Fusion Center Director and Spying on US

KC amp Associates Investigations Research Associates

Quinault Valley Guns amp Blades Urban Escape amp Evasion Course

International Relations Military Terrorism Business Security

wwwkcandassociatesorg orderskcandassociatesorg

Kathleen Louise dePass Press AgentPublicist 3602882652

Triste cosa es no tener amigos pero maacutes triste ha de ser no tener enemigos porque quieacuten no

tenga enemigos sentildeal es de que no tiene talento que haga sombra ni caraacutecter que impresione ni

valor temido ni honra de la que se murmure ni bienes que se le codicien ni cosa alguna que se

le envidie A sad thing it is to not have friends but even sadder must it be not having any

enemies that a man should have no enemies is a sign that he has no talent to outshine others

nor character that inspires nor valor that is feared nor honor to be rumored nor goods to be

coveted nor anything to be envied -Jose Marti

From the desk of Craig B Hulet

Thursday 28 March 2013 1800

Homeland Security Demands ldquoObediencerdquo in Message to Agents

Written by Alex Newman

The Obama administration and its controversial Department of Homeland Security are under fire

for sending what is being described as a ldquochillingrdquo message to US Border Patrol agents

demanding ldquoobediencerdquo Liberty News Network (LNN) national correspondent and law-

enforcement advocate Andy Ramirez revealed in an exclusive video report (see below) calling

for Congress to investigate The word ldquoobediencerdquo was defined on the official TV screens as

ldquoquickly and cheerfully carrying out the direction of those who are responsible for merdquo

Reliable sources inside the agency confirmed to Ramirez who also serves as president of the

Law Enforcement Officers Advocates Council (LEOAC) that the controversial message

demanding ldquoobediencerdquo was displayed for agents on TV monitors in the San Diego and Tucson

sectors last week In his explosive video for LNN exposing the scheme Ramirez also provided a

picture of the ldquopropagandardquo graphic that he obtained from a source within Customs and Border

Protection (CBP) who requested anonymity (see photo above)

ldquoThis lsquoObediencersquo order just continues a long recent history of intimidation going back to the

2004 lsquogag orderrsquo by then-Chief David Aguilarrdquo Ramirez told The New American in an

interview referring to a controversial non-disclosure agreement purporting to bar agents from

releasing important information to lawmakers and the media ldquoThe primary point of this all is to

purge the patrol of experienced agents who refuse to go along to get alongrdquo

Calling for congressional hearings to investigate the controversial ldquoobediencerdquo message

Ramirez said the scheme was frightening ldquoCheerfullyrdquo he exclaimed about the graphic

sounding bewildered ldquoResponses Irsquom hearing from sources at the Border Patrol include the

words Orwellian creepy sickening craziness Nazi handbook mdash and those are just the ones I

can actually repeatrdquo

Ramirez also wondered what happens to Border Patrol agents who do not ldquocheerfullyrdquo engage in

ldquoobediencerdquo upon demand especially if orders included instructions to violate the Constitution

for example ldquoDo they go to one of the long-rumored FEMA camps guarded by employees and

DHS armored personnel carriersrdquo he asked ldquoPerhaps we hear loudspeakers playing

lsquoDeutschland Deutschland Uber Allesrsquo mdash something out of Hitlerrsquos Nazi Germanyrdquo

Alternatively Ramirez speculated half-seriously there could be an even more chilling fate

awaiting those who refuse to carry out unlawful or unconstitutional orders ldquoAre they now

classified as domestic terrorists in which case a yet-to-be-identified official at the Department of

Justice can have them taken out with a drone strikerdquo he wondered ldquoAs we just heard in recent

congressional hearings thatrsquos pretty much what can now happen a drone strike on an individual

who is considered a terrorist on US soilrdquo

According to Ramirez both the Border Patrol and Customs have already engaged in a number of

ldquopurgesrdquo where agents close to retirement were forced to retire even though they still had room

for advancement ldquoThey want employees who are loyal to DHS and CBP which is why the old

BP logos and decals have been pretty much removed off the vehiclesrdquo the LNN correspondent

told The New American in an exclusive interview

ldquoAgencies like CBP ICE TSA and the like were placed under DHS roof for command and

control purposesrdquo Ramirez continued ldquoHowever the real purpose has been to keep the facts

from reaching the public In point of fact DHS is a propaganda ministry in its own right given

the blatant misinformation released by top officials In the wrong hands it could easily act in a

way similar to lsquoState Securityrsquordquo

In addition to exposing the controversial image used to condition Border Patrol agents into blind

obedience Ramirez took the opportunity to blast the agencyrsquos leadership as well ldquoAs the Border

Patrol enters its 89th year since it was established there is no figure who has done more to

destroy this honorable agency than David Aguilar and his handpicked cronies including current

national Chief Mike Fisherrdquo he said

The longtime advocate for Border Patrol agents who has testified before Congress on multiple

occasions also noted that management was destroying morale Among other concerns Ramirez

pointed to pay increases for top leadership amid sequester even as agents face potentially

massive pay cuts He blasted what he said was top officialsrsquo efforts to prevent agents from

enforcing US immigration laws too

Another concern highlighted by Ramirez was the US governmentrsquos willingness to ldquosacrifice

agents as scalps through the Justice Department upon request of the Mexican governmentrdquo He

was referring of course to the now-infamous prosecution of Border Patrol agent Jesus ldquoChitordquo

Diaz Jr after Mexican officials complained that the agent had allegedly pulled on the handcuffs

of a young drug smuggler

Indeed the Mexican government seems to be rapidly expanding its influence on the American

side of the border Ramirez slammed what he described as the US federal government ceding

control over the border to the Mexican military drug cartels and human smugglers Notoriously

corrupt authorities from Mexico now have ldquovirtual oversight impunityrdquo at US Border Patrol

facilities he explained

Finally Ramirez lambasted top officialsrsquo participation in the cover-up of the murder of Border

Patrol agent Brian Terry who was killed by drug smugglers apparently armed by the Obama

administration under operation ldquoFast and Furiousrdquo While the explosive scandal and the

subsequent cover-up eventually resulted in Attorney General Eric Holder being held in criminal

contempt of Congress justice has yet to be served

ldquoItrsquos no wonder morale has been broken at the Border Patrolrdquo Ramirez concluded

The New American reached out to the Department of Homeland Security with a number of

questions about the ldquoobediencerdquo scandal Who approved this Is it from DHS CBP or some

other agency Are such messages being used in other DHS components How does DHS

respond to criticism from Ramirez and agents about this message Does DHS consider this type

of messaging to be appropriate Are there any exceptions to obedience What happens if

agents do not ldquoquickly and cheerfully carry out the direction of those who are responsiblerdquo for

them

While most of the questions were left unanswered Bill Brooks with the CBP Office of Public

Affairs offered a brief statement about the issue ldquoInformation Display System slides are meant

to communicate important and useful information to personnelrdquo Brooks told The New American

in an e-mail ldquoThis example falls short of that criteria and has already been removedrdquo

For Ramirez however though he was glad to hear that the offensive slides have already been

removed the official ldquonon-denialrdquo response was not enough ldquoWell apparently CBP has

responded to the Obedience slide but refused to comment on who ordered it and the other facts

I reported for LNNrdquo he said ldquoClearly theyre not denying itrdquo

Still even though the slide is supposedly gone Congress needs to get involved and provide real

oversight of DHS Ramirez explained The other alternative is to continue allowing the ldquoout-of-

control bureaucracyrdquo to run roughshod over their employees the rights of Americans and

constitutional principles For Ramirez doing nothing should not even be an option

ldquoCongress needs to publicly investigate this lsquoObediencersquo slide as well as the DHS purchase of

over 1 billion rounds of ammo FEMA camps and armored personnel carriers for there are

many serious implications involved hererdquo Ramirez concluded calling on officials to make a

public apology to agents ldquoAlso the officials responsible for this blatant attempt to intimidate our

Border Patrol agents must be terminated with the same loss of benefits as employees who get

terminated on trumped up charges Ive documented over the past eight yearsrdquo

Washington Republicans want to repeal NDAA

Published time February 02 2012 2318

Edited time February 03 2012 0318

In this phot reviewed by a US Department of Defense official a Guantanamo guard opens the

gate f With opponents on Capitol Hill unable to keep President Obama from signing the

controversial National Defense Authorization Act lawmakers in Washington State are proposing

a bill that would block its dangerous provisions from themselves

Five Republican lawmakers in the state of Washington have proposed a bill that would keep the

provisions that permit the president from indefinitely detaining American citizens from applying

to state residents Despite widespread opposition President Obama signed the National Defense

Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 or NDAA into law on December 31 2011 In

authorizing the bill President Obama added a signing statement insisting that he would not abide

by the provisions that permit the unconstitutional actions guaranteed under the law Even with

this addendum however critics fear that this president mdash and any future ones mdash will use the bill

to break down the civil liberties of Americans

Reps Jason Overstreet Matt Shea Vincent Buys Cary Condotta and David Taylor all

Republicans have introduced HB 2759 or the Washington State Preservation of Liberty Act

With the bill the lawmakers aim to tackle the NDAA provisions that make American citizens on

par with al-Qaeda terrorists in terms of making anyone in the US eligible for stay at the

Guantanamo Bay military prison

The bill calls for among other items ldquoTo condemn in no uncertain termsrdquo the sections of the

NDAA that authorize the president to used the armed forces to indefinitely detain Americans

without charge subject them to military tribunals and transfer citizens to a foreign country or

foreign entity

ldquoWinning the war against terror cannot come at the great expense of eviscerating the

unalienable rights recognized by and protected in the United States Constitutionrdquo add the

lawmakers

Outside of Washington others have agreed since before the law went into effect ACLU

Executive Director Anthony Romero responded to the news of the billrsquos authorization last month

by saying ldquoPresident Obamas action hellip is a blight on his legacy because he will forever be

known as the president who signed indefinite detention without charge or trial into lawrdquo

In Congress Texas Representative Ron Paul has actually proposed a bill that will repeal those

dangerous provisions from coast-to-coast Following Mondayrsquos GOP primary in the state of

Florida Congressman Paul used an address to supporters to voice his opposition to the NDAA

ldquoThe purpose of all governments should be the protection of individual liberty for each and

every one of usrdquo said Paul ldquoWe need to reverse the trend of the attack on our civil liberties we

need to repeal the Patriot Act We need to reverse the trend of the attack on our civil liberties

we need to repeal the Patriot Act We need to repeal the provision that says the president can

use the military to arrest any American citizen and deny them a trialrdquo

He brought that argument to the Washington DC last month asking ldquoIs this really the kind of

United States we want to create in the name of fighting terrorismrdquo

ldquoI recognize how critical it is that we identify and apprehend those who are suspected of plotting

attacks against Americans But why do we have so little faith in our justice systemrdquo asked the

congressman He proposed a bill that would repeal the detention provisions although Congress

has yet to act on it

In the other Washington however lawmakers may soon vote on a localized bill that would keep

The Evergreen State safe from the NDAA If passed the Washington State Preservation of

Liberty Act will bar the US military from conducting an investigation or detainment of a citizen

within the state of Washington

Last month the US Supreme Court already evoked the NDAA by using its detention provisions

to justify the continued imprisonment of an alleged terrorist Musaab al-Madhwani

Ron Paul demands repeal of NDAA in post-primary speech



When the results of the Florida primary came through Tuesday night the remaining Republican

contenders each addressed supporters by insisting that their fight for the partyrsquos nomination was

far from over

But while three of the frontrunners relied on redundant rhetoric in hopes of engaging their

audience only one candidate on Tuesday touched on issues that although of importance to each

and every American are being ignored by the competition

Voters in Florida only endorsed Texas Congressman Ron Paul enough to put him in fourth place

but announcing early in the race that he would concentrate his efforts away from the Sunshine

State the lackluster finish did not come as a surprise to the candidate When the results came in

Congressman Paul was already on the other side of the country readying for the upcoming

Nevada caucus While his Republican Party rivals spent Tuesday night taking shots at President

Obama and repeating the same topics the establishment expects them to Paul offered an

energized speech that relied on defending the US Constitution cutting spending and repealing a

controversial bill that allows for indefinite detention and torture of Americans

Frontrunners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich used their own appearances on Tuesday night to

tackle the Obama administration for a dwindling jobs market Romney who came in first in

votes in Florida attacked Obama over his lack of initiative in changing and making policy

insisting ldquonow its time to get out of the way Former House Speaker Gingrich was a bit more

volatile with lobbing his critiques warning that ldquoIf Barack Obama gets re-elected it will be a

disaster for the United States of Americardquo Rick Santorum who placed third behind Gingrich in

Florida offered opinions not as much about the Obama administration but against the former

speaker himself saying that Gingrichrsquos past has become an issue that will cost him the

nomination

But while each insisting that they were the clear competition for President Obama Congressman

Ron Paul spoke on Tuesday by addressing that he was the only clear competition to a clueless

establishment Speaking from Nevada Congressman Ron Paul acknowledged problems from

within the White House but warned that the issues were much different than what Romney and

Gingrich had in mind ldquoTheres a mess up in Washington Theyve created a mess Theyve given

us a lousy foreign policy theyve given us a lousy budget and theyve given us a lousy

recessionrdquo said Paul

The answer to Americarsquos problems economic and otherwise are in the Constitution says Paul

ldquoDont you think its about time we had a new monetary policyrdquo the congressman asked to a

room of applause ldquoAnd would we have to invent something new All we would have to do is

read the Constitution They tell us exactly what were supposed to haverdquo he added

ldquoAnd what about a foreign policy We need a foreign policy but do we have to invent it No all

we have to do is read the Constitution

We need a strong national defense we dont need to be the policeman of the world and very

simply we should reject and not get engaged in any more wars that arent declared properly and

supported by the peoplerdquo said Paul

While Romney and Gingrich offered their own take on solving Americarsquos economic problem

Paul once again separated himself from the establishment by saying that more and more of

Americarsquos issues could be addressed by just ending its ongoing warsldquoId like to see the troops

spending their money here at home and not going over thererdquo said the congressman

Paul also noted that perhaps the biggest war of all right now is the war right here at home

