Official anti-terrorism civilian snoop program to be expanded
The US's "Terrorism Liaison Officer" program is being expanded -- this is a program that trains utility workers and other government employees to snitch on people whom they deem "suspicious" and embroil them in a never-ending round of Orwellian surveillance and background checks.
Because nothing helps us find the terrorist needles in the haystack like inviting every junior G-Man in the land to make the haystacks larger!
In Colorado, TLOs report not only illegal but legal activity, such as bulk purchases along Colorado’s Front Range of up to 150 disposable cellphones. TLO supervisors said these bulk buys were suspicious because similar phones are used as remote detonators for bombs overseas and can be re-sold to fund terrorism.LinkTaking photos or videos can be deemed suspicious because “surveillance is a precursor to terrorist activity,” said Colorado State Patrol Sgt. Steve Garcia, an analyst in Colorado’s intelligence fusion center south of Denver, which handles TLO-supplied information.
Colorado, California and Arizona are among the first to deploy TLOs after establishing robust state-run fusion centers, which initially relied on tips from private citizens. Federal security agents now sit in 25 of those centers, including Colorado’s.
the latest
latest episodes
more agents of big brother...
great news:(
how does more fear create more security?
i would like to declare peace on this war on humanity...
i wonder if i'll ever enter the USA ever again. i guess i won't have a choice when they decide to expand north.
"You making me proud, Amerika, (sniff) it bring tear to my eye. But word of wisdom-- you must to streamline court system for faster deportation to GULAG, or court system will getting clogged with silly 'civil right' cases. Duraki! You want counter-revolutionary saboteurs to win!?"
--Joseph Stalin
"Taking photos or videos can be deemed suspicious because “surveillance is a precursor to terrorist activity,” said Colorado State Patrol Sgt. Steve Garcia, an analyst in Colorado’s intelligence fusion center..."
Oh, the delightful irony.
At what point do they spam themselves to death? Maybe when a citizen generating too few false positives itself becomes a false positive, incentivising a Surveillance Spam Singularity?
"The Stasi infiltrated almost every aspect of GDR life. In the mid-1980s, a network of civilian informants, Inoffizielle Mitarbeiter (IMs, Unofficial Collaborators), began growing in both German states; by the time East Germany collapsed in 1989, the Stasi employed an estimated 91,000 employees and 300,000 informants. About one of every 50 East Germans collaborated with the Stasi — one of the most extensive police infiltrations of a society in history. In 2007 an article in BBC stated that "Some calculations have concluded that in East Germany there was one informer to every seven citizens." [1] Additionally, Stasi agents infiltrated and undermined West Germany's government and spy agencies.
Minister Mielke and Stasi generals singing
Minister Mielke and Stasi generals singing
The Stasi monitored political behavior among GDR citizens, and is known to have used torture and intimidation to mute dissent. During the Peaceful Revolution of 1989, Stasi offices were overrun by enraged citizens, but not before the Stasi destroyed a number of documents (approximately 5%)[2] When the remaining files were published for review, many people learned that their friends, colleagues, spouses, and relatives had regularly filed reports with the Stasi. These wounds on civil society have not yet entirely healed.
Other files (the Rosenholz Files), which contained the names of East German spies abroad, led American spy agencies to capture them. After German reunification, it was revealed that the Stasi had secretly aided left-wing terrorists such as the Red Army Faction. The loss of Stasi financial support was a major factor in the dissolution of such terrorist groups.
In 1999, an article in Der Spiegel alleged that the Stasi intentionally irradiated political prisoners with high-dose radiation, possibly to provoke cancer(s) in them.[3]"
Wow, I live in Colorado and this is pretty scary. I'd encourage any concerned citizens to write to their representatives.
now, imagine more of these jokers:
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/30/conartist-convinces.html
using governmental corroboration.
Bob was right...get ready for a pretty tough future.
^m^
I live in Colorado too. This is really scary. The Denver Post article online http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_9725077 is missing the side bar as printed:
"Suspicious Activity and Terrorism"
Federal authorities currently define suspicious activity as: "Observed behavior that may be indicative of intelligence-gathering or pre-operational planning related to terrorism, criminal, or other illicit intention." The authorities are considering a broadened defination: "Reported or observed activity and/or behavior that, based on an officer's training and experience, is believed to be indicative of criminal activity associated with terrorism."
