered to encourage the group to carry out a bombing targeting the World Trade Center’s twin towers. Under the illusion that the project was a sting operation, Salem asked the FBI for harmless dummy explosives which he would use to assemble the bomb and then pass on to the group. At this point the FBI cut Salem out of the loop and provided the group with real explosives, leading to the attack on February 26 that killed six and injured over a thousand people. The FBI’s failure to prevent the bombing was reported on by the New York Times in October 1993.
“Islamic terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in February 1993, in Mr. Clinton’s second month as president. Al Qaeda’s Sept. 11 attacks came in the Bush presidency’s first year….The pattern is clear to some national security experts. Terrorists pay particular attention to a government in transition as the most opportune window to launch an attack.”
Naturally, the Washington Times article makes out as if a terror attack within the early stages of a new presidency is a bad thing, but both Clinton and Bush exploited terror in America to realize preconceived domestic and geopolitical agendas.
Powell Warns Of Coming Crisis “which will come along on the 21st, 22nd of January that we don’t even know about right now”.
Echoes Biden comments that Obama will be tested in early days of his term
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
October 21, 2008
Colin Powell has made bizarre comments that echo the recent declaration by Democratic VP candidate Joe Biden that there will be an “international crisis” early into Barack Obama’s presidency that will test the new president by forcing him to make unpopular decisions.
Speaking on meet the press two days ago, Powell officially endorsed Obama and also made the following statement:
“The problems will always be there and there’s going to be a crisis which will come along on the 21st, 22nd of January that we don’t even know about right now.
So I think what the President has to start to do is to start using the power of the oval office and the power of his personality to convince the American people and convince the world that America is solid, that America is going to move forward, we are going to fix our economic problems, we’re going to meet out overseas obligations.”
Watch Powell make the comment at 2.35 into the following video:
Is Colin Powell referring to a theoretical crisis that could occur at any time? If so why does he choose a specific date, within the first two days after the inauguration? Also why does he refer to general problems that the new president will have to deal with in a separate context? We are already in an economic crisis, everyone knows that, so what new crisis is Powell talking about?
Chertoff: Change In President Fuels Vulnerability
Bloomberg
October 21, 2008
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the U.S. may be vulnerable to a terrorist attack during the next six months, with violent groups more likely to try to take advantage of a new president and administration.
“Any period of transition creates a greater vulnerability, meaning there’s more likelihood of distraction,’’ Chertoff said in an interview. “You have to be concerned it will create an operational opportunity for terrorists.’’
Albright Agrees with Biden: Obama Will Face Unexpected Test
http://blacklistednews.com/news-1974-0-20-20–.html
Obama Wants U.S. Troop Surge In Afghanistan
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/se..AM.20081022.wcampaign_speech23
Low priority for Palestinian issue if Obama elected US president
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5655
Filed under: 4th amendment, Airport Security, brainwashing, Conditioning, DHS, George Bush, Homeland Security, michael chertoff, neocons, Oppression, Police State, TSA, US Constitution, War On Terror | Tags: meryl chertoff, sesame street, The Freedom Center
Strip searches are now called “freedom searches”
TSA
September 21, 2008
TSA’s primary operational hub was re-named the Freedom Center, symbolizing the agency’s commitment to protecting the nation’s transportation systems against terrorist threats. The name was proposed by Todd Fox, security manager at Philadelphia International Airport, through an agency-wide contest asking TSA employees to submit names.
“The building houses a number of organizations whose main objective is to preserve the freedom of the American public. What better name would remind all of those who work in that building, and in the field, of that objective on a continuing basis.”
The Freedom Center houses many elements of the TSA, including the Federal Air Marshal Service/Office of Law Enforcement as well as other federal agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense. Located in Herndon, Va., it links all modes of transportation and coordinates with all homeland security agencies.
Homeland Security, Sesame Style
DC Examiner
September 18, 2008
When it comes to securing the homeland, who better to help you sleep at night than various characters from the popular children’s show, “Sesame Street” … ?!?
Seriously.
In a move that will make Bush administration detractors bring back those duct tape jokes again, the Department of Homeland Security has partnered up with the famous children’s show.
“We all want our children to feel safe in this world,” said Meryl Chertoff, wife of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, at a ceremony held at the John Tyler Elementary School to announce the partnership. “And who better to do that than our Sesame Street friends, Grover and Rosita!”
“I always knew that [Mr. and Mrs. Chertoff] would be big muppet Muppett supporters!” said Sesame Workshop CEO Gary Knell.
As you can imagine, the partnership is aimed at children, and seeks to encourage family preparedness plans in the case of emergencies.
“Family preparedness is the cornerstone of personal and community readiness,” said Secretary Chertoff in a statement (he was scheduled to attend the event, but has been busy handling the aftermath of Hurricane Ike in Texas). “And we could not be more pleased to team up with Sesame Workshop.”
But perhaps Grover puts it best in his introductory remarks, published in a pamphlet titled, “Let’s Get Ready!”
“I, your furry, blue friend Grover, have a story to share. Are you wondering what it is about? I will give you an itty-bitty hint: It is about getting ready for emergencies! Oh boy, that was a big hint. Do you want to get ready, too? You do? Oh, I am so pleased. Then read this story with me, and let us get ready together!”
Filed under: 1984, 4th amendment, Big Brother, Control Grid, data mining, DHS, DNI, FCC, George Bush, Homeland Security, internet, michael chertoff, Mike McConnell, Military, neocons, NSA, orwell, Russia, Surveillance, telecoms, US Constitution, War On Terror, warrantless search, warrantless wiretap | Tags: Computer Emergency Readiness Team, cyber security, Director of National Intelligence, einstein program, FY2009, IP, PINWALE, PINWHEEL, project einstein, SIGINT, signals intelligence, US-CERT
’Einstein’ Program: The All-seeing eye of internet activity
Wayne Madsen
Online Journal
September 19, 2008
WMR has learned from government sources that the Bush administration has authorized massive surveillance of the Internet using as cover a cyber-security multi-billion dollar project called the “Einstein” program.
Billed as a cyber-security intrusion detection system for federal computer systems and networks, WMR has been told that the actual intent of Einstein is to initially monitor the email and web surfing activities of federal employees and contractors and not in protecting government computer systems from intrusion by outsiders.
In February 2008, President Bush signed a directive that designated the National Security Agency (NSA) as the central administrator for the federal government’s computer and network security.
Although Einstein is primarily a program under the aegis of the Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) of the National Cyber Security Division of the Homeland Security Department, WMR has learned that it has the personal support of Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Mike McConnell, a former NSA director. Einstein is advertised as merely conducting traffic analysis within the dot (.) gov and dot (.) mil domains, including data packet lengths, protocols, source and destination IP addresses, source and destination ports, time stamp information, and autonomous system numbers. However, WMR has learned that Einstein will also bore down into the text of email and analyze message content. In fact, most of the classified budget allotted to Einstein is being used for collecting information from the text of messages and not the header data.
In fact, WMR has learned that most of the classified technology being used for Einstein was developed for the NSA in conducting signals intelligence (SIGINT) operations on email networks in Russia. Code-named PINWHEEL, the NSA email surveillance system targets Russian government, military, diplomatic, and commercial email traffic and burrows into the text portions of the email to search for particular words and phrases of interest to NSA eavesdroppers. According to NSA documents obtained by WMR, there is an NSA system code-named ”PINWALE.”
The DNI and NSA also plan to move Einstein into the private sector by claiming the nation’s critical infrastructure, by nature, overlaps into the commercial sector. There are classified plans, already budgeted in so-called “black” projects, to extend Einstein surveillance into the dot (.) com, dot (.) edu, dot (.) int, and dot (.) org, as well as other Internet domains. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has budgeted $5.4 billion for Einstein in his department’s FY2009 information technology budget. However, this amount does not take into account the “black” budgets for Einstein proliferation throughout the U.S. telecommunications network contained in the budgets for NSA and DNI.
In anticipation of the regulatory problems inherent in domestic email surveillance by the NSA, the Bush administration has ensured that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and industry associations have been stacked with pro-surveillance loyalists to ensure that Einstein is widely accepted and implemented.