Although President Obama gave himself the power only one month ago to detain American

citizens indefinitely without trial his only mainstream opposition has come by way of Paul

Other candidates have supported the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012

during past debates and otherwise the bill has gone untouched by the media whether or not it

involves the GOP candidates From Nevada Tuesday night Paul once more made it a point to

address the NDAA






When the congressman touched on each one of those infringements of civil liberties his

audience responded with audible jeering Paul thinks support for America could once again

return to this country by enforcing just one thing mdash and thatrsquos what Americarsquos founders had in

mind as well

ldquoVery simply the answer is send only people to Washington send only people to the White

House send only people who know and understand and read the Constitution and enforce the

Constitutionrdquo said Paul ldquoThen there would be then we would have the full understanding how

you have a peaceful thriving nation as you enforce the concept of libertyrdquo

ldquoEnforce the liberty for each and every one of us equally This brings people together because

people will use their liberty in different matters but we dont have to fight over how they use

their liberty as long as they assume responsibility for themselves and the consequences of their

actionsrdquo

Congressman Paul insisted ldquowe dont have to reinvent somethingrdquo He told his audience ldquoWe

can improve on our past but we had a great past We had a great Constitution we had a great

middle class the richest and the biggest middle class ever and weve undermined it with

excessive spending excessive taxation a monetary system that is flawed and a foreign policy

that is flawedrdquo

Fixing all of that said the congressman is as simple as following the rules ldquoAll we have to do is

return to our roots and in this short time we could have our peace and our prosperity and our

reliance on ourselves with our personal libertyrdquo said Paul

Both Paul and Santorum spoke Tuesday night from Nevada It is there that the next major event

of the election cycle the Nevada caucus will occur on February 4

Utah asks for repeal of NDAArsquos indefinite detention provisions


Detees participate in an early morning prayer session at Camp IV at the detention facility in

Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base (REUTERSReuters Staff)

Utah is now the latest state to draft legislation specifically condemning the provisions in the

National Defense Authorization Act that allow the president to indefinitely detain American

citizens without charge

The Utah House is currently considering legislation that would publically put down Congress for

drafting the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 or the NDAA The United

States House and Senate passed the NDAA late last year before sending it to the White House

for President Barack Obama to approve on December 31 2011 Although the legislation

legitimizes the use of funds for the US military to spend throughout 2012 it also includes some

controversial provisions that grant the Executive Branch the power to indefinitely detain

Americans considered terrorists in the eyes of the government

Unfortunately how the government goes about defining a terrorist is vaguely explained which

has many Americans concerned that they could someday find themselves forever behind bars in

a military prison for expressing discontent with their country

ldquoOur concern is in the definition of lsquoterroristrsquo rdquo Dalane England of the Utah Eagle Forum tells

the Salt Lake City Tribune

Should the government deem an American a terrorist and apply the punishments permitted

through the NDAA alleged criminals could be condemned to a shadow prison such as the one at

Guantanamo Bay until their death

Todd Weilier a Republican senator representing the Woods Cross district of Utah adds to the

paper that other legislation with good intentions have been used in the pass to implement harsh

punishments on Americans that are otherwise undeserving of such ldquoI have a legitimate fear this

National Defense Authorization law will do the same thingrdquo says the senator who is sponsoring

the bill formally called the lsquoConcurrent Resolution on the National Defense Authorization Actrsquo

ldquoIt is indisputable that the threat of terrorism is real and that the full force of appropriation and

constitutional law must be used to defeat this threatrdquo reads the bill proposed in the Utah House

ldquoHoweverrdquo it continues ldquowinning the war against terror cannot come at the great expense of

mitigating basic fundamental constitutional rightsrdquo

Other states lawmakers have drafted legislation since the creation of the NDAA that aims to

cancel out those provisions as well and Utah is the latest to follow suit Earlier this month

lawmakers in the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly voted 96-to-4 to approve HB

1160 a bill that will ban state officials from abiding by some elements of the NDAA Should the

act see similar support in the statersquos Senate Virginia will be spared from the detainment

provisions that have garnered opposition against Congress and the Obama White House over the

NDAArsquos passing

In the latest plea from lawmakers in Utah they are asking Congress to either repeal or clarify the

language in the NDAA which they fear otherwise could be detrimental to the American way of

life In the resolution offered by Utah lawmakers they urge Congress to act in order ldquoto protect

the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Utah Constitutionrdquo

Senator Weilier proposed the substitute bill before the 2012 general session and the legislation

was approved for filing on February 23 Nine states have so far introduced bills that aim to adjust

or repeal the detainment provisions of the NDAA

Virginia votes to refuse NDAA


Although Congress approved this yearrsquos National Defense Authorization Act lawmakers on

another level continue to find faults with its nasty detainment provisions Virginia is now the

latest state to consider laws that nix some of the NDAA

When US President Barack Obama signed his name to the National Defense Authorization Act

for Fiscal Year 2012 he authorized the US military to detain and torture anyone on Earth mdash

Americans included mdash without charge Opposition was widespread even before the commander-

in-chief put pen to paper but critics are continuing to condemn the legislation only two months

after Obama approved it So weary of the NDAA are lawmakers in Virginia in fact that a recent

vote within the statersquos House of Delegates led to the passing of a counter-act that will keep those

detainment provisions out of VA

A recent meeting of lawmakers in the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly yielded an

impressive 96-to-4 approval for HB 1160 a bill that will ban state officials from abiding by

some elements of the NDAA Should the act see similar support in the statersquos Senate Virginia

will be spared from the detainment provisions that have garnered opposition against Congress

and the Obama White House over the NDAArsquos passing

Under the Virginia law-in-waiting state agents are forbidden from aiding ldquoan agency of the

armed forces of the United States in the conduct of the investigation prosecution or detention of

any citizen pursuant to 50 USC sect 1541 as provided by the National Defense Authorization Act

for Fiscal Year 2012rdquo

The Virginia bill would specifically see to it that Section 1021 of the NDAA is made illegal

which per President Obamarsquos approval legitimizes the detainment of any alleged terrorist

including Americans that are believed to have committed a ldquobelligerent actrdquo or have supported

ldquohostilitiesrdquo

Bob Marshall a 20-year veteran of the House of Delegates and author of the legislation tells The

New America that his oath to uphold the US and Virginia Constitutionsrdquo prompted him to pen

HB 1160 which he feels corrects the unconstitutional provisions put in the NDAA

They say this law [the NDAA] is designed to fight terrorists You dont defeat terrorists by

adopting their tacticsrdquo says Marshall I will be faithful to my calling to stand against these

predators who would sell their birthright for a mess of pottage he adds

Marshallrsquos bill comes after a call-to-action from the Tenth Amendment Center think tank which

is asking other states to consider composing legislations that will outlaw the NDAA across the

US

The very fact that so many legal experts come up with so many diverse readings of those NDAA

sections should give us all pauserdquo Tenth Amendment Center communicationrsquos director Mike

Maherry adds to The New American ldquoThe language is vague and undefined Are we really

going to trust the judgment and good intentions of Pres Obama or whichever Republican sits in

the White House to protect us That seems like a pretty bad plan

When President Obama approved the NDAA on December 31 2011 he attacked a signing

statement in which he insisted that he would not abide by Section 1021 saying he ldquowill not

authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizensrdquo Since the bill was

approved however the US Supreme Court has seen at least one case in which a detained person

in that instanced a Yemeni national was kept detained under the NDAA

Others have called Obamarsquos signing statement meaningless when put in the grand scope of

things American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony Romero told The Atlantic

last month The statute is particularly dangerous because it has no temporal or geographic

limitations and can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far

from any battlefieldrdquo

ldquoAny hope that the Obama administration would roll back the constitutional excesses of George

Bush in the war on terror was extinguished todayrdquo Romero added upon the presidentrsquos signing

Across the country in Washington State five Republican lawmakers recently proposed a bill

that would can the NDAA detainment provisions in their own jurisdiction ldquoWinning the war

against terror cannot come at the great expense of eviscerating the unalienable rights

recognized by and protected in the United States Constitutionrdquo its authors acknowledged

Fusion center director We donrsquot spy on Americans just anti-government Americans

Published time March 29 2013 2035

Law enforcement intelligence-processing fusion centers have long come under attack for spying

on Americans The Arkansas director wanted to clarify the truth centers only spies on some

Americans ndash those who appear to be a threat to the government

In trying to clear up the lsquomisconceptionsrsquo about the conduct of fusion centers Arkansas State

Fusion Center Director Richard Davis simply confirmed Americansrsquo fears the center does in fact

spy on Americans ndash but only on those who are suspected to be lsquoanti-governmentrsquo

ldquoThe misconceptions are that we are conducting spying operations on US citizens which is of

course not a fact That is absolutely not what we dordquo he told the NWA Homepage which

supports KNWA-TV and Fox 24

After claiming that his office lsquoabsolutelyrsquo does not spy on Americans he proceeded to explain

that this does not apply to those who could be interpreted as a lsquothreatrsquo to national security Davis

said his office places its focus on international plots ldquodomestic terrorism and certain groups

that are anti-government We want to kind of take a look at that and receive that informationrdquo

But the First Amendment allows for the freedom of speech and opinion making it lawfully

acceptable for Americans to express their grievances against the US government The number of

anti-government groups even hit a record high in 2012 according to the Southern Poverty Law

Center Many of these groups are lsquohate groupsrsquo that express disdain for minorities But unless

they become violent these groups are legally allowed to exist

ldquoWe are seeing the fourth straight year of really explosive growth on the part of anti-government

patriot groups and militiasrdquo Mark Potok senior fellow at the SPLC told Mother Jones ldquoThatrsquos

913 percent in growth Wersquove never seen that kind of growth in any group we coverrdquo

And with a record-high number of anti-government groups fusion centers may be spying on

more Americans than ever before ndash or at least have the self-proclaimed right to do so

ldquoI do what I do because of what happened on 911rdquo Davis said ldquoTherersquos this urge and this

feeling inside that you want to do something and this is a perfect opportunity for merdquo

But Davisrsquo argument is flawed in order to determine whether or not someone is considered a

threat to national security fusion centers would first have to spy on Americans to weed out the

suspected individuals and then proceed to spy on the lsquoanti-governmentrsquo individuals further

Across the US fusion centers have reported on individuals who conducted lsquocrimesrsquo like putting

political stickers in public bathrooms or participating in movements against the death penalty In

October the bipartisan Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations finished a two-year

investigation on fusion centers only to find that the centers had directly violated constitutionally

protected civil liberties

ldquoIn reality the Subcommittee investigation found that the fusion centers often produced

irrelevant useless or inappropriate intelligence reporting to DHS and many produced no

intelligence reporting whatsoeverrdquo the report stated

And the privacy violations could soon become worse RT previously reported that the FBIrsquos

proposed facial recognition project could provide fusion centers with more personal data to work

with With at least 72 fusion centers across the US and technology that could further infringe

upon privacy rights government agencies will be able to more efficiently collect data on

Americans solely for exercising their freedom of speech

Mainstream media whitewashes the facts behind TrapWire scandal

Published time August 14 2012 1807

The discovery of a surveillance system named TrapWire has connected state and federal law

enforcement agencies with a vast intelligence infrastructure raising questions everywhere mdash

except in the mainstream media

The New York Times finally brought TrapWire into discussion late Monday in an article

published on their website that has journalist Scott Shane discarding initial reports made about

the surveillance system as ldquowildly exaggeratedrdquo A piece published hours earlier in Slate says

stories about TrapWire are ldquorooted in hyperbole and misinformationrdquo and ldquoheavier on fiction

than factrdquo and even Cubic Corporation the San Diego California company reported as the

parent company to developers Abraxas Corp have been driven to dismiss that rumored

relationship with a formal press release

ldquoCubic Corporation acquired Abraxas Corporation on December 20 2010rdquo a Monday

afternoon statement from Cubic claims ldquoAbraxas Corporation then and now has no affiliation

with Abraxas Applications now known as Trapwire Incrdquo

But four days after RT first broke the news of a nationwide surveillance system operated

underneath the noses of millions of Americans mdash and even citizens abroad mdash the mainstream

media and the major players are going to great lengths to abolish any and all allegations about

TrapWire As private researchers journalists and hacktivists correspond with one another over

the Web though the information becoming increasingly available about Cubic Abraxas and

TrapWire mdash facts meant to be left under wraps mdash is opening up details about a vast operation

with strict ties to the intelligence community the federal government the US Defense

Department contractors and countless others across the globe

While the New York Times has indeed finally come forth with a story on TrapWire their rushed

exposeacute about a story sparked by ldquospeculationrdquo contains references to allegations that are argued

directly in emails obtained from Strategic Forecasting or Stratfor the intelligence company that

was hacked by the Anonymous collective last year Emails uncovered in the attack were

provided to WikiLeaks who on their part published the trove in installments including a dump

last week Thanks to a red flag being raised by independent researcher Justin Ferguson last week

the TrapWire system was linked to Stratfor staffers in turn causing a colossal investigation to be

launched from all corners of the Internet

So far that probing has proved at least one thing that the allegations made by both Cubic and

sources speaking to the Times are either dead wrong or represent a quickly snowballing attempt

at a cover-up

Speaking to the Times for Shanersquos article New York Police Department chief spokesman Paul

Browne says that rumors the cityrsquos subway system is covered by 500 cameras linked to

TrapWire are false Explicitly Browne says ldquoWe donrsquot use TrapWirerdquo but the Times stops

short of printing a quote from the NYPD that exceeds six syllables While Browne has not

publically weighed in yet as to if the NYC surveillance cams were formerly part of the TrapWire

system emails uncovered in the Stratfor attack seem to suggest exactly that

In an email dated September 26 2011 Stratfor Vice President of Intelligence Fred Burton is

believed to have responded to a memo about the NYPDrsquos counter-terrorism efforts by writing

ldquoNote their TrapWire intuitive video surveillance capabilities NYPD has done what no US Govt

Agency has been able to do in the CT [counter-terrorism] arenardquo

In a separate correspondence sent one year earlier on July 16 2010 Burton writes that

ldquoTrapWire may be the most successful invention on the GWOT [Global War on Terror] since 9-

11rdquo

ldquoI knew these hacks when they were GS-12s at the CIA God Bless America Now they have

