1984 was a Warning not a Blueprint – Page 53

Warrantless Cell Phone Tracking Ruled Legal

Last week the state ruled it could perform warrantless wiretaps, today it has ruled that it can track your location through your cellular phone without a warrant:

On Tuesday, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that law enforcement officials don’t need a warrant to track suspects via cellphones. Attorneys argued to overturn Skinner’s many convictions, citing that the GPS location information that led to the defendant’s arrest was obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment, which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures. This didn’t wash with the majority of judges over the case, who voted in a 2-1 ruling.

“When criminals use modern technological devices to carry out criminal acts and to reduce the possibility of detection, they can hardly complain when the police take advantage of the inherent characteristics of those very devices to catch them,” wrote Judge John Rogers in the majority opinion that will affect future cases in a huge chunk of the country.

So much for the Fourth Amendment. Unfortunately if one tries to argue this case on constitutional grounds they’re faced also accepting another constitutional idea, that the courts maintain a monopoly on interpreting the Constitution. Therefore when one says warrantless tracking of cell phones is unconstitutional they much also accept that they don’t actually have a say in whether or not such acts are unconstitutional as the Constitution grants such authority to the state’s courts. I think Lysander Spooner was correct when he said the following:

But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain — that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.

Disappearing We the People Petitions

After Obama’s election the executive branch spent a lot of money to create the We the People site. We the People is supposed to be a site where anybody can submit a petition and, if it gets enough votes within a span of time, have it addressed by the White House. In reality these petitions are ignored although writing up bullshit reasons for ignoring them must have been too much work because the White House is now deleting petitions they don’t want to deal with:

At approximately 11:30 am EDT, the White House removed a petition about the TSA airport screening procedures from the White House “We the People” website. About 22,500 of the 25,000 signatures necessary for a response from the Administration were obtained when the White House unexpectedly cut short the time period for the petition. The site also went down for “maintenance” following an article in Wired that sought support for the campaign.

It would be pretty difficult to argue against a petition that demanded the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) obey the law so the only way to deal with it was to toss it down the memory hole.

Beware of Terrorist Photographers

Are you afraid of everybody yet? Has the state finally convinced you that the sweet old lady living down the street is actually a secret Al Qaeda spy who is plotting to kill you and everybody you love? Do you avoid members of the Muslim faith because the state has convinced you that their religion is actually a thin veil to coverup their terroristic activities? When you see a man walking down the street with a holstered firearm on his hip do you run in the oppose direction knowing that he’s a racist right-wing extremist? If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions prepare to have an even more fear filled life because photographers are out to kill your mother and rape your father:

Once again, a government agency is encouraging citizens to report photographers as potential terrorists.

This time it is the City of Houston, which has produced a high-budgeted video funded by the Department of Homeland Security.

Starting at 1:45 in the video titled “Make the Call – Terrorism Prevention – The Threat is Real,” a male authoritative voice states the following:

Cameras and recording devices have gotten so small, that most of us seem to have one with us all the time. It’s not unusual to see people taking pictures or video almost anywhere.

But surveillance and information gathering is a common practice used by terrorists prior to an attack. If you see someone trying to conceal what they are doing, taking pictures of exits, security or restricted areas, if they hang around for no apparent reason, ask inappropriate questions about schedules or the facility, or if they try to avoid security when approached, make the call.

[…]

The video also encourages citizens and employees to call police in the event that somebody happens to leave a bag behind at a restaurant instead of just trying to yell out to that person in the case they may have just left it behind by accident.

What’s surprising isn’t the fact the state continues to make these videos, it’s the fact that some people actually believe them. Even though you’re eight times more likely to be killed by a costume clad state thug than a terrorist people still believe that the state exists to protect them from the terrorists.

For the record, if I ever forget my backpack or laptop bag I’d greatly appreciate somebody letting me know instead of calling the police. I don’t want to be the target of a state investigation because I forgot something.

Making the Rules and Determining if They’re Legal

Being the state has it benefits. Not only does it get to pass legislation but it also has a monopoly on determining whether or not that legislation is even legal. Case in point, the state passed legislation granting itself the power to wiretap Americans without a warrant. When Americans challenge the law the state said, “Naw man, it’s all good.” and ruled such powers were not only legal but also that the serfs couldn’t sue the federal government for exercising them:

The federal government may spy on Americans’ communications without warrants and without fear of being sued, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday in a decision reversing the first and only case that successfully challenged President George W. Bush’s once-secret Terrorist Surveillance Program.

