The Gates of Hell

Source:  washingtonpost.com

The Maryland State Police surveillance of advocacy groups was far more extensive than previously acknowledged, with records showing that troopers monitored — and labeled as terrorists — activists devoted to such wide-ranging causes as promoting human rights and establishing bike lanes.

Intelligence officers created a voluminous file on Norfolk-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, calling the group a “security threat” because of concerns that members would disrupt the circus. Angry consumers fighting a 72 percent electricity rate increase in 2006 were targeted. The DC Anti-War Network, which opposes the Iraq war, was designated a white supremacist group, without explanation.

One of the possible “crimes” in the file police opened on Amnesty International, a world-renowned human rights group: “civil rights.”

According to hundreds of pages of newly obtained police documents, the groups were swept into a broad surveillance operation that started in 2005 with routine preparations for the scheduled executions of two men on death row.

The operation has been called a “waste of resources” by the current police superintendent and “undemocratic” by the governor.

Police have acknowledged that the monitoring, which took place during the administration of then-Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), spiraled out of control, with an undercover trooper spending 14 months infiltrating peaceful protest groups. Troopers have said they inappropriately labeled 53 individuals as terrorists in their database, information that was shared with federal authorities. But the new documents reveal a far more expansive set of police targets and indicate that police did not close some files until late 2007.
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The surveillance ended with no arrests and no evidence of violent sedition. Instead, troopers are preparing to purge files and say they are expecting lawsuits.

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Technorati Tags: Maryland State Police, surveillance

Source:  The Guardian

The private sector will be asked to manage and run a communications database that will keep track of everyone’s calls, emails, texts and internet use under a key option contained in a consultation paper to be published next month by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary.

A cabinet decision to put the management of the multibillion pound database of all UK communications traffic into private hands would be accompanied by tougher legal safeguards to guarantee against leaks and accidental data losses.

But in his strongest criticism yet of the superdatabase, Sir Ken Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, who has firsthand experience of working with intelligence and law enforcement agencies, told the Guardian such assurances would prove worthless in the long run and warned it would prove a “hellhouse” of personal private information.

“Authorisations for access might be written into statute. The most senior ministers and officials might be designated as scrutineers. But none of this means anything,” said Macdonald. “All history tells us that reassurances like these are worthless in the long run. In the first security crisis the locks would loosen.”

The home secretary postponed the introduction of legislation to set up the superdatabase in October and instead said she would publish a consultation paper in the new year setting out the proposal and the safeguards needed to protect civil liberties. She has emphasised that communications data, which gives the police the identity and location of the caller, texter or web surfer but not the content, has been used as important evidence in 95% of serious crime cases and almost all security service operations since 2004 including the Soham and 21/7 bombing cases.

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Technorati Tags: Surveillance

Source: Telegraph

The surveillance equipment is in use in around 85 primary and secondary schools and colleges across the country.

Classwatch, the company behind the system, says it is being used as a way to monitor children who are disrupting lessons.

The firm said the equipment, which is sold with evidence bags approved by the Crown Prosecution Service to store material for court cases, can be used to compile “proof” of wrongdoing.

The system includes ceiling-mounted microphones and cameras and a hard drive recorder housed in a secure cabinet.

They cost around £3,000 to install in each classroom or can be leased for about £50 a month for each classroom.

Data protection watchdog the Information Commissioner has warned the surveillance may be illegal and demanded to know why schools are using it.

Classwatch said the devices act as “impartial witnesses” which can provide evidence in disputes and curb bullying and unruly behaviour.

They can also be used to protect teachers against false allegations of abuse and provide evidence acceptable in court, it said.

Andrew Jenkins, the firm’s director, said: “The system can be turned on and turned off as they wish.

“It is a bit like a video at home. This is not Big Brother. The system is under the control of the teacher.”

A Schools Department spokesman said: “We do not prescribe what schools must do to tackle security.”

Technorati Tags: Classwatch

Source: Bloomberg.com

Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co., the world’s biggest defense companies, are deploying forces and resources to a new battlefield: cyberspace.

The military contractors, eager to capture a share of a market that may reach $11 billion in four years, have formed new business units to tap increased spending to protect U.S. government computers from attack.

Chicago-based Boeing set up its Cyber Solutions division in August “because of a realization by the company that it’s a very serious threat,” Barbara Fast, vice president of the unit, said in an interview. “It’s not a question of if we’ll be attacked but when and so how will we be prepared.” Lockheed launched its cyber-defense operation in October.

President George W. Bush announced a national cybersecurity plan in January to be supervised by the Department of Homeland Security, after an increasing number of attacks on U.S. government and private sector networks by groups linked to foreign governments, organized crime gangs and hackers. In a Dec. 8 report, a panel of experts said President-elect Barack Obama should create a White House office to oversee the effort.

“The whole area of cyber is probably one of the faster-growing areas” of the U.S. budget, Linda Gooden, executive vice president of Lockheed’s Information Systems & Global Services unit, said in an interview. “It’s something that we’re very focused on. I expect there will be a significant focus” under Obama.

The number of security breaches of U.S. and private-computer networks reported to the Computer Emergency Readiness Team of the Homeland Security Department almost doubled to 72,000 in the fiscal year ended in October from about 37,000 the previous year, agency spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said in an interview.

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Technorati Tags: cyber war

I know we mentioned this before somewhere, but some things need to be said more than once to sink in, I fear.  And please remember while reading this article that government and private businesses don’t have to join forces secretively in order to deceive or mislead the public.  How many of you still think that the Federal Reserve is a government body ?  It is not, it’s private, and it uses taxpayer money while denying to disclose what exactly they are using it for..  just as an example.  So when you read this article, think bigger, think conspiracy, and prepare for the worst.

Via: NaturalNews

The government, in a so called “attempt to protect the people from disease outbreaks,” has recently colluded with Google to track what we are searching for. The reason: to track high concentrations of searches for “flu” related topics in certain demographic areas.

The Center for Disease Control is the agency behind this new surveillance, and the danger at hand may likely be mandatory flu vaccinations. Flu vaccinations and their dangers have been well covered by Natural News, as they expose them as being ineffective, corrupt, and hazardous to your health.

This works by using a Google tool given to the government called Flu Trends. It logs and records all Google searches for keywords relating to the flu. The data is then aggregated to locate “hot spots” where a flu outbreak might be.

Although this may seems dismal, a flu shot by force is probably a health hazard that we, and our children in school would like to avoid. But what`s next? Government tracking what websites we go to and what information we’re exposed to? A quarantine of cities, or counties with too many “flu” searches?

One question many people have about this is, “are actual individuals being tracked?” Google states that, “Flu Trends can never be used to identify users because we rely on anonymous and aggregated counts of how often certain search queries occur each week.” But it certainly isn`t impossible. Current technology could easily make tracking individuals a reality.

It`s unlikely that the invasion of privacy will stop here however. Business will most likely get most of Google`s data, which they already have for the most part, through many Google tools. And that`s just the obvious progression of the world of marketing.

Nevertheless, the collusion of power has never been good, but it has especially been dangerous when it`s a collusion of government and private business. In fact history would be proving us wrong if we didn`t expect more government surveillance and privacy invasion.

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