Saturday, December 24, 2011
USA Today
WASHINGTON (AP) – The CIA said Friday its internal watchdog found nothing wrong with the spy agency's close partnership with the New York Police Department.
The agency's inspector general concluded that no laws were broken and there was "no evidence that any part of the agency's support to the NYPD constituted 'domestic spying'," CIA spokesman Preston Golson said.
The inspector general decided to do a preliminary investigation after a series of stories by The Associated Press revealed how after the 9/11 attacks the CIA helped the NYPD build domestic intelligence programs that were used to spy on Muslims. A CIA officer also directed intelligence collection and reviewed reports, according to former NYPD officials involved.
The revelations troubled some members of Congress and even prompted the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, to remark that it did not look good for the CIA to be involved in any city police department. Thirty-four lawmakers have asked for the Justice Department to investigate but so far that request has gone nowhere...[Full Article]
Labels: Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, law enforcement, New York City, NYPD, police
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
The Daily Beast
A decade of billions in spending in the name of homeland security has armed local police departments with military-style equipment and a new commando mentality. But has it gone too far? Andrew Becker and G.W. Schulz of the Center for Investigative Reporting report.
Nestled amid plains so flat the locals joke you can watch your dog run away for miles, Fargo treasures its placid lifestyle, seldom pierced by the mayhem and violence common in other urban communities. North Dakota’s largest city has averaged fewer than two homicides a year since 2005, and there’s not been a single international terrorism prosecution in the last decade.
But that hasn’t stopped authorities in Fargo and its surrounding county from going on an $8 million buying spree to arm police officers with the sort of gear once reserved only for soldiers fighting foreign wars.
Every city squad car is equipped today with a military-style assault rifle, and officers can don Kevlar helmets able to withstand incoming fire from battlefield-grade ammunition. And for that epic confrontation—if it ever occurs—officers can now summon a new $256,643 armored truck, complete with a rotating turret. For now, though, the menacing truck is used mostly for training and appearances at the annual city picnic, where it’s been parked near the children’s bounce house.
“Most people are so fascinated by it, because nothing happens here,” says Carol Archbold, a Fargo resident and criminal justice professor at North Dakota State University. “There’s no terrorism here.”
Like Fargo, thousands of other local police departments nationwide have been amassing stockpiles of military-style equipment in the name of homeland security, aided by more than $34 billion in federal grants since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a Daily Beast investigation conducted by the Center for Investigative Reporting has found.
Atlanta Police S.W.A.T. members searched a building for a shooting suspect in July of 2010., John Bazemore
The buying spree has transformed local police departments into small, army-like forces, and put intimidating equipment into the hands of civilian officers. And that is raising questions about whether the strategy has gone too far, creating a culture and capability that jeopardizes public safety and civil rights while creating an expensive false sense of security.
“The argument for up-armoring is always based on the least likely of terrorist scenarios,” says Mark Randol, a former terrorism expert at the Congressional Research Service, the nonpartisan research arm of Congress. “Anyone can get a gun and shoot up stuff. No amount of SWAT equipment can stop that.”
Local police bristle at the suggestion that they’ve become “militarized,” arguing the upgrade in firepower and other equipment is necessary to combat criminals with more lethal capabilities. They point to the 1997 Los Angeles-area bank robbers who pinned police for hours with assault weapons, the gun-wielding student who perpetrated the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, and the terrorists who waged a bloody rampage in Mumbai, India, that left 164 people dead and 300 wounded in 2008...[Full Article]
[Webmaster - There is strong evidence that Virginina Tech and Mumbai were false flag operations. Crisis-Reaction-Solution... Militarizing the domestic police state is the "end game".]
Labels: Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security, law enforcement, police
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Labels: drones, law enforcement, Montgomery County, sheriff, Texas
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Feds To Seek More Extensive Internet Eavesdropping Authority
WASHINGTON — Federal law enforcement and national security officials are preparing to seek sweeping new regulations for the Internet, arguing that their ability to wiretap criminal and terrorism suspects is “going dark” as people increasingly communicate online instead of by telephone.
Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications — including encrypted e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct “peer to peer” messaging like Skype — to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order. The mandate would include being able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages.
The bill, which the Obama administration plans to submit to lawmakers next year, raises fresh questions about how to balance security needs with protecting privacy and fostering innovation. And because security services around the world face the same problem, it could set an example that is copied globally...
