ACLU: Warrantless electronic surveillance surges under Obama.
government surveillance
Cubic Sets the Trap: Acquiring Abraxas and Trapwire was Evil Genius | John Stanton
“Cubic is the world’s leading provider of automated payment and fare collection systems and services for the transportation industry.” Cubic’s purchase of Abraxas in 2010 for $124 million (US) in cash made sense looking at where the $1.2 billion dollar Cubic Company does business. A large chunk of that money comes from its Defense Systems and Mission Support Operations segments (where Abraxas is apparently operating). Roughly $415 million comes from its Transportation division.
Cubic’s acquisition of Abraxas and its magic bag full of electronic tracking/snooping tools was made two years prior to the 2012 Olympic Games in London.In 2011. The transit authority there had recently installed video cameras on all of its 191 buses. Continue reading
FBI quietly forms secretive Net-surveillance unit | Security & Privacy – CNET News
CNET has learned that the FBI has formed a Domestic Communications Assistance Center, which is tasked with developing new electronic surveillance technologies, including intercepting Internet, wireless, and VoIP communications…via CNET News.
Mobile Scanner to be Added to Biometric Data Arsenal | Activist Post
The Federal Biometric ID program which was announced by ICE back in February of 2011 was introduced under the auspices of tracking immigrants who have been booked for crimes by local police. However, it was quickly revealed through Freedom of Information Act requests by several justice organizations that the program was secretly intended for American citizens as well…. go here –>Activist Post: Mobile Scanner to be Added to Biometric Data Arsenal.
Rodney Brossart, American Arrested Using Predator Drone, Had Rights Violated, Lawyer Says | HuffPo
Bruce Quick, attorney for the first American arrested using an unmanned drone says his client was subject to “guerrilla-like police tactics.” Quick tells U.S. News that Lakota, N.D., resident Rodney Brossart should not have been arrested and that authorities had no legal right to use the drone to aid in his capture.
“The whole thing is full of constitutional violations,” Quick told U.S. News. “The drone use is a secondary concern.”
Brossart was in a dispute with authorities over the ownership of six cows that had meandered onto his land. The Grand Forks SWAT team borrowed a Predator drone from the Department of Homeland security to make sure it was safe to arrest Brossart, authorities told the paper…. via Rodney Brossart, American Arrested using predator drone at Huffington Post.
Irony Alert! | Coyote Blog
April 23, 2012, 3:06 pm — From the Washington Post
President Obama will issue an executive order Monday that will allow U.S. officials for the first time to impose sanctions against foreign nationals found to have used new technologies, from cellphone tracking to Internet monitoring, to help carry out grave human rights abuses.
LOL, Foreign nationals identified by NSA communications monitoring as violating this order will be pinpointed by satellites and surveillance drones and hit with a cruise missile.
Hard to picture any American President in the last 20 years signing this with a straight face. Is there a Federal law enforcement agency or major police force in this country who is NOT violating this order, had it applied to American citizens? … via Coyote Blog.
The Polite Conference Rooms Where Liberties Are Saved and Lost | Chris Hedges
…It is in conference rooms like this one, where attorneys speak in the arcane and formal language of legal statutes, that we lose or save our civil liberties. The 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force Act, the employment of the Espionage Act by the Obama White House against six suspected whistle-blowers and leakers, and the Homeland Battlefield Bill have crippled the work of investigative reporters in every major newsroom in the country. Government sources that once provided information to counter official narratives and lies have largely severed contact with the press. They are acutely aware that there is no longer any legal protection for those who dissent or who expose the crimes of state. The NDAA threw in a new and dangerous component that permits the government not only to silence journalists but imprison them and deny them due process because they “substantially supported” terrorist groups or “associated forces.”via Common Dreams.
CIA Chief: We’ll Spy on You Through Your Dishwasher | Danger Room
More and more personal and household devices are connecting to the internet, from your television to your car navigation systems to your light switches. CIA Director David Petraeus cannot wait to spy on you through them. Continue reading
Homeland Security: You’re All ‘Militia Extremists’ Now | PJMedia
A recently published “lexicon” distributed to thousands of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) targets citizens concerned about their Second Amendment rights and the steady encroachment of the federal government, categorizing such as “militia extremists.”
The “lexicon,” marked Unclassified/For Official Use Only (FOUO), is dated November 10, 2011, and was sent out by email to law enforcement and homeland security agencies on November 14 by LaJuan E. Washington of the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis.
