Friday, October 03, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
This is how bad it's gotten, this article is from DAILY KOS, not a conspiratorial site (to say the least)
Are YOU One of the 8 Million Targeted for Roundup?
by ohmproject
Senior government officials have leaked detailed information about a database of 8 million Americans targeted for detention in case of a declared national emergency.
Called "Main Core," the database's origins date back to the 1980s when the Reagan administration began its "Continuity in Government" planning. The Bush administration stepped up the effort to the point that even John Ashcroft and his deputy, James Comey objected on constitional grounds, leading to the dramatic confrontation between Ashcroft and Comey on on side and Alberto Gonzales (then Bush's lawyer) and Andrew Card on the other as Ashcroft lay critically ill in an intensive care unit.
- ohmproject's diary :: ::
Christopher Ketcham reports in the latest issue of RADAR:
According to a senior government official who served with high-level security clearances in five administrations, "There exists a database of Americans, who, often for the slightest and most trivial reason, are considered unfriendly, and who, in a time of panic, might be incarcerated. The database can identify and locate perceived 'enemies of the state' almost instantaneously." He and other sources tell Radar that the database is sometimes referred to by the code name Main Core. One knowledgeable source claims that 8 million Americans are now listed in Main Core as potentially suspect. In the event of a national emergency, these people could be subject to everything from heightened surveillance and tracking to direct questioning and possibly even detention.
How do you get on the list? Ketcham reports that the software used makes predictive judgments of targets' behavior and tracks their circle of associations with "social network analysis" and artificial intelligence modeling tools." The data that serves as the basis of these predictions includes financial information collected from banks, credit card companies and credit agencies, the fruits of the government's illegal wiretapping and email surveillance, data gathered from private sources like ISPs and cell phone companies. A partial list of the data:
The following information seems to be fair game for collection without a warrant: the e-mail addresses you send to and receive from, and the subject lines of those messages; the phone numbers you dial, the numbers that dial in to your line, and the durations of the calls; the Internet sites you visit and the keywords in your Web searches; the destinations of the airline tickets you buy; the amounts and locations of your ATM withdrawals; and the goods and services you purchase on credit cards. All of this information is archived on government supercomputers and, according to sources, also fed into the Main Core database.
Smaller, targeted "enemies lists" are included: no-fly list (now nearing 500,000), border scrutiny list (750,000 nearly a year ago) and people on a list created by a Pentagon project targeting antiwar and environmental groups. These much smaller lists grow to 8 million because of the "social networking" factor. If you've emailed or called someone on those lists, you get added to the master list.
Ketcham has reviewed previous lists created by FEMA (under whose authority all this take place) and the FBI, and finds that diversity rules. Typically, one finds "dissidents and activists of various stripes, political and tax protesters, lawyers and professors, publishers and journalists, gun owners, illegal aliens, foreign nationals, and a great many other harmless, average people."
Enemies lists and mass roundups are nothing new in American history. Lincoln employed them during the Civil War. FDR put the Japanese in detention camps. J. Edgar Hoover had his lists.
But the Main Core programs roots trace back to Reagan, and more specifically, to Iran-Contra figure, Oliver North. North was involved in the creation of REX-84, a martial law plan that would have suspended the constitution, rounded up 400,000 illegal aliens and unknown numbers of American citizens and placed them in detention camps set up at military bases. When Texas Congressman Jack Brooks attempted to question North about the plans at the Iran-Contra hearings, even his fellow Congressmen shut him off.
Rex-84 tools included PROMIS, a database program that North used to track dissidents' movements in the 80s. The program was never halted. Instead, it went into turboboost after 9/11.
These new leaks revealed by Ketcham are an opportunity to push for a Congressional investigation of marital law plans. Peter DeFazio and Bernie Thompson have requested detailed information about "Continuity of Government" plans, but, incredibly, have been rebuffed by DHS and the Bush administration.
