Big Bro is Collecting, Analyzing and Pattern-izing YOUR Behavior!

[Christopher O'Brien]

[Remember the movie Enemy of the State? At the time it was whispered that the level of tech in the movie was already 25 years old. Well, it seems that the gov-dudes now have it all set-up and dialed in and it staggers the mind! I would venture a guess that every American has a daily updated digital file that records practically every aspect of your daily activities, routines and behavior. It wouldn't surprise me if this dossier system has sophisticated algorithms in place to analyze and predict any kind of social behavior. Even Orwell didn't anticipate the level of tech now available to those paranoidal-types in DC w/ unlimited budgets and too much time on their clutching, grasping, paranoid hands... --chris]

Article HERE:

Strafor Emails Reveal Secret, Widespread TrapWire Surveillance System

Former senior intelligence officials have created a detailed surveillance system more accurate than modern facial recognition technology — and have installed it across the US under the radar of most Americans, according to emails hacked by Anonymous.
Every few seconds, data picked up at surveillance points in major cities and landmarks across the United States are recorded digitally on the spot, then encrypted and instantaneously delivered to a fortified central database center at an undisclosed location to be aggregated with other intelligence. It’s part of a program called TrapWire and it's the brainchild of the Abraxas, a Northern Virginia company staffed with elite from America’s intelligence community. The employee roster at Arbaxas reads like a who’s who of agents once with the Pentagon, CIA and other government entities according to their public LinkedIn profiles, and the corporation's ties are assumed to go deeper than even documented.
The details on Abraxas and, to an even greater extent TrapWire, are scarce, however, and not without reason. For a program touted as a tool to thwart terrorism and monitor activity meant to be under wraps, its understandable that Abraxas would want the program’s public presence to be relatively limited. But thanks to last year’s hack of the Strategic Forecasting intelligence agency, or Stratfor, all of that is quickly changing.... Rest of Article HERE:

 

[RenaissanceLady]

[Remember the movie Enemy of the State? At the time it was whispered that the level of tech in the movie was already 25 years old. Well, it seems that the gov-dudes now have it all set-up and dialed in and it staggers the mind! I would venture a guess that every American has a daily updated digital file that records practically every aspect of your daily activities, routines and behavior. It wouldn't surprise me if this dossier system has sophisticated algorithms in place to analyze and predict any kind of social behavior. Even Orwell didn't anticipate the level of tech now available to those paranoidal-types in DC w/ unlimited budgets and too much time on their clutching, grasping, paranoid hands... --chris]

If it isn't yet, you can bet it will soon be at every airport, train station, bus terminal and port. Then it will appear at absolutely every single financial institution, ATM machine and any other place someone might wish to withdraw cash in some vain attempt to anonymously make a purchase. Everything about us is known no matter how desperately we might wish to avoid attention.

While part of me finds it almost hysterically funny that the feds can now know exactly what detergents I use and if I have PMS, the truth is they probably know quite a bit about me just from where I'm seen, what foods I buy for the pets, the prescriptions I use and yes, my chocolate purchasing habits.

When the article says this:

According to a press release (pdf) dated June 6, 2012, TrapWire is “designed to provide a simple yet powerful means of collecting and recording suspicious activity reports.” A system of interconnected nodes spot anything considered suspect and then input it into the system to be "analyzed and compared with data entered from other areas within a network for the purpose of identifying patterns of behavior that are indicative of pre-attack planning.”

In a 2009 email included in the Anonymous leak, Stratfor Vice President for Intelligence Fred Burton is alleged to write, “TrapWire is a technology solution predicated upon behavior patterns in red zones to identify surveillance. It helps you connect the dots over time and distance.” Burton formerly served with the US Diplomatic Security Service, and Abraxas’ staff includes other security experts with experience in and out of the Armed Forces.

As well as this (underline mine):

In one email from 2010 leaked by Anonymous, Stratfor’s Fred Burton allegedly writes, “God Bless America. Now they have EVERY major HVT in CONUS, the UK, Canada, Vegas, Los Angeles, NYC as clients.” Files on USASpending.gov reveal that the US Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense together awarded Abraxas and TrapWire more than one million dollars in only the past eleven months.