We have exclusively posted the DHS “lexicon” here... via PJ Media
Why you need an offshore email account | SovereignMan.com
Below I provide a links to a few offshore email providers whose servers are located overseas. With a properly configured account, you can switch to an offshore provider and still keep your existing email address:
- Neobox- http://www.neomailbox.com (Netherlands)
- e-mail.ph- http://www.e-mail.ph (Philippines)
- HongKong Mail- http://www.mymailhk.com (Hong Kong)
- mBox- http://www.mbox.com.sg (Singapore)
- Green- http://www.mails.ch (Switzerland)
- Swiss Mail- http://www.swissmail.org (Switzerland)
Remember, using these providers decreases the likelihood of your email account being confiscated or deactivated by your home government– offshore email hosting does not guarantee privacy or security unless you use encryption schemes …” via Why you need an offshore email account
Homeland Security Wants to Spy on 4 Square Miles at Once | Wired.com
It’s not just for the Afghanistan and Iraq wars anymore. The Department of Homeland Security is interested in a camera package that can peek in on almost four square miles of (constitutionally protected) American territory for long, long stretches of time.
Homeland Security doesn’t have a particular system in mind. Right now, it’s just soliciting “industry feedback” on what a formal call for such a “Wide Area Surveillance System” might look like. But it’s the latest indication of how powerful military surveillance technology, developed to find foreign insurgents and terrorists, is migrating to the home front….
via Danger Room – What’s Next in National Security | Wired.com.
2011: A Civil Liberties Year in Review by John W. Whitehead | LewRockwell.com
via Lew Rockwell, this is a Must Read …
2011: A Civil Liberties Year in Review by John W. Whitehead | LewRockwell.com
Depressing synopsized word cloud follows (don’t bother reading it. GE.) … National Security Agency, NSA, eavesdropping, private email, phone calls, security/industrial complex, marriage of government, military and corporate interests, keeping Americans under constant surveillance, GPS tracking, secret spying on Americans, technology, our ability to control it, our Frankenstein, given it free rein in our lives, Continue reading
9 Reasons Wired Readers Should Wear Tinfoil Hats | Wired.com
There’s plenty of reason to be concerned Big Brother is watching. We’re paranoid not because we have grandiose notions of our self-importance, but because the facts speak for themselves.
Here’s our short list of nine reasons that Wired readers ought to wear tinfoil hats, or at least, fight for their rights and consider ways to protect themselves with encryption and defensive digital technologies.
go here: 9 Reasons Wired Readers Should Wear Tinfoil Hats | Threat Level | Wired.com.
Is Privacy Dead? | How to Vanish
“… It is true that technology is advancing to track our every move, often without our knowledge. But technology is also advancing to protect privacy in ways that were not available before. There are already many tools that we can use to protect our private information and most of them are free and easy. Tor, Truecrypt, and GnuPG are three great examples…”
via Is Privacy Dead?.
Secret app on millions of phones logs key taps | The Register
Do We Have Any Right to Privacy Outside Our Homes? | The Nation
“… The Constitution protects our right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. At the same time, searches by the government exist against a very different backdrop from when the Fourth Amendment was written. How do we guard our “space” when it is neutralized as mere geography-beyond-the-house rather than the mobile positioning of the body politic? We live in an era when new technologies make the most personal information easily accessible, whether the government collects it or not.
Our private lives are available “privately” everywhere, even if it’s deemed “data mining” by businesses. The market for information is as thorough as a laser; it is as inescapable as the air we breathe: our lives are online. Our medical records are stored in “clouds.” We date through websites. Our genetic code is decipherable from any bit of discarded bubble gum. “Private” security cameras aim their ceaselessly gathering gaze on every public street. Our cellphones blip our location to satellites in space. People send compromising pictures of themselves in “sext” messages that can never be retracted. If our neighbor wishes to surveil us or to stalk us, we are all too vulnerable…”
via Do We Have Any Right to Privacy Outside Our Homes? | The Nation.
U.S. Supreme Court may allow the government to track phones without a warrant | ActivistPost
“… If the Supreme Court finds that law enforcement were within the law when placing a GPS tracking device on the car of suspected drug smuggler and nightclub owner Antoine Jones, it would open the door for even more egregious violations of our privacy. This decision would essentially allow the government to monitor anyone and everyone’s movements without a warrant for any reason or no reason at all… ”
via Activist Post: U.S. Supreme Court may allow the government to track phones without a warrant.
Americans Are Now Living In A Society That Rivals Orwells 1984 | Militant Libertarian
The question is, will Americans ever reclaim their sense of dignity and freedom or – like the Party members in Orwell’s Oceania – will they learn to love their servitude? via Militant Libertarian » Americans Are Now Living In A Society That Rivals Orwells 1984.
The Grey Enigma 