Congress has itself been complict, enacting a number of laws since 9/11 that make such data gathering, targeting and detention easier. The 2002 NORTHCOM funding bill included a provision allowing military adminstration in the U. S. in times of declared emergency. The 2006 Military Commissions Act suspended habeas corpus for declared enemy combatants, even American citizens. And the 2006 Warner Defense Act allows deployment of military forces even in the case of natural emergencies. John Yoo claimed in a 2002 memo that the 4th Amendment would have no application to military forces deployed on U. S. soil. Current AG Mukasey refused to disavow Yoo's memo when he testified before Congress last month.
This is the current state of things:
If Bush or any other President declares a state of emergency because of a terrorist attack, assassination, natural disaster or large scale protests, millions of Americans will be targeted. It may be a letter in the mail or a phone call requiring them to come to a local government office to register and answer questions. It may be a knock on the door from local or federal law enforcement officials wanting to have a little chat. Or it may be a squad of Marines busting down the door, shooting first and asking questions later.
Are you one of the 8 million?
Original article posted here.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Trying to destroy our ability to communicate
"Dominant Cyber Offensive Engagement" plans announced
Steve Watson
The Air Force Research Laboratory introduced the plans earlier this week in a a request for proposals as a "Dominant Cyber Offensive Engagement."
The request states:
Of interest are any and all techniques to enable user and/or root level access to both fixed (PC) or mobile computing platforms. Robust methodologies to enable access to any and all operating systems, patch levels, applications and hardware are of interest.
The purpose for this is clear:
...this BAA's objective includes the capability to provide a variety of techniques and technologies to be able to affect computer information systems through Deceive, Deny, Disrupt, Degrade, Destroy (D5) effects. Of interest are any and all techniques including enabling D5 effects to computers and their networks...
"...research efforts under this program are expected to result in complete functional capabilities." The request notes.
The program will also focus on a stealth approach:
Also, we are interested in technology to provide the capability to maintain an active presence within the adversaries' information infrastructure completely undetected...
...it is desired to have the capability to stealthily exfiltrate information from any remotely-located open or closed computer information systems with the possibility to discover information with previously unknown existence... Consideration should be given to maintaining a "low and slow" gathering paradigm in these development efforts to enable stealthy operation.
This approach will provide an alternative to another program being proposed under the same overall initiative that will see the airforce build its own zombie network to forcefully and openly "Carpet Bomb" any target computers or networks.
As Wired.com notes, recently the military, mirroring it's pre-emptive war strategy, has shifted to an offensive posture where cyberspace is concerned, rather than a defensive one:
in the last year or so, the tone has changed -- and become more bellicose. “Cyber, as a warfighting domain . . . like air, favors the offense,” said Lani Kass, a special assistant to the Air Force Chief of Staff who previously headed up the service's Cyberspace Task Force. "If you’re defending in cyber, you’re already too late."
"We want to go in and knock them out in the first round," added Lt. Gen. Robert Elder, commander of the 8th Air Force, which focuses on network issues.
"An adversary needs to know that the U.S. possesses powerful hard and soft-kill (cyberwarfare) means for attacking adversary information and command and support systems at all levels," a recent Defense Department report notes. "Every potential adversary, from nation states to rogue individuals... should be compelled to consider... an attack on U.S. systems resulting in highly undesireable consequences to their own security."
"Full Spectrum Dominance" has always been the military aim and exactly as it has done over land, sea and air, the military is seeking to aggressively exert it's control over cyberspace and all those who reside within that terrain.
Multiple programs are being rolled out by the Pentagon and its offshoot agencies such as DARPA, in a secret war with the internet that has been described as a $30 billion "electronic Manhattan Project".
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Just where things likely will be heading
Local, state police and sheriff's office join feds for "terror" sweeps that result in hundreds of citations for traffic violations
Steve Watson
Federal law enforcement agencies co-opted sheriffs offices as well state and local police forces in three states last weekend for a vast round up operation that one sheriff's deputy has described as "martial law training".
