Terror Database catches few terrorists but does catch Anti-war Activists very well.
August 25, 2007 by Dusty
Almost 20,000 people ended up, for whatever reason, in the govt’s terrorist database. That..is a lot of people wouldn’t you say?
Get this…the govt wants to ‘open up’ the list to private entities. You know, we contract so fucking much of our needs out these days, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the fuckwits wish to make all sorts of lists, like the airline passenger list, available to people outside the govt. From the WaPo article:
A range of state, local and federal agencies as well as U.S. embassies overseas rely on the database to pinpoint terrorism suspects, who can be identified at borders or even during routine traffic stops. The database consolidates a dozen government watch lists, as well as a growing amount of information from various sources, including airline passenger data. The government said it was planning to expand the data-sharing to private-sector groups with a “substantial bearing on homeland security,” though officials would not be more specific.
Of course they wouldn’t be specific..please..its all a big freaking secret don’t you know? Over half of the folks ‘detained’ were collared by the folks at Customs and Border Patrol. Another snippet of the WaPo article here:
Slightly more than half of the 20,000 encounters last year were logged by Customs and Border Protection officers, who turned back or handed over to authorities 550 people, most of them foreigners, Customs officials said. FBI and other officials said that they could not provide data on the number of people arrested or denied entry for the other half of the database hits. FBI officials indicated that the number of arrests was small.
So, if the number of arrests are small..why keep all this information on everyone? It’s a valid question. It makes one wonder what qualifies someone to be included on this damn list. It makes on wonder who’s civil rights are being violated and what is the determining factor for all this bullshit.
David Sobel, senior counsel with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy organization, said the numbers “suggest a staggeringly high rate of false positives with respect to the identification of supposed terrorists.” He added that “this really confirms the long-standing fear that this list is inaccurate and ultimately ineffective as an anti-terrorism tool.”
False-positives..gee, that makes ya feel all warm and fuzzy don’t it? Nothing this dimwits do makes me feel warm and fuzzy with regard to protecting Americans by violating their civil rights. We do not know what they did to get on the list, we have no idea what the govt does with the information once its deemed the individual isn’t a threat to America. But we do know this..THEY KEEP THE INFO FOR 99 YEARS. Let me type that again..they keep it for 99 freaking years.
Its all bullshit in a barrel folks.
If you think for one minute YOUR not on this list..think again. Being an anti-war activist could damn well land your happy ass on this ‘database’. Let’s take an example from the WaPo writeup, Francisco “Kiko” Martinez, a Colorado lawyer and civil-rights activist:
“A driver’s license check revealed [Martinez] as a possible individual having ties with terrorism,” a state trooper wrote after a 2004 stop near Chicago, according to one report.
Last year, Martinez sued the federal government, claiming that he was unlawfully detained and that he was included on a watch list as a result of his political activities.
Last month, he won a $106,500 settlement from federal, state and tribal authorities. Though the settlement did not address any of the underlying constitutional claims, Martinez asserted that it “shows that I shouldn’t have been on this terrorism watch list in the first place” and that “the government is misusing this so-called war against terrorism to target its domestic political opponents.”
Like I said..bullshit in a barrel.
*Artwork by The Worried Shrimp
Crossposted at Bring it On! and LeftwingNutjob
Tags: War on Terror, Federal Fuckwits at the Helm, Antiwar Activists, Government Database
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The “Presidential Advance Manual” shows that this administration is ALL politics 24/7. The highest priority in presidential appearances is to make dissent invisible, and hiding dissent against the war is more important than protecting the country against terrorists. In fact, some GOP people have stated that country NEEDS another terror attack. why, to gain more support for the GOP.
To answer critics, the Pentagon said yesterday that it will shut down an anti-terror database that has been criticized for improperly storing information on peace activists and others whose actions posed no threat.
It will be closed on September 17 and information collected subsequently on potential terror or security threats to Defense Department facilities or personnel will be sent by Pentagon officials to an FBI database known as Guardian, according to Army Colonel Gary Keck, a Pentagon spokesman.
Colonel Keck said the Pentagon database is being shut down because “the analytical value had declined,” but not because of public criticism of how it was used. Eventually the Pentagon hopes to create a new system — not necessarily a database — to “streamline such threat reporting,” according to a brief statement issued yesterday. The decision to end the program, which had been recommended in April by the Pentagon’s new intelligence chief, James Clapper, Jr., was approved by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, Colonel Keck said. The program, known as TALON, was created after the September 11, 2001, attacks and was designed to maintain a base of information on reported potential threats to military facilities and personnel.
In December 2005 it was disclosed that the system included data on anti-military protests and other peaceful demonstrations.
Anti-war groups and other organizations, including a Quaker group — the American Friends Service Committee — protested after it was disclosed that the military had monitored anti-war activities, organizations, and individuals who attended peace rallies.
My authority on security is Bruce Schneier here talking to TSA chief Kip Hawley:
Bruce Schneier: Let’s talk about ID checks. I’ve called the no-fly list a list of people so dangerous they cannot be allowed to fly under any circumstance, yet so innocent we can’t arrest them even under the Patriot Act. Except that’s not even true; anyone, no matter how dangerous they are, can fly without an ID — or by using someone else’s boarding pass. And the list itself is filled with people who shouldn’t be on it — dead people, people in jail, and so on — and primarily catches innocents with similar names. Why are you bothering?
Kip Hawley: Because it works. We just completed a scrub of every name on the no-fly list and cut it in half — essentially cleaning out people who were no longer an active terror threat. We do not publicize how often the no-fly system stops people you would not want on your flight. Several times a week would low-ball it.
Your point about the no-ID and false boarding pass people is a great one. We are moving people who have tools and training to get at that problem. The bigger issue is that TSA is moving in the direction of security that picks up on behavior versus just keying on what we see in your bag. It really would be security theater if all we did was try to find possible weapons in that crunched fifteen seconds and fifteen feet after you anonymously walk through the magnetometer. We do a better job, with less aggravation of ordinary passengers, if we put people-based layers further ahead in the process — behavior observation based on involuntary, observable muscle behavior, canine teams, document verification, etc.
Bruce Schneier: How can you claim ID cards work? Like the liquid ban, all it does is annoy innocent travelers without doing more than inconveniencing any future terrorists. Is it really good enough for you to defend me from terrorists too dumb to Google “print your own boarding pass”?
Kip Hawley: We are getting at the fake boarding pass and ID issues with our proposal to Congress that would allow us to replace existing document checkers with more highly trained people with tools that would close those gaps. Without effective identity verification, watch lists don’t do much, so this is a top priority.
And Hitler’s SS ask you for your papers. How soon before the new SS asks us for ours?
God Bless.
Guess what, they’re using the citizenry and private industry to be the rat snitch fink stool pigeons they need to intimidate and harass even minor league ex-bloggers like me…
Peace!
Kip Hawley is an idiot. As for TALON, they spent more time and money spying on anti-war groups than ANYONE ELSE.