[Reader-list] Government gone mad in a total surveillance society

[Taha Mehmood]

http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0709/0709govsurv.htm

Government gone mad in a total surveillance society

By Tom DeWeese
web posted June 29, 2009

I've heard it all- the cries, the pleas, the whines, the double speak
and the lies. "We need the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to
protect us from terrorists." "We must have Real ID to protect us from
illegal immigration." "We must have E-Verify to protect American
jobs." "Traffic light cameras are necessary to make the streets
safer." "Security cameras on street corners make our neighborhoods
safer." "I'm glad the TSA is there at the airport - I feel so much
safer getting on an airplane." And my favorite lie of them all - "If
you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear."

Take note: every single one of these issues results in bigger, more
invasive government, and not a single one will do anything to solve
the intended problem. Every single one will make you less free, less
happy and less safe. Here is my guarantee - put each and every one of
these programs fully into place and learn the hard way that it isn't
the final solution - but only the beginning. The government has much
more in store for Americans and their privacy and personal security -
and you are not going to be happy. Get ready, Americans. Here it comes
like a freight train. And if you've uttered one of the whines listed
above, then you have no one to blame but yourself.

I've argued that the Department of Homeland Security is the greatest
threat to liberty Americans have ever faced. It began with 170,000
employees by combining 22 existing federal agencies, including Border
Patrol, Coast Guard, Secret Service, FEMA, Transportation Security
Agency (TSA), Immigration and Naturalization, Customs Service, Animal
and Plant Health Inspection, Federal Protective Service, FBI's
Domestic Preparedness, Federal Computer Incident Response Center, and
several more lesser agencies of the same type.

All of these agencies are under the control of one manager, the
Secretary of Homeland Security. As a result of provisions in the
Patriot Act (a monstrous law, passed in the panic of 911 and
admittedly never read by a single member of Congress before it was
passed) the DHS Secretary - one person - has the power to send federal
law enforcement into private homes without a search warrant. Records
and materials may be taken from private homes, computer records
searched, phones tapped and e-mails monitored, without the knowledge
of the suspect.

Now, some may argue that all of that is necessary to catch a terrorist
and that it is not intended to affect innocent citizens. Again, it's
the -"IF YOU HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE - YOU HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR" excuse.
Before moving forward, let's get rid of this naive utterance once and
for all.

First, that statement really says that government always gets it
right. So fear of searches is just nonsense - if you are innocent.
Well, have you heard the recording of Campaign for Liberty employee
Steve Bierfeldt when he was detained by the TSA simply because he was
carrying less than $2,000 in cash from a conference? All young Steve
did was ask the TSA agents to show him the law that said they had a
right to ask him why he was carrying the money. The checks in the same
metal box as the cash were made out to the Campaign for Liberty. Any
moron could have figured out where the money came from and what it was
for. But the TSA didn't care - they wanted to show their authority.
Biefeldt presented the entire box to TSA agents, not trying to conceal
it in any way. TSA tried to bully him and threatened to turn him over
to drug enforcement authorities, as an attempt to make it appear he
was carrying the cash from drug deals. Steve's reply was basically,
"Fine - will they be able to show me the law?" Innocent Steve had
nothing to hide and plenty to fear from TSA thugs.

Second, that statement says that the Bill of Rights was only created
to protect the guilty. You see, if you have nothing to hide, then you
obviously don't need to be protected from government.  The
Constitution was written by men who feared government - even the one
they were creating - and they put safeguards in it to force government
to recognize and respect our property and our right to be innocent
until proven guilty. DHS and the Patriot Act, and those who use the
mantra "If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear," reject
and ignore those guarantees. Under the Patriot Act and it's agents in
the DHS and TSA, you are not secure in your home or your person, you
are not innocent until proven guilty and you are not allowed to face
your accusers. That means tyranny, not the Constitution, is in
control.

Supposedly, the DHS mission is to be our frontline against terrorism.
An added bonus, say its supporters, is to help reduce illegal
immigration. Yet the department has opposed the most obvious element
of "homeland security" - securing the nation's borders. DHS has
blocked building the wall. It's done nothing about enforcing Visa
violators. And sometimes it even blocks local law enforcement from
arresting and deporting known illegals.

Instead, DHS has been on a rampage to impose rules, regulations and
projects, all designed to put legal, law abiding Americans in a
massive straight jacket.

Real ID is not a tool to fight illegal immigration

First there was the Real ID Act. Unfortunately, some misguided
Conservative leaders, both in the grassroots and in Congress continue
to support this terrible Act as a safeguard to stop illegal
immigration. They are horribly wrong.