Filed under: 1984, 4th amendment, 9/11, 9/11 Truth, Airport Security, Big Brother, bill of rights, Britain, CCTV, civil liberties, civil rights, Control Grid, Darpa, DHS, Dictatorship, domestic terror, domestic terrorism, Empire, Europe, european union, Fascism, Ground Zero, Homeland Security, michael chertoff, militarized police, Military, Military Industrial Complex, nanny state, Nazi, New York, NYPD, NYSE, Oppression, orwell, Police State, Posse Comitatus, privacy rights, stasi, stasi tactics, Surveillance, TSA, United Kingdom, urban warfare, US Constitution, War On Terror | Tags: Combat Zones That See, cop cam, CTS, donna lieberman, license plate, Manhattan, new yorkers' civil liberties, NYCLU, operation sentinel, plate scan, plate scanning, police fortress, radiation, radiation detector, ray kelly, red light camera, ring of steel, toll camera, union
New York Turns Into a High-Tech Police Fortress
Antifascist
August 14, 2008
However, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) has denounced the proposal as “an attack on New Yorkers’ right to privacy.” NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman lambasted this outrageous proposal saying,
Despite repeated attempts by NYCLU to obtain information on Operation Sentinel, NYPD and DHS have refused to provide any information about their mega-surveillance system. While all traces of CTS disappeared from DARPA’s website, portions of the program have resurfaced with a vengeance, courtesy of the NYPD and DHS.
According to New York Times reporter Al Baker,
Data on each vehicle–its time-stamped image, license plate imprint and radiological signature–would be sent to a command center in Lower Manhattan, where it would be indexed and stored for at least a month as part of a broad security plan that emphasizes protecting the city’s financial district, the spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said. If it were not linked to a suspicious vehicle or a law enforcement investigation, it would be eliminated, he said. (“City Would Photograph Every Vehicle Entering Manhattan and Sniff Out Radiation,” The New York Times, August 12, 2008)
Filed under: 2004 election, Airport Security, al-qaeda, Child Abuse, CNN, Congress, Department of justice, DHS, Dictatorship, DOJ, Empire, FBI, George Bush, Homeland Security, House, Karl Rove, Media, michael chertoff, national guard, neocons, Senate, TSA, War On Terror | Tags: drew griffin, jim moore
Bush’s Political Enemies Put on No-Fly List
7-Year Old Put On Terror Watch List
http://www.news.com.au/adelai..0,22606,24147755-5006301,00.html
Filed under: 4th amendment, 9/11, 9/11 Truth, al-qaeda, civil liberties, civil rights, copyright, Department of justice, Dictator, DoD, Empire, False Flag, hackers, Hegelian Dialectic, Homeland Security, internet, Internet 2, michael chertoff, Nuke, Patriot Act, Problem Reaction Solution, Ron Paul, State Sponsored Terrorism, US Constitution, War On Terror | Tags: cyber security, cyber terrorism, EFF, electronic frontier foundation, HR 4279, i9/11, Information Card Foundation, Intellectual Property Enforcement Act of 2007, ipatriot act, lawrence lessing, PRO-IP Act, Richard Clarke, S. 522
Law Professor: Counter Terrorism Czar Told Me There Is Going To Be An i-9/11 And An i-Patriot Act
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
August 5, 2008
Amazing revelations have emerged concerning already existing government plans to overhaul the way the internet functions in order to apply much greater restrictions and control over the web.
Lawrence Lessig, a respected Law Professor from Stanford University told an audience at this years Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Half Moon Bay, California, that “There’s going to be an i-9/11 event” which will act as a catalyst for a radical reworking of the law pertaining to the internet.
Lessig also revealed that he had learned, during a dinner with former government Counter Terrorism Czar Richard Clarke, that there is already in existence a cyber equivalent of the Patriot Act, an “i-Patriot Act” if you will, and that the Justice Department is waiting for a cyber terrorism event in order to implement its provisions.
During a group panel segment titled “2018: Life on the Net”, Lessig stated:
There’s going to be an i-9/11 event. Which doesn’t necessarily mean an Al Qaeda attack, it means an event where the instability or the insecurity of the internet becomes manifest during a malicious event which then inspires the government into a response. You’ve got to remember that after 9/11 the government drew up the Patriot Act within 20 days and it was passed.
The Patriot Act is huge and I remember someone asking a Justice Department official how did they write such a large statute so quickly, and of course the answer was that it has been sitting in the drawers of the Justice Department for the last 20 years waiting for the event where they would pull it out.
Of course, the Patriot Act is filled with all sorts of insanity about changing the way civil rights are protected, or not protected in this instance. So I was having dinner with Richard Clarke and I asked him if there is an equivalent, is there an i-Patriot Act just sitting waiting for some substantial event as an excuse to radically change the way the internet works. He said “of course there is”.
Watch Lessig reveal the details at 4.30 into the following video:
Lessig is the founder of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society. He is founding board member of Creative Commons and is a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and of the Software Freedom Law Center. He is best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications.
These are clearly not the ravings of some paranoid cyber geek.
The Patriot Act, as well as its lesser known follow up the Domestic Security Enhancement Act 2003, also known as USA Patriot Act II, have been universally decried by civil libertarians and Constitutional scholars from across the political spectrum. They have stripped back basic rights and handed what have been described by even the most moderate critics as “dictatorial control” over to the president and the federal government.
Many believed that the legislation was a response to the attacks of 9/11, but the reality was that the Patriot Act was prepared way in advance of 9/11 and it sat dormant, awaiting an event to justify its implementation.
In the days after the attacks it was passed in the House by a majority of 357 to 66. It passed the Senate by 98 to 1. Congressman Ron Paul (R-Tex) told the Washington Times that no member of Congress was even allowed to read the legislation.
Now we discover that exactly the same freedom restricting legislation has already been prepared for the cyber world.
An i-9/11, as described by Lawrence Lessig, would provide the perfect pretext to implement such restrictions in one swift motion, as well as provide the justification for relegating and eliminating specific content and information on the web.
Such an event could come in the form of a major viral attack, the hacking of a major city’s security or transport systems, or some other vital systems, or a combination of all of these things. Considering the amount of unanswered questions regarding 9/11 and all the indications that it was a covert false flag operation, it isn’t hard to imagine such an event being played out in the cyber world.
However, regardless of any i-9/11 or i-Patriot Act, there is already a coordinated effort to stem the reach and influence of the internet.
We have tirelessly warned of this general movement to restrict, censor, control and eventually completely shut down the internet as we know it, thereby killing the last real vestige of free speech in the world today and eliminating the greatest communication and information tool ever conceived.
Our governments have reams of legislation penned to put clamps on the web as we know it. Legislation such as the PRO-IP Act of 2007: H.R. 4279, that would create an IP czar at the Department of Justice and the Intellectual Property Enforcement Act of 2007: S. 522, which would create an entire ‘Intellectual Property Enforcement Network’. These are just two examples.
In addition, we have already seen how the major corporate websites and social networks are decentralizing and coming together to implement overarching identification, verification and access systems that have been described by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as “the beginning of a movement and the beginning of an industry.”
Some of these major tech companies have already joined efforts in projects such as the Information Card Foundation, which has proposed the creation of a system of internet ID cards that will be required for internet access. Of course, such a system would give those involved the ability to track and control user activity much more effectively. This is just one example.
In addition, as we reported yesterday, major transportation hubs like St. Pancras International, as well as libraries, big businesses, hospitals and other public outlets that offer wi-fi Internet, are blacklisting alternative news websites and making them completely inaccessible to their users.
These precedents are merely the first indication of what is planned for the Internet over the next 5-10 years, with the traditional web becoming little more than a vast spy database that catalogues people’s every activity and bombards them with commercials, while those who comply with centralized control and regulation of content will be free to enjoy the new super-fast Internet 2.
