Spying On The Home Front

[35Pete]

Posted on the PBS Frontline page on May 15, 2007. This stuff is fresh.

Five 12 minute segments showing the entire Frontline program "Spying On The Homefront".

It's about digital dosierres an American citizens. Many of the keywords that we use here in the PRS trigger computer alogrithms that flag you as a person to automatically read your emails, search public databases on you, monitor your communications traffic, ect.

The NSA, CIA, and FBI are compiling data on hundreds of millions of citizens. And they are doing it completely illegally.


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/homefront/view/

199 data extremely massive mining operations exist in the US Gov't. Among the groups spying on Americans are DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and just about any alphabet agency you can think of.

Black budgets circumvent Congress' ability to cut off funding to these projects. Congress' reacts by cutting off a budget for something and the President and his thugs just use another black budget that's classified.

This is beyond what Orwell could have imagined.

Folks. This is pulitzer prize winning journalism. I've always like Frontline. This one is among the most frightening that I have ever watched.

They demonstrate that the government is collecting information on every and all aspects of you life. If it's in a database, they've seen it. Stayed in a hotel? They know. Bought something with a credit card? They know? Used the word terrorist in an email? They've read it.

The rule they follow is "If you're good then we won't bother you. If anything is even slightly suspicious then we'll put you on a watch list just in case".

They also talk about law enforcement being able to abuse this indirectly through federal cooperation. The process becomes rigged. Can't use it in a court of law, but it can steer the police in your direction.

[35Pete]

Former CIA attorney.

"We treat everyone and anyone like they are the bad guy. If we do that then hopefully we'll be able to sift out the real bad guys. In other words, everyone's guilty at first".

[35Pete]

9/11 has indelibly altered America in ways that people are now starting to earnestly question: not only perpetual orange alerts, barricades and body frisks at the airport, but greater government scrutiny of people's records and electronic surveillance of their communications. The watershed, officials tell FRONTLINE, was the government's shift after 9/11 to a strategy of pre-emption at home -- not just prosecuting terrorists for breaking the law, but trying to find and stop them before they strike.

President Bush described his anti-terrorist measures as narrow and targeted, but a FRONTLINE investigation has found that the National Security Agency (NSA) has engaged in wiretapping and sifting Internet communications of millions of Americans; the FBI conducted a data sweep on 250,000 Las Vegas vacationers, and along with more than 50 other agencies, they are mining commercial-sector data banks to an unprecedented degree.

Even government officials with experience since 9/11 are nagged by anxiety about the jeopardy that a war without end against unseen terrorists poses to our way of life, our personal freedoms. "I always said, when I was in my position running counterterrorism operations for the FBI, 'How much security do you want, and how many rights do you want to give up?'" Larry Mefford, former assistant FBI director, tells Smith. "I can give you more security, but I've got to take away some rights. … Personally, I want to live in a country where you have a common-sense, fair balance, because I'm worried about people that are untrained, unsupervised, doing things with good intentions but, at the end of the day, harm our liberties."

Although the president told the nation that his NSA eavesdropping program was limited to known Al Qaeda agents or supporters abroad making calls into the U.S., comments of other administration officials and intelligence veterans indicate that the NSA cast its net far more widely. AT&T technician Mark Klein inadvertently discovered that the whole flow of Internet traffic in several AT&T operations centers was being regularly diverted to the NSA, a charge indirectly substantiated by John Yoo, the Justice Department lawyer who wrote the official legal memos legitimizing the president's warrantless wiretapping program. Yoo told FRONTLINE: "The government needs to have access to international communications so that it can try to find communications that are coming into the country where Al Qaeda's trying to send messages to cell members in the country. In order to do that, it does have to have access to communication networks."

Spying on the Home Front also looks at a massive FBI data sweep in December 2003. On a tip that Al Qaeda "might have an interest in Las Vegas" around New Year's 2004, the FBI demanded records from all hotels, airlines, rental car agencies, casinos and other businesses on every person who visited Las Vegas in the run-up to the holiday. Stephen Sprouse and Kristin Douglas of Kansas City, Mo., object to being caught in the FBI dragnet in Las Vegas just because they happened to get married there at the wrong moment. Says Douglas, "I'm sure that the government does a lot of things that I don't know about, and I've always been OK with that -- until I found out that I was included."

