"Although it is hard to predict where the drone infrastructure will grow, if other defense contracting projects are a reliable guide, the drone-ification of America will probably continue until there is a drone aerodrome in every state and a drone degree program to go with it."
~ Richard Wheeler, Wired (Feb. 28, 2011)
The U.S. government has a history of commandeering military technology for use against Americans. We saw this happen... (more)
They're cheap, easy to buy anywhere in the world and, apparently, are the hallmark of a terrorist: a digital Casio wristwatch -- strictly speaking, the black F-91W model or its silver variant, the A-159W. The United States military considers this watch to be "an indicator of al-Qaida training in the manufacture of improvised explosive devices (IEDs)" and with it the identifying feature of a potential terrorist.
This information is contained in the secret documents about prisoners ... (more)
If you don’t want it to get even harder for a U.S. citizen to get a passport — now required for travel even to Canada or Mexico — you only have until Monday to let the State Department know.
The U.S. Department of State is proposing a new Biographical Questionnaire for some passport applicants: The proposed ne
In the People’s Republic of Bloomberg, new state laws are regulating the activities in day camps. The Health Department created a list of “risky” recreational activities, and any camp programs that offer “two or more organized recreational activities – with at least one of them on the risky list – is... (more)
In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks which involved the use of commercial jetliners as guided missiles, few Americans objected to the government's quest to make our airports more secure.
But then, surely few of us also imagined that the agency created to provide airport security would ever consider a 6-year-old child to be a prime terrorist suspect, or that its agents would be able to feel that child up publicly in the name of "national security."
IMSLP, the largest public domain music library on the Internet, has just suffered a damaging attack on the site’s infrastructure. In a wrongful action over a single 90 year-old classical piece by Rachmaninoff, the UK’s Music Publishers Association convinced registrar GoDaddy to seize IMSLP’s domain name, which took the site completely offline.
While most readers will be very familiar with the commercialized mainstream pop sounds of the last 10 to 20 years, spare ... (more)
The Department of Homeland Security is beefing up it’s terror alert warning system in a move that will see terror alerts, whether real or phony, issued via the mainstream media and directly to your phone or computer over social networking sites, and even via Emergency Alert broadcasts.
The government’s much ridiculed colour coded chart is being scrapped, primarily because it is always set at “elevated” and is roundly ignored by almost everyone in Amer... (more)
If there was a scintilla of doubt as to whether Americans are living in a predatory police state, then this story completely eviscerates it. Michigan state police have been using a handheld mobile forensics device to steal information from cell phones belonging to motorists stopped for minor traffic violations.
The high-tech device works with 3000 different phone models and can bypass passwords to process "Complete extraction of existing, hidden, and deleted phone data... (more)
Sadly, he wasn’t a TSA goon, just an ordinary citizen who isn’t allowed to sexually assault people in airports. According to SRN news, two airport employees on the tarmac saw the incident through a window and intervened. God only knows how many airport employees witness TSA sexual assaults right in front of them everyday and don’t intervene.
A new program being touted by the Obama administration as a solution to online identity theft actually increases the risk of identity theft while providing the government with a national ID system through the backdoor, paving the way for a world wide web in which users will need government permission to access the Internet.
The so-called "National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace," created by NIST under the auspices of the U.S. Commerce Department, purports ... (more)
According to CNN, the government considers "arrogant complaining" about TSA Gestapo tactics at the nation's airports to be an indication of terrorist behavior.
Objecting to TSA goons molesting your six year old daughter is characterized as "contempt against airport passenger procedures" and will likely get you profiled as a "high risk" passenger and probably a terrorist.
... (more)
Following the emergence of a video of a TSA agent subjecting a scared and confused 6-year old girl to an invasive full body pat down this week, another incident has come to light today in which an 8-year old boy was recently groped in the same way. This despite the fact that the TSA claimed it had changed its security procedure for children.
Young Spencer Sheahan was looking forward to the trip of a lifetime to Disneyland, but the fun was cut short at Portland International ... (more)
Law enforcement organizations are making tens of thousands of requests for private electronic information from companies such as Sprint, Facebook and AOL, but few detailed statistics are available, according to a privacy researcher.
Police and other agencies have "enthusiastically embraced" asking for e-mail, instant messages and mobile-phone location data, but there's no U.S. federal law that requires the reporting of requests for stored communications data, wrote Christopher Sog... (more)
The domain seizures by the U.S. Government have hit a new target, and it’s without a doubt the biggest fish thus far.
Three of the largest poker sites – PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker – had their domains seized today as 11 people connected to the gambling outfits were charged with bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling offenses.
The indictment (pdf) was released by the U.S. Attorney’s office in New York Friday a... (more)
You know what's amazing? I was just looking at some games running on Full Tilt, there's people from every nation there is, ex-communist eastern bloc countries, socialist hell holes, ex-fascist dictatorships, they're all playing and having fun, meanwhile those of us in the US can no longer sit down! It's 2011, we have the most advanced technology in the world, you can play poker on you computer with people all around the world and make a living doing it, and yet here in the "land of the free" it's f&%ing banned. Are you kidding me? Do people realize how insane this is? This is total nazi fascism, we're living like feudal serfs in the richest most wealthy country in the world! Don't think for a second this is going to stop, this is just the beginning, these fascist scum parasites are not going to stop until they've stolen everything. - Chris, InfoLib
This time, it’s the online poker industry, as the Feebs indict the owners and shut down the three biggest sites in yet another act of state vandalism. The American government: deepening its depression one crime at a time.
Evan Emory’s cunning attempt at musical comedy turned very serious, very quickly. The 21-year-old Michigan man won’t be laughing as he spends the next two months in the Muskegon County Jail.
The whole nightmare for Emory began when he posted a video of himself on YouTube singing a sexually explicit song to elementary school students. But before you tak... (more)
A lot of attention is being paid this week to Senators John Kerry and John McCain introducing a Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights, which would require companies to tell consumers exactly what data is being collected about them while also keeping that information safe (as if companies get hacked on purpose?!?). The proposed law does not have, as some exp... (more)
On the same day that Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs Verhagen announced efforts to prevent the export of internet filters to repressive regimes, State Secretary of Justice and Security Teeven announced the introduction of the national blacklisting of websites. The press conference expressly 'filtered out' critical Dutch civil rights organization Bits of Freedom and consumer rights organization Consumentenbond.
The Minister of Economic Affairs stated Monday that companies should... (more)
...the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts raised concerns that the infrared cameras would reveal information about what’s going on inside the homes. Sagewell’s cameras can take up to 20,000 images of homes per day.
Despite the concern, towns outside of Boston have not had any problems with the program. Utilities and environmental groups from Springfield and Hamilton are in the process of initiating the same project in their communities.
... (more)
A year ago, Albert Gonzalez confessed to having led an operation that stole more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers by hacking into computers at TJ Maxx and other retailers and was sentenced to twenty years in prison. Now he wants his conviction overturned on the grounds that the US Secret Service authorized him to do it.
In a habeas corpus petition filed on March 24, Gonzales writes, "I ... (more)
ICE director John Morton has confirmed that the seizure of domain names that are alleged to be promoting copyright infringement will continue in the coming years. In a statement before the U.S. House of Representatives, Morton said that “Operation In Our Sites” will continue through and beyond 2011. In addition and contrary to popular belief, Morton claimed that the seizures “respect free speech” and “provide due process.”
