Tag: 1984 was a Warning not a Blueprint

Warrantless Searches of Electronic Devices Ruled Constitutional

Do you believe, under the legal framework of the United States, that the people who guard the imaginary lines we refer to as borders should require a warrant to search your electronic devices? According to a United States District Judge a warrant is not necessary under such circumstances:

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. border agents should have the authority to search laptop computers carried by news photographers and other travelers at international border crossings without reasonable suspicion, a federal judge in Brooklyn ruled Friday.

In a written decision, U.S. District Judge Edward Korman granted a government motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by civil rights attorneys that claimed the practice was unconstitutional and sought to have it halted.

Korman found that the plaintiffs hadn’t shown they suffered injury that gave them standing to bring the suit. He also cited previous rulings finding that the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches doesn’t apply to the government’s efforts to secure international borders from outside threats.

It’s hard to rule something unconstitutional when it is constitutional under the language of the Constitution. According to the Constitution:

In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a state shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make.

So the Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction with the exception of restrictions placed on it by Congress. As Congress has, as far as I know, made no restrictions against the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction it has the ultimate say on whether or not something is lawful in the United States. The Supreme Court has ruled that warrantless searches on the imaginary lines that surround this country aren’t violations of the Fourth Amendment. Therefore it’s pretty easy to claim any warrantless search within the boundaries of said imaginary lines are constitutional according to the Constitution.

This isn’t a demonstration of the Constitution being violated but of how vaguely worded the Constitution really is. The Constitution’s predecessor, the Articles of Confederation, didn’t grant the federal government much power and made its existence dependent on the charity of the individual states. Hoping to establish a strong federal government, advocates of the Constitution wanted the federal government to have the power to tax and to rule in court decisions. It really was a document written to take power from the individual states. As a result we now live in a society where the Bill of Rights are easily violated without violating the Constitution itself. So long as the Supreme Court says an act isn’t a violation of the Bill of Rights and Congress hasn’t placed any restrictions on the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction it can legally do whatever the fuck it wants.

NSA Intercepts Electronics in Transit to Install Malware

Today is one of those days that ends in a “y”. That must mean the National Security Agency (NSA) is doing something dickish again. The NSA has been intercepting electronic devices during delivery to install malware on them:

Take, for example, when they intercept shipping deliveries. If a target person, agency or company orders a new computer or related accessories, for example, TAO can divert the shipping delivery to its own secret workshops. The NSA calls this method interdiction. At these so-called “load stations,” agents carefully open the package in order to load malware onto the electronics, or even install hardware components that can provide backdoor access for the intelligence agencies. All subsequent steps can then be conducted from the comfort of a remote computer.

These minor disruptions in the parcel shipping business rank among the “most productive operations” conducted by the NSA hackers, one top secret document relates in enthusiastic terms. This method, the presentation continues, allows TAO to obtain access to networks “around the world.”

Even in the Internet Age, some traditional spying methods continue to live on.

There are no words to describe the absolute insanity that is the NSA. What’s even worse is that many people are perfectly fine with the surveillance apparatus it has established. A lot of people have actually fallen for the “If you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear” line. Fortunately the NSA’s actions have garnered more disapproval overseas. But that disapproval is unlikely to accomplish much.

At this point it’s pretty obvious that proprietary platforms are a liability. With a completely open platform one has the ability to verify if any additional hardware has been added to a device or if the software has been modified in any way. That’s not to say open platforms are a magic bullet, but they do offer the ability to more closely scrutinize the hardware and software while adding a way to verify if alternations have been made. Without our reliance on closed platforms we lack this ability entirely.

Just Because You’re Paranoid Doesn’t Mean They’re Not Out to Get You

Back in the day you could call a person paranoid when they claimed that the government was spying on everybody. Today, thanks to Edward Snowden, such paranoid has proven to be justified:

And while the NSA story alone undoubtedly gives the “paranoid” plenty of reasons to say “I told you so,” a slew of other reports from this year gave them even more reasons to retreat into the wilderness and start subsistence farming.

[…]

For instance, the ACLU released a cache of documents showing that police around the country are collecting license plate scanner information that could be used to track physical locations of many Americans without consistent retention policies.

[…]

Speaking of being tracked, an enterprising hacker discovered that the E-Z Pass he used to make paying tolls simpler was being read all around New York City. Turns out, the city had been tracking E-Z Passes for years as a way to measure traffic patterns.

[…]

Speaking of technology with obviously exploitable surveillance capabilities:  Someone might be watching you through your laptop’s webcam – without even activating the warning light.

[…]

Oh, and to top it all off: There was suspicious aerial activity going on at Area 51. Although no admissions of alien activity have emerged, much to John Podesta’s dismay, recently released documents reveal that the CIA tested its first drones at the Nevada military base.

2013, above most other years, has demonstrated how widespread surveillance has become. The Orwellian present we find ourselves in has been made possible through advancing technology. This has lead many people to blame technology and seek a Luddite existence that they believe will keep them safe from surveillance. While technology has made widespread surveillance possible it is also the tool that allows us to fight widespread surveillance.