A check of all 250,000 Las Vegas visitors against terrorist watch lists turned up no known terrorist suspects or associates of suspects. The FBI told FRONTLINE that the records had been kept for more than two years, but have now all been destroyed.

...more.....

Link posted above.

[Meathead]

heil

[Green Lantern]

Now we know why Uppy always misspells things: he'll never get flagged for posting keywords.

[sukie]

Now we know why Uppy always misspells things: he'll never get flagged for posting keywords.

:rofl: that was great!

[Gibby]

To all government workers first off May Bush rot in hell. Second please only refer to posts made by me before the Iraq war.

[Gibby]

Former CIA attorney.

"We treat everyone and anyone like they are the bad guy. If we do that then hopefully we'll be able to sift out the real bad guys. In other words, everyone's guilty at first".

yup, thats the kinda thing that the founders would have liked eh uppy?

[Gibby]

so is there anything fun to do around Gitmo Bay? I'm going to be there for a while.

[35Pete]

yup, thats the kinda thing that the founders would have liked eh uppy?

He doesn't give a flying **** about the United States or her legacy of freedom and liberty.

He's a Republican. That's where the loyalty lies.

Remember. "Iraq belongs to us until we decide to give it back".

That statement makes me sick.

[uppy]

Now we know why Uppy always misspells things: he'll never get flagged for posting keywords.


LMAO

Great shot Sir !

[35Pete]

LMAO

Great shot Sir !

How was my shot? :D

When we agree we'll agree. But I find your blood loyalty to a party to be very disturbing. And in this case we are not going to agree.

[uppy]

To all government workers first off May Bush rot in hell. Second please only refer to posts made by me before the Iraq war.

Don't you mean the war on terror ?

[35Pete]

Don't you mean the war on terror ?

Tell me. How does it feel to still be manipulated? LOL

[uppy]

How was my shot? :D

When we agree we'll agree. But I find your blood loyalty to a party to be very disturbing. And in this case we are not going to agree.

Pete,guess what we are at war,the enemy uses the internet so we keep

an eye on what goes on.I can see you back in 1944 bitching about us

listening to the air waves and trying to intercept Jap military transmissions

[uppy]

Tell me. How does it feel to still be manipulated? LOL

How does it feel to run with the herd ?

http://www.tallytownmall.com/images/sheep_herd.jpg

[35Pete]

Pete,guess what we are at war,the enemy uses the internet so we keep

an eye on what goes on.I can see you back in 1944 bitching about us

listening to the air waves and trying to intercept Jap military transmissions

We are NOT at war. Come on Uppy. I was begging to think that you truly were a completely stupid moronic idiot with zero concept of constitutional law and due process. But I still have hope. I think that you are only kidding about us legally being at war.

[35Pete]

How does it feel to run with the herd ?

http://www.tallytownmall.com/images/sheep_herd.jpg

How does it feel to be an enthusiastic supporter of this?

http://users.adelphia.net/~mbaker8/iraq-dad-dead-daughter.jpg

Are you proud? Does it make you feel like a man?

What's the de facto response to this?

War is hell.

[uppy]

How does it feel to be an enthusiastic supporter of this?

http://users.adelphia.net/~mbaker8/iraq-dad-dead-daughter.jpg

Are you proud? Does it make you feel like a man?

What's the de facto response to this?

War is hell.

"It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it."

~Robert E. Lee

[35Pete]

You are so callous that it is incredible. I know why. I used to operate that way. I really did. What would help you to break through is to think of that little child as one of your loved ones. That will force you to think about what you advocate.

[Gibby]

Don't you mean the war on terror ?

I was a loyalist until three days before Iraq when sonovabush gave Saddamy that stupid ultimatum.

[coastal]

How does it feel to be an enthusiastic supporter of this?

http://users.adelphia.net/~mbaker8/iraq-dad-dead-daughter.jpg

Are you proud? Does it make you feel like a man?