EVERY major HVT in CONUS the UK Canada Vegas Los Angeles NYC as clientsrdquo he adds

referring to ldquohigh-value targetsrdquo

Contrasting the statements made by the NYPD rep and Stratforrsquos VP open up nothing more than

a he-said-she-said scenario that makes it impossible at this point to put a finger on who exactly

is in the right Since New York City has readied their own domain-awareness-system openly

admitted to conducting undercover surveillance of Muslim residents and installed thousands of

cameras on the island of Manhattan alone though it doesnrsquot seem all that odd that Mayor

Bloomberg would have authorized the use of TrapWire in at least some capacity during the past

few years

Also brought into question are the merits behind Cubic Corporations claims about their

relationship with TrapWire ldquoAbraxas Corporation then and now has no affiliation with Abraxas

Applications now known as Trapwire Incrdquo the company claims in their press release issued this

Monday According to a 2007 report in the Washington Business Journal though that as well is

a full-on fib

ldquoAbraxas Corp a risk-mitigation technology company has spun out a software business to

focus on selling a new productrdquo the article reads ldquoThe spinoff ndash called Abraxas Applications ndash

will sell TrapWire which predicts attacks on critical infrastructure by analyzing security reports

and video surveillancerdquo

Published more than five years before the Stratfor emails prompted a probe into TrapWire and its

affiliates the Washington Business Journal article answers a lot of questions that are being

asked today

ldquoReston-based Abraxas Applications will seek federal state and local government clients as

[well] as companies in financial services oil and gas chemicals transportation and other

industries with critical infrastructurerdquo the article alleges

Just as today though Business Journal also acknowledges a cloud of secrecy that keeps the

juiciest part of TrapWire under wraps ldquoThe 300-person company has spent millions of dollars

developing TrapWire but wont say precisely how muchrdquo their article reads

Elsewhere the Journal adds another piece to the puzzle involving the surveillance system and the

NYPD ldquoAbraxas Applications hits the ground running Abraxas Corp previously won contracts

to test TrapWire with the New York Police Department Los Angeles Police Department

Department of Energy and Marine Corpsrdquo

Meanwhile current investigations conducted by RT and other outlets have suggested that

TrapWire may be connected to as many as thousands of cameras in Washington DC and others

in London Las Vegas as elsewhere

Bloomberg defends secret surveillance of NYC Muslims

Published time September 08 2011 1524

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has exposed a haunting Orwellian outcome for the future of New

Yorkers in a recent interview where he defends alleged ethnic profiling among the NYPD

The Associated Press has been continuing an investigating into the New York City Police

Department following revelations that exposed undercover operations that spied on Muslims in

the Big Apple The AP last month unearthed information on a mysterious ldquoDemographics Unitrdquo

inside the NYPD that under the guidance of a CIA operative installed clandestine cops in

Muslim-majority neighborhoods to infiltrate the community and identify factors that could signal

an eventual terror attack

The NYPD originally denied the existence of any such unit but in the days since the AP first

exposed the operation they have produced documentation that served as training manuals within

the Departmentrsquos Intelligence Division that points towards profiling Now Mayor Michael

Bloomberg is defending surveillance such as this and says that even more monitoring is soon to

come

As the world gets more dangerous people are willing to have infringements on their personal

freedoms that they would not before Bloomberg responds to the AP

Instead of agreeing to allegations that the surveillance is spying on Muslims without specific

reasoning Bloomberg says rather that the techniques coming out of the NYPD are meant to be

preventative

ldquoWe live in a dangerous world and we have to be very proactive in making sure that we prevent

terrorism he told reporters recently The mayor remarked that he believes in being true to both

the Constitution of the United States and the personal rights of people in America but implied

that he would go to any means to insure the safety of New Yorkers

Bloomberg also adds that Muslims welcome the police into their community mdash even if more

than 250 mosques have been secretly surveyed in the decade since the September 11 attacks

unbeknownst to the worshippers

I think most Muslims want police protection They dont want their kids hellip falling off the hellip

train and going down the wrong path Bloomberg says

The protection he adds will only become more intense as his administration progresses The

mayor tells the AP that facial-recognition technology will soon allow authorities to monitor and

identify anyone walking down a street which while potentially nipping any 911-repeats in the

bud also eliminates privacy as the people of New York know it

Author Mordecai Dzikansky added to the APrsquos initial report by confirming that he spied for the

NYPD as far away from Manhattan as Israel and said it was merely a matter of ldquogoing where the

problem could ariserdquo The author thanked God for the NYPDrsquos diversified squad which he said

made it easy for officers of different makeup to infiltrate varying Muslim communities

undetected

ldquoThatrsquos our secret weaponrdquo saus Dzikansky

Officers were installed in disguise outside of the jurisdiction of NYC mdash entering Pennsylvania

New Jersey and even abroad mdash to spy in mosques coffee shops community centers and other

places of worship since September 11 Earlier this month NYPD spokesman Paul Browne

denied that his force was working in conjunction with the CIA

Homeland Security gathers crap intelligence and spies on Americans

Edited time October 03 2012 2254

The US Department of Homeland Security has endangered the civil liberties of Americans and

spent millions on collecting not counterterrorism intel but ldquoa bunch of craprdquo a Senate

subcommittee investigation of DHS data fusion centers has found

The Senatersquos bipartisan Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released on Tuesday their

findings of a two-year-long probe that has left lawmakers scratching their heads over an array of

mismanagement multi-million-dollar flubs and direct violations of constitutionally-protected

civil liberties taking place at fusion centers special intelligence-processing facilities that now

total 77 across the United States

In the wake of the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks Congress tasked the DHS to begin

implementing a coast-to-coast system of highly-connected fusion centers that would allow for

greater ease in sharing terrorism-related information between state local and federal authorities

Under the direction of Chairman Sen Carl Levin and Ranking Minority Member Sen Tom

Coburn though the subcommittee that includes lawmakers from both sides of the aisle

concludes that the initiative has all but failed at accomplishing its goals

The Department of Homeland Securityrsquos work with state and local fusion centers the

subcommittee writes ldquohas not produced useful intelligence to support federal counterterrorism

effortsrdquo Instead they add so-called ldquointelligencerdquo shared between facilities consisted of tidbits

of shoddy quality that was often outdated and ldquosometimes endangering [to] citizenlsquos civil

liberties and Privacy Act protectionsrdquo

ldquoMore often than notrdquo the panel adds information collected and shared at DHS fusion centers

was ldquounrelated to terrorismrdquo

In other instance surveillance is thought to have been conducted on regular civilians not

reasonably suspected of any crime despite a 2008 memo sent to the DHS warning ldquoYou are

prohibited from collecting or maintaining information on US persons solely for the purpose of

monitoring activities protected by the US Constitution such as the First Amendment protected

freedoms of religion speech press and peaceful assembly and protestrdquo

By interviewing dozens of current and former federal state and local officials with fusion center

connections and analyzing over a yearsrsquo worth of reporting from those facilities the Senate

subcommittee corroborated the results of thousands of pages of financial records and grant

awards only to find ldquoproblems with nearly every significant aspect of DHSrsquo involvement with

fusion centersrdquo Whatrsquos more the panel writes is that even senior officials overseeing the

Departmentrsquos role with the centers saw that ongoing issues were ldquohampering effective

counterterrorism workrdquo they by and large ignored mdash at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars

and insurmountable privacy violations

The Senate subcommittee estimates that as much as $14 billion mdash and perhaps even more mdash

has been invested by the DHS into the fusion center program with additional funding coming

from other lower-level agencies Accountability in how those funds were allocated was sparse

they suggest though with one particular example from the nationrsquos capital exposing just the tip

of the flawed and fast-melting counter-terrorism iceberg

In Washington DC the panel notes the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) was awarded

$700000 in grant money from the cityrsquos Homeland Security and Emergency Management

Agency (HSEMA) who had in turn had received the money from a government gift by way of

FEMA the Federal Emergency Management Agency Law enforcement in DC said they needed

the money to invest in ldquoInformation Technology (Data Mining Analytical Software)rdquo reports

obtained by the Senate reveal although ldquono indication that the project was associated with a

fusion centerrdquo was ever noted nor did the department outline any specific items that were to be

purchased

Instead of using the fusion center money for the sake of purchasing equipment for said facility

the MPD upgraded their records management system at a cost of $100000 and more than

quarter-of-a-million-dollars was invested in a cell phone tracking system

ldquoAlso of significantrdquo the report reads ldquois that none of the $700000 in funds was designated for

the DC fusion centerrdquo despite the award from FEMA being handed down to help with a project

managed by HSEMA the agency that operates data facilities ldquoInstead the sold named recipient

was now the DC police departmentrdquo

Later on the report continues the MPD spent nearly $12000 on buying two Panasonic laptops

and in lieu of purchasing closed-circuit television download kids expected for surveillance

operations pursuant to the fusion centerrsquos intentions nearly a million dollars in equipment was

ordered yet none was destined for the DC fusion center

ldquoWhen DHS and FEMA grant procedures allow grant recipients to change the identified

subgrantee the items to be purchased the amounts to be spent and the ultimate use of the

purchased equipment it is clearer why DHS and FEMA are unable to accurately track the

taxpayer dollars actually awarded to or used by fusion centers The loose rules render effective

financial oversight of fusion center difficult if not impossiblerdquo the report continues

Whatrsquos left however is having local agencies reap federal funding to invest in their efforts to

scale-up their progression into a surveillance state that has almost no accountability

While gross financial mismanagement is all but expected in a vast nearly inaudible government

agency shrouded with secrecy the alleged civil liberty violations included in the report are

perhaps the most damning discovery but certainly not the most shocking

ldquoIn 2009 DHS instituted a lengthy privacy and civil liberties review process which kept most of

the troubling reports from being released outside of DHS however it also slowed reporting

down by months and DHS continued to store troubling intelligence reports from fusion centers

on US persons possibly in violation of the Privacy Actrdquo the panel writes

Harold ldquoSkiprdquo Vandover a former branch chief of a DHS Reporting office adds to the

subcommittee that while intelligence reports at times were informative to counter-terrorism

mission ldquothere were times when it was lsquowhat a bunch of crap is coming throughrsquordquo

One senior reports office that worked in a DHS Reporting Branch for four years said to the

subcommittee that a lot of the data being fed into fusion centers were ldquoclogging the system with

no valuerdquo and estimated that as much as 85 percent of the report that left his office ldquowere lsquonot

Beneficialrsquo to any entity from federal intelligence agencies to state and local fusion centersrdquo

Elsewhere in the report the subcommittee says they found 574 unclassified draft reports filed by

field officers at fusion centers documenting suspected terrorist activity though only 386 of those

reports were ever published and only a fraction showed any link to terrorism

ldquoIn short the utility of many of the 94 terrorism-related reports was questionablerdquo the

subcommittee says The panel includes several examples of costly and time-consuming

investigations undertaken by fusion centers employees all which emphasize what appear to be

the DHSrsquo relentless attempts to enter anyone and everyone into a system of suspicious persons

The subcommittee says that their investigation allowed them to identify dozens of problematic or

useless Homeland Intelligence Reports (HIR) federal analyses on suspicious persons circulated

between facilities mdash reports that were ldquodated irrelevant potentially violating civil liberties

protections even drawn from older public accountsrdquo Despite a lack of useful information and a

likely possibility of civil liberties crimes though ldquoThe DHS officials who filed useless

problematic or even potentially illegal reports generally faced no sanction for their actions

according to documents and interviewrdquo

ldquoI am actually stunned this report got as far as it didrdquo one reviewer wrote of a suspicious

person identified in a fusion center HIR In that case a foreigner with an expired visa had been

caught speeding then later shoplifting his identity was recorded in a database used to list

ldquoknown or appropriately suspectedrdquo terrorists

ldquoOkay good start But the entire total knowledge about the subject is that he tried to steal a

pair of shoes from Nieman Marcusrdquo the reviewer notes ldquoEverything else in the report is

[commentary] I have no idea what value this would be adding to the IC [Intelligence

Community]rdquo

Even still fusion officials continue to collect unrelated information including a motorcycle

gangrsquos group instructions on how to obey police orders if stopped and in another instance

intelligence on a US citizen who was advertised as speaking at a day-long lecture on positive

parenting before a Muslim organization

ldquoOf the 386 unclassified HIRs that DHS eventually published over the 13-month period

reviewed by the Subcommittee investigation a review found close to 300 of them had no

discernable connection to terrorists terrorist plots or threatsrdquo the report finds

When even the most senior of DHS staffers were aware of mismanagement the report reads

ldquoproblems went unaddressed for months ndash sometimes years ndash and were largely unknown outside

of the Department Officials chose not to inform Congress or the public of the seriousness of

these problems during that time nor were they uncovered by any outside review until this

investigationrdquo

Matthew Chandler a spokesperson for the DHS tells The Los Angeles Times that the Senate

subcommitteersquos report is the result of a ldquofundamentally flawedrdquo investigation that has spawned

anrdquo out of date inaccurate and misleadingrdquo analysis

ldquoIn preparing the report the committee refused to review relevant data including important

intelligence information pertinent to their findings Chandler adds to Fox News The report

fundamentally misunderstands the role of the federal government in supporting fusion centers

and overlooks the significant benefits of this relationship to both state and local law enforcement

and the federal government

The Senate subcommittee has published their entire 141-page report online and asks Congress to

clarify the purpose of providing federal funds to DHS fusion centers if such facilities are being

run amuck with both managerial and fiscal mismanagement

ldquoThe Subcommitteersquos investigation could not verify that the statutory basis for DHSrsquo involvement

in fusion centers ndash to strengthen federal counterterrorism efforts ndash was reflected in the

departmentrsquos efforts Congress should require DHS to conform its efforts to match its

counterterrorism statutory purpose or redefine DHSrsquo fusion center missionrdquo the committee

writes

Boston police accused of spying on protesters and intimidating dissidents


The Boston Police Department calls them criminals extremists and a reason to raise a red flag in

regards to ensuring homeland security Their crime though is simply exercising their First