We must speak out about this rampant move to implement strict control mechanisms on the web NOW before it is too late, before the spine of the free internet is broken and its body essentially becomes paralyzed beyond repair.
http://earthhopenetwork.net/forum/printthread.php?tid=572
The Future of the ‘iPatriot Act’
http://futureoftheinternet.org/the-future-of-the-ipatriot-act
Filed under: 1984, 4th amendment, 9/11, Airport Security, Big Brother, Canada, catastrophic event, cell phones, Checkpoints, Control Grid, DHS, Homeland Security, internet, internet police, Mexico, michael chertoff, nanny state, orwell, pedophilia, Police State, Problem Reaction Solution, Ron Paul, TSA, Uncategorized, US Constitution, war on drugs, War On Terror, warrantless search | Tags: data protection act, ipod, laptops
Homeland Security Can Steal Travelers’ Private Property
Laptops, Ipods, cell-phones, flash-drives, and even ’pocket litter’ can be confiscated by Homeland Security agents at the border without probable cause
Lee Rogers
Rogue Government
August 4, 2008
The Department of Homeland Security more popularly known as the Department of Homeland Enslavement has now come out and stated that they have the authority to confiscate people’s personal property including laptops, electronic devices and even paperwork at the border without any probable cause. They also claim that they can hold those items for an unspecified period of time. All of this they claim is justified under the guise of fighting terrorists. It doesn’t matter that thousands of illegal aliens are entering the country from Mexico unchecked. No, instead the Department of Homeland Security thinks its more effective stealing the property of U.S. citizens to keep us safe from terrorists. Any member of the Department of Homeland Security that takes the property of a U.S. citizen without a warrant should immediately be charged with theft. Of course, in this insane world we live in, that will never happen and the people who conduct this activity will probably be given some sort of freedom medal. This is just another case of the government taking a big dump on the Fourth Amendment which at this point is non-existent.
Before getting into the policies themselves, here is the text of the Fourth Amendment.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The government cannot search and seize an individual’s property unless they obtain a court order that can only be issued based upon probable cause. Keep that in mind, as we analyze the Department of Homeland Security’s policies.
The following is taken from a Washington Post piece covering these policies:
Federal agents may take a traveler’s laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.
Also, officials may share copies of the laptop’s contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
This policy is obviously illegal as it is not in accordance with the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, which makes this policy null and void. What’s really insane, is that they claim they have the authority to share the data on these electronic devices with anyone they want for any specific purpose. It is bad enough that these clowns say that they can take laptops and electronic devices without any probable cause, but they also claim that they can take people’s papers including books, pamphlets and written materials. The insanity of this is unparalleled.
Also from the Washington Post report:
The policies cover “any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form,” including hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes. They also cover “all papers and other written documentation,” including books, pamphlets and “written materials commonly referred to as ’pocket trash’ or ’pocket litter.’ “
How can the Department of Homeland Security declare that they have these powers when it is clearly not in accordance with the Constitution? There needs to be an investigation into the criminals that drafted these policies. They should start the investigation at the very top with the Skeletor look-a-like Michael Chertoff who as head of the agency has willingly implemented all sorts of illegal policies and programs under the guise of this phony terror war.
Again from the Washington Post report:
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff wrote in an opinion piece published last month in USA Today that “the most dangerous contraband is often contained in laptop computers or other electronic devices.” Searches have uncovered “violent jihadist materials” as well as images of child pornography, he wrote.
Even if you believe Chertoff’s claims on contraband and believe the bogus terror war is real, it doesn’t warrant the Department Homeland Security going on fishing expeditions. Assuming the false reality of the terror war is real, one has to question’s Chertoff’s sanity considering that he is focusing more of the government’s resources on seizing people’s laptops and personal property with no probable cause than stopping illegal aliens entering the United States unchecked from Mexico. Wouldn’t it be more likely that a terrorist would try to come into the country undetected instead of going through border checkpoints? This is especially true, considering that there is militarized combat and drug trafficking taking place frequently on the U.S.-Mexico border. Of course, Chertoff doesn’t care about any of that.
The bottom line is that the terror war is not real and everything Chertoff is implementing is designed to enslave the American people. People are more likely to die in a car accident or in a swimming pool than from an act of terrorism. The Department of Homeland Security should be abolished and at the very least, Chertoff and his minions should find their way to unemployment lines. This policy of seizing people’s personal property is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment, and the people who are responsible for drafting and implementing this policy need to be put in prison.
Be sure to check out these other articles analyzing this illegal search and seizure policy by the Department of Homeland Security.
Detroit Free Press: Leave My Laptop Alone
Information Week: All Your Laptops Belong To Us
LA Times: Feds Now Arrest Your Laptops At Border
Ron Paul sponsors ’Data Protection Act’: Border agents require “reasonable suspicion” to search or confiscate laptops
Fort Bend Now
August 7, 2008
Ron Paul has sponsored legislation designed to require border agents to have “reasonable suspicion” to search the digital equipment of a traveler entering the United States.
Paul said his legislation would force Department of Homeland Security agents to have at least reasonable suspicion that a person has engaged, or is about to engage, in criminal activity before they can search a traveler’s digital equipment. Currently, he pointed out, federal officers can search or seize a traveler’s laptop computer, Blackberry or other electronic device without cause.
That, Paul said, is unconstitutional.
http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,26058,24089084-5014090,00.html
Travelers Laptops May Be Stolen At Border
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/content/article/2008/08/01/laptops.html
U.S. Agents Can Seize Laptops
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Government/US-Agents-Can-Seize-Laptops/?kc=rss
TSA Proud Of Confisicating Non-Dangerous Item
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/07/tsa_proud_of_co.html
http://features.csmonitor.com/innov..efends-laptop-searches-at-the-border/
Airport scans for illegal downloads on iPods, mobile phones and laptops
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/ma..ed/2008/07/10/nairport110.xml
India: NSA to tap data traffic passing through Blackberry devices
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/07/13/stories/2008071350580500.htm
The right to peer inside your iPod
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jul/10/intellectualproperty.law
Filed under: 1984, 1st amendment, 2nd Amendment, 4th amendment, Air Force, anti gun, Anti-War, army, Big Brother, bill of rights, Britain, Canada, civil liberties, civil rights, Department of Defense, DHS, Dictatorship, Dissent, DoD, Empire, Europe, european union, Fascism, FOIA, free speech, global elite, global government, global police force, Globalism, Gun Control, Homeland Security, Israel, marine, mark koernke, Martial Law, michael chertoff, Military, militia, national guard, Nazi, New World Order, Oppression, patriot movement, police brutality, Police State, Posse Comitatus, presidential directive, Protest, Provocateurs, Psyops, puerto rico, SPP Summit, Surveillance, Troops, UN, United Kingdom, US Constitution, US Marshal, USMC, War On Terror, Washington D.C., world police force, Zionism | Tags: cidcon-1, israeli police, Montebello, opsec
Operation Garden Plot: Military & U.N. to Control Civil Dissent
Filed under: 1984, 4th amendment, Air Force, Big Brother, Control Grid, DHS, Dictatorship, Empire, George Bush, Homeland Security, Martial Law, Media, michael chertoff, Military, MSNBC, neocons, Pentagon, Police State, Posse Comitatus, Spy, spy satellite, Surveillance, Troops, Uncategorized, US Constitution, warrantless search, Washington D.C., White House
Pentagon Will Buy More Spy Satellites
AP
July 1, 2008
The Pentagon will buy and operate one or two commercial imagery satellites and plans to design and build another with more sophisticated spying capabilities, according to government and private industry officials.
The satellites could spy on enemy troop movements, spot construction at suspected nuclear sites and alert commanders to new militant training camps.
The Broad Area Surveillance Intelligence Capability (BASIC) satellite system will cost between $2 billion and $4 billion. It would add to the secret constellation of satellites that now circle the Earth, producing still images that are pieced together into one large mosaic.
A single satellite can visit one spot on Earth twice every day. BASIC’s additional satellites will allow the photos to be updated more often, alerting U.S. government users to potential trouble, humanitarian crises or natural disasters like floods.
The announcement of the BASIC program, expected this week, has been delayed for months, with Pentagon, Air Force, and National Reconnaissance Office officials fighting over who should be in charge of buying, building and operating the satellites. They have also debated whose needs the system will cater to: senior military commanders or policymakers in Washington, D.C.
At stake was not just money but power: billion-dollar budgets are up for grabs, and the agencies’ traditional missions and way of doing business have been hanging in the balance.
The National Reconnaissance Office ultimately won the right to buy and operate the satellites, besting the Air Force. And military commanders’ needs trumped the White House. They will, for the first time, have the power to dictate what satellites will photograph when they pass overhead. The concept is known as “assured tasking.”
