IAO: mass surveillance of ALL individuals
Total Information Awareness (TIA) was a program from the Information Awareness Office (IAO):
The Information Awareness Office is a mass surveillance development branch of DoD’s DARPA.. [it’s] stated mission [is] to gather as much information as possible about everyone, in a centralized location.. [records used by IAO include] Internet activity, credit card purchase histories, airline ticket purchases, car rentals, medical records..
Privacy Concerns kill TIA
A Senate defense appropriations bill passed unanimously on July 18, 2003 explicitly denies any funding to TIA research.. The Pentagon office that was developing vast computerized terrorism surveillance system would be closed and no money could be spent [on] spying tools against Americans on U.S. soil, House and Senate negotiators have agreed on September 25, 2003
SOCOM – U.S. Special Operations Command
Able Danger was part of SOCOM’s programs(1) it used data mining to survey publicly available databases. SOCOM had long been itching to dig into local counterterrorism (2)
August 6,2001 PDB: Bin Laden determined to strike on US
Besides privacy concerns, a simple reason to discard Able Danger is that it was not “actionable intel”, as War and Piece blogs (3)
without establishing just what exactly Able Danger came up with that might have been actionable regarding 9/11, the value of Able Danger and the whole question of whether information on its findings were somehow withheld from the commission, etc. will be very difficult to judge
Vague and Murky Able Danger
Indeed, Shaffer has declined to provide details and is now claiming he heard about AD from others
Domestic Surveillance: A violation of several Executive Orders
Domestic military intelligence operations are governed by guidelines.. consistent with the legal rights and protections guaranteed to all. Guidelines such as Reagan’s Executive Order 12333 (1981).. which is still in force today. Department of Defense (DOD) Regulation 5240. 1-R implements Executive Order 12333 within the DOD and sets forth procedures governing the activities of DOD intelligence components that affect U.S. persons (3)
Privacy and Posse Comitatus Concerns
Even the Bush friendly Cato Institute was alarmed at TIA:
Deployed in the U.S.A.: The Creeping Militarization of the Home Front
Deploying troops on the home front is very different from waging war abroad. Soldiers are trained to kill, whereas civilian peace officers are trained to respect constitutional rights and to use force only as a last resort. That fundamental distinction explains why Americans have long resisted the use of standing armies to keep the domestic peace.
Unfortunately, plans are afoot to change that time-honored policy. There have already been temporary troop deployments in the airports and on the Canadian and Mexican borders and calls to make border militarization permanent. The Pentagon has also shown a disturbing interest in high-tech surveillance of American citizens. And key figures in the Bush administration and Congress have considered weakening the Posse Comitatus Act, the federal statute that limits the government’s ability to use the military for domestic police work.
The historical record of military involvement in domestic affairs cautions against a more active military presence in the American homeland. If Congress weakens the legal barriers to using soldiers as cops, substantial collateral damage to civilian life and liberty will likely ensue.
The potential for abuse: Portland’s example
In an example thay both disproves the “wall” myth the reich wing has been peddling, as well as shows the hidden dangers of abuse of intel we present you the story of the Portland Joint Terrorism Task Force:
Portland Withdraws from Terrorism Task Force
On Thursday, April 28, 2005 the City Council of Portland, Oregon passed an ordinance that would make it the first jurisdiction in the country to withdraw from an FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF)..
The Portland police had participated in the PJTTF since its founding in 1997. [Clinton had 66 of those. Bush increased them to 100 AFTER 9/11].. As the city was reading about the Portland Police Bureau’s recent history of harassing political dissidents and racial minorities, the FBI called a press conference where they announced with much fanfare the arrest of a local Muslim cleric.. Subsequent tests showed no explosive residue on the luggage in question.. [the cleric] Kariye pled guilty to fraudulently gaining access to the Oregon state health insurance system (so far, not defined as terrorist activity).
Then there was the case of Brandon Mayfield.. The FBI claimed that Mayfield’s fingerprints were a “100 percent match” with those on a bag found in a van close to the Madrid railway station where the attack took place. At the same time the Spanish National Police were telling the FBI that they disagreed. When Spanish police arrested an Algerian person based on the evidence of the same fingerprint, the FBI’s case fell apart and Mayfield was released without charge. (The Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Oregon, Robert Jordan, did the unheard-of and issued an apology to Brandon Mayfield.)
While the FBI in Portland seemed to be going to great lengths to manufacture terrorism cases against local Muslims, the Joint Terrorism Task Forces of Denver and Fresno were found to be infiltrating and harassing peace groups