News of the widespread and largely secretive installation of TrapWire comes amidst a federal witch-hunt to crack down on leaks escaping Washington and at attempt to prosecute whistleblowers. Thomas Drake, a former agent with the NSA, has recently spoken openly about the government’s Trailblazer Project that was used to monitor private communication, and was charged under the Espionage Act for coming forth. Separately, former NSA tech director William Binney and others once with the agency have made claims in recent weeks that the feds have dossiers on every American, an allegation NSA Chief Keith Alexander dismissed during a speech at Def-Con last month in Vegas.

I find myself wondering if paranoia is actually the sensible conclusion.

It's not my nature to be paranoid, mostly because I find the majority people seem just too damn daft to pull off anything especially noteworthy. I must also keep in mind that most of the populace consists of exceptionally docile lab rats, who will keep acting the same way and performing the same functions as long as little goodies are offered as distractions. If bright shiny objects fail to keep us in our place, fear will do the trick. It is assumed we will not ask those who demand our absolute trust if they are able to correctly determine what "suspicious activity" looks like. It is also assumed we will fail to grasp that any entity which makes its fortune by finding threats will always find threats as it has a financial incentive to do so. It will therefore continually widen the definition of "suspicious activity", eventually to the point that every small infraction of a law or any challenge of authority is blatantly prosecuted and used as an excuse for even more surveillance.

Fear is a cage. While some fear can be helpful in preventing us from doing stupid or dangerous things, we should also admit that perpetual fear is a perversion. Those who wish to capitalize upon this fear should be questioned and we should be critical of those in authority who use this as a tool. This is why the largest political party in a very large state decided that critical thinking was bad and that we should simply give absolute trust to anyone in authority, as long as they give lip service to it being in our best interests. Absolute power is given by those who remain docile and dependent upon a cage to stay "safe".

 

[stonehart]

[Remember the movie Enemy of the State? At the time it was whispered that the level of tech in the movie was already 25 years old. Well, it seems that the gov-dudes now have it all set-up and dialed in and it staggers the mind! I would venture a guess that every American has a daily updated digital file that records practically every aspect of your daily activities, routines and behavior. It wouldn't surprise me if this dossier system has sophisticated algorithms in place to analyze and predict any kind of social behavior. Even Orwell didn't anticipate the level of tech now available to those paranoidal-types in DC w/ unlimited budgets and too much time on their clutching, grasping, paranoid hands... --chris]

Article HERE:

Strafor Emails Reveal Secret, Widespread TrapWire Surveillance System

Former senior intelligence officials have created a detailed surveillance system more accurate than modern facial recognition technology — and have installed it across the US under the radar of most Americans, according to emails hacked by Anonymous.
Every few seconds, data picked up at surveillance points in major cities and landmarks across the United States are recorded digitally on the spot, then encrypted and instantaneously delivered to a fortified central database center at an undisclosed location to be aggregated with other intelligence. It’s part of a program called TrapWire and it's the brainchild of the Abraxas, a Northern Virginia company staffed with elite from America’s intelligence community. The employee roster at Arbaxas reads like a who’s who of agents once with the Pentagon, CIA and other government entities according to their public LinkedIn profiles, and the corporation's ties are assumed to go deeper than even documented.
The details on Abraxas and, to an even greater extent TrapWire, are scarce, however, and not without reason. For a program touted as a tool to thwart terrorism and monitor activity meant to be under wraps, its understandable that Abraxas would want the program’s public presence to be relatively limited. But thanks to last year’s hack of the Strategic Forecasting intelligence agency, or Stratfor, all of that is quickly changing.... Rest of Article HERE:

Thank you for posting this Chris and it is a worrying development indeed.

As with all technology there is always a light and dark side to it and it is the use of it that defines which that will be.

So some will say that if you have nothing to hide then why should you worry ... Well the fact is you should be very frightened.

Hard tyranny will not come over night but will creep up on you slowly and if you do not see it coming then I guess that the leading edge has not affected you as yet.