Filed under: 1984, 4th amendment, Big Brother, Control Grid, DHS, Dictatorship, Empire, George Bush, Homeland Security, Martial Law, Media, michael chertoff, Military, MSNBC, neocons, Police State, Posse Comitatus, Spy, spy satellite, Surveillance, Troops, US Constitution, warrantless search | Tags: Michael Isikoff
Isikoff: Bush wants satellites for domestic spying
David Edwards
Raw Story
June 29, 2008
MSNBC’s Alex Witt talked to Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff about a new proposal by the Bush administration to use satellites for domestic surveillance.
Isikoff told MSNBC, “The Homeland Security Department is talking about expanding the program to use military satellites really, for domestic purposes. They say the primary driver is natural disasters — like the recent flooding in the midwest — to pinpoint areas that are most hard hit and to help with responses, first responses. But they also leave open the possibility that this could be used for other purposes, law enforce many purposes. Tracking potential terrorists but also tracking potential drug operations.”
“And that is where the concerns about civil liberty abuses come in. First of all, there are strict laws about the act that limits the use of the U.S. military for law enforcement purposes. But the precision of these satellites, they can literally capture crystal clear images of your car as you leave the studio this afternoon. And capture them in computer databases — in the government computer databases. And it raises all sorts of concerns. To some degree, the administration is paying the price of what is for — what many in congress see as way over stepping — in the electronic surveillance era.”
DHS to give cops real-time satellite surveillance
http://noworldsystem.com/2008/04..-time-satellite-surveillance/
Filed under: biometrics, Congress, DHS, Dictatorship, Empire, Homeland Security, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, michael chertoff, North American Union, Real ID, supreme court | Tags: sierra club
Chertoff waives 37 laws; Supreme Court doesn’t have a problem with that
Texas Observer
June 23, 2008
Today the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge to Homeland Security czar Michael Chertoff’s all encompassing powers to waive federal laws to build a border fence, effectively ending the case.
The Defenders of Wildlife and Sierra Club had petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court. Their argument was a simple one: Chertoff, a political appointee who is not directly accountable to American voters, should not have the authority to bypass almost any federal law that he chooses.
On April 1, Chertoff waived 37 federal laws ranging from the Antiquities Act to the Native American Grave Repatriation Act.
Apparently, the U.S. Supreme Court didn’t have a problem with Chertoff’s all encompassing powers. It was a sad day for the rule of law.
Matt Clark, the southwest representative for Defenders of Wildlife, has been working on the lawsuit for more than a year. He was especially crushed that the U.S. Supreme Court didn’t even deem it necessary to explain why it declined to hear the case.
“I’ve worked for many years on some very hard environmental battles,” says Clark. “But I can say this is the first time I’ve ever been really really depressed about how our government is handling things.”
Congress gave Chertoff the power to steamroll the legal system through an obscure provision in the Real ID act, the gift that keeps on giving. Not only does it grant Chertoff unprecedented power, his waivers cannot be challenged in court. The only ray of light in a very dark judicial tunnel is a constitutional challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is under no obligation to hear the case.
Both Defenders and Sierra Club say their focus is now Congress (don’t hold your breath). “Our hope is that Congress will pass something to rectify its mistake,” Clark says. “We need accountability, transparency and a government who listens to its people.”
There is also a similar challenge in a federal court in El Paso. “We still insist that this is a violation of the separation of powers and that it’s unconstitutional,” says Oliver Bernstein of the Sierra Club. The club is not involved in the El Paso case but is watching with interest. “We don’t see any reason the outcome [of the El Paso case] would be redetermined,” says Bernstein.
Clark says Defenders of Wildlife will continue to push Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva’s legislation to repeal Chertoff’s waiver authority. To date, 49 congressional members have signed on to Grijalva’s bill doing so, including every single border legislator with the exception of two. No Republicans have signed on as of yet, however.
Clark says he watches the progress of the border fence daily in Arizona. Just the other day he visited the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument where Chertoff is erecting an 18-foot steel wall and destroying the natural environment in the process. Building in the desert will still be easier than the logistical challenges that await them in Texas. “They have no idea what they are up against, particularly in South Texas,” says Bernstein.
At $4 million a mile, taxpayers can be rest assured the only thing our government is securing is our tax dollars.
Filed under: ABC, BBC, DHS, Fox News, Globalism, Homeland Security, i-69, Media, michael chertoff, NAFTA, NAFTA Superhighway, North American Union, Real ID, Ron Paul, Texas, trans texas corridor, TTC
NAFTA Superhighway Stalled: Ron Paul
Ron Paul
House.gov
June 23, 2008
I am pleased to report that last week we received notice that the Texas Department of Transportation will recommend the I-69 Project be developed using existing highway facilities instead of the proposed massive new Trans Texas Corridor/NAFTA Superhighway. According to the Texas Transportation Commissioner, consideration is no longer being given to new corridors and other proposals for a new highway footprint for this project. A major looming threat to property rights and national sovereignty is removed with this encouraging announcement.
Public outcry was cited as the main reason for this decision. I was very impressed to learn that the TxDOT received nearly 28,000 public comments on this matter, and that some 12,000 Texans attended the 47 public hearings held earlier this year. They could not ignore this tsunami of strong public opinion against the proposed plans. I was especially proud of how informed my constituents became on the subject, and how eloquently and respectfully they spoke and conducted themselves, considering how upsetting the plans were for our communities in Texas .
This is a major victory for the people of Texas , and a reminder of what we can accomplish with civic involvement. The informed and active citizen truly is a force to be reckoned with, as we have seen with the defeat of this proposal. We must keep fighting the good fight, and remain ever diligent against the encroachments of big government. We must do this if we wish to maintain our traditional standard of living in this country. As tempting as it may be to simply live our lives with no regard to government, apathy will inevitably be punished by ever more government intrusion. That is what this fight was all about. We can win if we stick together.
http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2008..d-real-id-verification-hub/
DHS Announces $79 Million in State Grants for REAL ID
http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1213973982746.shtm
Dear Deluded Mass Media, North American Union Agenda Exists
http://www.infowars.net/articles/december2007/031207NAU.htm
Filed under: 1984, 1st amendment, Alex Jones, AOL, apple, Australia, Big Brother, bill gates, Britain, Canada, Censorship, China, comcast, Communism, corporatism, DHS, Europe, european union, Fascism, FCC, France, free speech, Homeland Security, Internet 2, internet blackout, Internet Filtering, internet police, internet tax, ISP, ISPs, michael chertoff, Microsoft, net neutrality, NSA, Pentagon, Propaganda, ration, Surveillance, Time Warner, United Kingdom, US Constitution, verison, virgin, War On Terror, White House | Tags: john reid, p2p, ransomware, TELUS
Secret Plan To Kill Internet By 2012
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
June 11, 2008
ISP’s have resolved to restrict the Internet to a TV-like subscription model where users will be forced to pay to visit selected corporate websites by 2012, while others will be blocked, according to a leaked report. Despite some people dismissing the story as a hoax, the wider plan to kill the traditional Internet and replace it with a regulated and controlled Internet 2 is manifestly provable.
“Bell Canada and TELUS (formerly owned by Verizon) employees officially confirm that by 2012 ISP’s all over the globe will reduce Internet access to a TV-like subscription model, only offering access to a small standard amount of commercial sites and require extra fees for every other site you visit. These ’other’ sites would then lose all their exposure and eventually shut down, resulting in what could be seen as the end of the Internet,” warns a report that has spread like wildfire across the web over the last few days.
The article, which is accompanied by a You Tube clip, states that Time Magazine writer “Dylan Pattyn” has confirmed the information and is about to release a story – and that the move to effectively shut down the web could come as soon as 2010.
People have raised questions about the report’s accuracy because the claims are not backed by another source, only the “promise” that a Time Magazine report is set to confirm the rumor. Until such a report emerges many have reserved judgment or outright dismissed the story as a hoax.
What is documented, as the story underscores, is the fact that TELUS’ wireless web package allows only restricted pay-per-view access to a selection of corporate and news websites. This is the model that the post-2012 Internet would be based on.
People have noted that the authors of the video seem to be more concerned about getting people to subscribe to their You Tube account than fighting for net neutrality by prominently featuring an attractive woman who isn’t shy about showing her cleavage. The vast majority of the other You Tube videos hosted on the same account consist of bizarre avante-garde satire skits on behalf of the same people featured in the Internet freedom clip. This has prompted many to suspect that the Internet story is merely a stunt to draw attention to the group.
Whether the report is accurate or merely a crude hoax, there is a very real agenda to restrict, regulate and suffocate the free use of the Internet and we have been documenting its progression for years.