Real ID is argued to be an attempt to standardize the process and
format for the creation of all state drivers' licenses to achieve
increased security. Proponents argue that now we will know that anyone
carrying a driver's license is legal in this country and therefore not
a threat. What most Americans do not know is that Real ID did not
originate in the United States, but in the backrooms of a UN
organization called the International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO).

Real ID mandates a certain picture quality for all drivers' licenses
that are to be compliant with the ICAO's Document 9303 biometric
format. Your photo taken by a local DMV is run thorough special
software which measures and analyzes the unique personally
identifiable characteristics of your face. The process results in a
unique numeric code which identifies a person according to facial
measurements. In other words, under Real ID, your face is reduced to a
number code - a number which is read by computer, tracked by
surveillance cameras and distributed worldwide by the ICAO. Take a
look at your drivers' license - if it has a blue background, it is
ICAO-compliant.

 Real ID is not a national ID card designed to protect us from
terrorism and illegal immigration - it is an INTERNATIONAL ID card
designed to track the movements of everyone wherever they go -
anywhere in the world. As you read on you will find that it will get
much worse, for Real ID is only the first step.

The Obama Administration is now talking about repealing Real ID
because there is such opposition to it. Do not be fooled. They know
they are caught with this monster and so the flimflam is on - repeal
Real ID and replace it with something much worse. That's how they play
the game.

E-Verify - Government control of jobs

Second, the E-Verify system has been sold with the same argument -
just a tool to stop illegal immigration. And those opposing it have
been accused of being either liberals who just want open borders, or
greedy businesses who want cheap labor. While it is true that elements
of both exist in the opposition to E-Verify, the overwhelming number
of opponents do so because of its connection with the creation of an
international biometric ID system.

Once again, because the government refuses to do its job, it has
decided to make business the scapegoat in the battle against illegal
immigration. It's so easy for these government hypocrites to put the
burden of enforcement on the backs of those who simply wanted to start
a business. Not only is business now forced to be the national tax
collector and healthcare provider, it is also to be our first line of
border defense. And we need government - why?

In truth, E-Verify, which uses Social Security numbers to determine if
someone is an American citizen is, again, the brain child of the
Department of Homeland Security. Are you seeing a pattern here? Under
expanded DHS rules, as in Real ID, E-Verify will now use "enhanced
photograph capability" that will allow employers to check photographs
in E- Verify databases. And, again, those photographs are compliant to
the UN's ICAO international data bases. DHS is now also expanding
compliant databases to include visa and passport files.

The main danger in E-Verify is that it sets the stage for a national
workforce management system which gives the government ultimate power
to decide who works and who doesn't. It is designed to ultimately help
subject all Americans to an intrusive global surveillance system as
the information in DHS databanks is being transferred to international
systems through DHS partners, including the American Association of
Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) and, of course, the ICAO.

Now, here's where the terrifying truth about the Department of
Homeland Security and the Real ID- E-Verify matrix being created
begins to come into focus. (Those Americans who supported these plans
just because they wanted a little security are now going to find how
wrong they are.)

Cameras on every corner

The world is now full of security cameras called CCTVs. They are in
every public building, every airport, and every convenience store. And
it's the same around the world. It is said that one can not travel
anywhere in London without being on a camera. The same is quickly
becoming true in Washington, DC and many other American cities.
Washington DC is now installing cameras on nearly every street corner
in every neighborhood to watch for crime. Do you feel safer yet?  Of
course, now every city has found the quick- buck benefits of traffic
light cameras. Police control by mail. How modern.

Now, what's the connection between Real ID and CCTV's?  Your driver's
license or more precisely, your digital facial image/photograph is,
and will be used with CCTV to identify you. It will not matter if you
are in your hometown or in Berlin, Germany. Government will be able to
identify you without your even knowing it. The CCTV camera will be
pointed at you, a scan of your face will be taken and the results of
the scan will be compared to domestic and international databases to
determine your identity. The main purpose of the Real ID Act is to
ensure we are enrolled into a global biometric identification system
so government can know our whereabouts at all times. It has absolutely
nothing to do with stopping illegal immigration - or even terrorists.
You must understand most of these plans were at least being discussed
long before 911 occurred. The only real barrier was the lack of
technology. It's no longer a problem.

Suspicious Sweat

And so it gets worse. As we are all quietly enrolled in the
international databases, there are plans to efficiently use that
information. Comes now the Department of Homeland Security's "Project
Hostile Intent" (PHI). Ohh - wait a minute - that's just too harsh
(and revealing) for politically-correct public officials. Please just
wait a minute while they rename it to "Future Attribute Screening
Technologies" (FAST). That's better. Now we can all relax. The
government just wants to keep us all safer, faster!