Amendment rights

The American Civil Liberties Union in Massachusetts has successfully requested and obtained a

trove of files from the Boston Police Department that reveals that officers of the law have for

several years conducted detailed surveillance on peaceful protesters in many cases filing

extensive paperwork to discuss the inner workings of non-violent organizations and how they

exercise their constitutionally-protected right to be secure in their political beliefs

The victims the ACLU reports include well-known activist groups such as the Greater Boston

chapter of the CodePink anti-war organization and a local branch of the Veterans for Peace

movement In dozens of cases officers with the BPD intervened and interrogated activists with

these groups and others who were not breaking the law Even still officers regularly wrote-up

their findings in a scathing tone that suggests malicious intent in dossiers sent to federally-

assisted fusion centers to be shared with the FBI

ldquoWhatrsquos happening in this city is really disturbing and if you talk to activists who have been out

on the streets protesting war for 10 years protesting on behalf of immigrantsrsquo rights or workersrsquo

rights they will tell you that this is not a surpriserdquo Kade Crockford of the ACLU tells RT ldquoThe

Boston Police Department has clearly been monitoring political speech for some time in this

city What we didnrsquot know was that the city was filing so-called lsquointelligence reportsrsquordquo

Those reports are now in the hands of Crockford and are entered albeit redacted into the public

domain The ACLU has now published the findings obtained through a lawsuit against the BPD

revealing that unmerited investigations were regularly opened up to probe into protest groups

only exercising their rights Even when no incident warranted an investigation however

Crockford says that protesters were still filed in these fusion centers with reports plastered with

labels such as ldquoCriminal Actrdquo ldquoExtremistsrdquo ldquoCivil Disturbancerdquo and ldquoHomeSec-Domesticrdquo

ldquoWhen law enforcement officers start investigating protected ideas rather than crimes they

threaten our right to free expression and assembly protected by the First Amendment to the

Constitution and Article 16 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rightsrdquo the ACLU

acknowledges in a write-up published online this week ldquoThe unchecked political surveillance

our lawsuit uncovered undermines our core values by chilling the speech of people who wish to

participate in our democracy which is a laudable exercise that our government should

encourage and promote It would weaken the First Amendment if would-be speakers were to

remain silent out of fear that they would be falsely labeled an lsquoExtremistrsquo or potential threat in a

secret government databaserdquo

ldquoThis information has absolutely no bearing to any crime to any threat to anyone in this city

This is purely First Amendment expressionrdquo Crockford adds ldquoAnd not only just that but the

Boston Police Department retained these documents in violation of even their own guidelinesrdquo

While it took a lawsuit to allow the ACLU to access those documents the FBI was allowed

unfettered access once files were fed to fusion centers massive data-retention facilities funded in

part by the US Department of Homeland Security but revealed by Congress to be doing little

more than collecting ldquocrap intelligencerdquo

Only earlier this month the Senatersquos bipartisan Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations

released the findings of a two-year investigation into the effectiveness of the centers only to all

but conclude that more than $1 billion has been wasted on a system that has done little to thwart

terrorism all the while eroding civil liberties

ldquoItrsquos very clear to me that when the Boston Police Department which is charged with keeping

the public safe with our money is using its resources to intimidate and harass political activists

based purely on their political issues and their First Amendment expression of course that

creates fear and distrust of authority in this city and this staterdquo Crockford adds

ldquoEverything we do is being seen its being monitored in some way and thatrsquos scaryrdquo Veterans

For Peace activist Pat Scanlon tells the ACLU ldquoThat can be very scaryrdquo

The ACLUrsquos report was released only days after a third self-described anarchist was jailed

indefinitely for refusing to answer personal questions before a federal grand jury believed to be

convened in order to investigate persons who favor that particular ideology Authorities

demanded their testimonies following a series of coordinate raids where law enforcement

demanded they relinquish among other items clothing and literature

ldquoPeople are scaredrdquo peace activist Richard Colbath-Hess adds to the ACLU ldquoIf the police are

monitoring us who wants to take a riskrdquo

TrapWire tied to White House Scotland Yard MI5 and others claims hacked Stratfor

email

Edited time August 16 2012 0049

An email hacked from Stratfor that discusses the use of the TrapWire surveillance system has

been decrypted revealing insider claims that the widespread spy program was adopted by the

White House Scotland Yard Canadian authorities and others

When WikiLeaks published a trove of correspondence last week reported to be from the servers

of Strategic Forecasting or Stratfor included in the data dump was at least one email that

initially appeared as pure gibberish The communiqueacute sent from Stratfor Vice President of

Intelligence Fred Burton to seven other staffers within the private firm has now been decoded

however and its content suggests that the TrapWire surveillance program was put into the hands

of the most elite and powerful governments and law enforcement agencies in the entire world

The email dated September 23 2010 includes a string of correspondence between Burton and

more than half-a-dozen colleagues exchanging information for a full day about how Stratfor is

distributing feeds from its TrapWire system and with whom Although encoded the emails are

encrypted in Base64 format which can easily be decoded online A decoded copy has also been

uploaded to the Web by hacktivists aligned with Anonymous

ldquoChatted with Mike M the TW [TrapWire] operator and former CIA cronyrdquo Burton writes in

the first email included in the encrypted chain ldquoHe said our feed was taking up 25 of the TW

screens inside the client command posts and that the feedback they are getting is that the info

being pushed in is more geo-pol centered vice tactical-securityrdquo

ldquoHow can we fix Who is auditing what is going in the piperdquo Burton asks his cohorts

Stratfor is reported to have had a contract directly with the developers of TrapWire that allowed

them a substantial cut of their profits in exchange for their assistance in promoting their product

to high-ranked customers other emails published by Wikileaks as part of the Global Intelligence

Files suggest One file included in the trove a partnering agreement between Stratfor and

TrapWirersquos parent group Abraxas provides Burton and company with an 8 percent referral fee

for any businesses they help sign on to the surveillance system [pdf]

The first reply to the encrypted Burton email is from Beth Bronder whose public LinkedIn

profile documents her as serving as the senior vice president of government amp corporate

solutions at Stratfor until November of that year She was only at the agency for ten months

before moving to Bloomberg Government and then the CQ ndash Roll Call Group where she is listed

as an employee today

According to the decrypted emails Bronder says that Stratfor is on top of trying to fix the feed

being streamed to TrapWire clients in order to make it more ldquosecurity focusedrdquo per his

superiorrsquos suggestion but when Burton responds with the names of customers involved in the

surveillance program it is no wonder why Stratfor was so eager to entice their buyers with the

best material available

ldquoThis audience is the whos who of the CT worldrdquo the email from Burton reads referring to

counterterrorism ldquoTW has RCMP MI5 Scotland Yard SO15 USSS White House and PPD

LAPD NYPD Las Vegas PD and Fusion Seattle PD SEA-TAChellipetcrdquo

Since breaking the news of TrapWire last week the science-fiction-like surveillance system has

slowly but surely penetrated the mainstream media although few agencies have responded to the

attention by addressing their connection with TrapWire Earlier this week though New York

Police Department spokesman Paul Browne flatly refuted on behalf of the NYPD to the New

York Times ldquoWe donrsquot use TrapWirerdquo According to Burtonrsquos claim however the NYPD was

indeed a customer as of September 2010 as were the Royal Canadian Mounted Police British

intelligence and the US Secret Service and White House

Other information collected in the last week have also suggested that the NYPD was in cahoots

with TrapWire but no correspondence is believed to have been published linking the

surveillance system with the Executive Branch of the United States or any agencies in Canada

Although an unencrypted email from Burton that was circulated by hacktivists last week

includes the claim that TrapWire was installed on the site of every major high-value target in the

continental US UK and Canada no other correspondence is thought to have put these specific

agencies in direct connection to TrapWire

In the next line Burton explains that intelligence caught by TrapWire was being fed directly to

these high-profile customers bypassing any complication that could arise by a more bureaucratic

distribution He even acknowledges that problems could be put in play if they relied on sending

their surveillance to the US Department of Homeland Security or lesser government agencies

ldquoOur materials are on their screens INSIDE the wallsrdquo Burton writes ldquoWe circumvent the

dysfunctional DHSDC by having our info already on their 24x7 screenrdquo

ldquoWe need to laser focus pieces to capture their attn Maybe even a videordquo Burton adds ldquoTrust

me the agents and cops watching the TW feed WANT something interesting to seerdquo

In a 2005 interview with The Entrepreneur Center Richard ldquoHollisrdquo Helms co-founder of

TrapWire developers Abraxas says the system ldquocan collect information about people and

vehicles that is more accurate than facial recognition draw patterns and do threat assessments

of areas that may be under observation from terroristsrdquo He calls it ldquoa proprietary technology

designed to protect critical national infrastructure from a terrorist attack by detecting the pre-

attack activities of the terrorist and enabling law enforcement to investigate and engage the

terrorist long before an attack is executedrdquo and that ldquoThe beauty of it is that we can protect an

infinite number of facilities just as efficiently as we can one and we push information out to local

law authorities automaticallyrdquo

In a unencrypted email from September 26 Burton writes that the ldquoNYPD has done what no US

Govt Agency has been able to dordquo in the counterterrorism arena because of TrapWirerdquo

Since the TrapWire scandal broke Stratfor has kept mum on the allegations that they were

directly affiliated with a widespread international surveillance program and are probably

inclined to follow the tactic proposed by the head of the security firm earlier this year In

February Stratfor CEO and founder George Friedman addressed the hack credited to

Anonymous saying ldquoSome of the emails may be forged or altered to include inaccuraciesrdquo but

also ldquoSome may be authenticrdquoldquoWe will not validate either nor will we explain the thinking that

went into them Having had our property stolen we will not be victimized twice by submitting to

questions about themrdquo Friedman said

TrapWire investigation links transit systems and Anonymizer in global surveillance

network Edited time August 14 2012 0635

The facts behind TrapWire continue to surface in the days since WikiLeaks exposed the state-of-

the-art surveillance system but minute-by-minute more is being revealed about not just the scary

intelligence infrastructure but its questionable ties

Last week WikiLeaks published their latest addition to trove of the so-called Global Intelligence

Files mdash emails uncovered from Texas-based Strategic Forecasting (Stratfor) by Anonymous late

last year mdash in turn revealing a widespread surveillance system blanketing much of the United

States and abroad The project TrapWire is the brainchild of Abraxas a Northern Virginia

corporation that has cut countless deals with the federal government and is staffed by former

agents out of not just the Pentagon but practically every leading intelligence agency in the

country As those connections are examined under a magnifying glass by researchers and

hacktivists alike though more and more is being brought to light about the correlations that exist

between the biggest of brothers and an entire industry that profits from pulverizing what is left of

privacy

In addition to Abraxas overseeing perhaps the most-secret and advanced surveillance system in

the world other entities directly connected to the company have a monopoly in Americarsquos mass-

transit system and have also advertised themselves as the purveyors behind a tool designed to

protect the privacy of US citizens

Much remains unknown about the actual technology behind TrapWire but Abraxas founder

Richard Helms explained it in a 2005 interview as being ldquomore accurate than facial

recognitionrdquo A system of surveillance cameras in select locales across the world are connected

to analysis centers that aggregate other data which can be combined to examine suspicious

activity reports and routinely monitor every move across vast areas of public space Publically

available information links the TrapWire system to projects in New York Washington DC Los

Angeles and Las Vegas among others but the ties beyond just that one Abraxas endeavor open

the operation up to an infinite number of possibilities

San Diego-based Cubic Corporation acquired Abraxas in 2010 for only $124 million in cash

close to the same amount that the US Department of Homeland Security and Department of

Defense awarded the contractor during just the last 11 months Within the vast Cubic empire

exist other facets though ones that could very well be working hand-in-hand with what is

quickly unfolding as one of the best-kept law enforcement operation secrets ever

Included in the sale of Abraxas to Cubic in 2010 was Anonymizer described by its publicists as

ldquothe leader in consumer online anonymity solutionsrdquo Anonymizer exists under the alleged

platform of providing identity masking while making communiqueacute and clandestine transactions

over the Web and its then-newly-hired vice president for consumer products Chaminda

Wijetilleke said in 2010 ldquoAs the online privacy space continues to mature Anonymizer is in a

great position to increase its lead in the industry and to be at the forefront of bringing innovative

products to marketrdquo

ldquoConsumers need state-of-the-art solutions to protect themselves from relentless threats to their

online privacyrdquo added Wijetilleke who went on to add ldquoIrsquom excited to join the Anonymizer

team and to help drive this evolving business forwardrdquo In Cubicrsquos acquisition of Abraxas and

Anonymizer though real life privacy may have been put under immense risk thanks to

TrapWire

TrapWire was first unraveled in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks by Abraxas back

in 2004 and a decade down the road their connections within the private sector have surpassed

more than just counterterrorism companies In addition to being now under the same umbrella is

Anonymizer its parent company Cubic manages a massive transportation division that is

reported to be the worldrsquos leader in terms of automated fare collection cards and its related

infrastructure in mass-transit systems across the globe

Cubic confirms on their own website that ldquoOver the past decade Cubic has implemented more

than 80 percent of the major smart card systems in the US now active todayrdquo including

network in New York DC Los Angeles and Chicago And although no written connection has

been discovered in only the few days since TrapWire was exposed researchers are on the ready

to point out what these systems can do when combined with one another

Through Cubicrsquos transportation division customers can use identity-linking credit cards to

purchase unique fare tickets that grant them access to the biggest metro systems in the United

States Once walking away from the ticket machine though those same passengers are placed

under surveillance in certain markets that not just rely on Cubic for their metro fare needs but

use TrapWire to track suspicious activity

According to a 2009 GIF email believed to be from Stratfor Vice President for Intelligence Fred

Burton the intelligence officer writes ldquoTrapWire is a technology solution predicated upon

behavior patterns in red zones to identify surveillance It helps you connect the dots over time

and distancerdquo In 2011 Burton allegedly writes that the same surveillance system can be used to

ldquo[walk] back and track the suspects from the get go wfacial recognition softwarerdquo When

combining the state-of-the-art face-tracking with the same technology that can tell you the

precise location and time that a person is performing a financial transaction at a Cubic machine

the companyrsquos control over certain cities is almost all-encompassing

In one email alleged to have come from Strafor VP Burton in November 2011 he writes of

