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WASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 2002 — The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which oversees the Total Information Awareness System (TIA), awarded 13 contracts to Booz Allen & Hamilton amounting to more than $23 million. Lockheed Martin Corporation had 23 contracts worth $27 million; the Schafer Corporation had 9 contracts totaling $15 million. Other prominent contractors involved in the TIA program include SRS Technologies, Adroit Systems, CACI Dynamic Systems, Syntek Technologies, and ASI Systems International.
John Poindexter, a former national security adviser, brought the idea for the Terrorism Information Awareness surveillance system to the Pentagon. (Photo/ Alex Brandon -- AP)
Risk Assessment and Horizon Scanning (RAHS)
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Telecom infrastructure was severly damaged in New York and Wall Street was closed down. The White House called upon major corporations to support America in it’s fight against terror. I belief this call was answered with blind allegiance to the Republican leadership.
Computer glitch on election night, repeated thereafter in many states.
Data mining programs (MATRIX) with supervision of Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz.
Global Networks and the Pentagon.
Position of Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and Cisco’s as the most prominent players.
Recall the Microsoft antitrust lawsuit with prosecutor David Boies
Steve Ballmer (Accenture board member) and the Florida voter purge
SAIC empire and links to anthrax – networks –
Oops, Olson, Fort Detrick and the CIA (anthrax in the ’50’s)
ANSER corporation and Homeland Security
Recall John Bolton and the NSA transcripts.
My work at Daily Kos – PropaG search ¶ GOP Politics Sexy acts ¶ GOPUSA Board Members
Continued @BooMan – Carlyle Group Bid for U.S. DataMining Ownership ¶ VNU – LexisNexis – Seisint Inc – MATRIX
What’s Happening?
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has announced plans to implement CAPPS II, a controversial passenger profiling and surveillance system that would require you to give your birth date, home phone number, and home address before you can board a U.S. flight. Under CAPPS II, travel authorities would check these and other personal details against the information collected in government and commercial databases, then “tag” you with a color-coded score indicating the level of security risk that you appear to pose. Based on your assigned color/score, you could be detained, interrogated or made subject to additional searches. If you are tagged with the wrong color/score, you could be prohibited from flying.
In light of the news that Alberto Gonzales granted Cheney presidential powers to snoop into ongoing investigations in May 2006, I thought it was time to update my chronology of the CIFA side of the Cunningham scandal.
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Airport Security by Israeli Rafi Ron ¶ IDF – Neal Sher & Burson-Marsteller ◊ by Oui
Fri Dec 9th, 2005 at 06:59:17 PM PST
Update Dec. 3, 2005 — Minneapolis is the second large airport in the country where TSA screeners have begun testing the new surveillance system, called Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques, or SPOT, Welna said.
SPOT is based on a profiling system at Boston’s Logan International Airport. Rafi Ron, a former Israeli airport security expert, helped design the program in 2002 and his consulting company – New Age Security Solutions (NASS) – in McLean, Virginia, began training Minneapolis-St. Paul airport police in October 2004.
Police here have assigned teams to use the techniques on a “random basis” since then, airport police Lt. Shawn Chamberlain said. He said he’s unaware of any potential terrorists who have been snared, but said the system improves police work.
Screeners should focus on those people most likely to cause problems, he said. Passenger profiling methods have been used successfully for three decades in Israel, he noted.
DHS details future border-control system
But can biometric identifiers really be a silver bullet?
Security Training at Statue of Liberty Conducted by NASS
“Mass transportation systems will always be vulnerable to some extent if we want to keep them as efficient as they are today.”
NEW YORK July 23, 2005 — Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents 35,000 New York City transit workers, said the training fell short of what’s needed. Tomorrow, the union will offer its members terrorism awareness and deterrence training by Rafi Ron, the chairman of New Age Security Solutions and the former head of security at Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel.
Statement by Rafi Ron to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs – September 21, 2005.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
(AnonymousLiberal) – It’s also worth pointing how breathtakingly hypocritical these leaks are. For years, the Bush administration has refused to acknowledge that it was involved in data-mining activities. When the USA Today reported in May 2006 that the administration was engaged in widespread data-mining, President Bush hastily convened a press conference in which he claimed that his administration was “not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans.” He also noted angrily that “every time sensitive intelligence is leaked, it hurts our ability to defeat this enemy.”
Now the existence of data-mining activities is being confirmed by anonymous administration officials–almost surely at the behest of the White House–solely in an effort to defend Alberto Gonzales from perjury charges.