What ever the name, the result is the same. FAST is a computer
software program that assesses whether or not a person is more or less
likely to present a threat based on the way a person behaves, walks,
dresses or other factors. In fact the government is now working to
obtain sensors that will help them monitor our sweat to decide of you
are a threat based on how much you perspire.

That means, if you are walking down the street, perhaps with your
children, maybe sightseeing in a foreign town, and a CCTV monitor
picks you up, you may be approached by law enforcement to determine if
you are a security threat - simply because you matched the profile by
the way you dressed or walked - or if you are sweating too much. You
will be required to pull out your government-sanctioned ID and justify
why you are there and what you are doing, regardless of the activity
in which you are engaged.

Do you get it yet? The point is law enforcement will not need actual
probable cause to observe or detain you. All it will need to do is
claim that you walk, dress or sweat suspiciously.

Control and Intimidation

There are two kinds of control - direct and indirect. Real ID
compliance is direct control. Without compliance through the proper
drivers' license you will lose access to public buildings, government
services like marriage licenses, gun ownership, or travel by air or
soon, even by train or bus.

Indirect control comes from intimidation. Russell Tice, former
National Security Agency (NSA) analyst has warned about that agency's
efforts to intercept American's e-mails and phone calls. He has also
discussed the monitoring of cash transactions. Obviously this is the
kind of intimidation young Steve Bierfeldt was experiencing when the
TSA thought they had him hidden away in a windowless room at the
airport as they harassed and attempted to scare him into submission.
Luckily that courageous young man was not intimidated and turned the
tables on them by recording their tactics. The idea behind it all is
to make you afraid to speak out or fight back - "Just let me on my
plane and I promise not to make a fuss."

"Right-wing Extremists" - not illegal immigrants - are the target

So for those of you who may still think this is all just an
overstatement - a misunderstanding - for those who still think Real ID
and E-Verify are just necessary tools for stopping illegal immigration
- - let me bring all of this together.

In the June issue of The DeWeese Report (Volume 15, Issue 6) the lead
article entitled "The Department of Homeland Security is a "Man-Caused
Disaster," I reported on the MIAC Report from the State of Missouri
and another report from the Department of Homeland Security. Both
reports were intended to warn law enforcement to be on the lookout for
rightwing extremists. It then went on to clarify what it meant:
"Right-wing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into
those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily
hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or
ethnic groups), and those that are mainly anti-government, rejecting
federal authority in favor of state or local authority ,or rejecting
government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals
that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion
or immigration."

The MIAC report stated that anyone who voted for Ron Paul, Bob Barr or
Chuck Baldwin was a potential security threat, possibly violent and
possibly a terrorist. The report was issued by the Missouri Fusion
center, a department under the control of the Department of Homeland
Security. These reports are so broad in their definition of "rightwing
extremist," that they can only indicate a growing attitude by the
government that anyone who opposes its policies is a potential threat
to the government and must be controlled or eliminated.

In June, a lone gunman entered the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in
Washington, DC and opened fire on two security guards. Of course, gun
control advocates haven't hesitated to use the incident as another
excuse to confiscate guns. That's to be expected.

But the next day, The Washington Times reported in a sidebar article
about the incident, saying, "Even before Wednesday's fatal shooting of
a security guard purportedly by a white supremacist at the U.S.
Holocaust Memorial Museum, right-wing extremists have come under
increased scrutiny." The article went on to discuss the DHS report and
quoted a professor from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice who
said she worries that local law enforcement agencies do not keep close
enough tabs on such groups and that the Internet allows them to put
forth an extreme rhetoric that advocates violence. My friends, they
are talking about you and me. Not enough surveillance on our
"dangerous" ideas? This shooting couldn't have come at a better time
for DHS. How convenient.

Mandatory IDs containing biometric information in international
databases that can track our every move through CCTV cameras on every
street corner, which monitor our facial expressions and measure our
sweat - are not tools to make us safer. They are the weapons of
tyranny designed to keep the government safe from apparently
"dangerous criminals" who believe in the Constitution of the United
States - the very document every single American public official from
the President to the police officers swore to protect and defend. Does
that connect enough dots for you?

Let me make it clearer. Because you believe in limited government,
oppose immigration or abortion, or profess to be a Christian, you are
being targeted by government as a threat. Total surveillance through
Real ID and biometric data banks will be used to monitor and control
your movements. E-Verify will be used to control whether you work or
not. You can be shut out of society, unable to open a bank account,
travel, or even drive a car because - just like the no-fly list - you
will be targeted as an enemy of the state - all because of your
political beliefs. You are the target in a nation where the government
has gone mad. Do you feel safer yet? ESR

Tom DeWeese is the President of the American Policy Center and the
Editor of The DeWeese Report. The DeWeese Report is now available
online.