TrapWire coverage in DC that ldquoNational Park Police have approached us for a proposal to

cover all of the Mall area ndash in addition to the Fed and Military sites already coveredrdquo

ldquoOur network there is growing almost dailyrdquo the email reads In terms of TrapWirersquos blanketing

of New York Burton writes in a separate email that the ldquoNYPD has done what no US Govt

Agency has been able to dordquo in the counterterrorism arena because of TrapWire How exactly

the company creates profiles of suspicious persons using state-of-the-art surveillance and an

endless array of mysterious information remains a matter yet to be made public

Stratfor emails reveal secret widespread TrapWire surveillance system


Former senior intelligence officials have created a detailed surveillance system more accurate

than modern facial recognition technology mdash 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 Itrsquos part of a program called TrapWire and its the brainchild of the Abraxas a

Northern Virginia company staffed with elite from Americarsquos intelligence community The

employee roster at Arbaxas reads like a whorsquos who of agents once with the Pentagon CIA and

other government entities according to their public LinkedIn profiles and the corporations 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 programrsquos public presence to be

relatively limited But thanks to last yearrsquos hack of the Strategic Forecasting intelligence agency

or Stratfor all of that is quickly changing

Hacktivists aligned with the loose-knit Anonymous collective took credit for hacking Stratfor on

Christmas Eve 2011 in turn collecting what they claimed to be more than five million emails

from within the company WikiLeaks began releasing those emails as the Global Intelligence

Files (GIF) earlier this year and of those several discussing the implementing of TrapWire in

public spaces across the country were circulated on the Web this week after security researcher

Justin Ferguson brought attention to the matter At the same time however WikiLeaks was

relentlessly assaulted by a barrage of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks crippling the

whistleblower site and its mirrors significantly cutting short the number of people who would

otherwise have unfettered access to the emails

On Wednesday an administrator for the WikiLeaks Twitter account wrote that the site suspected

that the motivation for the attacks could be that particularly sensitive Stratfor emails were about

to be exposed A hacker group called AntiLeaks soon after took credit for the assaults on

WikiLeaks and mirrors of their content equating the offensive as a protest against editor Julian

Assange ldquothe head of a new breed of terroristrdquo As those Stratfor files on TrapWire make their

rounds online though talk of terrorism is only just beginning

Mr Ferguson and others have mirrored what are believed to be most recently-released Global

Intelligence Files on external sites but the original documents uploaded to WikiLeaks have been

at times unavailable this week due to the continuing DDoS attacks Late Thursday and early

Friday this week the GIF mirrors continues to go offline due to what is presumably more DDoS

assaults Australian activist Asher Wolf wrote on Twitter that the DDoS attacks flooding the

servers of WikiLeaks supporter sites were reported to be dropping upwards of 40 gigabits of

traffic per second On Friday WikiLeaks tweeted that their own site was sustaining attacks of 10

Gbsecond adding Whoever is running it controls thousands of machines or is able to simulate

them

According to a press release (pdf) dated June 6 2012 TrapWire is ldquodesigned to provide a simple

yet powerful means of collecting and recording suspicious activity reportsrdquo 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 planningrdquo

In a 2009 email included in the Anonymous leak Stratfor Vice President for Intelligence Fred

Burton is alleged to write ldquoTrapWire is a technology solution predicated upon behavior patterns

in red zones to identify surveillance It helps you connect the dots over time and distancerdquo

Burton formerly served with the US Diplomatic Security Service and Abraxasrsquo staff includes

other security experts with experience in and out of the Armed Forces

What is believed to be a partnering agreement included in the Stratfor files from August 13 2009

indicates that they signed a contract with Abraxas to provide them with analysis and reports of

their TrapWire system (pdf)

ldquoSuspicious activity reports from all facilities on the TrapWire network are aggregated in a

central database and run through a rules engine that searches for patterns indicative of terrorist

surveillance operations and other attack preparationsrdquo Crime and Justice International

magazine explains in a 2006 article on the program one of the few publically circulated on the

Abraxas product (pdf) ldquoAny patterns detected ndash links among individuals vehicles or activities ndash

will be reported back to each affected facility This information can also be shared with law

enforcement organizations enabling them to begin investigations into the suspected surveillance

cellrdquo

In a 2005 interview with The Entrepreneur Center Abraxas founder Richard ldquoHollisrdquo Helms

said his signature product ldquocan collect information about people and vehicles that is more

accurate than facial recognition draw patterns and do threat assessments of areas that may be

under observation from terroristsrdquo He calls it ldquoa proprietary technology designed to protect

critical national infrastructure from a terrorist attack by detecting the pre-attack activities of the

terrorist and enabling law enforcement to investigate and engage the terrorist long before an

attack is executedrdquo and that ldquoThe beauty of it is that we can protect an infinite number of

facilities just as efficiently as we can one and we push information out to local law authorities

automaticallyrdquo

An internal email from early 2011 included in the Global Intelligence Files has Stratforrsquos Burton

allegedly saying the program can be used to ldquo[walk] back and track the suspects from the get go

wfacial recognition softwarerdquo

Since its inception TrapWire has been implemented in most major American cities at selected

high value targets (HVTs) and has appeared abroad as well The iWatch monitoring system

adopted by the Los Angeles Police Department (pdf) works in conjunction with TrapWire as

does the District of Columbia and the See Something Say Something program conducted by

law enforcement in New York City which had 500 surveillance cameras linked to the system in

2010 Private properties including Las Vegas Nevada casinos have subscribed to the system

The State of Texas reportedly spent half a million dollars with an additional annual licensing fee

of $150000 to employ TrapWire and the Pentagon and other military facilities have allegedly

signed on as well

In one email from 2010 leaked by Anonymous Stratforrsquos Fred Burton allegedly writes ldquoGod

Bless America Now they have EVERY major HVT in CONUS the UK Canada Vegas Los

Angeles NYC as clientsrdquo Files on USASpendinggov 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 governmentrsquos 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

Stratforgate WikiLeaks releases lsquoshadow CIArsquo mail

Published time February 27 2012 0559 Edited time March 01 2012 1408

Whistleblower website WikiLeaks has exposed more than 5 million emails apparently obtained

by the hacking of Stratfor the private intelligence company dubbed the ldquoshadow CIArdquo The leak

may be as high-profile as that of the State Department cables

The emails dated between July 2004 and late December 2011 give a glimpse on the inner

workings of the company They show how Stratfor gathers confidential information from paid

insiders including senior state officials and provides it to large corporations and US

governmental agencies

The private correspondence confirms that Stratforrsquos area of interests goes far behind those of a

merely civilian firm In one report an insider in Russian defense revealed sensitive information

on the tactical ballistic missile Iskander including its development progress and the use during

the August 2008 armed conflict with Georgia

The think-tank is operating as an outsourced spy agency recruiting sources and pumping them

for insider information (and as skeptics say disinformation) It lacks capabilities that true

special services have like using spy drones or secretly raiding governmental archives James

Bond-style But otherwise Stratfor operates successfully turning secrets into cash outside of the

usual restrictions and need for accountability that their state counterparts face

The companyrsquos spy network scoured for info on things ranging from health condition of

Venezuelarsquos President Hugo Chavez to the laundering of drug profits by Mexican cartels to the

loss of faith in the Obama administration by US business elites WikiLeaks itself was also an

important topic of research for Stratfor with more than 4000 of the emails mentioning the

website or its founder Julian Assange

It also reveals Stratforrsquos close ties with US agencies from Marines Corps to Department of

Homeland Security and what WikiLeaks calls a pro-American neoconservative political bias

ldquoStratfor claims that it operates without ideology agenda or national bias yet the emails

reveal private intelligence staff who align themselves closely with US government policies and

channel tips to Mossadrdquo the whistleblower website says in a statement

WikiLeaks shared the material with more than 25 media outlets and activists throughout the

world The partners have been provided with early access to the database for journalistic

investigation of the emails

ldquoImportant revelations discovered using this system will appear in the media in the coming

weeks together with the gradual release of the source documentsrdquo WikiLeaks says

WikiLeaks did not specify how exactly it came into possession of the Stratfor emails However

the company itself admitted in December that its data servers had been breached by the

ldquohacktivistrdquo group Anonymous The hackers posted online the names emails and credit card

numbers of thousands of Stratfor subscribers

Stratfor dismissed the leak calling it ldquoa deplorable unfortunate ndash and illegal ndash breach of

privacyrdquo

ldquoSome of the emails may be forged or altered to include inaccuracies some may be authentic

We will not validate either Nor will we explain the thinking that went into them Having had our

property stolen we will not be victimized twice by submitting to questioning about themrdquo the

company said in a statement

It went on to confirm that the WikiLeaks disclosure must come from the Anonymous hack

Schools become cyber-ops centers for the NSA

May 23 2012 0333

One of Americarsquos most prolific spy agencies wants to make sure the countryrsquos war on

cybercrimes continues with the next generation and they are bringing their agenda into

classrooms to see it through

In an effort to combat cyberattacks mdash the governmentrsquos latest anti-American boogieman mdash the

National Security Agency will soon be scouting new recruits at colleges and universities in the

United States Four schools have been selected by the NSA as official Centers of Academic

Excellence in Cyber Operations and the agency hopes that the programs there will get students

up to snuff so that they can someday join Uncle Samrsquos elite team of all-American hackers

Neal Ziring NSArsquos technical director for their Information Assurance Directorate tells Reuters

that the agency is looking for quality cyber operatorsrdquo but todayrsquos schools largely fall short of

offering the education and training thatrsquoll produce programmers capable of conquering foreign

cyber infrastructures The agency looks to change all of that by ensuring that the next generations

of computer geniuses are properly trained before getting their degrees saving the federal

government the trouble of teaching their new hires themselves

Were trying to create more of these and yes they have to know some of the things that hackers

know they have to know a lot of other things too which is why you really want a good university

to create these people for you Ziring says of the agencyrsquos demands

Reuters adds in their report that the newly established cy-ops program specifically aims to

educate students in 10 separate specialties although reverse engineering mdash the practice of

working backwards from a finished product to determine its inner workings mdash is something that

is often overlooked by colleges that offer advanced computer programs

Steven LaFountain a current staffer with the NSA that works with their academic programs

adds to the news organization that new hires must be knowledgeable of the guts the internals of

the operating systemsrdquo in order to help the United States catch up with technology created and

mastered by its opponents

ldquoWe are not asking them to teach kids how to break into systems were not asking them to teach

that And a lot of them have said they wouldnt teach that LaFountain adds to Reuters Were

just asking them to teach the hardcore fundamental science that we need students to have when

they come to work here

Right now you hear a lot of talk about foreign countries China in particular coming into our

networks They get in they look around they see what they might want they send it home and

you dont know what else theyve left behind Dickie George a former NSA official tells

Reuters Why wouldnt we want to do the same thing Its not a one-way game

Other officials from the NSA stress that the agency is also looking for students who excel in

classes involving cellular communications and mobile technologies

Earlier this year NSA officials and other top federal agents announced that cybercrimes were

quickly becoming the next major threat to the United States and that a game plan must quickly

be implemented to extinguish any danger Those in the private sector have also expressed

concern over what others say is an exaggerated threat

The industry is engaged and stepping up widely to respond to emerging cyber threats one

electric-industry official speaking on condition of anonymity told the Wall Street Journal earlier

this year There is a recognition that there are groups out there like Anonymous and we are

concerned as are other sectors

Alleged members of Anonymous the internationally-spread but loose-knit collective of

hacktivists responded to allegations that they were a threat to the countryrsquos cyber infrastructure

as ldquofear-mongering at its bestrdquo

Twenty schools applied to become cyber-ops centers for the NSA but only four made the cut

Dakota State University Naval Postgraduate School Northeastern University and University of

Tulsa

NSA denies eavesdropping on Americans

March 22 2012 2153

A recent article regarding the National Security Agencyrsquos new secret eavesdropping facility in

Bluffdale Utah has caught the attention of members of the House

The article which was published last week by Wired explains how the NSA ldquowill be secretly

capturing storing and analyzing vast quantities of words and images hurtling through the

worldrsquos telecommunications networksrdquo

The article goes on to explain how the ldquoUtah Data Centerrdquo which is a project surrounded by

ldquoimmense secrecy is the final piece of a complex puzzle assembled in the past decaderdquo

The heavily fortified $2 billion building is said to have the capabilities ldquoto intercept decipher

analyze and store vast swaths of the worldrsquos communications as they zap down from satellites

and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international foreign and domestic

networksrdquo the article added

For Rep Hank Johnson itrsquos the domestic party that is kind of tricky

During the apparent pressing of Cyber Command Commander of the National Security Agency

Chief General Keith Alexander on Tuesday regarding the true capabilities on the National

Security Agency many skeptics doubt the alleged truth by the notorious agency

Alexander denied all the questions regarding the NSA spying on Americans and during the

meeting Johnson asked ldquoDoes the NSA have the capacity to find out who the parties are by the

content of their emailrdquo

Johnson was referring to a made up scenario he created regarding Dick Cheneyrsquos shotgun

incident in Texas

ldquoIf Dick Cheney were elected president and wanted to detain and incessantly waterboard every

American who send an email making fun of his well-known hunting mishapshellipwhat I want to

know does the NSA have the technological capacity to identify those Cheney bashers based upon

the content of their emailsrdquo the representative asked

Alexander denied the NSA could do that but acknowledge the NSA would have to go through

the FBI process and obtain a warrant to get the information and ldquoserve itrdquo

Again Johnson pressed ldquobut you do have the capacity to do thatrdquo

Alexander claimed their power is useless ldquoin the USrdquo and claimed the NSA doesnrsquot have the

ldquotechnical insightsrdquo and added they are not authorized to collect from the sea of data nor does the