Cryptography allows us to conceal our communications from prying eyes and even to conceal the source and destination of communications. Tor allows you to access the Internet anonymously (so long as you use it correctly). Tails is a Linux distribution that can be booted from a CD or USB drive that attempts to anonymity all of your online activity. GnuPG allows you to encrypt the contents of your e-mail so those bastards at the National Security Agency (NSA) can’t see what you and your correspondent are discussing. Off-the-Record Messaging does the same thing for instant messages. Many other tools exist that allow you to maintain anonymity and privacy.

The only way to stop the widespread surveillance apparatus of the state and corporations is to use technology to counter their technology. Hiding in a hole may sound effective but the surveillance state can watch you even if you don’t carry a cellular phone, use a computer, or drive a car. Cameras are everywhere in our society and you can’t avoid their soulless stare unless you board yourself up in your home and refuse to come out (and even then your home could be bugged). But we can make the cost of surveillance so high that it bankrupts the spies.

Giving the Corporate Partners a Cut

A few days ago the state’s corporate partners in surveillance were getting uppidy because their profits were being threatened by the National Security Agency’s (NSA) fast and loose strategy to spy on everybody. The primary mistake made by the NSA is not cutting its corporate partners in on the game. It sounds like the White House is no longer going to standby and allow this mistake to continue:

A White House panel has recommended significant curbs on the National Security Agency’s sweeping electronic surveillance programmes.

Among its 46 recommendations, the five-member panel said the NSA should cease storing vast amounts of data on calls processed by US phone companies.

We’re supposed to read that and believe that the White House has moved in to curtail the NSA’s surveillance apparatus. But what its recommendation really means is that the spying will continue but the corporate partners will get a piece of the action by storing the data and, almost certainly, charging the NSA for access.

If the White House continues pushing this strategy and includes companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple it will almost certainly satisfy its corporate partners.

Getting Paid to Play Video Games

For many people their dream job would be one that paid them to play video games. It used to be that play testing and playing in professional gaming leagues were the only careers that fulfilled such dreams. But now there’s another employer willing to pay employees to hammer at keyboards and mice in virtual worlds: the National Security Agency (NSA):

To the National Security Agency analyst writing a briefing to his superiors, the situation was clear: their current surveillance efforts were lacking something. The agency’s impressive arsenal of cable taps and sophisticated hacking attacks was not enough. What it really needed was a horde of undercover Orcs.

That vision of spycraft sparked a concerted drive by the NSA and its UK sister agency GCHQ to infiltrate the massive communities playing online games, according to secret documents disclosed by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

[…]

The agencies, the documents show, have built mass-collection capabilities against the Xbox Live console network, which boasts more than 48 million players. Real-life agents have been deployed into virtual realms, from those Orc hordes in World of Warcraft to the human avatars of Second Life. There were attempts, too, to recruit potential informants from the games’ tech-friendly users.

There you have it ladies and gentlemen. If you want to get paid to play video games just sign up with the NSA or the Government Communications Headquarters (GHCQ). Both of those agencies are willing to fork over hard stolen tax dollars to agents willing to subject themselves to the rigors of sitting in a chair and operating a keyboard and mouse (I know that also describes programming but playing video games for a living is probably more fun).

I wonder how long it will take the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to take up this strategy. Imagine agents running around Minecraft servers trying to recruit players to take TNT blocks and blow up bridges and buildings. After the deed is done the FBI can get a warrant to reveal the player’s Internet protocol (IP) address, contact the internet service provider (ISP) that controls that address to discover the user’s name and address, and arrest the user for virtual terrorism. It would give a much needed boost to the agency’s terrorist arrest numbers.

The Psychopaths in Charge

Unlike many gun owners the so-called liberals in Washington DC aren’t the politicians that truly scare. The really frightening politicians are the war mongers. Their policies involve sending men and woman form this country overseas to kill men and women in foreign lands. Obviously the men and women of the foreign lands don’t take kindly to invasion so they fight back and put the men and women of this country in harm’s way. War mongers make this Ouroboros of death even worse by refusing to go overseas and suffer the same danger as the people they send. Once in a while a war monger even goes the extra mile and advocates the destruction of entire swaths of populated land:

But if push came to shove and US officials deemed strikes necessary, Hunter turned hawkish.

He said any American strike would be a “massive aerial bombing campaign,” adding that such a mission should not feature any “boots on ground.” Then, Hunter said the US should use its “tactical nuclear weapons” on Iranian targets.

How does threatening a nuclear strike help the situation? If anything such a threat will make Iran want its own nuclear weapons even more. After all, no nuclear armed country has suffered an invasion or a nuclear strike. When one nation begins to threaten another the latter country will want nuclear weapons to discourage the former. I think it would be a requirement of anybody entering public officer to watch several hours of footage of the aftermath of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After that any representative who throws around the idea of nuking a foreign country can be dismissed as a true psychopath.