H/T to RandyH
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."in this.
http://www.autonomy.com/content/Autonomy/index.en.html
All of this simply “enhances” nothing. When the computers began to “talk” to each other the IRS “decided” my wife of 26 years was no longer my wife. The name change it seems was not recorded in the computers over at Social Security and the IRS dutifully denied her as a “dependent”. Cost me a half day out of work to “fix” the problem and about three hours of “on hold” time with IRS.
Ed Brown has the right idea.
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Unless, of course, the NSA request for a warrant would be denied by the courts. And that’s where it becomes interesting. The constitutional standard for issuing a search warrant is defined by the fourth amendment, which states:
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
The constitutional standard for issuing a warrant for a particular search involves “probable cause, supported by an oath or affirmation.” If NSA searches don’t involve probable cause, then they would be denied a warrant. And if they are tapping American’s phone calls under this warrantless program, they are tapping the phones of people who, by definition, are probably not terrorists. Thus, the most appropriate name for the program is the “Probably Not a Terrorist Surveillance Program.”
Note that the President no longer talks about warrants, though he told the American people many times that “Law enforcement officers need a federal judge’s permission to wiretap a foreign terrorist’s phone, or to track his calls, or to search his property.” The word “warrant” is no longer in the administration’s vocabulary when discussing the NSA program.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
Port of Baltimore July 20, 2005
BUSH:
“Congress also oversees the use of the Patriot Act. Our Attorney General, Al Gonzales, delivers regular reports on the Patriot Act to the House and the Senate. The Department of Justice has answered hundreds of questions from members of the Congress. In other words, there is a strong oversight role.
I want you to hear what Senator Dianne Feinstein, of California, said the other day. She said, “We have scrubbed the area and have no reported abuses.” She was speaking about the Patriot Act. I want you to remember that the next time you hear someone make an unfair criticism of this important, good law. The Patriot Act hasn’t diminished American liberties; it has helped to defend American liberties.”
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
As a secret service agent stands nearby, VP Dick Cheney views the Port of Tampa with (from left to right) Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Mayor Dick Greco of Tampa, Mayor Glenda Hood of Orlando, and Commissioner Tim Moore of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for a briefing on Florida's domestic security strategy. The Vice President visited the port to attend Florida's Regional Domestic Security Task Force meeting.October 24, 2002 – Here in Florida, I’m pleased to say, we have a model of how the homeland security effort should operate at the state level. Through the leadership of Governor Bush and the good work of many with us here today, Florida became one of the very first states in the nation to have its own comprehensive strategy for domestic security.
Aided by the work of the seven regional task forces, the Florida strategy covers emergency preparedness and response; health and bio-terrorism; information and intelligence; and border and port security.
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For nearly 40 years Democratic and Republican Presidents, alike, have had the authority to determine that vital national security interests must take priority over standard rules of management and labor relations. This authority applies to every department and agency of the federal government. At a time when our nation is at war and the security of the American people is threatened as never before, it makes no sense to deny that authority in the one department that probably needs it most. If the President has that kind of authority in running the Agriculture Department, he should have the same authority in wartime when it comes to the department of homeland security.
DOJ – National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan
AP (FISA) requests have also uncovered “briefing points” dated January 2003 from a presentation delivered to Dick Cheney jointly by Seisint, Florida Governor Jeb Bush and a top Florida police official. This includes “Demonstrate HTF (High Terrorist Factor) with mapping.” The May 2003 DoJ approval of Seisint as sole data contractor refers to software “applying ‘terrorism quotient’ in all cases.”
ACLU – Utah and the MATRIX
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."well done oui!
you’ve really gotten some great information together here, some of which l had not seen before.
thanks…kudos
lTMF’sA
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Appreciated – thank you!
Goldsmith is a conservative lawyer who understands the imperative of averting another 9/11. But his unflinching insistence that we abide by the law put him on a collision course with powerful figures in the administration. Goldsmith’s fascinating analysis of parallel legal crises in the Lincoln and Roosevelt administrations shows why Bush’s apparent indifference to human rights has damaged his presidency and, perhaps, his standing in history.
Jack L. Goldsmith is the Henry L. Shattuck Professor of Law at Harvard University. From October 2003 to June 2004 he was assistant attorney general, Office of Legal Counsel.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
My neighbor described to me an event which happened not long after the Patriot Act was enacted. Two FBI agents showed-up at his house and presented him with an e-mail he had written to his brother in Paris. The e-mail descibed how much he despised the Patriot Act and a list of phrases which would likely red-flag them. It was an act of civil disobedience. He has been pretty quiet the last several years after the visit. I thought I would try to put a human face on domestic spying.