NSA have the ldquoequipmentrdquo

The article written by James Bamford alleges the facility shrouded in mystery will store in a

bottomless database ldquothe complete contents of private emails cell phone calls and Google

searches as well as all sorts of personal data trailsmdashparking receipts travel itineraries

bookstore purchases and other digital lsquopocket litterrsquo It is in some measure the realization of

the lsquototal information awarenessrsquo program created during the first term of the Bush

administrationmdashan effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its

potential for invading Americansrsquo privacyrdquo

The information which brings chills to anyone who reads the alleged capacities of the new

compound say it is ldquomore than just a data centerrdquo

One senior intelligence official revealed to Bramford who was recently involved with the

program the center will have another important and far more secret role that until now has gone

unrevealed

The anonymous official also added the new system will be critical for breaking codes which has

become vital for ldquofinancial information stock transactions business deals foreign military and

diplomatic secrets legal documents confidential personal communicationsmdashwill be heavily

encryptedrdquo

According to another top official with the program said the NSA made an enormous

breakthrough several years ago in its ability to cryptanalyze or break unfathomably complex

encryption systems employed by not only governments around the world but also many average

computer users in the US Everybodyrsquos a target everybody with communication is a targetrdquo

Although it isnrsquot confirmed how far the centerrsquos tentacles can reach many believe this paired

with the NDAA could spell trouble for Americans

The recent report rekindled fears about rumors of the NSA doing warrantless wiretapping as well

as collaborations with major Telecom providers to allow the agency to directly link up to their

networks to mine data

Whether the claims are true or false Alexander as of yet denies them all but that hasnrsquot stopped

public interest groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union Electronic Frontier

Foundation and the Electronic Privacy Information Center from trying to find out the extent of

NSArsquos eavesdropping program on Americans

Internet providers to start policing the web July 12

March 15 2012 2139

Some of the biggest Internet service providers in America plan to adopt policies that will punish

customers for copyright infringement and one of the top trade groups in the music biz

announced this week that it could begin as soon as this summer

The chief executive officer of the Recording Industry Association of America told an audience of

publishers on Wednesday that a plan carved out last year to help thwart piracy is expected to

prevail and be put in place by this summer RIAA CEO Cary Sherman was one of the guest

speakers among a New York panel this week and he confirmed that at this rate some of the

most powerful Internet providers in America should have their new policies on the books by July

12 2012

Last year Time Warner Verizon ATampT Comcast Cablevision Systems and other Internet

service providers proposed best practice recommendations that they suggested would help curb

copyright crimes on the Web The end result largely settled on consisted of a ldquograduate

responserdquo approach a plan that would mean culprits could be issued a series of warnings for

illegally downloading suspect material which after a certain number of offenses would lead to

ldquomitigation measuresrdquo connection speed throttling and termination of service

We anticipate that very few subscribers after having received multiple alerts will persist (or

allow others to persist) in the content theftrdquo the Center for Copyright Information said in an

official statement last summer as plans were first publicized Now nearly a year after

developments made by the big ISPs were first discussed the RIAArsquos Sherman says that online

censorship sanctioned by corporate conglomerates such as Time Warner and Verizon are

practically set in stone

Discussing the road to realizing how to implement the policies Sherman briefly touched on the

technical aspects of the plan this week during the panel Each ISP has to develop their

infrastructure for automating the system Sherman said They need this for establishing the

database so they can keep track of repeat infringers so they know that this is the first notice or

the third notice Every ISP has to do it differently depending on the architecture of its particular

network Some are nearing completion and others are a little further from completion

So what does this mean for you If yoursquore an Internet user in America almost certainly

something significant Between Time Warner Verizon ATampT Comcast and Cablevision those

ISPs alone accounted for around 51 percent of the market in America back in 2008 Figures from

June 2010 collected by the United Nationrsquos ITU division suggests that there are around 240

million Internet users now in the US which means more than three-fourths of the countryrsquos total

population With those big ISPs only thriving since their last figures were disclosed 51 percent

coverage of the market today would mean that around 120 million users can expect to fall under

the umbrella of a massive campaign that could soon see half of the country at risk of having their

Internet shut off

As RT reported last year a flip of the kill-switch is indeed an option that ISPs can take if they

decide they find their customers at fault That doesnrsquot mean itrsquos the be-all-end-all response

though Under the ldquosix-strikerdquo policy discussed last year each alleged instance of copyright

infringement would prompt the ISP to reach out to its customer in question and inform them that

they have detected a violation of US law Strikes one through four would constitute email

warnings of increasing severity but five through six can come with legal action and end with the

termination of service and potentially time behind bars Although cooperating ISPs said last year

that they would suspend service after a certain number of infringements today they are hesitant

to announce permanently cancelling any accounts mdash but merely putting them on hold while

users respond to their legal requests

The explanation for a change of heart of course comes down to money Earlier this year Cary

Sherman penned a ranting diatribe in the New York Times attacking opponents of the failed Stop

Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act mdash or SOPA and PIPA respectively mdash two anti-

Internet legislations that had the hefty support of the RIAA

ldquoTheres no question that all the companies that are providing access to music are benefiting in

some way legal companies and thats entirely appropriaterdquo Sherman wrote earlier this year

ldquoISPs have done very well by the availability of music online because it has created greater

demand for broadband access and as a result they have now penetrated to the 66-67 percent

level of US households because they want access to the content that the entertainment industry

offersrdquo

With the big ISPs having more than 100 million users at their mercy limiting connection speed

could easily convince a good number of people to remediate the alleged violations they are

accused of but actually terminating service for good could be a grave mistake for the industry

National Cable amp Telecommunications Association President James Assey said last year that by

implementing the planldquoWe are confident that once informed that content theft is taking place

on their accounts the great majority of broadband subscribers will take steps to stop itrdquo

Some companies have already taken similar steps but have been met with their fair share of

roadblocks along the way Verizon has previously sent warning letters to users alleged to be in

violation but those warnings have in some cases proved to be bothersome In one 2010 episode

for instance a 53-year-old grandmother was threatened with having her Internet shut-down for

sharing copyrighted material mdash specifically clips from the television show South Park mdash to

which she was completely unaware of In that case it was an instance of mistaken identity where

the womanrsquos WiFi signal had been hijacked In their own report CNet reporters acknowledged

that Verizon never bothered to investigate into the legitimacy of their own claims until after a

third-party became involved in the mediation

This isnrsquot to say of course that we are telling you that the RIAA and certain Internet service

providers are the bad guys here After the SOPA legislation threatened to terminate a good chunk

of online services many websites waged a protest earlier this year by taking themselves offline

for 24-hours Cary Sherman then took to the press to turn the fight around and make it seem like

it was the entertainment industry that was suffering not sites like Wikipedia a champion of the

protest Cary called them out in his op-ed for aiding in a ldquodigital tsunamirdquo that along with

Google ldquomanufactured controversy by unfairly equating SOPA with censorshiprdquo

ldquoThe hyperbolic mistruths presented on the home pages of some of the worldrsquos most popular

Web sites amounted to an abuse of trust and a misuse of powerrdquo added Sherman ldquoWhen

Wikipedia and Google purport to be neutral sources of information but then exploit their stature

to present information that is not only not neutral but affirmatively incomplete and misleading

they are duping their users into accepting as truth what are merely self-serving political

declarationsrdquo

Cary went on to say that the last minutue decision to drop SOPA was a questionable one

prompted by the mass creation of ldquomisinformationrdquo and suggested it wasnrsquot the work of

democracy but rather demagoguery Of course when the RIAA attacked Megaupload for

copyright infringement mdash which eventually led to US authorities seizing and shutting down the

file-sharing site mdash the response from hacktivists aligned with the Anonymous collective was a

massive distributed denial-of-service attack on the websites for the RIAA and a handful of other

music and movie biz sites

With SOPA and PIPA out of the way for now American users of the Web must look ahead

before declaring victory in a war against online censorship Recently the US fought and won for

the extradition of a 23-year-old UK man who operated a website that American authorities

decided was in violation of US law If they are willing to ship a college student abroad to bring

him to trial for posting a few links will they think twice before turning off your Internet for

sharing your own copies of South Park Thatrsquos an episode yoursquoll have to stay tuned for to find

out

Ron Paul rallies for Internet freedom during Super Tuesday speech

March 07 2012 2236

Ron Paul is all about rights Legendary for his libertarian ideals the GOP candidate has been

adamant with advocating constitutional liberties Speaking on Tuesday Paul urged voters to

reexamine what is happening to their online rights as well

Addressing a crowd of supporters as Super Tuesday voting wrapped up in North Dakota

presidential hopeful and Texas Congressman Ron Paul told an audience in Fargo that while the

rest of America is slowly joining sides with his crusade for liberty legislation continuously

threatens freedom in the United States Aside from laws like the National Defense Authorization

Act provisions that allow for the indefinite detention of Americans Paul pleaded with supporters

to make sure that as the federal government goes after personal rights voters let lawmakers

know they need to leave their Internet alone

Super Tuesday results were not on par with what Paul had hoped for but speaking as voters were

still hitting polling places in ten states across the US the congressman insisted that the ideas he

is campaigning on continue to catch on with more and more Americans Addressing a packed

room in Fargo ND on Tuesday Paul prefaced a speech by insisting ldquoThe cause of liberty is on a

roll let me tell you thatrdquo

ldquoThis country is ready and raring and tonight were going to send a very loud message to the

rest of the country And as Ive said so many times the American people are way ahead of

Washingtonrdquo cheered Paul ldquoWashington is sound asleep were on the right track mdash so make

sure they hear our message all the way in DCrdquo he added

The candidate used his brief address to discuss issues that have been trademarks of his campaign

thus far In Fargo he harped on abolishing the Federal Reserve withdrawing US troops from

foreign wars and decreasing the size of the US government Speaking only hours after the FBI

reported that they infiltrated the LulzSec hacking collective however Paul said that the

countryrsquos open Internet is just as at risk of being ravaged as the rest of the rights that are

guaranteed in the US Constitution yet continuously threatened

Comparing his policies with those preferred by the other Republican Party frontrunners Paul

said that ldquothe rest of the candidates support the status quordquo He added that foreign policies never

change and neither do monetary policies Most importantly however was how the mainstream

GOP has refused to take a stance against protecting the liberties of Americanrsquos including their

online rights

ldquoTheres no challenge to the Federal Reserve systemrdquo said Paul adding ldquoAnd most of all

theres no mdashno desire to protect personal liberty personal privacy protect us from the

intrusiveness of the federal government to protect your right to use mdash to use the Internetrdquo

Paul added that legislation such as the Patriot Act has let the government ldquoinvade our premises

and our houses and invade our Internet our emails and whatever they want to look at without a

proper search warrantrdquo This declared the congressman is ldquoSomething the founders explicitly

fought a revolution on and put in the Fourth Amendment the right of privacyrdquo

Citing what online restrictions could do to his ethos of ending an erosion on personal liberty

Paul added ldquoHow are we gonna spread our message without the Internetrdquo In response to his

question supporters answered the congressman with both applause and laughter

Although Paul has failed to project to a first-place win in any states that have voted so far in

primaries he has consistently come out on top in studies that show that web surfers search out

his name more often than Romney Santorum or Gingrich Google Insights recently reported that

in 2012 so far Paul continues to persevere in search results if nothing else For the candidate

that comes as enough of a reason to continue his campaign that has been largely fueled by

Internet support but he warned the Fargo crowd that they might not always be able to use the

Web as they wish

Paul said that as Americans must continue to fight for their rights they have already proven that

online campaigns caused a major congressional upset only earlier this year Speaking to

supporters on Super Tuesday Paul cited the defeat of the Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA as

proof enough that a substantial number of Americans are not just concerned about the

government infringing on their personal rights but are willing to take to the Web to protest

ldquoAs frustrating as it might get at times we do have victories Weve had one here recently in the

last month or so because there was a bill floating around Stop Online Piracy Act And this was

an effort for the federal government to take over and control the Internetrdquo said Paul

ldquoBut a lot of people like you got word of it and sent a message And Washington even though it

had majority votes in both the House and the Senate once they heard from the people they

withdrew those bills they took em off and they are no longer pushing through the Congress

But--so the people have to be heardrdquo

Although the SOPA law eventually died on Capitol Hill Paul was the first House Republican to

publicize his criticism with the act He addressed it during a televised GOP debate earlier this

year offering condemnation that contrasts largely with what rival and former Pennsylvania

Senator Rick Santorum had to say

ldquoThe Internet is not a free zone where anybody can do anything they wantrdquo said Santorum

while at the same time saying he opposed SOPA in its then-current incarnation

Paul also rallied on Tuesday against the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year

2012 or the NDAA The congressman attacked President Barack Obama for granting himself the

power to indefinitely hold Americans without trial and argued ldquoIts your life you should do

withmdashwhat your life what you wantrdquo said Paul ldquoPeople shouldnt tell you how to run your life

as long as you dont hurt other peoplerdquo

Goodbye First Amendment lsquoTrespass Billrsquo will make protest illegal

May 26 2012 1911

Washington US park police detains a Christian religious activist during a pro-life demonstration

Just when you thought the government couldnrsquot ruin the First Amendment any further The

House of Representatives approved a bill on Monday that outlaws protests in instances where

some government officials are nearby whether or not you even know it

The US House of Representatives voted 388-to-3 in favor of HR 347 late Monday a bill which

is being dubbed the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011 In the

bill Congress officially makes it illegal to trespass on the grounds of the White House which on

the surface seems not just harmless and necessary but somewhat shocking that such a rule isnrsquot

already on the books The wording in the bill however extends to allow the government to go

after much more than tourists that transverse the wrought iron White House fence

Under the act the government is also given the power to bring charges against Americans

engaged in political protest anywhere in the country

Under current law White House trespassers are prosecuted under a local ordinance a

Washington DC legislation that can bring misdemeanor charges for anyone trying to get close to

the president without authorization Under HR 347 a federal law will formally be applied to

such instances but will also allow the government to bring charges to protesters demonstrators

and activists at political events and other outings across America

The new legislation allows prosecutors to charge anyone who enters a building without

permission or with the intent to disrupt a government function with a federal offense if Secret

Service is on the scene but the law stretches to include not just the presidentrsquos palatial

Pennsylvania Avenue home Under the law any building or grounds where the president is

visiting mdash even temporarily mdash is covered as is any building or grounds ldquorestricted in

conjunction with an event designated as a special event of national significance

Itrsquos not just the president who would be spared from protesters either

Covered under the bill is any person protected by the Secret Service Although such protection

isnrsquot extended to just everybody making it a federal offense to even accidently disrupt an event

attended by a person with such status essentially crushes whatever currently remains of the right

to assemble and peacefully protest

Hours after the act passed presidential candidate Rick Santorum was granted Secret Service

protection For the American protester this indeed means that glitter-bombing the former