Law-enforcement agencies in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas took part in what was described by local media as "an anti-crime and anti-terrorism initiative" involving officers from more than 50 federal, state and local agencies.
Given the military style name "Operation Sudden Impact", the initiative saw officers from six counties rounding up fugitives, conducting traffic checkpoints, climbing on boats on the Mississippi River and doing other "crime-abatement" programs all under the label of "anti-terrorism".
WREG Memphis news channel 3 reported that the Sheriff's Department arrested 332 people, 142 of whom were fugitives, or "terrorists" as they now seem to be known.
Hundreds of dollars were seized and drugs recovered, and 1,292 traffic violations were handed out to speeding terrorists and illegally parked terrorists.
Click here to watch a WREG Memphis news report
The authorities even raided businesses and store owners, confiscating computers and paperwork in an effort to "track down possible terrorists before something big happens".
The Sheriff's Department is determining if and when they plan another round-up.
The operation, which involved police, deputies, the FBI, drug agents, gang units and even the coast guard, is just one example of how law enforcement at the state and local levels is being co-opted and centralized by the Department of Homeland Security via massive federal grants.
It also highlights how the distinction between crime and terrorism is becoming irrelevant.
An Infowars reader called in to the Alex Jones show yesterday to alert us to the story and explain that he had gleaned the information from a his friend, a sheriff's deputy in Memphis, who had described the operation as "training for martial law in America".
Forget innocent until proven guilty, you are now a terrorist suspect until you are told otherwise.
It is now the norm to consider everybody equally likely to be guilty of something than innocent. This is proactive policing, not preventative or reactive policing, and is widely indicative of a society that is NOT free.
This form of proactive policing is a phenomena indicative of a once free state rapidly declining into a authoritarian police state.
If there was a real terror threat in these states, it would surely make sense to for law enforcement agencies to target known trouble areas, and follow up on already existing leads. Instead we are seeing local police and the coast guard being recruited to randomly target anyone in any area as possible terrorists.
Surely if there was a real terror threat, this activity would harm the effort to combat it.
Of course, such activity is clearly not related to a real and tangible terror threat, it is related to the ongoing effort to vastly increase the size and scope of the federal government and increase the power it has over American citizens.
The information and intelligence from the operation will be collated and routed through federally funded state-run fusion centers, which are working in conjunction with the military arm of the DHS, NORTHCOM.
Such information will soon include the DNA and other biometric information from every person arrested, which DHS head Michael Chertoff has declared is no longer your personal information.
We recently reported on the fact that after 9/11 the Justice Department advised the Bush administration that it was able to effectively suspend the Fourth Amendment where domestic counter terrorism operations are concerned.
In light of this, and given that the government has begun to class any crime as terrorism and set local and state police to work on "anti-terror" operations, it is clear that the protections provided by the Bill of Rights and the Constitution are under direct threat.
We have seen how new provisions will effectively nullify the U.S. constitution, and a recent spate of executive orders, in particular PDD 51, outline preparations for the implementation of open martial law in the event of a declared national emergency.
Centralized and federally coordinated law enforcement programs complement nationwide FEMA programs to train Pastors and other religious representatives to become secret police enforcers who teach their congregations to "obey the government" in preparation for the implementation of martial law, property and firearm seizures, mass vaccination programs and forced relocation. The effects of this particular program have already been witnessed.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Monday, February 04, 2008
Be afraid, be very afraid
| U.S. Troops Asked If They Would Shoot American Citizens Iraq vet exposes how he was trained to round up Americans in martial law exercise, asked if he would kill his own friends and family |
Paul Joseph Watson
U.S. troops are being trained to conduct round-ups, confiscate guns and shoot American citizens, including their own friends and family members, as part of a long-standing program to prepare for the declaration of martial law, according to a soldier who recently returned from Iraq.
We received an e mail from "Scott", a member of a pipefitters union that runs an apprenticeship program called Helmets To Hard Hats, which according to its website, "Is a national program that connects National Guard, Reserve and transitioning active-duty military members with quality career training and employment opportunities within the construction industry."
