Tag: 1984 was a Warning not a Blueprint

Soviet Inspired Checkpoints Around the Corner

You know what this country needs? Another program that seems inspired by good old Mother Russia. Since we already have a Soviet approved central bank, public indoctrination education system, and rampant imperialism why not move on to establishing checkpoints:

If you thought the “Transportation Security Administration” would limit itself to conducting unconstitutional searches at airports, think again. The agency intends to assert jurisdiction over our nation’s highways, waterways, and railroads as well. TSA launched a new campaign of random checkpoints on Tennessee highways last week, complete with a sinister military-style acronym–VIP(E)R—as a name for the program.

As with TSA’s random searches at airports, these roadside searches are not based on any actual suspicion of criminal activity or any factual evidence of wrongdoing whatsoever by those detained. They are, in effect, completely random. So first we are told by the U.S. Supreme Court that American citizens have no 4th amendment protections at border crossings, even when standing on U.S. soil. Now TSA takes the next logical step and simply detains and searches U.S. citizens at wholly internal checkpoints.

Remember that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was originally restricted to airports, but now they’re moving into truck and bus stops. This is classic government agency creep; these agencies are generally started with a narrow mandate in mind and expand their powers to cover more and more previously mundane and well-running activities. If left unchecked, I wouldn’t be surprised if the TSA started doing random checkpoints when you try to travel from one state to another. I can see myself running into a random checkpoint on Interstate 90 when I cross from Minnesota into Wisconsin.

We aren’t on the road anymore to tyranny, we’ve reached the destination. Let’s go through the checklist shall we?

Attempts by the government to generate a strong sense of nationalism? Check.

A marriage between corporations and the state? Check.

An ever increasing authoritarian state? Check.

Government controlled checkpoints that hassle innocent travelers? Check.

Congratulations everybody, we’ve reached fascism!

A Complete Lack of Government Transparency

Our government has a wonderful knack for keeping secrets while claiming to be a government “by the people, for the people.” It’s rather hard to keep tabs on the government that’s supposedly working for you when you haven’t a clue what they’re up to. People complained that the Bush administration unnecessarily increased the amount of information deemed classified by our government and when Obama was campaigning he promised to reverse this trend and unleash an era of unprecedented government transparency. Surprising only to his supporters Obama didn’t deliver on that promise and we are still living under a government that’s keep absolutely ridiculous stuff classified:

In 2009, President Obama famously promised “an unprecedented level of openness” in his administration, and a lynchpin in his open government plan was an overhaul of the government’s bloated secrecy system.

[…]

Unfortunately, besides the most peripheral and cosmetic changes, government secrecy has only increased since Obama took office. Last year, as part of their Washington Post series and subsequent book Top Secret America, Dana Priest and William Arkin reported, “An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.” Yet incredibly, when the government released its official count as part of an intelligence community report to Congress two months ago, the number of people holding the Top Secret clearance had ballooned to 1,419,051. And the same report noted that 4.2 million people hold some level of security clearances for access to classified information.

I guess we can sweep this hole mess under the old hope and change rug. Whenever I bring up the government’s abuse of classification I inevitably get told by somebody that these practices are absolutely essential for national security. What those people must not realize is that the government classified plenty of documents that have nothing to do with the realm of national security:

Document classification, already at record highs under the Bush Administration, has continued to explode as well. The government classified a staggering 77 million documents in 2010, a 40% increase over the previous year.

Overclassification causes a myriad of problems. It can open the government up to ridicule, like when the CIA recently refused to release a single passage from its study on global warming, claiming it would harm national security. It can stifle public debate, like two months ago when the CIA tried to censor the memoir critical of its post-9/11 tactics (despite the fact that much of the information that had already been revealed in Congressional testimony). It can encourage waste and incompetence, as it has at the Department of Homeland Security, where even the budget and number of employees is classified. And most critically, it can be used as a veil to hide illegal conduct, such as the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program.

I’m sure the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) study on global warming holds significant concerns regarding this country’s security. The government is even using their power of classification to remove any threat of being held responsible for killing an American citizen without due process:

Nowhere was this absurdity starker than when the media reported on the death of Yemen’s alleged al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen, at the hands of a (classified) C.I.A. drone. The evidence against him, the panel of U.S officials who decided he was to be put on a “kill list,” and the legal memo “authorizing” his killing were all “Top Secret,” despite the extraordinary constitutional implications of extrajudicially killing an American citizen.

While our government says we should simply trust them to judge which American citizens should live and which should die they’re not willing to present the evidence they used to come to their decisions. We have no clue what evidence existed that nominated al-Awlaki for the kill list.