Or you have not looked into the changes to civil liberty in not only the United States but in many other Western nations in the past ten years.

How long until anyone who speaks out against their government is branded an insurgent or terrorist for simply not agreeing with them and exercising what they believe is their right to speak out?

NDAA ... did not define what a belligerent act really is so it could be anything from having a bumper sticker to being in the vicinity of a peaceful protest.

http://www.wikileaks.org/

 

[stonehart]

NDAA: The Most Important Lawsuit in American History that No One is Talking About


NDAA: The Most Important Lawsuit in American History that No One is Talking About | A Lightning War for Liberty

 

[Randall]

NDAA: The Most Important Lawsuit in American History that No One is Talking About


NDAA: The Most Important Lawsuit in American History that No One is Talking About | A Lightning War for Liberty

Ya ... well ... it's really all quite unsettling isn't it. Of course there is more to the issue than the opponents portray. To play devil's advocate here. I find it far more terrifying that someone could be smuggling a nuclear bomb into our city and that we couldn't stop it because of some hold-up in the legal system. What good does a constitution do you when your vaporized? What these terrorists have learned to do is use our own freedoms against us to advance their goals, and what we need to do is remember who the bad guys really are, Compared to foreign terrorists bent on nuking us, our government is the good guys, and although their has been an erosion of trust over financial scams, I really don't think they ( our government ) are bent on hurting us. At some point we have to trust that our people consist mostly of the good guys who know when it is and isn't appropriate to bring these laws into play.

 

[nameless]

FEAR. These guys cant do shit with shit.

 

[exo_doc]

Ya ... well ... it's really all quite unsettling isn't it. Of course there is more to the issue than the opponents portray. To play devil's advocate here. I find it far more terrifying that someone could be smuggling a nuclear bomb into our city and that we couldn't stop it because of some hold-up in the legal system. What good does a constitution do you when your vaporized? What these terrorists have learned to do is use our own freedoms against us to advance their goals, and what we need to do is remember who the bad guys really are, Compared to foreign terrorists bent on nuking us, our government is the good guys, and although their has been an erosion of trust over financial scams, I really don't think they ( our government ) are bent on hurting us. At some point we have to trust that our people consist mostly of the good guys who know when it is and isn't appropriate to bring these laws into play.

I would like to point out one of Benjamin Franklins famous quotes:

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

I understand the need for security. I do not want my family dying in a terrorist act either, but there has to be a limit to protect ourselves from those who would abuse this massive power. And it WILL be abused. It's only a mtter of time, if not already.

 

[GeoShift]

Just because your not paranoid doesn't mean everybody's privacy is not being totally invaded and violated..

 

[Randall]

I would like to point out one of Benjamin Franklins famous quotes:

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

I understand the need for security. I do not want my family dying in a terrorist act either, but there has to be a limit to protect ourselves from those who would abuse this massive power. And it WILL be abused. It's only a mtter of time, if not already.

The thing is, back in Franklin's day, they never had weapons of mass destruction. Franklin lived in the 1700s. They rode on horses and were still using flintlock guns. The entire state of New York had around 210,500. Today NYC alone is over 8 Million and a single weapon could destroy it all in one fell swoop. Franklin had no clue about the scope of destruction of modern weaponry. He was thinking in terms of investigating a few political dissidents who might stir up some trouble, not vaporize millions of people in a blinding flash brighter than the Sun. So far as I'm concerned they have my fullest cooperation and approval to go after serious threats to our national security. Will there be abuses? There will probably be mistakes and false leads and a few people might be inconvenienced, but I don't believe that our own people who we trust to protect our nation would suddenly turn en masse on the general population using these special provisions as an excuse.

 

[stonehart]

I would like to point out one of Benjamin Franklins famous quotes:

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

I understand the need for security. I do not want my family dying in a terrorist act either, but there has to be a limit to protect ourselves from those who would abuse this massive power. And it WILL be abused. It's only a mtter of time, if not already.

Agreed the problem with ultimate power is some one or group will inevitably use it to further their own ends.