The first steps in a move to charge for every e mail sent have already been taken. Under the pretext of eliminating spam, Bill Gates and other industry chieftains have proposed Internet users buy credit stamps which denote how many e mails they will be able to send. This of course is the death knell for political newsletters and mailing lists.
The New York Times reported that “America Online and Yahoo, two of the world’s largest providers of e-mail accounts, are about to start using a system that gives preferential treatment to messages from companies that pay from 1/4 of a cent to a penny each to have them delivered. The senders must promise to contact only people who have agreed to receive their messages, or risk being blocked entirely.”
The first wave will simply attempt to price people out of using the conventional Internet and force people over to Internet 2, a state regulated hub where permission will need to be obtained directly from an FCC or government bureau to set up a website.
The original Internet will then be turned into a mass surveillance database and marketing tool. The Nation magazine reported in 2006 that, “Verizon, Comcast, Bell South and other communications giants are developing strategies that would track and store information on our every move in cyberspace in a vast data-collection and marketing system, the scope of which could rival the National Security Agency. According to white papers now being circulated in the cable, telephone and telecommunications industries, those with the deepest pockets–corporations, special-interest groups and major advertisers–would get preferred treatment. Content from these providers would have first priority on our computer and television screens, while information seen as undesirable, such as peer-to-peer communications, could be relegated to a slow lane or simply shut out.”
Over the past few years, a chorus of propaganda intended to demonize the Internet and further lead it down a path of strict control has spewed forth from numerous establishment organs:
- Time magazine reported last year that researchers funded by the federal government want to shut down the internet and start over, citing the fact that at the moment there are loopholes in the system whereby users cannot be tracked and traced all the time.
- In a display of bi-partisanship, there have recently been calls for all out mandatory ISP snooping on all US citizens by both Democrats and Republicans alike.
-
The White House’s own recently de-classified strategy for “winning the war on terror” targets Internet conspiracy theories as a recruiting ground for terrorists and threatens to “diminish” their influence.
-
The Pentagon recently announced its effort to infiltrate the Internet and propagandize for the war on terror.
-
In a speech last October, Homeland Security director Michael Chertoff identified the web as a “terror training camp,” through which “disaffected people living in the United States” are developing “radical ideologies and potentially violent skills.” His solution is “intelligence fusion centers,” staffed by Homeland Security personnel which will go into operation next year.
-
The U.S. Government wants to force bloggers and online grassroots activists to register and regularly report their activities to Congress. Criminal charges including a possible jail term of up to one year could be the punishment for non-compliance.
-
A landmark legal case on behalf of the Recording Industry Association of America and other global trade organizations seeks to criminalize all Internet file sharing of any kind as copyright infringement, effectively shutting down the world wide web – and their argument is supported by the U.S. government.
-
A landmark legal ruling in Sydney goes further than ever before in setting the trap door for the destruction of the Internet as we know it and the end of alternative news websites and blogs by creating the precedent that simply linking to other websites is breach of copyright and piracy.
-
The European Union, led by former Stalinist and potential future British Prime Minister John Reid, has also vowed to shut down “terrorists” who use the Internet to spread propaganda.
-
The EU data retention bill, passed last year after much controversy and with implementation tabled for late 2007, obliges telephone operators and internet service providers to store information on who called who and who emailed who for at least six months. Under this law, investigators in any EU country, and most bizarrely even in the US, can access EU citizens’ data on phone calls, SMS messages, emails and instant messaging services.
-
The EU also recently proposed legislation that would prevent users from uploading any form of video without a license.
- The US government is also funding research into social networking sites and how to gather and store personal data published on them, according to the New Scientist magazine. “At the same time, US lawmakers are attempting to force the social networking sites themselves to control the amount and kind of information that people, particularly children, can put on the sites.”
The projects echo moves we have previously reported on to clamp down on internet neutrality and even to designate a new form of the internet known as Internet 2.
The development of a new form of internet with new regulations is also designed to create an online caste system whereby the old internet hubs would be allowed to break down and die, forcing people to use the new taxable, censored and regulated world wide web.
Make no mistake, the internet, one of the greatest outposts of free speech ever created is under constant attack by powerful people who cannot operate within a society where information flows freely and unhindered. Both American and European moves mimic stories we hear every week out of state controlled Communist China, where the internet is strictly regulated and virtually exists as its own entity away from the rest of the web.
The Internet is freedom’s best friend and the bane of control freaks. Its eradication is one of the short term goals of those that seek to centralize power and subjugate their populations under tyranny by eliminating the right to protest and educate others by the forum of the free world wide web.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/june2008/061208_pull_plug.htm
Ransomware: Hackers can hold your PC files for ransom
http://blogs.computerworld.com/rans..are_armageddon_approaches
Record Percentage Of Americans Use Internet For Politics, Survey Finds
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/06/record-percenta.html
Copyright deal could toughen rules governing info on iPods, computers
http://www.canada.com/topics/t..ae997868-220b-4dae-bf4f-47f6fc96ce5e
Charging by the Byte to Curb Internet Traffic
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/1..&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
Filed under: 2-party system, 4th amendment, Barack Obama, Big Brother, biometrics, Congress, Control Grid, DHS, diane feinstein, FBI, George Bush, Homeland Security, housing market, left right paradigm, Martial Law, michael chertoff, neocons, obama, Oppression, Police State, presidential directive, real estate, Surveillance, US Constitution, War On Terror, White House | Tags: HSPD 20, HSPD 24, mel martinwz, NSPD 51, NSPD 59, Stephen J. Hadley
Bush pushes biometrics for national security
WND
June 8, 2008
Two new directives signed by President Bush establish sweeping authority for federal executive departments and agencies to establish a coordinated “framework” to collect and retain biometric data on U.S. citizens identified as “known and suspected terrorists,” without requiring public or congressional disclosure of the procedures.
Although the directives run over 1,700 words in length, Congress is not mentioned once, nor is there any specification of how the coordinated “framework” will be disclosed to the public.
WND contacted the White House press office for comment but received no return call.
The directives also do not specify any procedures for citizens to challenge their inclusion in the biometric database or any resulting consequences, such as restricted travel or additional government surveillance.
Biometric technologies use electronic means to capture individual-specific data on physical characteristics, including fingerprints, eye retina scanning, face recognition mapping and body imaging.
The contextual data that accompanies biometric data includes information on date and place of birth, citizenship, current address and address history, current employment and employment history, current phone numbers and phone number history, use of government services and tax filings.
Other contextual data may include bank account and credit card histories, plus criminal database records on a local, state and federal level. The database also could include legal judgments or other public records documenting involvement in legal disputes, child custody records and marriage or divorce records.
The new orders, issued Thursday, are identified as National Security Presidential Directive 59, or NSPD 59, and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 24, or HSPD 24, and titled “Biometrics for Identification and Screening to Enhance National Security.” They instruct federal executive departments and agencies to use “mutually compatible methods and procedures in the collection, storage, use, analysis and sharing of biometric and associated biometric and contextual information” of individuals considered a national security risk.
In similar language, the presidential directives repeatedly stress that the coordinated data collection and storage procedures mandated across a wide range of federal bureaucratic structures will respect information privacy and other legal rights under United States law.
The directives, however, do not require the federal agencies collecting, sharing and storing biometric information on citizens to disclose to the American people or Congress their criteria for identifying targeted individuals or their data procedures.
The directives require the attorney general to provide legal policy guidance in coordination with the secretaries of state, defense, homeland security and the director of national intelligence, without reporting to Congress or the American people.
The directives also require the attorney general and the agency heads to “develop and implement mutually compatible guidelines for each respective agency for the collection, storage, use, analysis, and sharing of biometric and associated biographic and contextual information, to the fullest extent practicable, lawful, and necessary to protect national security.”
The attorney general is given one year to implement the directives and report to the president through the assistant to the president for national security affairs, a position currently held by Stephen J. Hadley, and to the assistant to the president for homeland security and counter-terrorism, currently Frances Townsend.
WND previously reported President Bush signed NSPD-51 and HSPD-20 on May 9, 2007, allowing the president to declare a “national emergency” and take over the direction of all federal state, local, territorial and tribal governments, as well as private sector organizations, to continue functioning under the president’s directives, without specifically requiring the approval of Congress.