“This case effectively brings to an end the plaintiffs’ ongoing attempts to hold the executive branch responsible for intercepting telephone conversations without judicial authorization,” a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote. (.pdf)

One cannot achieve liberty when the entity that infringes on liberties is allowed to hold all of the cards. When an individual attempts to challenge a state’s decree they must beg the state itself. How much sense would it make to enter into a contract that stated the other party has the right to make any change to the contract at any point and then gets to determine if those changes are valid? That’s what social contract theory states and the ruling on warrantless wiretapping demonstrates why it’s a dumb idea.

1984 was so Passé

Even though George Orwell foresaw a world where surveillance cameras existed in every home he could never predict how sophisticated that idea would become. The prison city of New York will be brining a new system online that combines surveillance technologies with a police database and monitoring software to spy on every man, woman, and child in the city:

The New York Police Department will soon launch an all-seeing “Domain Awareness System” that combines several streams of information to track both criminals and potential terrorists.

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says the city developed the software with Microsoft.

Kelly says the program combines city-wide video surveillance with law enforcement databases.

He says it will be officially unveiled by New York’s mayor as soon as next week.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) claims that the system will be used to track criminals and terrorists, which are meaningless criterions because everybody is a terrorist. You really have to give NYPD credit, they took 1984 and ramped it up to 11. I wonder how long it will be until they begin flying helicopters around the city to peek into peoples’ windows.

Exploiting Tragedies

Due to other obligations I was unable to attend Defcon this year, which was made more disappointing when one of the speakers ended up being a former National Security Agency (NSA) official named William Binney. He explained something that I already suspected, that the NSA was already geared up to spy on American citizens but were waiting for a tragedy they could exploit:

He said the NSA began building its data collection system to spy on Americans prior to 9/11, and then used the terrorist attacks that occurred that year as the excuse to launch the data collection project.

“It started in February 2001 when they started asking telecoms for data,” Binney said. “That to me tells me that the real plan was to spy on Americans from the beginning.”

Binney is referring to assertions that former Qwest CEO James Nacchio made in court documents in 2007 that the NSA had asked Qwest, AT&T, Verizon and Bellsouth in early 2001 for customer calling records and that all of the other companies complied with the request, but Nacchio declined to participate until served with a proper legal order.

“The reason I left the NSA was because they started spying on everybody in the country. That’s the reason I left,” said Binney, who resigned from the agency in late 2001.

To say I’m not surprised would be an understatement. The state has numerous mechanisms designed to further enhance its power over the people living within its claimed borders that are merely awaiting an exploitable tragedy. Without a tragedy to justify the implementation of new tyrannies it’s difficult to get the people to quietly roll over and accept their new chains. 9/11 gave the state enough justification to push the PATRIOT Act through, which was written before 9/11:

Paul railed on the PATRIOT Act, a pet issue that he frequently brings up on the trail.

“The PATRIOT Act was written many, many years before 9/11,” Paul said. The attacks simply provided “an opportunity for some people to do what they wanted to do,” he said.

Passing the PATRIOT Act into law removed the facade of legal restrictions that hindered the state’s ability to spy on the citizenry. In addition to the PATRIOT Act, 9/11 gave the state an excuse to pass the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, which established the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Homeland Security Act, which established the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Of course exploiting tragedies is nothing new, the Gun Control Act of 1968 was passed by exploiting the assassination of John F. Kennedy and there was a plan to fabricate a tragedy through a false-flag operation titled Operation Northwoods [PDF] in order to justify a war with Cuba (thankfully it was rejected by Kennedy).

Tragedies befall us everyday and those looking to increase their power need only await for one to arise. Look how quickly Schumer attempted to exploit the Aurora, Colorado shooting to justify a ban on standard capacity magazines. Needless to say I’m not surprised to hear that the NSA had the software to spy on American citizens developed before those planes struck the World Trade Center buildings. In fact I would have been shocked if that software hadn’t already been developed.

With all of this said it’s nice to see the One Ring didn’t corrupt Binney and he ran away from it once he realized its malicious nature. Unfortunately we don’t have enough Binneys, and thus enough people exist to staff the NSA and ensure its ability to continue spying on American citizens.

I Guess I’ll Never Be Allowed to Fly British Airways

It appears as though I’ll never be allowed to fly British Airways:

In an airline industry first, British Airways’ Know Me program uses Google images to ID its best customers even before they set foot in the airport. The airline has equipped its customer service agents and senior cabin crew with iPads so they can easily tap into and share information about customers, including their preferences, flight history and yes, photos.