With open ended legislation as a citizen it becomes hard to know just where you stand. I do not doubt that there are good people who work to keep the main body of the population safe but they are not the ones that worry me.

This is just part of a larger trend that when you look hard at it frightens the hell out of me and I am a law abiding person.

Free speech zones? have you seen them? since when did the free peoples of the west need a designated zone for free speech? Anti protest laws, and where I live the need to have a permit to hold a protest.

although their has been an erosion of trust over financial scams, I really don't think they ( our government ) are bent on hurting us

In answer to this as I said before there are those that are there for the common good but many are not.

Yes I agree that the government as a whole may not be bent on hurting you, but is it not more likely that you are in all reality irrelevant when all is said and done.

By now if people still have the idea that their government has their best interests at heart then they are in for a very rude awakening... for just who is the government these days... the people you vote for? or the ones with the most money?

Let us face it most politicians are to busy trying to get reelected to do the job they were elected to do in the first place. Then add to that the amount of corporate lobby groups pouring money into this or that candidate and essentially your vote becomes insignificant.

When money buys you the loyalty of an elected official your democratic system is broken, and when the more money you have buys you more free speech and influence, then your system is not just broken it has become a Plutocracy.

Just one final thought ..... A government that lied to its people to justify a war.. are they really that trustworthy?

 

[stonehart]

Very relevant to this thread.

Carlin hits the nail on the head.. yes its a rant on education but he brings in a wider issue

 

[stonehart]

Hmm just in

Deconstructing The New York Times #TrapWire WhiteWash – PLEASE REBLOG! | Occupy Savvy

 

[stonehart]

Interesting indeed.

 

[Voyager]

Agreed the problem with ultimate power is some one or group will inevitably use it to further their own ends.

With open ended legislation as a citizen it becomes hard to know just where you stand. I do not doubt that there are good people who work to keep the main body of the population safe but they are not the ones that worry me.

This is just part of a larger trend that when you look hard at it frightens the hell out of me and I am a law abiding person.

Free speech zones? have you seen them? since when did the free peoples of the west need a designated zone for free speech? Anti protest laws, and where I live the need to have a permit to hold a protest.



In answer to this as I said before there are those that are there for the common good but many are not.

Yes I agree that the government as a whole may not be bent on hurting you, but is it not more likely that you are in all reality irrelevant when all is said and done.

By now if people still have the idea that their government has their best interests at heart then they are in for a very rude awakening... for just who is the government these days... the people you vote for? or the ones with the most money?

Let us face it most politicians are to busy trying to get reelected to do the job they were elected to do in the first place. Then add to that the amount of corporate lobby groups pouring money into this or that candidate and essentially your vote becomes insignificant.

When money buys you the loyalty of an elected official your democratic system is broken, and when the more money you have buys you more free speech and influence, then your system is not just broken it has become a Plutocracy.

Just one final thought ..... A government that lied to its people to justify a war.. are they really that trustworthy?

What else is new? This is the way it has been throughout recorded history. Free societies are the exception, not the rule. I try to think positive and have faith in people; only to encounter people who are so ignorant and delusional, they may as well be from another planet. The human collective. Trapped within the matrix. The hunter runs from the rattle of the scare, and falls into the pit; he climbs out of the pit only to be caught in the trap. Where is the exit?

 

[exo_doc]

The thing is, back in Franklin's day, they never had weapons of mass destruction. Franklin lived in the 1700s. They rode on horses and were still using flintlock guns. The entire state of New York had around 210,500. Today NYC alone is over 8 Million and a single weapon could destroy it all in one fell swoop. Franklin had no clue about the scope of destruction of modern weaponry. He was thinking in terms of investigating a few political dissidents who might stir up some trouble, not vaporize millions of people in a blinding flash brighter than the Sun. So far as I'm concerned they have my fullest cooperation and approval to go after serious threats to our national security. Will there be abuses? There will probably be mistakes and false leads and a few people might be inconvenienced, but I don't believe that our own people who we trust to protect our nation would suddenly turn en masse on the general population using these special provisions as an excuse.