Obama Supports National Fingerprint Registry
Heritage Foundation
June 9, 2008
Sens. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) authored a bill (with 11 co-sponsors, including Sen. Barack Obama) that was incorporated into a housing bill passed by the Senate Banking Committee 19-2 before the Memorial Day recess — a bill that creates a national fingerprint registry.
According to a Martinez press release, the language merely “create[s] national licensing and oversight standards for residential mortgage originators.”
One of the standards, John Berlau of the Competitive Enterprise Institute says, may “require thousands of individuals working even tangentially in the mortgage and real estate industries — and not suspected of anything — to send their prints to the feds.”
Filed under: 1984, 4th amendment, ACLU, Airport Security, Australia, Big Brother, Britain, DHS, Europe, european union, Homeland Security, Japan, LA, las vegas, Miami, michael chertoff, New York, new zealand, Oppression, Police State, south korea, Surveillance, Texas, TSA, United Kingdom, US Constitution, War On Terror, washington | Tags: metal detectors
Britons visiting America will now have to register 72 hours in advance
UK Daily Mail
June 3, 2008
British visitors to the United States will have to register their trip with the American government 72 hours before they leave, it will be announced today.
The new plans – the latest in a series of measures designed to strengthen security – will see all travellers from countries which do not currently require a visa forced to register online three days before flying.
The scheme is expected to be announced today by Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff, to take effect from January
It will apply to citizens of the 27 visa waiver programme countries which include most of western Europe, Australia, Brunei, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore.
The US has also signed agreements with eight other countries including the Czech Republic, Hungary and South Korea which will put them on track to join the visa waiver programme.
Last year many European countries expressed concern about the idea of registering before travel.
The initial proposal was that passengers should register 48 hours in advance and many large European companies, including several in the UK, claimed the move would prevent deal-clinching, last-minute flights for business.
Now US officials say they want people to register even further in advance- but with the concession that once a traveller has registered under the new rules for the first time, it will be valid for multiple entries over two years.
Read Full Article Here
10 airports install body scanners
Devices can peer under passengers’ clothes
Thomas Frank
USA Today
June 6, 2008
Body-scanning machines that show images of people underneath their clothing are being installed in 10 of the nation’s busiest airports in one of the biggest public uses of security devices that reveal intimate body parts.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) recently started using body scans on randomly chosen passengers in Los Angeles, Baltimore, Denver, Albuquerque and at New York’s Kennedy airport.
Airports in Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas and Miami will be added this month. Reagan National Airport in Washington starts using a body scanner today. A total of 38 machines will be in use within weeks.
“It’s the wave of the future,” said James Schear, the TSA security director at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, where two body scanners are in use at one checkpoint.
Schear said the scanners could eventually replace metal detectors at the nation’s 2,000 airport checkpoints and the pat-downs done on passengers who need extra screening. “We’re just scratching the surface of what we can do with whole-body imaging,” Schear said.
The TSA effort could encourage scanners’ use in rail stations, arenas and office buildings, the American Civil Liberties Union said. “This may well set a precedent that others will follow,” said Barry Steinhardt, head of the ACLU technology project.
Scanners are used in a few courthouses, jails and U.S. embassies, as well as overseas border crossings, military checkpoints and some foreign airports such as Amsterdam’s Schiphol.
The scanners bounce harmless “millimeter waves” off passengers who are selected to stand inside a portal with arms raised after clearing the metal detector. A TSA screener in a nearby room views the black-and-white image and looks for objects on a screen that are shaded differently from the body. Finding a suspicious object, a screener radios a colleague at the checkpoint to search the passenger.
The TSA says it protects privacy by blurring passengers’ faces and deleting images right after viewing. Yet the images are detailed, clearly showing a person’s gender. “You can actually see the sweat on someone’s back,” Schear said.
The scanners aim to strengthen airport security by spotting plastic and ceramic weapons and explosives that evade metal detectors and are the biggest threat to aviation. Government audits have found that screeners miss a large number of weapons, bombs and bomb parts such as wires and timers that agents sneak through checkpoints.
Read Full Article Here
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20080602/ap_tr_ge/..r8R1rC3fcdAXucwAaAR.UU80F
Filed under: 1984, 4th amendment, Big Brother, biometrics, Britain, Canada, Control Grid, DHS, Europe, fannie mae, FBI, foreclosure, freddie mac, Homeland Security, housing market, michael chertoff, real estate, United Kingdom, US Constitution, War On Terror | Tags: richard shelby
Fingerprint Registry in Housing Bill Passed
John Berlau
Open Market.org
May 24, 2008
Fingerprints are considered to be among the most personal of information, and fingerprint databases created and proposed in the name of national security have generated much debate. Recently, “Server in the Sky” — a proposed international database of the fingerprints of suspected criminals and terrorists to be shared among the U.S., U.K. and Canada — has ignited a firestorm of controversy. As have cavalier comments by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that fingerprints aren’t “personal data.”
Yet earlier this week, a measure creating a federal fingerprint registry totally unrelated to national security passed a U.S. Senate committee almost without notice. The legislation would require thousands of individuals working even tangentially in the mortgage and real estate industries — and not suspected of anything — to send their prints to the feds. The database and fingerprint mandates were tucked into housing and foreclosure assistance bills that on Tuesday passed the Senate Banking Committee by a vote of 19-2.
The measure the committee passed states that “an indvidual may not engage in the business of a loan originator without first … obtaining a unique identifier.” To obtain this “identifier,” an individual is requiredto “furnish” to the newly created Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry “information concerning the applicant’s identity, including fingerprints for submission” to the FBI and other government agencies.
The fingerprint provisions are contained in a “manager’s amendment” that was hammered out by committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn, and Ranking Member Richard Shelby, R-Ala., on Monday and attached the next day to a broader housing bailout bill that had been scheduled for a comittee vote. That bill, the “Federal Housing Finance Regulatory Reform Act of 2008,” expands the lending authority of the Federal Housing Administration and the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to refinance the mortgages of troubled borrowers and banks.
The amendment adopted the fingerprint provisions in a section called the “S.A.F.E. Mortgage Licensing Act.” The fingerprints will be part of what the amendment calls “a comprehensive licensing and supervisory database.”
And the database would cover a broad swath of individuals involved with mortgage lending. The amendment defines “loan originator” as anyone who “takes a residential loan application; and offers or negotiates terms of a residential mortgage loan for compensation or gain.” It states that even real estate brokers would be covered if they receive any compensation from lenders or mortgage brokers. Since many jobs in both real estate and mortgage lending are part-time and seasonal, even some of the most minor players in the mortgage market may have to submit their prints.
Justifications listed in the bill for this database include “increased accountability and tracking of loan originators,” “enhance[d] consumer protection,” and “facilitat[ing] responsible behavior in the subprime mortgage market.”
I conducted a wide Internet search and found fingerprint provisions in some state bills, but I don’t know if any, or how many passed. But in my search, I could find no arguments explaining how, specifically, collecting the fingerprints of loan originators would better serve borrowers getting mortgages. I called the Senate Banking Committee asking this question, but my call has not been returned yet. (I will update OpenMarket readers when and if it is.)
I imagine that, yes, a fingerprint registry might stop an ex-con from handling loans, but I doubt it will make even a dent in the lending problems the bill aims to stop. And I would venture to guess that the vast majority of the problem mortages were handled by employees with no criminal record. Rather, this seem like another thoughtless idea that lets politicians brag that they are “getting tough” about a particular problem.
But this fingerprint database, in addition to the privacy violations, might create a host of new problems of mortgage fraud. Identity theft involving fingerprints is becoming a major concern among data security experts. Security consultant Bruce Schneier has argued that hackers can steal electronic images of fingerprints directly from the databases they are stored in. And there is virtually nothing in this bill about security procedures that would apply to this database.
It amazes me. We have wrenching debates about privacy and freedom vs. national security when it comes to proposed anti-terrorist programs. But then a smililar scheme is done in response to an economic problem, and it almost escapes without notice. A similar thing has happened with anti-money laundering requirements that mandate that banks effectively spy on their customers for possible violations of everything from drug laws to the tax code.