Posted by:
Date: July 26, 2007 7:47 PM
It looks like here in TX, they are even going after affluent college students. My son got a “confirmation” of registration notice in the mail stating that “someone” had contacted the Bexar Co. Election Supervisor, Jackie Callanan and stated he might not be legally residing in our fair county. I suspect that State of Texas Republicans are challenging college-aged registered Democrats, probably those who voted absentee in ’06. It appears not to be a classic “caging” activity wherein letters are returned to sender then “caged” and challenged, because everything sent to our son at our home, his official residence, I forward to him when he is away at college, nothing is returned to sender through the mail as undeliverable. It looks like they have found another method that just skirts legality, or Our Jackie is cooperating in some nefarious way with the TX Repubs because she is basically a nervous nellie about her job due to their gotcha over the “illegals” voting last year. All 43 of ’em. So, next week Little Harvard will be consulting a lawyer about this attempt to disenfranchise him. We are lucky we know an activist Dem lawyer who will take this on pro bono, unlike most of the Bexar Co. kids I suspect got a similar notice in the mail this week.
by dksbook on Sat Jul 28th, 2007 at 06:23:24 AM PST
There are many more of these stories, also bloggers being contacted by persons saying they ‘represented the FBI’.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."My son (the dsp engineer who actually began this identity) can affirm the core of your point. He worked for a telecom firm that served small local providers. The relatively unknown federal requirement that these providers have systems that were capable of being subjected to data mining was a major challenge–one smaller, rural telecom providers were having great difficulty meeting. The groundwork for this data mining effort was probably laid a decade ago.
The average guy at the 7/11–the one who listens to Faux News–believes that the government is singling out overseas calls. The concept of data mining is virtually inconceivable to most people.
The example I use is a real one. I know a Polish guy who specializes in buying American used cars and reselling them in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. When he is in Florida (often) he is making repeated calls to countries that are undoubtably on the “watch list.” He has all the characteristics that would flag him for data mining.
The last time he tried to enter the country he had great difficulty. Something is going on…and it is NOT terrorism.
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“Some of his ideas are from another century.”
Bob Woodward
A diary will follow on August 2.
Larry King – July 31, 2007
KING: In that regard, “The New York Times,” which is — as you said, it’s not your favorite paper, reports it was you who dispatched Gonzales and Andy Card to then Attorney General John Ashcroft’s hospital in 2004 to push Ashcroft to certify the president’s intelligence gathering program.
Was it you?
CHENEY: I don’t recall the — first of all, I haven’t seen the story. I don’t recall that I gave instructions to that effect.
KING: That would be something you would recall.
CHENEY: I would think so. But, certainly, I was involved because I was a big advocate of the Terrorist Surveillance Program and had been responsible and been working with General Hayden and George Tenet to get it to the president for approval.
By the time this occurred, it had already been approved about 12 times by the Department of Justice. There was nothing sort of new about.
KING: But you didn’t send them to get Ash…
CHENEY: I don’t recall that I was the one who sent them to the hospital.
Intelligence Chief Says Bush Authorized Secret Activities Under One Order
(Washington Post) August 1 – The Bush administration’s chief intelligence official said yesterday that President Bush authorized a series of secret surveillance activities under a single executive order in late 2001. The disclosure makes clear that a controversial National Security Agency program was part of a much broader operation than the president previously described.
The disclosure by Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, appears to be the first time that the administration has publicly acknowledged that Bush’s order included undisclosed activities beyond the warrantless surveillance of e-mails and phone calls that Bush confirmed in December 2005.
In a letter to Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), McConnell wrote that the executive order following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks included “a number of … intelligence activities” and that a name routinely used by the administration — the Terrorist Surveillance Program — applied only to “one particular aspect of these activities, and nothing more.”
“This is the only aspect of the NSA activities that can be discussed publicly, because it is the only aspect of those various activities whose existence has been officially acknowledged,” McConnell said.
Data Mining Figured In Dispute Over NSA
Report Links Program to Gonzales Uproar
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
Worthwhile reading on data mining issue:
● NSA: A Trip Down Memory Lane ◊ by Booman
● The NSA’s Brave New World ◊ by Soj
● Solving the Puzzle: Tice, Google, Echelon and the NSA ◊ by Soj
● NSA – Echelon Industrial Espionage ◊ by Oui
● Domestic Spying is NOT About Terrorism. It is About Dissent ◊ by lipris @dKos
"Challenging the status quo"