Here are some examples of specific behaviors that terrorism liaison officers deployed in Colorado and a handful of other states are told to watch for and report.
Engages in suspected pre-operational surveillance (uses binoculars or cameras, takes measurements, draws diagrams, etc.)
Appears to engage in counter-surveillance efforts (doubles back, changes appearance, drives evasively, etc.)
Engages security personnel in questions focusing on sensitive subjects (security information, hours of operation, shift changes, what security cameras film, etc.)
Takes pictures or video footage (with no apparent aesthetic value, for example, camera angles, security equipment, security personnel, traffic lights, buildings entrances, etc.)
Draws diagrams or takes notes (building plans, location of security camera or security personnel, security shift changes, notes of weak security points, etc)
Abandons a vehicle (in a secured or restricted location, such as the front of a government building, airport, sports venue, etc.)
Makes or attempts to make suspicious purchases, such as large amounts of otherwise legal materials (for example, pool chemicals, fuel, fertilizer, potential explosive-device components, etc.)
Acquires or attempts to acquire uniforms without a legitimate cause (service personnel, government uniforms, etc.)
Acquires or attempts to acquire an official or official appearing vehicle without a legitimate cause (such as an emergency or government vehicle, etc.)
So according to this:
Bird watching is a suspicious activity.
Buying a UPS driver outfit for Halloween is a suspicious activity. "What can Brown do for you?" Get you arrested?
So taking photos of the new red light cameras here in Denver is a suspicious activity. (And who decides what is aesthetic value anyway?)
I'm afraid of my government and of the police now. I'm going to go lie down for a while now.
"Abandons a vehicle (in a secured or restricted location, such as the front of a government building, airport, sports venue, etc.)"
If you see this, drop what you're doing and...
RRUUUNNNN!
you mean "parking"?
Homeland Security to Unveil Plan to Guard Against Small Boat Attacks
Monday, April 28, 2008
WASHINGTON — As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist the country's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the country's 95,000 miles of coastline and inland waterways.
According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain Al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success."
So 79,999,999 boaters spying on 79,999,999 other boaters and generating 6,399,999,840,000,001 bogus leads? That'll help law enforcement.
Am I the only one who noticed this???
"Taking photos or videos can be deemed suspicious because 'surveillance is a precursor to terrorist activity,' said Colorado State Patrol Sgt. Steve Garcia,"
They're training these people to act as surveillance, and they're telling them that surveillance is a "precursor to terrorist activity"? That's quite the contradiction.
Satellite surveillance program dogged in approps bills
By Ben Bain
Published on June 27, 2008
The House and Senate Appropriations committees greeted the Bush administration’s request for more cyber-security funding warmly in their recently approved appropriations bills for the Homeland Security Department’s 2009 budget. But a controversial program that would create a clearinghouse run by DHS through which civilian agencies could request intelligence and military satellite imagery for domestic purposes once again got a freeze.
The administration has been trying since last year to launch the National Applications Office (NAO) that would offer access to satellite imagery for homeland security, emergency response and possibly law enforcement purposes. However, privacy advocates who worry the program could be used to spy on Americans and lawmakers who want more information on how the program will be run have put up stiff resistance.
As they did in last year’s omnibus funding measure, lawmakers included restrictions in their appropriations bills that prevent the program from going forward without a review by government auditors — which DHS says is under way.
This is all bullshit busy work, like rounding up pots and pans and collecting old newspapers during WWII. Supposedly building civilian morale. All bullshit. We cannot protect this country against low-level suicide attacks like 9-11. We're too big, too porous, too awkward. Our military is too unwieldly and unresponsive. What was so shocking about 9-11 was its crude simplicity, cutting through all the layers of pretension and incompetence. If they do it again, it will be as brutally effective an action, exploiting our manifest weaknesses. And it won't be in cowboy country either. Osama figures we owe him two million lives...and counting.
If only a terrorist was really interested in Colorado or Arizona, but trust me, no such luck.
"Supposedly building civilian morale."
What if the real intention is to destroy morale?
People should start calling in every sighting of a survey team, you know the ones with measuring devices, cameras, official looking vehicles abandoned on the side of the road....