In a free country where the people are supposed to keep an eye on their government nothing can be accomplished if those very people are kept in the dark on what their government is doing. We are left to speculate on every little action they take and most people know that those concealing their intentions are usually up to no good.

A Terror Plot of Convenience

While I’m a cynical guy I’m generally not what you would consider conspiratorial. Yet when news like this sprouts up at an overly convenient time it’s hard to consider it a coincidence:

The US says it has broken up a plot by agents linked to Iran to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington using explosives.

Two men originally from Iran – one a naturalised US citizen – have been charged with counts of conspiracy, Attorney General Eric Holder said.

[…]

The two accused were named as Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old naturalised US citizen with dual Iranian and US passports, and Gholam Shakuri, based in Iran and said to be a member of Iran’s Quds Force.

Mr Arbabsiar, who was arrested at New York’s John F Kennedy airport on 29 September, has confessed to his involvement in the alleged plot, Mr Holder said.

Mr Shakuri was said to be in Iran.

US officials said that on 24 May 2011, Mr Arbabsiar made contact with an informant for the US Drug Enforcement Agency, who was posing as a Mexican drug cartel member.

Over a series of meetings, it is said that details emerged of a conspiracy involving members of the Iranian government paying $1.5m (£960,000) for the assassination of Saudi ambassador Adel al-Jubeir on US soil.

Let’s just link up all the memes in this story. Iran hired a member of a Mexican drug cartel to kill a Saudi ambassador in the United States. Somehow the United States was able to swoop in, stop this supposed plot, and hand Eric Holder the credit by having him announce the miraculous work of the United States government. This single story is so convenient that I honestly don’t believe it’s true.

It’s no secret that the United States government wants to go to war with Iran and is simply looking for an excuse that it can feed the American public. Eric Holder is in some very hot water right now due to his knowledge of operation Fast and Furious, which involved the United States government smuggling guns into the hands of Mexican drug cartels . Finally the drug cartels are becoming more of a problem as their violence spills across the American-Mexican border and we’re looking for an excuse to march in after them (mostly so the government can continue it’s war on drugs).

Basically this story creates propaganda against Iran and the Mexican drug cartels while it boosts the image of Eric Holder and America’s anti-terrorist initiative. I’m sorry but this pill is a little hard to swallow. Hell if you’ve ever seen the movie Wag the Dog this is basically the same idea.

This is Why I Run My Own Cloud

With all the talk about cloud computing I finally decided to build my own cloud. I’m rocking in the cloud without relying on third-party solutions and absolutely loving it. What finally coaxed me into moving everything onto my own infrastructure was the ever increasing powers government officials have been claiming in the realm of data acquisition. The federal government can send a letter out to a company and demand information about a customer be turned over. While the government has been able to exercise similar powers in the past through acquisition of a warrant they weren’t able to force the target company to keep the request for information secret like they can today. Well it seems Google and Sonic were targets of a recent federal fishing expedition:

The U.S. government has obtained a controversial type of secret court order to force Google Inc. and small Internet provider Sonic.net Inc. to turn over information from the email accounts of WikiLeaks volunteer Jacob Appelbaum, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

[…]

Both Google and Sonic pressed for the right to inform Mr. Appelbaum of the secret court orders, according to people familiar with the investigation. Google declined to comment. Mr. Appelbaum, 28 years old, hasn’t been charged with wrongdoing.

As we’re hearing about this story it seems that Google and Sonic were successful in fighting the government demand of secrecy, this isn’t always the case though. The government very well could have obtained information about you from a company and you’ll never know unless they decided to move in and arrest you. If the government wants my data they’re going to have to send me one of those secret letters thus ensuring I know they’re spying on me.

The only way you can guarantee your data remains under your control is if you exercise complete control over it. If you store your data on a third-party service there is no way you can know other people don’t have access to it.

Chaos Computer Club Claims to have Cracked Spying Software Used by the German Government

It seems the American government doesn’t have a monopoly on illegally spying on its citizens. The Chaos Computer Club claims to have crack malicious software used by the German government to illegally spy on its citizens:

It sounds like something out of George Orwell’s novel “1984” — a computer program that can remotely control someone’s computer without their knowledge, search its complete contents and use it to conduct audio-visual surveillance via the microphone or webcam.

But the spy software that the famous German hacker organization Chaos Computer Club has obtained is not used by criminals looking to steal credit-card data or send spam e-mails. If the CCC is to be believed, the so-called “Trojan horse” software was used by German authorities. The case has already triggered a political shockwave in the country and could have far-reaching consequences.