While British Airways says the program, which launched earlier this month, helps “put a face to the name,” it’s got some people asking whether the airline is going the extra mile or just acting downright creepy.

If they Google me they’ll find this site and if they read this site they’ll known I’m an anarchist and a gun owner, neither of which are generally viewed in a positive light by airline services. Oh well, I wasn’t planning on flying British Airways anytime soon.

The State Won’t Spy on You Unless it Does

With the increased use of drones in domestic airspace the Air Force went on record claiming they won’t use them to spy on American citizens unless it’s done accidentally:

“Collected imagery may incidentally include US persons or private property without consent,” reads the instruction (.pdf), unearthed by the secrecy scholar Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists. That kind of “incidental” spying won’t be immediately purged, however. The Air Force has “a period not to exceed 90 days” to get rid of it — while it determines “whether that information may be collected under the provisions” of a Pentagon directive that authorizes limited domestic spying.

In other words, if an Air Force drone accidentally spies on an American citizen, the Air Force will have three months to figure out if it was legally allowed to put that person under surveillance in the first place.

It appears that there is another caveat to add to the list, when the Air Force is training drone pilots:

Holloman sits on almost 60,000 acres of desert badlands, near jagged hills that are frosted with snow for several months of the year — a perfect training ground for pilots who will fly Predators and Reapers over the similarly hostile terrain of Afghanistan. When I visited the base earlier this year with a small group of reporters, we were taken into a command post where a large flat-screen television was broadcasting a video feed from a drone flying overhead. It took a few seconds to figure out exactly what we were looking at. A white S.U.V. traveling along a highway adjacent to the base came into the cross hairs in the center of the screen and was tracked as it headed south along the desert road. When the S.U.V. drove out of the picture, the drone began following another car.

“Wait, you guys practice tracking enemies by using civilian cars?” a reporter asked. One Air Force officer responded that this was only a training mission, and then the group was quickly hustled out of the room.

I like how the trainees were whisked out of the room before the reporter could inquire further about this apparent breech of the Air Force’s accidental spying only promise. I’m sure the Air Force will destroy any footage collected during these training sessions within 90 days so everything will be nice and legal.

Obviously a Good Use of Taxes

Of all the things to spend tax money on I’m sure this is the most crucial:

The University of California – Berkeley Police Department (UCPD) has acquired a $200,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security to purchase an “Armored Response Counter Attack Truck,” a police department spokesman told Campus Reform on Friday.

The eight-ton vehicle, commonly referred to as a “Bearcat,” is used by U.S. troops on the battlefield and is often equipped with a rotating roof hatch, powered turrets, gun ports, a battering ram, and a weapon system used to remotely engage a target with lethal force.

It makes sense that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is now giving armored personell carriers to campus police forces. DHS has already fully militarized state and city police departments so now they have to move on to arming campus police departments. I wonder when Berkeley will get rockets launchers?

Those Canadians Sure Learn Fast

I have to hand it to the Canadian government, they are picking up the whole police state thing very quickly:

OTTAWA – Airports and border crossings across Canada are being wired with high-definition cameras and microphones that can eavesdrop on travellers’ conversations, according to the Canada Border Services Agency.

A CBSA statement said that audio-video monitoring and recording is already in place at unidentified CBSA sites at airports and border points of entry as part of an effort to enhance “border integrity, infrastructure and asset security and health and safety.”

As part of the work, the agency is introducing audio-monitoring equipment as well.

“It is important to note that even though audio technology is installed, no audio is recorded at this time. It will become functional at a later date,” CBSA spokesman Chris Kealey said in a written statement.

But whenever that occurs, the technology, “will record conversations,” the agency said in a separate statement in response to questions from the Ottawa Citizen.

At one point in time it appeared as if Canada were our polite neighbors to the north. As time rolls by it is become more apparent that the Canadian government has become jealous of the American police state and are trying to catch up as soon as possible. Perhaps we’ll soon have a police state race between the United States and Canada.

To my Canadian readers, pay attention to the draconian measures being implemented by the United States. While it may seem impossible that your government could ever sink to the level of assassinating Canadian citizens, spying on the citizenry with unmanned drones, and creating false flag operations like Fast and Furious to implement stricter gun control it’ll come in due time. What’s happening in the United States now is what you have to look forward to in a few years.