There was a program like this floated a few years back by Poindexter. When it was made public it was cancelled, well, supposedly. Anybody remember what it was called?
Also, a "CIV LIB" tag is warranted here, IMO.
GRIMC: Poindexter's creepy little baby was "Total Information Awareness".
And yes, they really did use the All-Seeing Pyramid-Eye surveilling the world as the program logo.
@Grimc: I think you're thinking of "Total Information Awareness" (though I see they changed the "total" to "terrorist". )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_Information_Awareness
Dig that funky logo.
"TLOs report not only illegal but legal activity, such as bulk purchases along Colorado’s Front Range of up to 150 disposable cellphones. TLO supervisors said these bulk buys were suspicious because...[they] can be re-sold to fund terrorism"
TLOs in New York have recently reported bulk purchases of stocks and bonds in the city's financial district, which are suspicious because they can be re-sold to fund terrorism.
Or to put it in another perspective: The creation of a society every person in his right mind would want to put a big bomb under.
Fear creates its own demons.
America is the threat to world peace...look at what America's policies have done to the price of oil and food...and Obama is a creation of the Media just as GWB was , who wasn't on the National Radar until CNN started harping about his victory in Texas...Obama wasn't on the national radar till 2003....you Americans lost it when the 4th Amendment was gutted by the Supreme Court with their invention of the "Police acting in good faith exception" for warrantless searches in the War on (inexpensive) Drugs....
Drug Users vs. Nazis.
Every new idea in the War on drugs destroys another part of free society...
"Reaching out to evangelical voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans that would expand President Bush's program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and - in a move sure to cause controversy - support their ability to hire and fire based on faith."
If Barney Fife were alive today, he'd be a high-ranking counterterrorism official, and he'd have the high-tech equivalent of the Mayberry jail filled up with 'terrorists' like Otis the Drunk, Goober and Floyd the Barber.
Three words for this travesty:
J***s F*****g C****t.
And oh yeah: Colorado is never getting a dime of my tourism money. EVER.
Get a load of this straight up bull$hit, I followed the link to the story and this was one of the 2 comments there:
Gary Prowant on June 30th, 2008 10:34 am
"More eyes and more ears to watch and listen for suspicious or illegal activities during wartime is certainly a smart move. Point is, if you are NOT doing anything suspicious or illegal, you DON’T have to worry!"
I cannot tell you how much it irks me when dumbasses say that. "Duhh, I'm not doing anything wrong...why should I worry?" UGH. That's not the POINT. Why doesn't anyone value their privacy anymore?? I'll quote Judge Andrew Napolitano when asked what he "had to hide"----"I have everything to hide."
Just read the story as well... get the comment from Lt. Tony Lopez of Denver's "Intelligence" unit: “We don’t snoop into private citizens’ lives. We aren’t living in a communist state.” You're right Lt. Lopez, it's called a police state. Which is ironic in more ways than one.
There's a point where "having nothing to hide" is a legitimate statement. Say, if someone has a warrant to search your house for clues to a murder you had nothing to do with.
Then there's this: giving a large number of people very vague instructions on what may or may not constitute terrorist activities.
The fact that this is happening in a part of the US that has so little chance of being a target makes it kind of funny, is it weren't scary. There's a reason for the targets of 9/11 (and the earlier attack on the WTC). There's a reason why every season of 24 has had LA as a target- because people outside the US don't barely ever hear about any cities in the US except LA, New York and Washington. They'd find Denver the same way we'd find Dahuk- and consider it to be as important a target.
It's Cold War mentality all over again- which seemed from day one to fit the view of the current President. Really, just change "COmmie" to "terrorist" and "nuke" to "WMD" and there you have it.
#21 & IMIPAK@#11
Thanks--I knew about TIA, but I was thinking of TIPS (somebody reminded me of it today).
http://www.dojgov.net/TIPS-01.htm
There are a few commenters that think this program is only in Colorado. Actually, these 'TLOs' were trained in Colorado, but are active there as well as Arizona, Illinois, California, Washington DC and plan to expand to "dozens" of states. It's a federal program (DOJ), not just a Colorado thing.
As long as we lack organic consensus (ethnoculture) society will continue to hold people together by political means. At this point, they're trying to scare us into unity.
Piling hay on a haystack. Good succinct metaphor.