Pennsylvania senator is officially a very big no-no but it doesnrsquot stop with just him Santorumrsquos

coverage under the Secret Service began on Tuesday but fellow GOP hopeful Mitt Romney has

already been receiving such security A campaign aide who asked not to be identified confirmed

last week to CBS News that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has sought Secret Service

protection as well Even former contender Herman Cain received the armed protection treatment

when he was still in the running for the Republican Party nod

In the text of the act the law is allowed to be used against anyone who knowingly enters or

remains in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority to do so but those grounds

are considered any area where someone mdash rather itrsquos President Obama Senator Santorum or

Governor Romney mdash will be temporarily visiting whether or not the public is even made aware

Entering such a facility is thus outlawed as is disrupting the orderly conduct of ldquoofficial

functionsrdquo engaging in disorderly conduct ldquowithin such proximity tordquo the event or acting violent

to anyone anywhere near the premises Under that verbiage that means a peaceful protest

outside a candidatersquos concession speech would be a federal offense but those occurrences

covered as special event of national significance donrsquot just stop there either And neither does

the list of covered persons that receive protection

Outside of the current presidential race the Secret Service is responsible for guarding an array of

politicians even those from outside America George W Bush is granted protection until ten

years after his administration ended or 2019 and every living president before him is eligible for

life-time federally funded coverage Visiting heads of state are extended an offer too and the

events sanctioned as those of national significance mdash a decision that is left up to the US

Department of Homeland Security mdash extends to more than the obvious While presidential

inaugurations and meeting of foreign dignitaries are awarded the title nearly three dozen events

in all have been considered a National Special Security Event (NSSE) since the term was created

under President Clinton Among past events on the DHS-sanctioned NSSE list are Super Bowl

XXXVI the funerals of Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford most State of the Union addresses and

the 2008 Democratic and Republican National Conventions

With Secret Service protection awarded to visiting dignitaries this also means for instance that

the federal government could consider a demonstration against any foreign president on

American soil as a violation of federal law as long as it could be considered disruptive to

whatever function is occurring

When thousands of protesters are expected to descend on Chicago this spring for the 2012 G8

and NATO summits they will also be approaching the grounds of a National Special Security

Event That means disruptive activity to whichever court has to consider it will be a federal

offense under the act

And donrsquot forget if you intend on fighting such charges you might not be able to rely on

evidence of your own In the state of Illinois videotaping the police under current law

brings criminals charges Donrsquot fret Itrsquos not like the country will really try to enforce it mdash

right

On the bright side does this mean that the law could apply to law enforcement officers

reprimanded for using excessive force on protesters at political events Probably Of course

some fear that the act is being created just to keep those demonstrations from ever occuring and

given the vague language on par with the loose definition of a ldquoterroristrdquo under the NDAA if

passed this act is expected to do a lot more harm to the First Amendment than good

United States Representative Justin Amash (MI-03) was one of only three lawmakers to vote

against the act when it appeared in the House late Monday Explaining his take on the act

through his official Facebook account on Tuesday Rep Amash writes ldquoThe bill expands

current law to make it a crime to enter or remain in an area where an official is visiting even if

the person does not know its illegal to be in that area and has no reason to suspect its illegalrdquo

ldquoSome government officials may need extraordinary protection to ensure their safety But

criminalizing legitimate First Amendment activity mdash even if that activity is annoying to those

government officials mdash violates our rightsrdquo adds the representative

Now that the act has overwhelmingly made it through the House the next set of hands to sift

through its pages could very well be President Barack Obama the US Senate had already passed

the bill back on February 6 Less than two months ago the president approved the National

Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 essentially suspending habeas corpus from

American citizens Could the next order out of the Executive Branch be revoking some of the

Bill of Rights Only if you consider the part about being able to assemble a staple of the First

Amendment really Donrsquot worry though Obama was after all a constitutional law professor

When he signed the NDAA on December 31 he accompanied his signature with a signing

statement that let Americans know that just because he authorized the indefinite detention of

Americans didnrsquot mean he thought it was right

Should President Obama suspend the right to assemble Americans might expect another apology

to accompany it in which the commander-in-chief condemns the very act he authorizes If you

disagree with such a decision however donrsquot take it to the White House Sixteen-hundred

Pennsylvania Avenue and the vicinity is of course covered under this act

Device Will Turn iPhone into Mobile Ground Station for Drones

The radio will allow drone operators to control their aircraft from up to a mile away

By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013

A San Francisco-based startup company is hoping to sell an iPhone accessory thatll turn the

smartphone (or an iPad) into a mobile drone ground station that can control drones from up to

a mile away

The Fighting Walrus Radio will allow drone owners to extend the range of commercially-

available hobbyist drones from about 200 feet up to a mile which could get some people into hot

water with the Federal Aviation Administration The agency requires drone operators to fly

unmanned aircraft within line of sight of the operator

Andrew Aarestad one of the developers of the Fighting Walrus Radio (which gets its name from

the fact that its developers say the device look[s] like a plucky little walrus peering over the

edge of [an] iPad) says the team plans to tell customers that they still have to operate within the

FAAs rules

You can operate outside of the FAAs guidelines if youre not careful he says That is a

concernmdashif you are operating your own personal drone you have to be mindful of the

restrictions

The team plans on releasing the device in Septembermdashits currently being financed by the

Kickstarter-like IndieGoGo and has more than 70 people interested Since being launched two

weeks ago the team has raised $11000 of its $50000 goal much of that in the last several days

The device will cost $99 and a longer-range one that can control drones for up to a mile will cost

$140

For the device to work the pilot has to connect a radio receiver to the drone which will allow it

to operate outside of Wi-Fi range and will allow it to communicate directly with the Fighting

Walrus device The team also plans on selling ready-to-fly drones with the device already

installed

Aarestad says the device is designed for hobbyists who want more control over their dronesmdashit

also offers waypoint navigation and flight-logging data The radio wont allow drones to stream

video back to the iPhone making it unlikely to be useful for surveillance The team is working

on a follow up device that will allow drones to send video back to its pilot

If a drone operator uses the device to fly out of line of sight they might also run into safety

issuesmdashmost of the drones that the radio is designed for dont have sense and avoid

technology meaning they fly in straight lines regardless of whether there is an obstacle When

used in waypoint mode drones could potentially crash if not used carefully

If the user is operating their drone autonomously theyre still ultimately responsible for what

the drone is doing Aarestad says

Although the device is designed for toy drones law enforcement agencies have shown interest

in them The Maine state police bought a $300 Parrot ARDrone20mdashone of the drones

compatible with the Fighting Walrus Radiomdashand the Iowa Department of Public Safetys

Division of Intelligence recently looked into purchasing the Parrot as well

The team says as drones become more commonplace their pilots will want to have more

sophisticated controls over them

Its a niche product for now Aarestad says We feel that given a year or two there will be

exponentially more people using [drones] in ways that would benefit from the radio

Domestic drones and their unique dangers

Glenn Greenwald

AR Drone almost certainly the worlds first Wi-Fi enabled iPhone-controllable miniature

flying device

Dismissive claims that drones do nothing more than helicopters and satellites already do

are wildly misinformed

March 29 2013

The use of drones by domestic US law enforcement agencies is growing rapidly both in terms

of numbers and types of usage As a result civil liberties and privacy groups led by the ACLU

- while accepting that domestic drones are inevitable - have been devoting increasing efforts to

publicizing their unique dangers and agitating for statutory limits These efforts are being

impeded by those who mock the idea that domestic drones pose unique dangers (often the same

people who mock concern over their usage on foreign soil) This dismissive posture is

grounded not only in soft authoritarianism (a religious-type faith in the Goodness of US

political leaders and state power generally) but also ignorance over current drone capabilities

the ways drones are now being developed and marketed for domestic use and the activities of

the increasingly powerful domestic drone lobby So its quite worthwhile to lay out the key

under-discussed facts shaping this issue

Im going to focus here most on domestic surveillance drones but I want to say a few words

about weaponized drones The belief that weaponized drones wont be used on US soil is

patently irrational Of course they will be Its not just likely but inevitable Police departments

are already speaking openly about how their drones could be equipped to carry nonlethal

weapons such as Tasers or a bean-bag gun The drone industry has already developed and is

now aggressively marketing precisely such weaponized drones for domestic law enforcement

use It likely wont be in the form that has received the most media attention the type of large

Predator or Reaper drones that shoot Hellfire missiles which destroy homes and cars in

Pakistan Yemen Somalia Afghanistan and multiple other countries aimed at Muslims

(although US law enforcement agencies already possess Predator drones and have used them

over US soil for surveillance)

Instead as I detailed in a 2012 examination of the drone industrys own promotional materials

and reports to their shareholders domestic weaponized drones will be much smaller and

cheaper as well as more agile - but just as lethal The nations leading manufacturer of small

unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) used both for surveillance and attack purposes is

AeroVironment Inc (AV) Its 2011 Annual Report filed with the SEC repeatedly emphasizes

that its business strategy depends upon expanding its market from foreign wars to domestic

usage including law enforcement

AVs annual report added Initial likely non-military users of small UAS include public safety

organizations such as law enforcement agencies These domestic marketing efforts are

intensifying with the perception that US spending on foreign wars will decrease As a

February 2013 CBS News report noted focusing on AVs surveillance drones

Now drones are headed off the battlefield Theyre already coming your way

AeroVironment the California company that sells the military something like 85 percent of its

fleet is marketing them now to public safety agencies

Like many drone manufacturers AV is now focused on drone products - such as the Qube -

that are so small that they can be transported in the trunk of a police vehicle or carried in a

backpack and assembled and deployed within a matter of minutes One news report AV touts

is headlined Drone technology could be coming to a Police Department near you which

focuses on the Qube

But another article prominently touted on AVs website describes the tiny UAS product dubbed

the Switchblade which says the article is the leading edge of what is likely to be the

broader even wholesale weaponization of unmanned systems The article creepily hails the

Switchblade drone as the ultimate assassin bug Thats because as I wrote back in 2011 it

is controlled by the operator at the scene and it worms its way around buildings and into small

areas sending its surveillance imagery to an i-Pad held by the operator who can then direct the

Switchblade to lunge toward and kill the target (hence the name) by exploding in his face

AVs website right now proudly touts a February 2013 Defense News article describing how

much the US Army loves the Switchblade and how it is preparing to purchase more Time

Magazine heralded this tiny drone weapon as one of the best inventions of 2012 gushing

the Switchblade drone can be carried into battle in a backpack Its a kamikaze the person

controlling it uses a real-time video feed from the drone to crash it into a precise target - say a

sniper Its tiny warhead detonates on impact

What possible reason could someone identify as to why these small portable weaponized UAS

products will not imminently be used by federal state and local law enforcement agencies in

the US Theyre designed to protect their users in dangerous situations and to enable a target to

be more easily killed Police agencies and the increasingly powerful drone industry will tout

their utility in capturing and killing dangerous criminals and their ability to keep officers safe

and media reports will do the same The handful of genuinely positive uses from drones will be

endlessly touted to distract attention away from the dangers they pose

One has to be incredibly naiumlve to think that these assassin bugs and other lethal drone

products will not be widely used on US soil by an already para-militarized domestic police

force As Radley Balkos forthcoming book Rise of the Warrior Cop details the primary

trend in US law enforcement is what its title describes as The Militarization of Americas

Police Forces The history of domestic law enforcement particularly after 911 has been the

importation of military techniques and weapons into domestic policing It would be shocking if

these weapons were not imminently used by domestic law enforcement agencies

In contrast to weaponized drones even the most naiumlve among us do not doubt the imminent

proliferation of domestic surveillance drones With little debate they have already arrived As

the ACLU put it in their recent report US law enforcement is greatly expanding its use of

domestic drones for surveillance An LA Times article from last month reported that federal

authorities have stepped up efforts to license surveillance drones for law enforcement and other

uses in US airspace and that the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it had issued

1428 permits to domestic drone operators since 2007 far more than were previously known

Moreover the agency has estimated 10000 drones could be aloft five years later and local

and state law enforcement agencies are expected to be among the largest customers

Concerns about the proliferation of domestic surveillance drones are typically dismissed with

the claim that they do nothing more than police helicopters and satellites already do Such

claims are completely misinformed As the ACLUs 2011 comprehensive report on domestic

drones explained Unmanned aircraft carrying cameras raise the prospect of a significant new

avenue for the surveillance of American life

Multiple attributes of surveillance drones make them uniquely threatening Because they are so

cheap and getting cheaper huge numbers of them can be deployed to create ubiquitous

surveillance in a way that helicopters or satellites never could How this works can already

been seen in Afghanistan where the US military has dubbed its drone surveillance system the

Gorgon Stare named after the mythical Greek creature whose unblinking eyes turned to

stone those who beheld them That drone surveillance system is able to scan an area the size

of a small town and the most sophisticated robotics use artificial intelligence that [can] seek

out and record certain kinds of suspicious activity Boasted one US General Gorgon Stare

will be looking at a whole city so there will be no way for the adversary to know what were

looking at and we can see everything

The NSA already maintains ubiquitous surveillance of electronic communications but the

Surveillance State faces serious limits on its ability to replicate that for physical surveillance

Drones easily overcome those barriers As the ACLU report put it

Ive spoken previously about why a ubiquitous Surveillance State ushers in unique and deeply

harmful effects on human behavior and a nations political culture and wont repeat that here

(heres the video (also embedded below) and the transcript of one speech where I focus on how

that works) Suffice to say as the ACLU explains in its domestic drone report routine aerial

surveillance would profoundly change the character of public life in America because only

drone technology enables such omnipresent physical surveillance

Beyond that the tiny size of surveillance drones enables them to reach places that helicopters

obviously cannot and to do so without detection They can remain in the sky hovering over a

single place for up to 20 hours a duration that is always increasing - obviously far more than

manned helicopters can achieve As AVs own report put it (see page 11) their hovering

capability also means they can surveil a single spot for much longer than many military

satellites most of which move with the earths rotation (the few satellites that remain fixed

operate nearly 25000 miles from the surface of the earth therefore limiting the bandwidth

they can provide and requiring relatively larger higher power ground stations) In sum

surveillance drones enable a pervasive stealth and constantly hovering Surveillance State that

is now well beyond the technological and financial abilities of law enforcement agencies