What's the de facto response to this?

War is hell.

I rememeber a time when I posted pictures like this and they got removed.

:angel3:

[35Pete]

I rememeber a time when I posted pictures like this and they got removed.

:angel3:

If it's a real picture, and the direct results of our actions, and we are not ashamed of what we are doing, then why should we avoid seeing them?

[coastal]

I know I'm ashamed to be an American.

What we are doing is sick, twisted and evil.

[uppy]

I rememeber a time when I posted pictures like this and they got removed.

:angel3:

the world is so unfair at times

[deconstruction]

Makes me want to puke

[Gibby]

How does it feel to run with the herd ?

http://www.tallytownmall.com/images/sheep_herd.jpg

you somehow miss the irony in your statement. Do you know what Irony is Uppy? And no Baldrick, its not like brassy except its made from iron.

[Gibby]

I know I'm ashamed to be an American.

What we are doing is sick, twisted and evil.

I can't say that I love being an American but I am ashamed of my government and my fellow country men for allowing the American dream and the American constitutional idea to be so tarnished and tainted without doing much about it.

[Gibby]

"It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it."

~Robert E. Lee

No your commander guy is much more like Georgi Zhukov "a minefield is to be treated like an enemy infantry division as it will create the same amount of casualties and as we would go through an enemy infantry division to obtain a goal we will go through a minefield."

[ICRockets]

"It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it."

~Robert E. Lee

You seem to be getting along with your fondness of it in spite of the terror just fine.

Life is good? Think again.

[ICRockets]

I can't say that I love being an American but I am ashamed of my government and my fellow country men for allowing the American dream and the American constitutional idea to be so tarnished and tainted without doing much about it.

Make no mistake, our government is doing plenty about it. That's the problem.

[uppy]

you somehow miss the irony in your statement. Do you know what Irony is Uppy? And no Baldrick, its not like brassy except its made from iron.

I do

[Gibby]

Make no mistake, our government is doing plenty about it. That's the problem.

you misread it, I agree with you by the way as the government is the problem. However, the people's political apathy is caustic to the republic. We are akin to the frog that ends up in the broiler pan. The water feels nice on the skin at first, and yet we are being slowly steamed and killed and we won't get out before we are cooked because we don't see it happening.

Wake the **** up America. The constitution is worth fighting and dying for. However, the constitution means nothing if we don't treat it as the end all and be all of governance and law.

[sukie]

I can't get Paxil prescribed

[Gibby]

I can't get Paxil prescribed

You need a suppository. Oh wait Bushy is already giving you one.

[ckg68]

If it's a real picture, and the direct results of our actions, and we are not ashamed of what we are doing, then why should we avoid seeing them?

Because we want to see fake scenes of violence in the comfort of a movie theater or our own home.

When we see scenes of actual violence in the media,Pete,that hits a little too close to home and we should avert our eyes to it.

[sukie]

It's simple. In my day to day life I have many things to worry about. Many things that cause kenetic effects on my next daily life.
I awake in the morning hoping my car starts so I can get to work. At work... I need to deal with administrators that are on power trips. I need to sift through physician orders hoping not to miss something on my account or make sure he or she didn't miss something. I have weekly QA, monthly QA and two centers worth of weekly chart checks.

I have to worry about bills and the upcoming Hurricane season. I need to worry about what kind of mood my wife will come home with.

I need to worry about my health, and worry everytime I see a phone call from the 716 area code, that someone has died.

I hate the idea that employers can pull detailed credit reports and pull random drug tests... not that I fear a drug test but the power that the randomness allows.

I fear the detail in those so called credit reports with regards to the accuracy of the info such as errors or even job history.

I fear losing my life or that of my frieds on the roads here in south florida.

I have no time to fret about what the government is doing. I may say "Hey that kinda sucks!" but I will not obsess about it and lose any sleep over it since it is way down the list.

[Gibby]

Because we want to see fake scenes of violence in the comfort of a movie theater or our own home.

When we see scenes of actual violence in the media,Pete,that hits a little too close to home and we should avert our eyes to it.

yeah man, we should have the happy new.