Scott writes that his company hired a soldier who had recently returned from Iraq, who told him that U.S. troops were being quizzed on whether or not they would be prepared to shoot their own friends and family members during a national state of emergency in America.
"I have become very close to this young man and have gained his respect and trust," writes Scott. "I want you to know that he informed me about one particular training exercise his superiors made them perform. It was concerning the rounding up of American citizens that disobey any type of martial law or in other words any type of infringement on our freedoms."
"He was asked if he could shoot his friends or family members if ordered to do so. At the time he said he could," writes Scott.
Scott says that the soldier later "had time to clear his head" and realize the truth, recanting his vow to kill his own countrymen if ordered to do so.
The issue of whether U.S. troops would be prepared to round-up, disarm and if necessary shoot Americans who disobeyed orders during a state of martial law is a question that military chiefs have been attempting to answer for at least 15 years.
Its known origins can be traced back to an October 1994 Marine questionnaire out of the Twentynine Palms Marine Base in California. Recruits were asked 46 questions, including whether they would kill U.S. citizens who refused to surrender their firearms.
Documentary film maker Alex Jones brought to light similar training programs that were taking place across the country in the late 90's which revolved around U.S. Marines being trained to arrest American citizens and take them to internment camps.
During one such program in Oakland California, dubbed "Operation Urban Warrior," Marines refused to answer if they would target American citizens for gun confiscation if ordered to do so.
During hurricane Katrina, National Guard units were ordered to confiscate guns belonging to New Orleans residents.
As we first exposed in May 2006, Clergy Response Teams are being trained by the federal government and FEMA to "quell dissent" and pacify citizens to obey the government in the event of a declaration of martial law.
Pastors and other religious representatives are being taught to become secret police enforcers who teach their congregations to "obey the government" in preparation for the implementation of martial law, property and firearm seizures, mass vaccination programs and forced relocation.
Many scoffed at our original story, which was based on the testimony of a whistleblower who was asked to participate in the program. Claims that the story was a conspiracy theory soon evaporated when a mainstream KSLA news report confirmed the existence of the program.
The experiences of U.S. troops in the worst areas of Iraq, where soldiers are ordered to go door to door and arrest all men of military age as well as confiscate their weapons, is a mere portend of what is being planned for America if these training programs ever come to fruition.
Original article posted here.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Still Running Towards Fascism
A disturbing recent phenomenon in Washington is that laws that strike to the heart of American democracy have been passed in the dead of night. So it was with a provision quietly tucked into the enormous defense budget bill at the Bush administration's behest that makes it easier for a president to override local control of law enforcement and declare martial law.
The provision, signed into law in October, weakens two obscure but important bulwarks of liberty. One is the doctrine that bars military forces, including a federalized National Guard, from engaging in law enforcement. Called posse comitatus, it was enshrined in law after the Civil War to preserve the line between civil government and the military. The other is the Insurrection Act of 1807, which provides the major exemptions to posse comitatus. It essentially limits a president's use of the military in law enforcement to putting down lawlessness, insurrection and rebellion, where a state is violating federal law or depriving people of constitutional rights.
The newly enacted provisions upset this careful balance. They shift the focus from making sure that federal laws are enforced to restoring public order.
Beyond cases of actual insurrection, the president may now use military troops as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, terrorist attack or to any "other condition."
Changes of this magnitude should be made only after a thorough public airing. But these new presidential powers were slipped into the law without hearings or public debate. The president made no mention of the changes when he signed the measure, and neither the White House nor Congress consulted in advance with the country's governors.
There is a bipartisan bill, introduced by Senators Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, and Christopher Bond, Republican of Missouri, and backed unanimously by the nation's governors, that would repeal the stealthy revisions. Congress should pass it. If changes of this kind are proposed in the future, they must get a full and open debate.
Original article psoted here.