The NSA is Tracking Cellular Phone Locations Around the World

I’m sure this isn’t going to surprise anybody. On top of reading our e-mails and text messages, listening to our phone calls, and attempting to decrypt our encryption communications the National Security Agency (NSA) has been busy tracking our location using our voluntary tracking device (often mistakenly referred to as a cellular phone):

The National Security Agency is gathering nearly 5 billion records a day on the whereabouts of cellphones around the world, according to top-secret documents and interviews with U.S. intelligence officials, enabling the agency to track the movements of individuals — and map their relationships — in ways that would have been previously unimaginable.

The records feed a vast database that stores information about the locations of at least hundreds of millions of devices, according to the officials and the documents, which were provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. New projects created to analyze that data have provided the intelligence community with what amounts to a mass surveillance tool.

At this point I feel that it’s safe to assume that the NSA has utilized every technology we use in our daily lives to inflict an Orwellian world upon us. It’s obvious that the people in charge of the agency have no conscious whatsoever. Anybody with a conscious would have objected to at least a few of the activities the NSA has been involved in. In fact things are so bad at the NSA that it gave its employees talking points so they could justify their actions to their family members during Thanksgiving.

The NSA Knows What Kind of Kinky Shit You’re Into

Agents of the National Security Agency (NSA) must either be desperate to find new porn or to blackmail dissidents. Thanks to that wonderful man, Edward Snowden, we have learned that the NSA has been peeping on the porn habits of political dissidents for the expressed purpose of assassinating their characters:

WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency has been gathering records of online sexual activity and evidence of visits to pornographic websites as part of a proposed plan to harm the reputations of those whom the agency believes are radicalizing others through incendiary speeches, according to a top-secret NSA document. The document, provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, identifies six targets, all Muslims, as “exemplars” of how “personal vulnerabilities” can be learned through electronic surveillance, and then exploited to undermine a target’s credibility, reputation and authority.

The NSA document, dated Oct. 3, 2012, repeatedly refers to the power of charges of hypocrisy to undermine such a messenger. “A previous SIGINT” — or signals intelligence, the interception of communications — “assessment report on radicalization indicated that radicalizers appear to be particularly vulnerable in the area of authority when their private and public behaviors are not consistent,” the document argues.

This strategy may be effective against religious activists but most of the political dissidents I know are very comfortable with their sexuality and kinks. In fact they’re usually very open about what they’re into, which renders this strategy irrelevant. Still, it’s getting downright comical to see how desperate the state is to maintain its power. Next the NSA is probably going to release a report that claims all political dissidents are rabid consumers of child pornography hoping to discredit them. Fortunately, thanks to Mr. Snowden, we’ll known to call bullshit on any such report.

Soon Police Will Receive Abrams Tanks

Remember when the domestic police force were considered separate from the standing military? Those days are gone. Today the domestic police are nothing more than a local army. In fact domestic police are even receiving old military equipment:

Coming soon to your local sheriff: 18-ton, armor-protected military fighting vehicles with gun turrets and bulletproof glass that were once the U.S. answer to roadside bombs during the Iraq war.

The hulking vehicles, built for about $500,000 each at the height of the war, are among the biggest pieces of equipment that the Defense Department is giving to law enforcement agencies under a national military surplus program.

At this rate local police departments will be receiving surplus M1 Abrams tanks. There is some good news though:

But the trucks have limits. They are too big to travel on some bridges and roads and have a tendency to be tippy on uneven ground. And then there’s some cost of retrofitting them for civilian use and fueling the 36,000-pound behemoths that get about 5 miles to the gallon.

Not only do these surplus machines cost a fortune to operate but they appear to be rather unstable on uneven terrain. In fact I would bet that one of these monstrosities would tip over pretty quickly if enough people ran up to one side and bang rocking it. A high center of gravity is a notoriously bad design feature in a military vehicle.

Australia Shows Us How a Police State is Done

Listen up. Our friends down under are showing us how a police state is done. So far the United States government hasn’t sunk to the level of prohibiting people from staying in their homes when an “important” event full of “important” people is taking place in the vicinity. But now that Australia has paved the way I’m sure the United States government will be quick to jump on the bandwagon (after all, if there’s one thing the United States hates it’s being out police stated by another police state):

MASS criminal background checks will be used to find and remove potential troublemakers living near G20 summit venues in Queensland, the state government says.

Police Minister Jack Dempsey says people living inside special security zones in Brisbane and Cairns will be barred from their homes and given up to $200 to stay elsewhere if they are identified as a risk by federal authorities.

The G20 bill, passed by the state parliament late on Tuesday, approved payments covering accommodation for those with a criminal background, plus their dependents.

We’ve witnessed similar behavior recently. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has begun a more widespread program of performing background checks on passengers before they even arrive at the airport. But we haven’t seen a case of the feds performing background checks of people living near an “important” event and kicking any potential troublemakers out of their homes. What we have seen is a propensity for police states to implement the polices of other police states. When Britain, for example, implements a new draconian law the United States has a tendency to pass a similar law. Therefore it shouldn’t surprise anybody if a law passes in the future that prohibits potential troublemakers from living in their homes if “important” people stop by the neighborhood.

Descendants of the British Empire and current members of the Commonwealth of Nations seem determined to turn George Orwell’s 1984 into a nonfiction title.