The following is what the media needs to model the news after.

(ah damn it they took the gentle news sketch off Youtube) You might have seen it if you ever watched the Dana Carvey Show. It was called "Gentle News" and it starred a young Stephen Colbert. It featured Colbert telling the news in a soft tone and he had pets around him like kittens, puppies, and parakeets.

[sukie]

It's simple. In my day to day life I have many things to worry about. Many things that cause kenetic effects on my next daily life.
I awake in the morning hoping my car starts so I can get to work. At work... I need to deal with administrators that are on power trips. I need to sift through physician orders hoping not to miss something on my account or make sure he or she didn't miss something. I have weekly QA, monthly QA and two centers worth of weekly chart checks.

I have to worry about bills and the upcoming Hurricane season. I need to worry about what kind of mood my wife will come home with.

I need to worry about my health, and worry everytime I see a phone call from the 716 area code, that someone has died.

I hate the idea that employers can pull detailed credit reports and pull random drug tests... not that I fear a drug test but the power that the randomness allows.

I fear the detail in those so called credit reports with regards to the accuracy of the info such as errors or even job history.

I fear losing my life or that of my frieds on the roads here in south florida.

I have no time to fret about what the government is doing. I may say "Hey that kinda sucks!" but I will not obsess about it and lose any sleep over it since it is way down the list.
I also need to worry what mood Pete is in and what kinda weaponry he might bring to my next party.

[35Pete]

It's simple. In my day to day life I have many things to worry about. Many things that cause kenetic effects on my next daily life.
I awake in the morning hoping my car starts so I can get to work. At work... I need to deal with administrators that are on power trips. I need to sift through physician orders hoping not to miss something on my account or make sure he or she didn't miss something. I have weekly QA, monthly QA and two centers worth of weekly chart checks.

I have to worry about bills and the upcoming Hurricane season. I need to worry about what kind of mood my wife will come home with.

I need to worry about my health, and worry everytime I see a phone call from the 716 area code, that someone has died.

I hate the idea that employers can pull detailed credit reports and pull random drug tests... not that I fear a drug test but the power that the randomness allows.

I fear the detail in those so called credit reports with regards to the accuracy of the info such as errors or even job history.

I fear losing my life or that of my frieds on the roads here in south florida.

I have no time to fret about what the government is doing. I may say "Hey that kinda sucks!" but I will not obsess about it and lose any sleep over it since it is way down the list.

Don't worry. I'm doing more than my part to legally ruin (politically) everyone and anyone in power that supports this crap.

Go back to the more meaningless aspects of living. I'm on the job. :)

[uppy]

He doesn't give a flying **** about the United States or her legacy of freedom and liberty.

He's a Republican. That's where the loyalty lies.

Remember. "Iraq belongs to us until we decide to give it back".

That statement makes me sick.

It does belong to us now,and my loyalty lies with my country

[ckg68]

Uppy: Loyality to your country does not mean blindly questioning anything and everything it says.

It means not being afraid to question what it's doing in your name. Theodore Roosevelt argued that that was a true sign of patriotism-not being afraid to call :bs: on your government when needed.

[ICRockets]

It does belong to us now,and my loyalty lies with my country

Interesting. As a lover of democracy, I sorta thought that Iraq should belong to the Iraqi people.

[uppy]

Uppy: Loyality to your country does not mean blindly questioning anything and everything it says.

It means not being afraid to question what it's doing in your name. Theodore Roosevelt argued that that was a true sign of patriotism-not being afraid to call :bs: on your government when needed.

I'm not afraid to question what my goverment is doing,I agree with what they

are going.

[uppy]

Interesting. As a lover of democracy, I sorta thought that Iraq should belong to the Iraqi people.


I guess in a way it does belong to them in the same way the kurds own there

land

[Gibby]

Uppy: Loyality to your country does not mean blindly questioning anything and everything it says.

It means not being afraid to question what it's doing in your name. Theodore Roosevelt argued that that was a true sign of patriotism-not being afraid to call :bs: on your government when needed.

candidate for best post of the year here.