That's very naive of you my friend. I think there are many people either in power, or the power is within their grasp to make the lives of what they would consider "undesirables" miserable and under their thumb. It may sound like a giant conspiracy, and it is.
Them that has the power and the money want more of both, and damn the little people.

 

[Voyager]

That's very naive of you my friend. I think there are many people either in power, or the power is within their grasp to make the lives of what they would consider "undesirables" miserable and under their thumb. It may sound like a giant conspiracy, and it is.
Them that has the power and the money want more of both, and damn the little people.

As I stated, that is nothing new. Is it possible to ever break free of their control, I don't know. I do know this: A free society cannot function if the people are not educated.

 

[RenaissanceLady]

Ya ... well ... it's really all quite unsettling isn't it. Of course there is more to the issue than the opponents portray. To play devil's advocate here. I find it far more terrifying that someone could be smuggling a nuclear bomb into our city and that we couldn't stop it because of some hold-up in the legal system. What good does a constitution do you when your vaporized? What these terrorists have learned to do is use our own freedoms against us to advance their goals, and what we need to do is remember who the bad guys really are, Compared to foreign terrorists bent on nuking us, our government is the good guys, and although their has been an erosion of trust over financial scams, I really don't think they ( our government ) are bent on hurting us. At some point we have to trust that our people consist mostly of the good guys who know when it is and isn't appropriate to bring these laws into play.

Someone smuggling in a nuclear bomb into a city isn't really what NDAA is about. We already have and use the technology that can find radioactive material that is in or near major cities, as one unfortunate man recently discovered after he had radioactive material injected into his veins for a medical procedure. If someone was caught smuggling radioactive material into an urban area or into the county, you could safely bet he would not only be caught due to these detectors but that there would also be enough evidence against him to warrant a full trial. We do not need the NDAA to safely search for, detect and prosecute terrorists engaged in these activities.

What the NDAA does is allow the armed forced to engage in civilian law enforcement and suspend habeas corpus / due process of anyone, regardless if he is or is not an American citizen, if he constitutes any perceived "threat". It then allows them to be held indefinitely, without trial, until the "end of hostilities."

This pernicious law poses one of the greatest threats to civil liberties in our nation’s history. Under Section 1021 of the NDAA, foreign nationals who are alleged to have committed or merely “suspected” of sympathizing with or providing any level of support to groups the U.S. designates as terrorist organization or an affiliate or associated force may be imprisoned without charge or trial “until the end of hostilities.” The law affirms the executive branch’s authority granted under the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) and broadens the definition and scope of “covered persons.” But because the “war on terror” is a war on a tactic, not on a state, it has no parameters or timetable. Consequently, this law can be used by authorities to detain (forever) anyone the government considers a threat to national security and stability – potentially even demonstrators and protesters exercising their First Amendment rights.

One popular myth surrounding this law (which has been marketed well by the White House and the mainstream media) is that it does not pertain to U.S. persons (citizens and resident aliens). While the law does not explicitly target U.S. persons, it neither excludes nor protects them. Section 1022 of the law covers U.S. persons. The section allows for open-ended executive judgment with regard to the handling of U.S. persons. In other words, the detention of U.S persons is optional, rather than a requirement as it is for non-U.S. persons. Jonathan Turley, legal scholar and professor at George Washington University, explains that “the provision merely states that nothing in the provisions could be construed to alter Americans’ legal rights. Since the Senate clearly views citizens are not just subject to indefinite detention but even execution without a trial, the change offers nothing but rhetoric to hide the harsh reality.”

What constitutes a "threat to national security or stability" is a broad enough scope to include far more than just terrorists and will always be defined by those in power. As the article suggests, it could include anyone who exercises his First Amendment rights, is critical of the government (or those entities which own the government), government whistleblowers or virtually anyone who researches and publishes anything the government might wish to keep secret. It is foreseeable that certain politicians or entire political parties could be considered a "threat to our national security or stability", as could religious leaders, professors, teachers, union leaders, artists, researchers, writers and publishers, among many other groups. Again, it is assumed we must give absolute trust to the government in hopes that they truly have our best interests in heart. All that's asked in return is our unquestioning obedience, or else...