[Full Article]Related Articles:
U.S. Wants Broader Internet Wiretap Authority
Feds Seek Broader Internet Eavesdropping Rights
Obama Admin Wants Congress to Force All Online Services to be Wiretap-Able, Including Social Networks
U.S. Works To Make Internet Wiretaps Easier
[Webmaster - In reality, they are probably already doing what they say they "want" to do.]
Labels: big brother, eavesdropping, federal agents, Internet, law enforcement, privacy, wiretapping
Saturday, June 5, 2010
In what has to be one of the biggest violations of common sense and burden of proof in motoring news this year, the Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that officers can “visually estimate” how fast a person is driving… and give them a ticket for it.
Thanks Ohio Supreme Court for giving cops the green light to make up speeding tickets.
Supreme Court Justice Maureen O’Connor said “Rational triers of fact could find a police officer’s testimony regarding his unaided visual estimation of a vehicle’s speed, when supported by evidence that the officer is trained, certified by (the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy) or a similar organization, and experienced in making such estimations, sufficient to establish beyond a reasonable doubt the defendant’s speed. Independent verification of the vehicle’s speed is not necessary to support a conviction for speeding.”...
Labels: law enforcement, Ohio, police, speeding, Supreme Court
Friday, March 12, 2010
Reactions using their military training in civilian confrontations can be dangerous
MADISON, WIS.: For soldiers patrolling in Iraq and Afghanistan, death can come from a bomb hidden in a trash pile or an innocent-looking face in the crowd. Returning home alive can depend on the quick turn of a steering wheel or pull of a trigger.
Those heightened survival instincts don't always translate well when those soldiers come home to their jobs as police officers.
In interviews with the Associated Press and in dozens of anecdotes compiled in a survey by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance, officers described feeling compelled to use tactics they employed in war zones after they returned to work in the United States and feeling less patient toward the public they serve...
Labels: law enforcement, police state, veterans
Thursday, March 4, 2010
As part of a new crime-fighting initiative unveiled yesterday, Boston police now have the ability to witness shootings, robberies, and even homicides on many city streets from computer screens at headquarters and then distribute crucial information about the suspects and the crimes to officers heading to the scene.
The program uses existing technology such as cameras focused on major city streets, the department’s gunshot detection system, and the 911 dispatch center to relay information about a crime almost instantaneously to investigators.
The $500,000 intelligence hub, known as the Real Time Crime Center, is the latest in the department’s efforts to combine shoe-leather police work with technological savvy to monitor and thwart criminals...
Labels: big brother, Boston, law enforcement, police, surveillance
Friday, February 12, 2010
Arapahoe wins federal grant for biometric ID system
Arapahoe County will become the first law enforcement agency in Colorado to begin identifying criminals, missing children and seniors using biometric analysis of the human iris.
A technician from the software and hardware developer demonstrated how their device analyzes the iris, which has 235 identifying points of reference, versus a fingerprint's 65.
"Fingerprints change but irises stay stable throughout your life," said Patricia Lawton of Biometric Intelligence and Identifying Technologies, "Which is why it's a great biometric to identify somebody with."
Lawton helped develop this new technology application.
She said the iris is 12 times more reliable for identification than a fingerprint...
Labels: Arapahoe County, big brother, biometrics, Colorado, law enforcement, police state, privacy, retinal scan, surveillance
El Paso County Sheriff's Office will identify people not by fingerprints or DNA, but with a retinal scan.
The National Sheriffs' Association has awarded the El Paso County Sheriff's Office a grant of $10,000 to be among the first 45 law enforcement agencies in the nation to use retinal scanning to identify people.
The grant provides, at no cost to the taxpayers of El Paso County, an iris biometric system that is part of a nationwide network and registry that uses iris recognition biometric technology to confirm a person’s identity...Labels: big brother, biometrics, El Paso, law enforcement, police state, retinal scan, surveillance, Texas
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Anyone with an e-mail account likely knows that police can peek inside it if they have a paper search warrant.
But cybercrime investigators are frustrated by the speed of traditional methods of faxing, mailing, or e-mailing companies these documents. They're pushing for the creation of a national Web interface linking police computers with those of Internet and e-mail providers so requests can be sent and received electronically...
Labels: big brother, law enforcement, police, privacy, surveillance
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