Post by dragonfly on Dec 14, 2005 18:30:06 GMT -8
blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2005/12/pentagon_domest.html
Homeland Security, the Patriot Act and what ever "catchy" names they use constitute the most flagrant and unprecented violation of our citizens privacy.
We all want to combat terrorism, but they are forcing a more benign form of it on us. It's way past 1984, but "Big Brother" is in fact watching.
I was watching CNN tonight and they were talking about the Pentagon and FBI overstepping their power. If you have ever spoken against the President or took part in a war protest, you might be on the FBI list. The FBI could request and get your computer records and learn every personal detail about you. Civil liberties are being violated and the Patriot Act is being renewed.
(gulp) President Bush is very handsome. He is good. He is smart. He helps the people of the world. I owe everything to the President. His wife is very nice. Their daughters are peppy. Mr. Dick Cheney knows what is best for me and everyone. He has a nice sneer. He doesn't scare me too much anymore. I need meds. I was wrong. I should apologize. War is good. War helps the economy. Torture is necessary especially when people don't say or do what you want them to say and do. I now understand that. That was the part of torture I never understood before. There is a man looking in my window.
An NBC Nightly News piece yesterday on domestic spying by the military featured yours truly discussing an intelligence database of 1,519 "suspicious incidents" that covers the period July 2004-May 2005.
The database -- which I obtained from a military source -- is a rare look inside the actual work of the Defense Department conducting counter-terrorism and "force protection" missions inside the United States. Building on the NBC story, what does the database actually show?
The database includes three categories of incidents: The first are actual, seemingly valid potential terrorism tip-offs. The second category of incidents are anti-war and anti-military protests by civilians. The third are security incidents with only the most tentative terrorism connection.
The second category of "incidents" -- those based on surveillance of anti-war and anti-nuclear groups, as well as students and others protesters -- should be disturbing to any Americans who care about civil liberties in this age of counter-terrorism because they indicate that military intelligence and local law enforcement agencies are routinely watching lawful protests.
But it is the third category of incidents that is the most numerous, the most revealing and the most corrosive. The hyper vigilant homeland security types probably wouldn't be monitoring the web sites, intercepting the Emails, and sending undercover agents into meetings of lawful and peaceful Americans if they had not accumulated this mass of self-perpetuating "threat" reporting that does little more than pad a database to suggest domestic dangers by sheer repetition.
These domestic threat mirages accumulated by a directionless system actually serve to weaken counter-terrorism efforts by diverting attention from real problems and actual threats. What is more, the "suspicious activity" mentality that breeds government collection and overreach is at the core of almost all of America's problems since 9/11, domestically and overseas.
The Defense Department database -- prepared by the Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), which I have already written about and Walter Pincus has been reporting on for this newspaper -- is the first real inside look at how the U.S. military has stepped up intelligence collection since 9/11.
Under the excuse of "force protection" -- what the Defense Department told NBC News was the "protection of Defense Department installations, interests and personnel" -- U.S. military special agents and military police constantly report any suspicious activity that might conceivably suggest a potential threat.
In last night's report, NBC focused on one such report, the monitoring of an anti-war Quaker meeting in Lake Worth, Florida by the Army's 902nd Military Intelligence Group (that, according to the database). The database categorizes the meeting, which was to plan a protest at a military recruitment station, as a "threat."
"This is incredible," said one group member. "It's an example of paranoia by our government," he says. "We're not doing anything illegal."
The database includes nearly four dozen anti-war meetings or protests as "threats."
In the second category, the database does include some two dozen seemingly real threats -- that is, what the database itself labels as "credible."
The database -- which I obtained from a military source -- is a rare look inside the actual work of the Defense Department conducting counter-terrorism and "force protection" missions inside the United States. Building on the NBC story, what does the database actually show?
The database includes three categories of incidents: The first are actual, seemingly valid potential terrorism tip-offs. The second category of incidents are anti-war and anti-military protests by civilians. The third are security incidents with only the most tentative terrorism connection.
The second category of "incidents" -- those based on surveillance of anti-war and anti-nuclear groups, as well as students and others protesters -- should be disturbing to any Americans who care about civil liberties in this age of counter-terrorism because they indicate that military intelligence and local law enforcement agencies are routinely watching lawful protests.
But it is the third category of incidents that is the most numerous, the most revealing and the most corrosive. The hyper vigilant homeland security types probably wouldn't be monitoring the web sites, intercepting the Emails, and sending undercover agents into meetings of lawful and peaceful Americans if they had not accumulated this mass of self-perpetuating "threat" reporting that does little more than pad a database to suggest domestic dangers by sheer repetition.
These domestic threat mirages accumulated by a directionless system actually serve to weaken counter-terrorism efforts by diverting attention from real problems and actual threats. What is more, the "suspicious activity" mentality that breeds government collection and overreach is at the core of almost all of America's problems since 9/11, domestically and overseas.
The Defense Department database -- prepared by the Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), which I have already written about and Walter Pincus has been reporting on for this newspaper -- is the first real inside look at how the U.S. military has stepped up intelligence collection since 9/11.
Under the excuse of "force protection" -- what the Defense Department told NBC News was the "protection of Defense Department installations, interests and personnel" -- U.S. military special agents and military police constantly report any suspicious activity that might conceivably suggest a potential threat.
In last night's report, NBC focused on one such report, the monitoring of an anti-war Quaker meeting in Lake Worth, Florida by the Army's 902nd Military Intelligence Group (that, according to the database). The database categorizes the meeting, which was to plan a protest at a military recruitment station, as a "threat."
"This is incredible," said one group member. "It's an example of paranoia by our government," he says. "We're not doing anything illegal."
The database includes nearly four dozen anti-war meetings or protests as "threats."
In the second category, the database does include some two dozen seemingly real threats -- that is, what the database itself labels as "credible."
Homeland Security, the Patriot Act and what ever "catchy" names they use constitute the most flagrant and unprecented violation of our citizens privacy.
We all want to combat terrorism, but they are forcing a more benign form of it on us. It's way past 1984, but "Big Brother" is in fact watching.
I was watching CNN tonight and they were talking about the Pentagon and FBI overstepping their power. If you have ever spoken against the President or took part in a war protest, you might be on the FBI list. The FBI could request and get your computer records and learn every personal detail about you. Civil liberties are being violated and the Patriot Act is being renewed.
(gulp) President Bush is very handsome. He is good. He is smart. He helps the people of the world. I owe everything to the President. His wife is very nice. Their daughters are peppy. Mr. Dick Cheney knows what is best for me and everyone. He has a nice sneer. He doesn't scare me too much anymore. I need meds. I was wrong. I should apologize. War is good. War helps the economy. Torture is necessary especially when people don't say or do what you want them to say and do. I now understand that. That was the part of torture I never understood before. There is a man looking in my window.