On Saturday, the CCC announced that it had been given hard drives containing a “state spying software” which had allegedly been used by German investigators to carry out surveillance of Internet communication.

As you can guess this news didn’t surprise me (just once I’d like a government to surprise me by not actually being up to anything nefarious) but I do find it interesting that the software allows the controller to remotely control the target’s computer. Such a feature seems like a potential court defense since somebody whose machine was infected with the software could claim that the police are framing him. Then again the state runs the courts and the police so it’s unlikely any judge would be willing to throw a case out because his fellow state agents were doing something naughty. That isn’t even the worst part though, the software also demonstrates that a state can’t actually do anything with any measurable amount of competency:

The organization had analyzed the software and found it to be full of defects. They also found that it transmitted information via a server located in the US. As well as its surveillance functions, it could be used to plant files on an individual’s computer. It was also not sufficiently protected, so that third parties with the necessary technical skills could hijack the Trojan horse’s functions for their own ends. The software possibly violated German law, the organization said.

Nice, not only does the software allow a third-party to remotely control the system but it’s also full of security holes so any jackass on the Internet could waltz right in. Security flaws is ultimately the reason I don’t believe any evidence gathered from software of this nature should be admissible in court. Anytime you install a new piece of software you face possible security issues that could allow a third-party to gain remote access to your system. If state agents infect your machine with this software and a third-party uses a security flaw in the software to access your machine and perform illegal acts it’s most likely the state is going to target you because they already suspect you’re up to something they don’t approve of.

I also find the fact that the software transmits data to server in the United States interesting. This could be a barrier put into place so the gathered evidence lies outside of German jurisdiction (for instance if the software is discovered and the state decides to perform an investigation into what was gathered). Another possible reason for sending data to the United States could be due to some secret agreement between the two country’s governments regarding intelligence sharing. Of course it could just be due to the software manufacturer being a United States company and the software is transmitting quality assurance data.

Either way this story should demonstrate the fact that agents of the state can never be trusted. Software such as this is supposed to be illegal according to German law:

If the CCC’s claims are true, then the software has functions which were expressly forbidden by Germany’s highest court, the Federal Constitutional Court, in a landmark 2008 ruling which significantly restricted what was allowed in terms of online surveillance. The court also specified that online spying was only permissible if there was concrete evidence of danger to individuals or society.

When has a state complied with its own ruling though? While I hope the information being presented by the Chaos Computer Club is incorrect I honestly trust a group of hackers far more than any government.

Who Needs Crime When You’ve Got Pre-Crime

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) obtained some rather chilling documents through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The documents cover the Department of Motherland Homeland Security’s new Fast Attribute Screening Technology (FAST), or as I like to call it pre-crime:

EPIC filed two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the United States Department of Homeland Security’s Science & Technology Directorate (S&T) to obtain information about the agency’s public testing of a new sensor array used to conduct covert surveillance of individuals who are not suspected of any crime. The sensors secretly collect and record information concerning individuals, including video images, audio recordings, cardiovascular signals, pheromones, electrodermal activity, and respiratory measurements.

[…]

According to documents published by the Department of Homeland Security, FAST is a Minority Report style initiative that seeks to determining the probability that an individual, who is not suspected of any crime, might commit a future criminal act. Under the FAST program, the DHS will collect and retain of a mix of “physiological and behavioral signals” from individuals as they engage in daily activities.

Not only do we have our government secretly collecting information on citizens but that information is being used to determine whether or not the target has committed a crime without already existing evidence. I would make an argument that any such “evidence” would never hold up in court but, sadly, our “justice” system has demonstrated a willingness to bypass due process in the name of stopping supposed terrorism.

As I’ve said before this country isn’t becoming a police state, it already is a police state. In fact we have a police state to efficient and with such amazing technology at the state’s fingertips that all previous police states would be insanely jealous.

I would like to know how much money has been sunk into these initiatives. I’m sure trillions of dollars have gone into the so-called “war on terror” and we have nothing to show for it other than ever more draconian legislation and technology used to specifically target American citizens.

I Thought it Was 2011, Not 1984

It seems our Earth is moving backwards in time as it’s becoming more like the 1984 presented in Orwell’s well known novel. Along with egregious legislation such as the PATRIOT Act and FISA we now have the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) setting to launch a nationwide facial recognition service:

The FBI by mid-January will activate a nationwide facial recognition service in select states that will allow local police to identify unknown subjects in photos, bureau officials told Nextgov.

The federal government is embarking on a multiyear, $1 billion dollar overhaul of the FBI’s existing fingerprint database to more quickly and accurately identify suspects, partly through applying other biometric markers, such as iris scans and voice recordings.