Filed under: 2nd Amendment, 4th amendment, bill of rights, Canada, Checkpoints, DHS, Dictatorship, Drivers License, George Bush, Germany, Homeland Security, Illegal Immigration, Martial Law, Mexico, michael chertoff, national id, Nazi, Patrick Leahy, Police State, Real ID, supreme court, US Constitution, Vermont, WW2
Chertoff To Turn Vermont Into Nazi Germany
Lee Rogers
Rogue Government
April 9, 2008
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is continuing their agenda to turn the United States of America into a 21st century version Nazi Germany. According to a report from WCAX, the Department of Homeland Security is seeking to setup a permanent internal checkpoint in the middle of Vermont so they can look for illegal immigrants, drug dealers and terrorists. These types of checkpoints are a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment which prohibits the government from conducting searches and seizures without a warrant. In addition, the DHS is attempting to use the illegal immigration issue as a way to justify the establishment of this checkpoint. This is another example of the government capitalizing on a problem they created in order to implement a phony solution. The government has given all the incentive in the world for Mexicans to come here illegally and has done little to empower the border patrol agents on the U.S. Mexico border to stop them. In fact, they’ve actually done a great deal to ensure that the agents do not do their job. The U.S. actually gave a drug trafficker immunity to testify against border patrol agents after the agents shot the drug trafficker while he was attempting to bring drugs over the border. Both of the border agents are now sitting in prison and the decider George W. Bush has decided not to pardon them. It is laughable that the DHS wants to setup an internal checkpoint in the middle of Vermont under the guise that they are attempting to stop illegal immigrants, drug dealers and terrorists when they have set policies to discourage border patrol agents from doing their job on the U.S. Mexico border.
Senator Patrick Leahy from Vermont questioned DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff about the proposed checkpoint during his testimony in front of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on Oversight of the Department of Homeland Security on April 2nd, 2008. Below is a blurb taken from the Brattleboro Reformer on the exchange between Leahy and Chertoff.
Sen. Patrick Leahy chastised Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff Wednesday for his agency’s plan to build a permanent immigration checkpoint in central Vermont, wryly exclaiming that Chertoff should just “federalize Vermont.”
The interaction comes as the Bush administration is proposing a $4 million project to build fixed facilities within 100 miles of the Canadian border to conduct random vehicle checks for illegal immigrants, drugs and weapons, according to Leahy.
“So what you’re saying is in a little state like mine everyone should be stopped going down that interstate, no matter whether they’re going to visit a sick relative at the VA hospital?” Leahy prodded Chertoff in a Judiciary Committee hearing.
“We’re all sort of presumed guilty until proven innocent,” the Vermont Democrat added. “It sounds like Big Brother gone awry.”
Chertoff said, “Here’s the bottom line. Having checkpoints make sense.”
He said drug dealers and child molesters have been captured at similar checkpoints.
It is amazing that Chertoff would actually have the nerve to say that having internal checkpoints is a sensible approach. Chertoff is advocating something that is illegal and forbidden by the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. Not only that, but when a government sets up internal checkpoints within its own borders that is a sure fire sign that tyranny has come. The Nazis setup a system of internal checkpoints during World War II Germany and demanded citizens furnish the appropriate papers when questioned by government agents. The DHS is already attempting to setup a National ID card system through the implementation of the Real ID Act. It is clear that they want Real ID complaint identification cards to serve as America’s equivalent to the papers that the Nazi’s made their citizens carry.
Amazingly the criminals in the U.S. Supreme Court have already ruled that sobriety checkpoints are within the bounds of the Constitution. As a result, police are allowed to setup checkpoints and go on fishing expeditions to look for drunk drivers. This combined with the DHS attempting to setup this particular internal checkpoint and the implementation of the Real ID Act is more proof that this country is turning into a 21st century version of Nazi Germany.
This country is gone. When we have a government agency that is trying to setup an internal checkpoint under the guise of searching for drug dealers, terrorists or illegal immigrants it is clear that tyranny is here. There are more effective ways to deal with the illegal immigration problem but the only solutions the government brings forward are phony ones that serve their agenda. Setting up an internal checkpoint in the middle of Vermont is entirely idiotic and insane. Chertoff should be removed from office for this attempt to violate the Constitution with internal checkpoints as well as the countless other violations of the Constitution that the DHS has been involved in during his tenure as DHS Secretary. Not only that, but he also has an uncanny resemblance to the evil Skeletor character in the 1980s cartoon He-Man. Imagine all the children he scares each time he appears on the TV. All jokes aside, Chertoff needs to be fired immediately otherwise the enslavement agenda at the DHS will continue.
Filed under: 1984, 4th amendment, ACLU, army, Big Brother, bill of rights, Britain, CCTV, Censorship, civil liberties, civil rights, Condoleezza Rice, Coup, DHS, Europe, False Flag, FBI, FOIA, George Bush, google, Hegelian Dialectic, Hillary Clinton, Homeland Security, Internet 2, Iraq, manhattan project, michael chertoff, microchip, Military, nation building, Nuke, occupation, Oppression, Police State, Problem Reaction Solution, Propaganda, Saddam Hussein, spy satellite, Surveillance, United Kingdom, US Constitution, verison, warrantless wiretap, Washington D.C., WMD | Tags: EFF, electronic frontier foundation
FBI Spies On IMs E-Mails And Cell Phones
John Bryne
Raw Story
April 8, 2008
FBI also spies on home soil for military, documents show; Much information acquired without court order
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been routinely monitoring the e-mails, instant messages and cell phone calls of suspects across the United States — and has done so, in many cases, without the approval of a court.
Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act and given to the Washington Post — which stuck the story on page three — show that the FBI’s massive dragnet, connected to the backends of telecommunications carriers, “allows authorized FBI agents and analysts, with point-and-click ease, to receive e-mails, instant messages, cellphone calls and other communications that tell them not only what a suspect is saying, but where he is and where he has been, depending on the wording of a court order or a government directive,” the Post says.
But agents don’t need a court order to track to track the senders and recipients names, or how long calls or email exchanges lasted. These can be obtained simply by showing it’s “relevant” to a probe.
RAW STORY has placed a request to the Electronic Frontier Foundation for the new documents, and will post them upon receipt.
Some transactional data is obtained using National Security Letters. The Justice Department says use of these letters has risen from 8,500 in 2000 to 47,000 in 2005, according to the Post.
Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union released letters showing that the Pentagon is using the FBI to skirt legal restrictions on domestic surveillance.
Documents show the FBI has obtained the private records of Americans’ Internet service providers, financial institutions and telephone companies, for the military, according to more than 1,000 Pentagon documents reviewed by the ACLU — also using National Security Letters, without a court order.
The new revelations show definitively that telecommunications companies can transfer “with the click of a mouse, instantly transfer key data along a computer circuit to an FBI technology office in Quantico” upon request.
A telecom whistleblower, in an affidavit, has said he help maintain a high-speed DS-3 digital line referred to in house as the “Quantico circuit,” which allowed an outside organization “unfettered” access to the the carrier’s wireless network.
The network he’s speaking of? Verizon.
Verizon denies the allegations vaguely, saying “no government agency has open access to the company’s networks through electronic circuits.”
The Justice Department downplayed the new documents.
A spokesman told the Post that the US is asking only for “information at the beginning and end of a communication, and for information “reasonably available” by the network.
The FBI’s budget for says the collection system increased from $30 million in 2007 to $40 million in 2008, the paper said.
Homeland Security invokes nuclear bomb, as Bush quietly links cybersecurity program to NSA
John Byrne
Raw Story
April 9, 2008
Department of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff has dropped the bomb.
At a speech to hundreds of security professionals Wednesday, Chertoff declared that the federal government has created a cyber security “Mahattan Project,” referencing the 1941-1946 project led by the Army Corps of Engineers to develop American’s first atomic bomb.
According to Wired’s Ryan Singel, Chertoff gave few details of what the government actually plans to do.
He cites a little-noticed presidential order: “In January, President Bush signed a presidential order expanding the role of DHS and the NSA in government computer security,” Singel writes. “Its contents are classified, but the U.S. Director of National Intelligence has said he wants the NSA to monitor America’s internet traffic and Google searches for signs of cyber attack.“
The National Security Agency was the key player in President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program, which was revealed by the New York Times in 2005.
Sound familiar? Yesterday, documents acquired by the Electronic Frontier Foundation under the Freedom of Information act showed the FBI has engaged in a massive cyber surveillance project that targets terror suspects emails, telephone calls and instant messages — and is able to get some information without a court order.