One significant reason why this proliferation of domestic drones has become so likely is the

emergence of a powerful drone lobby I detailed some of how that lobby is functioning here so

will simply note this passage from a recent report from the ACLU of Iowa on its attempts to

persuade legislators to enact statutory limits on the use of domestic drones

Drones have their own trade group the Association for Unmanned Aerial Systems

International which includes some of the nations leading aerospace companies And Congress

now has drone caucuses in both the Senate and House

Howie Klein has been one of the few people focusing on the massive amounts of money from

the drone industry now flowing into the coffers of key Congressional members from both

parties in this drone caucus Suffice to say there is an enormous profit to be made from

exploiting the domestic drone market and as usual that factor is thus far driving the (basically

nonexistent) political response to these threats

What is most often ignored by drone proponents or those who scoff at anti-drone activism are

the unique features of drones the way they enable more warfare more aggression and more

surveillance Drones make war more likely precisely because they entail so little risk to the

war-making country Similarly while the propensity of drones to kill innocent people receives

the bulk of media attention the way in which drones psychologically terrorize the population -

simply by constantly hovering over them unseen but heard - is usually ignored because its not

happening in the US so few people care (see this AP report from yesterday on how the

increasing use of drone attacks in Afghanistan is truly terrorizing local villagers) It remains to

be seen how Americans will react to drones constantly hovering over their homes and their

childrens schools though by that point their presence will be so institutionalized that it will be

likely be too late to stop

Notably this may be one area where an actual bipartisantrans-partisan alliance can

meaningfully emerge as most advocates working on these issues with whom Ive spoken say

that libertarian-minded GOP state legislators have been as responsive as more left-wing

Democratic ones in working to impose some limits One bill now pending in Congress would

prohibit the use of surveillance drones on US soil in the absence of a specific search warrant

and has bipartisan support

Only the most authoritarian among us will be incapable of understanding the multiple dangers

posed by a domestic drone regime (particularly when their party is in control of the

government and they are incapable of perceiving threats from increased state police power)

But the proliferation of domestic drones affords a real opportunity to forge an enduring

coalition in defense of core privacy and other rights that transcends partisan allegiance by

working toward meaningful limits on their use Making people aware of exactly what these

unique threats are from a domestic drone regime is the key first step in constructing that

coalition

Harms from the Surveillance State

One of the most difficult challenges in all discussions of privacy rights is articulating what

most people instinctively already know why privacy is so vital and why a ubiquitous

Surveillance State is so destructive Here is the speech I gave last year in Chicago in which I

attempted to articulate those reasons

Craig B Hulet was both speech writer and Special Assistant for Special Projects to Congressman

Jack Metcalf (Retired) he has been a consultant to federal law enforcement DEA ATFampE of

JusticeHomeland Security for over 25 years he has written four books on international relations

and philosophy his latest is The Hydra of Carnage Bushrsquos Imperial War-making and the Rule of

Law - An Analysis of the Objectives and Delusions of Empire He has appeared on over 12000

hours of TV and Radio The History Channel ldquoDe-Codedrdquo He is a regular on Coast to Coast

AM w George Noory and Coffee Talk KBKW CNN C-Span European Television American

Dream and The Arsenio Hall Show he has written for Soldier of Fortune Magazine

International Combat Arms Financial Security Digest etc Hulet served in Vietnam 1969-70

101st Airborne C Troop 217th Air Cav and graduated 3rd in his class at Aberdeen Proving

Grounds Ordnance School MOS 45J20 Weapons He remains a paid analyst and consultant in

various areas of geopolitical business and security issues terrorism and military affairs Hulet

lives in the ancient old growth Quinault Rain Forest

Thursday 28 March 2013 1800

Homeland Security Demands ldquoObediencerdquo in Message to Agents

Written by Alex Newman

The Obama administration and its controversial Department of Homeland Security are under fire

for sending what is being described as a ldquochillingrdquo message to US Border Patrol agents

demanding ldquoobediencerdquo Liberty News Network (LNN) national correspondent and law-

enforcement advocate Andy Ramirez revealed in an exclusive video report (see below) calling

for Congress to investigate The word ldquoobediencerdquo was defined on the official TV screens as

ldquoquickly and cheerfully carrying out the direction of those who are responsible for merdquo

Reliable sources inside the agency confirmed to Ramirez who also serves as president of the

Law Enforcement Officers Advocates Council (LEOAC) that the controversial message

demanding ldquoobediencerdquo was displayed for agents on TV monitors in the San Diego and Tucson

sectors last week In his explosive video for LNN exposing the scheme Ramirez also provided a

picture of the ldquopropagandardquo graphic that he obtained from a source within Customs and Border

Protection (CBP) who requested anonymity (see photo above)

ldquoThis lsquoObediencersquo order just continues a long recent history of intimidation going back to the

2004 lsquogag orderrsquo by then-Chief David Aguilarrdquo Ramirez told The New American in an

interview referring to a controversial non-disclosure agreement purporting to bar agents from

releasing important information to lawmakers and the media ldquoThe primary point of this all is to

purge the patrol of experienced agents who refuse to go along to get alongrdquo



























































them










































foreign entity



lawmakers






























far from over




















nomination



























address the NDAA









mind as well








actionsrdquo





that is flawedrdquo











































NDAArsquos passing









































US


































































































at a cover-up













11rdquo










few years





a full-on fib







asked today




























come





preventative


















undetected






















































purchased






















































Community]rdquo












investigationrdquo
















writes





Amendment rights

























































email































































































privacy





























TrapWire










































































them





















cellrdquo









automaticallyrdquo












signed on as well




















































privacyrdquo







May 23 2012 0333

















































Tulsa


March 22 2012 2153




















incident in Texas






















unrevealed




encryptedrdquo















March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition













































































them










































foreign entity



lawmakers






























far from over




















nomination



























address the NDAA









mind as well








actionsrdquo





that is flawedrdquo











































NDAArsquos passing









































US


































































































at a cover-up













11rdquo










few years





a full-on fib







asked today




























come





preventative


















undetected






















































purchased






















































Community]rdquo












investigationrdquo
















writes





Amendment rights

























































email































































































privacy





























TrapWire










































































them





















cellrdquo









automaticallyrdquo












signed on as well




















































privacyrdquo







May 23 2012 0333

















































Tulsa


March 22 2012 2153




















incident in Texas






















unrevealed




encryptedrdquo















March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition










































foreign entity



lawmakers






























far from over




















nomination



























address the NDAA









mind as well








actionsrdquo





that is flawedrdquo











































NDAArsquos passing









































US


































































































at a cover-up













11rdquo










few years





a full-on fib







asked today




























come





preventative


















undetected






















































purchased






















































Community]rdquo












investigationrdquo
















writes





Amendment rights

























































email































































































privacy





























TrapWire










































































them





















cellrdquo









automaticallyrdquo












signed on as well




















































privacyrdquo







May 23 2012 0333

















































Tulsa


March 22 2012 2153




















incident in Texas






















unrevealed




encryptedrdquo















March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition
























far from over




















nomination



























address the NDAA









mind as well








actionsrdquo





that is flawedrdquo











































NDAArsquos passing









































US


































































































at a cover-up













11rdquo










few years





a full-on fib







asked today




























come





preventative


















undetected






















































purchased






















































Community]rdquo












investigationrdquo
















writes





Amendment rights

























































email































































































privacy





























TrapWire










































































them





















cellrdquo









automaticallyrdquo












signed on as well




















































privacyrdquo







May 23 2012 0333

















































Tulsa


March 22 2012 2153




















incident in Texas






















unrevealed




encryptedrdquo















March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition

























nomination



























address the NDAA









mind as well








actionsrdquo





that is flawedrdquo











































NDAArsquos passing









































US


































































































at a cover-up













11rdquo










few years





a full-on fib







asked today




























come





preventative


















undetected






















































purchased






















































Community]rdquo












investigationrdquo
















writes





Amendment rights

























































email































































































privacy





























TrapWire










































































them





















cellrdquo









automaticallyrdquo












signed on as well




















































privacyrdquo







May 23 2012 0333

















































Tulsa


March 22 2012 2153




















incident in Texas






















unrevealed




encryptedrdquo















March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition
























mind as well








actionsrdquo





that is flawedrdquo











































NDAArsquos passing









































US


































































































at a cover-up













11rdquo










few years





a full-on fib







asked today




























come





preventative


















undetected






















































purchased






















































Community]rdquo












investigationrdquo
















writes





Amendment rights

























































email































































































privacy





























TrapWire










































































them





















cellrdquo









automaticallyrdquo












signed on as well




















































privacyrdquo







May 23 2012 0333

















































Tulsa


March 22 2012 2153




















incident in Texas






















unrevealed




encryptedrdquo















March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition
























































NDAArsquos passing









































US


































































































at a cover-up













11rdquo










few years





a full-on fib







asked today




























come





preventative


















undetected






















































purchased






















































Community]rdquo












investigationrdquo
















writes





Amendment rights

























































email































































































privacy





























TrapWire










































































them





















cellrdquo









automaticallyrdquo












signed on as well




















































privacyrdquo







May 23 2012 0333

















































Tulsa


March 22 2012 2153




















incident in Texas






















unrevealed




encryptedrdquo















March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition




















































US


































































































at a cover-up













11rdquo










few years





a full-on fib







asked today




























come





preventative


















undetected






















































purchased






















































Community]rdquo












investigationrdquo
















writes





Amendment rights

























































email































































































privacy





























TrapWire










































































them





















cellrdquo









automaticallyrdquo












signed on as well




















































privacyrdquo







May 23 2012 0333

















































Tulsa


March 22 2012 2153




















incident in Texas






















unrevealed




encryptedrdquo















March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition































































































at a cover-up













11rdquo










few years





a full-on fib







asked today




























come





preventative


















undetected






















































purchased






















































Community]rdquo












investigationrdquo
















writes





Amendment rights

























































email































































































privacy





























TrapWire










































































them





















cellrdquo









automaticallyrdquo












signed on as well




















































privacyrdquo







May 23 2012 0333

















































Tulsa


March 22 2012 2153




















incident in Texas






















unrevealed




encryptedrdquo















March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition














































come





preventative


















undetected






















































purchased






















































Community]rdquo












investigationrdquo
















writes





Amendment rights

























































email































































































privacy





























TrapWire










































































them





















cellrdquo









automaticallyrdquo












signed on as well




















































privacyrdquo







May 23 2012 0333

















































Tulsa


March 22 2012 2153




















incident in Texas






















unrevealed




encryptedrdquo















March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition







































































purchased






















































Community]rdquo












investigationrdquo
















writes





Amendment rights

























































email































































































privacy





























TrapWire










































































them





















cellrdquo









automaticallyrdquo












signed on as well




















































privacyrdquo







May 23 2012 0333

















































Tulsa


March 22 2012 2153




















incident in Texas






















unrevealed




encryptedrdquo















March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition



































































Community]rdquo












investigationrdquo
















writes





Amendment rights

























































email































































































privacy





























TrapWire










































































them





















cellrdquo









automaticallyrdquo












signed on as well




















































privacyrdquo







May 23 2012 0333

















































Tulsa


March 22 2012 2153




















incident in Texas






















unrevealed




encryptedrdquo















March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition


























writes





Amendment rights

























































email































































































privacy





























TrapWire










































































them





















cellrdquo









automaticallyrdquo












signed on as well




















































privacyrdquo







May 23 2012 0333

















































Tulsa


March 22 2012 2153




















incident in Texas






















unrevealed




encryptedrdquo















March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition



















































email































































































privacy





























TrapWire










































































them





















cellrdquo









automaticallyrdquo












signed on as well




















































privacyrdquo







May 23 2012 0333

















































Tulsa


March 22 2012 2153




















incident in Texas






















unrevealed




encryptedrdquo















March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition
































































































privacy





























TrapWire










































































them





















cellrdquo









automaticallyrdquo












signed on as well




















































privacyrdquo







May 23 2012 0333

















































Tulsa


March 22 2012 2153




















incident in Texas






















unrevealed




encryptedrdquo















March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition




















TrapWire










































































them





















cellrdquo









automaticallyrdquo












signed on as well




















































privacyrdquo







May 23 2012 0333

















































Tulsa


March 22 2012 2153




















incident in Texas






















unrevealed




encryptedrdquo















March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition




























































them





















cellrdquo









automaticallyrdquo












signed on as well




















































privacyrdquo







May 23 2012 0333

















































Tulsa


March 22 2012 2153




















incident in Texas






















unrevealed




encryptedrdquo















March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition





















cellrdquo









automaticallyrdquo












signed on as well




















































privacyrdquo







May 23 2012 0333

















































Tulsa


March 22 2012 2153




















incident in Texas






















unrevealed




encryptedrdquo















March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition

























































privacyrdquo







May 23 2012 0333

















































Tulsa


March 22 2012 2153




















incident in Texas






















unrevealed




encryptedrdquo















March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition




















May 23 2012 0333

















































Tulsa


March 22 2012 2153




















incident in Texas






















unrevealed




encryptedrdquo















March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition


















































Tulsa


March 22 2012 2153




















incident in Texas






















unrevealed




encryptedrdquo















March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition




















March 22 2012 2153




















incident in Texas






















unrevealed




encryptedrdquo















March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition























incident in Texas






















unrevealed




encryptedrdquo















March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition





























March 15 2012 2139









12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition




















12 2012



























Internet shut off




















offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition




























offersrdquo




























declarationsrdquo














out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition






























out


March 07 2012 2236






























online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition










































online rights

















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition





















Web as they wish

























May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition




















May 26 2012 1911





































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition






































































right






























By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition





















By JASON KOEBLER

March 29 2013



a mile away








FAAs rules



restrictions





$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition




















$140




installed




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition




















Glenn Greenwald


flying device



March 29 2013









































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition







































focuses on the Qube











































































































coalition
















































































































coalition



















Fusion Center Director and Spying on US

Documents

Transcript of Fusion Center Director and Spying on US