Now let's combine this act with TrapWire and what we now have is a system that is "designed to provide a simple yet powerful means of collecting and recording suspicious activity" coupled with the possibility of indefinite detention, without trial, of anyone who might be considered a "threat". We also have government whistleblowers who have been charged under the Espionage Act, thereby ensuring that no one dare report the injustices he witnesses.

It's a system that is designed to keep us blind, ignorant and quiet or risk being "disappeared".

 

[exo_doc]

Someone smuggling in a nuclear bomb into a city isn't really what NDAA is about. We already have and use the technology that can find radioactive material that is in or near major cities, as one unfortunate man recently discovered after he had radioactive material injected into his veins for a medical procedure. If someone was caught smuggling radioactive material into an urban area or into the county, you could safely bet he would not only be caught due to these detectors but that there would also be enough evidence against him to warrant a full trial. We do not need the NDAA to safely search for, detect and prosecute terrorists engaged in these activities.

What the NDAA does is allow the armed forced to engage in civilian law enforcement and suspend habeas corpus / due process of anyone, regardless if he is or is not an American citizen, if he constitutes any perceived "threat". It then allows them to be held indefinitely, without trial, until the "end of hostilities."




What constitutes a "threat to national security or stability" is a broad enough scope to include far more than just terrorists and will always be defined by those in power. As the article suggests, it could include anyone who exercises his First Amendment rights, is critical of the government (or those entities which own the government), government whistleblowers or virtually anyone who researches and publishes anything the government might wish to keep secret. It is foreseeable that certain politicians or entire political parties could be considered a "threat to our national security or stability", as could religious leaders, professors, teachers, union leaders, artists, researchers, writers and publishers, among many other groups. Again, it is assumed we must give absolute trust to the government in hopes that they truly have our best interests in heart. All that's asked in return is our unquestioning obedience, or else...

Now let's combine this act with TrapWire and what we now have is a system that is "designed to provide a simple yet powerful means of collecting and recording suspicious activity" coupled with the possibility of indefinite detention, without trial, of anyone who might be considered a "threat". We also have government whistleblowers who have been charged under the Espionage Act, thereby ensuring that no one dare report the injustices he witnesses.

It's a system that is designed to keep us blind, ignorant and quiet or risk being "disappeared".

CLAP-CLAP-CLAP-CLAP-CLAP!!!! Well stated!!!! Very well!

 

[Randall]

Someone smuggling in a nuclear bomb into a city isn't really what NDAA is about. We already have and use the technology that can find radioactive material that is in or near major cities ..."

There is no doubt that terrorist cells exist, that they have done us harm, and that the the legal provisions we're talking about are intended to prevent more harm in the future. There is also no doubt that the job isn't simply about radiation detectors and the one obvious guy at the scene with his finger on the detonation switch. It's about the fact that to prevent the scene from happening in the first place, the people who investigate terrorism need information, and that information comes from people. So if there is sufficient reason to believe that someone is part of a terrorist plot and has information that could prevent a major disaster, our agents need to be able to get that information as fast as possible without being ham-stringed by bureaucracy. It's just that simple and many lives could depend on having that ability.

Those who oppose giving our people that ability cry "fear mongering", but they're just being hypocritical. They're the ones trying to convince us that we'll all be enslaved in work camps by some sudden transmutation of our country into an evil facist dictatorship. Is our system perfect? No. But it's no where near that bad, and if it weren't for the real crazies out there who use our freedoms against us to accomplish horrific goals like 911, we wouldn't even be having this discussion. Of course then you also have conspiracy theorists who believe 911 was perpetrated by our own government. Well call me naive again, but I think it's more reasonable to believe that the vast majority people involved with our national security aren't crazy, wouldn't fly airliners into our skyscrapers and actually do care about the welfare of the public at large ... so give 'em what they need to do their job to the best of their abilities.

 

[pixelsmith]

that was a pretty humorous post. good one.

there is a massive "cell" within the federal reserve.