Last week, the ACLU revealed documents showing that the Pentagon was using the FBI to spy on Americans. The military is using the FBI to skirt legal restrictions on domestic surveillance to obtain private records of Americans’ Internet service providers, financial institutions and telephone companies, according to Pentagon documents.
Chertoff sought to calm those who worry that Homeland Security will begin to take an invasive Internet role.
“We don’t have to sit on the internet and prevent things from coming in or going out,” Chertoff said, which Singel says refers to China and other countries that censor what web sites their citizens can see. “That’s not what we are going to do.”
Bush wants $42 million more for program
But Chertoff may have had another reason for hyping threats of cyber terrorism. Money.
Congress appropriated $150 million in funding for the program this year, Singel notes. The administration has sought $192 million for 2009.
Speaking of threats, Chertoff remarked: “Imagine, if you will, a sophisticated attack on our financial systems that caused them to be paralyzed. It would shake the foundation of trust on which our financial system works.”
Remarked Singel wryly, “That digital mushroom cloud scenario means the government’s role in computer security must extend beyond federal networks, and reach to shared responsibility for financial, telecommunication and transportation infrastructure, Chertoff said. “The failure of any single system has cascading effects across our country.”
Which recalls another quote by a senior administration official.
Speaking of the alleged threat of Saddam Hussein in 2003, then National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice remarked, “We don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.”
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/04/zombie-computer.html
Cyber Security Efforts Like Manhattan Project
http://www.ajc.com/business/content/..ebsecurity_0408.html
New Documents Detail FBI Eavesdropping On Americans’ Emails, IMs and Phone Calls
http://infowars.net/articles/april2008/080408FBI.htm
DHS Wants to Install Permanent Checkpoint in Vermont
http://www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=8117897
Hillary Supports Expanded Police State
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/l..r12,0,2210184,print.story
3-Years For Laser Pointer Assault On Helicopter
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,347932,00.html
Anti-Terror Laws Used To Spy On Family
http://www.independent.co.uk/n..sed-to-spy-on-family-807873.html
100 Officers Raid Car Show To Give Tickets
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/23/2302.asp
D.C. police set to monitor 5,000 cameras
http://www.washingtontimes.c..9/METRO/769331158/1004
CCTV could be used in exam rooms
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7342432.stm
Police officers to be microchipped
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pag..article_id=558597&in_page_id=1770
Filed under: 1984, 4th amendment, 9/11, Big Brother, Control Grid, DHS, Drivers License, FBI, FEMA, google, Homeland Security, Martial Law, michael chertoff, Military, NAO, NORTHCOM, NSA, Pentagon, Police State, spy satellite, Surveillance, Troops, US Constitution, War On Terror | Tags: fuision centers
DHS reckons US cops’ access to sat-surveillance is go
Lewis Page
The Register
April 3, 2008
US Homeland Security overlord Michael Chertoff has told reporters that he believes plans for increased use of satellite surveillance by American law-enforcement agencies are ready to move forward. However, Democratic politicians remain unconvinced that adequate privacy and civil liberties safeguards are in place.
“I think the way is now clear to stand NAO up and go warm,” said Chertoff, briefing journalists about the proposed National Applications Office.
NAO would allow US police, immigration, drug-enforcement and other officials to have access to data from various US satellites passing above America. It is understood that the information would be supplied mostly by spacecraft which at the moment are used for meteorological and geological surveying, or other scientific tasks. Satellites of this type can often deliver high-resolution images which would also be useful to law enforcement.
Purpose-built US surveillance satellites operated on behalf of military and intelligence agencies also pass above the US frequently. However, even the location of such spacecraft is often deemed to be a secret – for all that it may be well-known to amateur skywatchers. The capabilities of the true spybirds are even more jealously guarded, but realistically this information would soon become common knowledge if ordinary coppers were able to get such imagery.
Therefore, the new NAO probably won’t offer very wide access – if any – to America’s proper sky-spies. But it could provide a wealth of information all the same, and some US legislators are concerned about the implications.
Chertoff pooh-poohed such worries, saying that detailed assessments had been done and that Congresspersons had been briefed. The DHS chief believed that there’s a “good process in place to make sure there aren’t any… transgressions”. The DHS has also pointed out that various feds including the Secret Service* and FBI have used satellite imagery of the US in various previous investigations on a case-by-case basis.
Even so, plans for warm erection of the NAO could face a bumpy ride from Democrat-dominated committees on Capitol Hill.
State “Fusion Centers” And Pentagon-Run FBI Programs Spy On Americans
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
April 2, 2008
Fresh revelations of state and Pentagon run terrorist surveillance programs that “skirt legal restrictions” serve to remind the American public that they are now the prime suspects in the post 9/11 panopticon society.
Separate documents obtained by the ACLU and the Washington Post have created similar headlines on the same day about two new freedom eroding processes that have been in full swing for some time.
“Fusion Centers”
Intelligence centers run by states across the country have access to personal information about millions of Americans, including unlisted cellphone numbers, insurance claims, driver’s license photographs and credit reports, according to the Washington Post.
Dozens of the organizations known as fusion centers were created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to identify potential threats and improve the way information is shared. The centers use law enforcement analysts and sophisticated computer systems to compile, or fuse, disparate tips and clues and pass along the refined information to other agencies.
The centers received $254 million from the Department of Homeland Security between 2004 and 2007 and also work in conjunction with the military arm of the DHS, NORTHCOM.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/CIA_creates_miniGoogle_0331.html
Filed under: 4th amendment, biometrics, i-69, imminent domain, Indiana, michael chertoff, NAFTA Superhighway, North American Union, Real ID, SPP, Texas, trans texas corridor, TTC, US Constitution | Tags: crane, evansville, Marci Kaptur, petersburg, Tom Tokarski, washington
Demolition for NAFTA Superhighway Begins
John Blair
Valley Watch
March 11, 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNZ99VttE8s
First, it should be noted that Valley Watch has had the same position on I-69 and all other transport routes since the middle of the 1980s. We believe and support the proposition that ALL new transportation rights of way should be built using existing “corridors.”
Tom Tokarski, a long time I-69 activist with Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads (CARR) went to the starting point of the new terrain route for I-69 yesterday, March 10 to visually record the initial destruction of land and homes the new highway will cause.
When he got there, camera in hand, at a location about two miles north of Interstate 64, just west of Indiana Hwy. 57 on Indiana Hwy 68, he was confronted by an Indiana State Trooper.
According to a release issued today by Tokarski’s group, “Tokarski went to the site to photograph the homes scheduled for demolition and was accosted by State Police. He was thoroughly interrogated, and his person and car were searched. This was for a perfectly legal activity, photographing homes while he was standing on a public roadway.”
This violation of Tokarski’s Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure cut me the wrong way since I have previously be subject to similar abuses by police in the area..
This afternoon, I got a call from my friend Jeff Stant asking me if I would go to the site this afternoon to see if I could get some video of what was taking place.
Asking a friend who works as an AP stringer to accompany me, since I did not know what to expect, we ventured to the site. The Video below is what we saw.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X38vIxD6Q4
We did have a chance to speak tone of the workers about the scope of their project.
Obviously, they are really cutting down some trees all along Hwy. 68. The worker told us that they were mainly interested in the trees and they had to be cut at this time since the endangered Indiana Bat would be migrating to the area soon and possibly using the trees for nesting. If the trees were no longer there, the tiny mammal would find alternative locations and thus would not have their mating and nesting disturbed.
The worker went further and told us that they only had a contract to demolish two of the several homes where trees were being cut.
Otherwise, most of the area was going to be left as is, for the moment.
I-69 just in Indiana will cost ore than $4 billion according to CARR.
$700 million has been appropriated in Indiana to build the first section of the highway that originally was slated to build the highway from Evansville to Crane. But like power plants, the cost of highway construction has gone through the roof and street speculation is that the $700 million may only build as little as to an area between Washington and Petersburg.
Opposition to the highway continues to mount, not only in Indiana but also all along the route of the so called NAFTA highway. Opponents are really getting vociferous in Texas where citizens are up in arms over the road and the taking of farms and ranches that have existed since the middle 19th Century.
Marci Kaptur North American Union Cintra
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DAs7XZVgKhI
http://intelstrike.com/?p=218
Chertoff: Real-ID To Fly
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080..pe/secure_driver_s_licenses
noworldsystem.com 