Potentially terrifying surveillance/intelligence network at play in US

[The Question]

http://www.businessinsider.com/trapwire-everything-you-need-to-know-2012-8#ixzz23Hv98Ttr

WIKILEAKS: Surveillance Cameras Around The Country Are Being Used In A Huge Spy Network
David Seaman, David Seaman Online | Aug. 10, 2012, 2:49 PM | 106,116 | 133

The U.S. cable networks won't be covering this one tonight (not accurately, anyway), but Trapwire is making the rounds on social media today—it reportedly became a Trending hashtag on Twitter earlier in the day.
Trapwire is the name of a program revealed in the latest Wikileaks bonanza—it is the mother of all leaks, by the way. Trapwire would make something like disclosure of UFO contact or imminent failure of a major U.S. bank fairly boring news by comparison.
And someone out there seems to be quite disappointed that word is getting out so swiftly; the Wikileaks web site is reportedly sustaining 10GB worth of DDoS attacks each second, which is massive.
Anyway, here's what Trapwire is, according to Russian-state owned media network RT (apologies for citing "foreign media"... if we had a free press, I'd be citing something published here by an American media conglomerate): "Former senior intelligence officials have created a detailed surveillance system more accurate than modern facial recognition technology—and have installed it across the U.S. under the radar of most Americans, according to emails hacked by Anonymous.
Every few seconds, data picked up at surveillance points in major cities and landmarks across the United States are recorded digitally on the spot, then encrypted and instantaneously delivered to a fortified central database center at an undisclosed location to be aggregated with other intelligence. It’s part of a program called TrapWire and it's the brainchild of the Abraxas, a Northern Virginia company staffed with elite from America’s intelligence community.
The employee roster at Arbaxas reads like a who’s who of agents once with the Pentagon, CIA and other government entities according to their public LinkedIn profiles, and the corporation's ties are assumed to go deeper than even documented. The details on Abraxas and, to an even greater extent TrapWire, are scarce, however, and not without reason. For a program touted as a tool to thwart terrorism and monitor activity meant to be under wraps, its understandable that Abraxas would want the program’s public presence to be relatively limited. But thanks to last year’s hack of the Strategic Forecasting intelligence agency, or Stratfor, all of that is quickly changing."
So: those spooky new "circular" dark globe cameras installed in your neighborhood park, town, or city—they aren't just passively monitoring. They're plugged into Trapwire and they are potentially monitoring every single person via facial recognition.
In related news, the Obama administration is fighting in federal court this week for the ability to imprison American citizens under NDAA's indefinite detention provisions—and anyone else—without charge or trial, on suspicion alone.
So we have a widespread network of surveillance cameras across America monitoring us and reporting suspicious activity back to a centralized analysis center, mixed in with the ability to imprison people via military force on the basis of suspicious activity alone. I don't see how that could possibly go wrong. Nope, not at all. We all know the government, and algorithmic computer programs, never make mistakes.
Here's what is also so disturbing about this whole NDAA business: "This past week's hearing was even more terrifying. Government attorneys again, in this hearing, presented no evidence to support their position and brought forth no witnesses. Most incredibly, Obama's attorneys refused to assure the court, when questioned, that the NDAA's section 1021 – the provision that permits reporters and others who have not committed crimes to be detained without trial – has not been applied by the U.S. government anywhere in the world after Judge Forrest's injunction. In other words, they were telling a U.S. federal judge that they could not, or would not, state whether Obama's government had complied with the legal injunction that she had laid down before them. To this, Judge Forrest responded that if the provision had indeed been applied, the United States government would be in contempt of court."
If none of this bothers you, please don't follow me on Twitter, because nothing I report on will be of interest to you. Go back to watching the television news network of your choice, where you will hear about Romney's latest campaign ads, and whether Obamacare will increase the cost of delivery pizza by 14 to 16 cents.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/trapwire-everything-you-need-to-know-2012-8#ixzz23Lcv5NQ5

What do you guys think?

 

[Schlosser85]

Call me cynical....but this didn't exactly blow my skirt up.

 

[The Question]

Call me cynical....but this didn't exactly blow my skirt up.

The fact that the government has the authority to arrest people indefinitely without proof or probable cause coupled with the existence of pervasive facial recognition software doesn't worry you?

 

[Schlosser85]

Not that it doesn't worry me, it just doesn't generate the "GASP! SHOCK!" reaction the article was going for, considering the Enemy Expatriation Act which I blogged about months ago lets them do that too.

 

[Midnyte_Sun]

When I said privacy is dead in America, I meant it. There is no privacy, and it's mostly an illusion.

 

[Schlosser85]

That's not breaking news.

 

[Soapy]

I thought all this was common knowledge. I'm not saying it's not shady as ****, but I've always lived under the assumption that the government was up to this kind of thing.

 

[Webfoot Hero]

It's pretty easy to not show up on the radar: don't be planning any type of bombing, mass shooting, or assassination attempt that would warrant the government getting involved. Following the basic laws and using a bit of common sense easily helps in not getting a visit from law enforcement.

 

[Thundercrack85]

You're preaching to the same public that lets airport security manhandle their genitals. Good luck getting anyone to care.

 

[enterthemadness]

I am immune to this news. Only way this **** goes away is voting 3rd party.

 

[The Question]

It's pretty easy to not show up on the radar: don't be planning any type of bombing, mass shooting, or assassination attempt that would warrant the government getting involved. Following the basic laws and using a bit of common sense easily helps in not getting a visit from law enforcement.

Yes, because the police only every arrest guilty people and never make mistakes.

 

[Webfoot Hero]

Yes, because the police only every arrest guilty people and never make mistakes.

Paranoid much? Seriously, most people will never be involved in a criminal investigation due to keeping their noses clean and living with an ounce of decency and common sense.

 

[The Question]

Paranoid much? Seriously, most people will never be involved in a criminal investigation due to keeping their noses clean and living with an ounce of decency and common sense.

Not paranoid, practical. You're right, most people won't get in trouble like that. But some will, and sometimes the police or FBI will make mistakes. Things like the thread topic make much harder to hold them accountable for those mistakes.

It also gives the government a lot more power to abuse. Stuff like this is very dangerous to political activists, because there are many politicians and law enforcement officials who would benefit from them being out of the picture and this stuff gives them the power to take them out own the picture without facing consequences.

 

[Schlosser85]

Some right-wingers tried to get the Occupy Wall Street protesters labeled as terrorists, which could theoretically have made them subject to the Enemy Expatriation Act and stripped of their citizenship, making it permissible to detain them indefinitely without charges.