Often law enforcement authorities will “have a photo of a person and for whatever reason they just don’t know who it is [but they know] this is clearly the missing link to our case,” said Nick Megna, a unit chief at the FBI’s criminal justice information services division. The new facial recognition service can help provide that missing link by retrieving a list of mug shots ranked in order of similarity to the features of the subject in the photo.

While the system is being advertised as a listing of mug shots I wouldn’t be surprised if it contains a far more extensive database of faces. Considering how the FBI considers anybody on the secret watch lists to be a criminal it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if those on the prominent no-fly list are also contained in this database. At the rate the FBI is going they might as well try to get software manufacturers to place backdoors in their software… shit, too late.

Why Not, We’ve Limited Every Other Right

Is it bad when our “representatives” are so brazen in their hatred for our supposedly constitutionally guaranteed rights that they flat out say we should reinterpret those rights as privileges? I think it’s bad and that’s exactly what they’re doing:

Proponents of a more refined First Amendment argue that this freedom should be treated not as a right but as a privilege — a special entitlement granted by the state on a conditional basis that can be revoked if it is ever abused or maltreated.

Wow… I’m really at a loss for words. Can you imagine what would happen if you could only exercise speech at the blessing of the state? This blog would be gone in a heartbeat along with, likely, 99% of the other gun blogs. The Mises Institute would likely get the gag order along with Reason Magazine and every other publication that dares criticize the government.

Then again the government has already turned every so-called right into a privilege that requires state approval to exercise so why not speech? While we’re at it why not require passports to travel between the various states of the Union? Perhaps the government could install cameras in every home to ensure nothing seditious is taking place within.

Make no mistake, unless people demonstrate visible outrage over statements like this the critters in Congress will think they can get away with acting on these statements.

What We Need is Another War

In a page torn straight from 1984, Senator Lindsey Graham said that we need to defend our ally Afghanistan against our enemy Pakistan:

A Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee said Sunday that the U.S. should consider military action against Pakistan if it continues to support terrorist attacks against American troops in Afghanistan.

“The sovereign nation of Pakistan is engaging in hostile acts against the United States and our ally Afghanistan that must cease, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told “Fox News Sunday.”

What in the Hell did I miss? I thought Afghanistan was our enemy and that’s why we invaded their country. Wasn’t Pakistan our ally? Were we always at war with Eastasia? On top of that we’ve been taking military action against Pakistan for quite some time now. Somebody needs to stop these imperialist pieces of shit before we go the way of the Romans and collapse under our own military weight.

The Case of Anwar al-Awlaki

The news is in, Anwar al-Awlaki is dead! Hurray! Go America! That’s how this news is being reported by a great number of sources with few giving much consideration to the fact that the President ordered a hit on a United States citizen without granting that citizen’s constitutionally guaranteed right to face his accusers. Thankfully there are some dissenter left on Capitol Hill who are willing to point out this face:

Paul, known for his fierce libertarian views, said the death of the New Mexico native-turned-terrorist-preacher was akin to “assassination” during a campaign stop in New Hampshire.

“I don’t think it’s a good way to deal with our problems,” the Texas Congressman said. “If the American people accept this blindly and casually that we now have an accepted practice of the President assassinating people who he thinks are bad guys, I think it’s sad.”

I fully agree with Dr. Paul on this. Anwar al-Awalki may have been a terrible person but he was still a citizen of the United States of America, which means he should have enjoyed the so-called rights ascribed by the Constitution. Namely al-Awalki’s Sixth Amendment guarantee to a trial by jury and right to face his accuser were violated:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

The United States is supposedly a landed where rule of law reigns supreme. Instead our government sees fit to throw out laws when those rules become inconvenient to them. Would arresting somebody and trying him for crimes be a pain in the ass? “No problem!” our politicians say, “Just send a missile at him from an unmanned drone!”

People in this country should be truly frightening by this turn of events. When you give the government an inch they always take a lightyear. Sure they’re using the excuse that al-Awalki was a terrorist this time but what’s to stop the government from expanding on this? We’re currently fighting a war on drugs so should the President have the power to order hits on drug deals who are citizens of the United States? Considering the fact that the federal government has been using clauses in the PATRIOT Act to fight the war on drugs what I’m suggesting wouldn’t be too great of a leap. From there why not allow the President to order hits on drug users?

The blind approval of the assassination of al-Awalki is a slippery slope indeed. We, as American people, need to decide if our country is indeed a land where all are equal under the law or if our country is run by a ruling class who can exempt themselves from the law whenever they so choose. Should our politicians have to abide by the Constitution at all times or only pay it lip service when it’s politically expedient? We can’t have it both ways.