Can anything really be done?

The FBI, NSA & CIA are not policing agencies. More precisely,
they are security services. There are important differences between
police agencies and security services. Every government has a
security service. The mission of a security service is to suppress
anti-government activity. That's because the prime directive of a
government is to stay in power. This means that most governments
see their own population as the most serious threat.

     That's where the security service comes in. This means
suppressing dissent and criticism. It means preserving the status
quo. It means keeping the government in power, no matter whether
the government rules with the consent of the people or without the
consent of the people.

     Look around you. It is a self-evident truth that the nastier the
government, the nastier its security services. These agencies have
never shown historically any respect for basic human rights in its
capacity as a security service. The record of unconstitutional and
illegal actions against American citizens is readily available to anyone
who takes the trouble to investigate. But don't overlook the bigger
picture. These agencies are not out of control. On the contrary, they
are very much in control. These security services are acting with the
knowledge and approval of the government. These groups are,
after all, the government's security services. The FBI, NSA & CIA
believe it's their responsibility to protect the government from the
people. The people, alas, have no such protection from the
government.  The constitution?  Yes, it was written to protect the
people from the government.  Unfortunately, the war on drugs and
terrorism has almost completely eroded the protections provided
therein, so...the people lose!
 

      What You're About to Lose......

You're about to lose something. It may already have slipped from your grasp.
And once it's gone, you'll never get it back.

     As a people, we are facing the most serious threat to humanity in recorded
history the systematic stripping away of traditional freedoms by governments
worldwide. And that includes all governments.

     It is a situation far more serious than the plagues of the Middle Ages that
nearly wiped us out as a species. It is a threat never before seen in ten
thousand years of human history.

     You are about to become the property of the government.

A question of control...
A number of separate threats have recently converged. An extremely dangerous
situation has been created. Governments have been given the opportunity and
the means to permanently wrest control from their populations. Bureaucrats are
about to realize their dream of absolute power. It is a nightmare far worse than
anything George Orwell might have imagined.

     Technology is providing the tools to government. We are now at a point in
human evolution where your government if it so chooses can control every
aspect of your life from cradle to grave.

     We face three separate threats. Together these threats combine to give
government a stranglehold on our civil liberties a death grip on our
traditional freedoms.

     Threat #1 Computers have taken over surveillance. Surveillance is now
automated. Entire populations can be supervised and
monitored in real time. Half your life, including your last credit card
purchase, is already on a database. Computers eavesdrop on all electronic and
telephone communications using word-recognition and voice-recognition software.
Video cameras are everywhere inside and outside they can recognize vehicle
license plates and even human faces. And all this information, all these
databases, are cross-referenced and tied together by computers. Taken
together, it's called dataveillance. It makes it easy to track certain classes
of people. Like minorities. Or dissidents. Or grassroots political movements. Or
anyone who dares think for himself.

     Threat #2 Militarization has taken over the police. The cops are now
using some very nasty weapons. Half the stuff they use is
prohibited by the Geneva Convention and the Hague Declaration. The government
can't use it in war, but their own population is fair game. Modern police
technology gives a whole new meaning to crowd control they use sticky foam
laced with chemical irritants. It gives a whole new meaning to interrogation
they use new mark-free interrogation tools. And new friendlier, more humane
weapons like plastic bullets, pepper gas, and stun guns that still maim,
scalp, burn, mutilate, and kill.

     Threat #3 Big business has taken over proliferation. Any government
bureaucrat can buy this stuff. Most of these high-tech gadgets are dual-use. You
can use them for benign things like traffic control or nasty things like
people control. Private companies are reaping huge profits manufacturing and
exporting this nightmarish technology. Research and development has gone
berserk. Who cares about trivial things like human rights when there's a buck to
be made? Heck, if anyone complains just order the $100,000 mobile execution
vehicle it comes complete with lethal injection machine, steel holding cell,
and areas for "witnesses" and "staff".

Wakeup call...
This is what our government has been up to while we've been asleep at the wheel.
They've been busy making choices. About technology and how to use it. Should
technology serve the existing power structure or should it serve the population?
Should technology be used to protect the government or should it be used to
protect the people?

     Well, folks, they decided to protect themselves rather than us. Government
for the people is bureaucrat old-think. Government against the people is
bureaucrat new-think. Simply stated, it's hidden-control versus democratic
accountability. And hidden-control is winning.

     What does all this mean for you and me? Well, it's becoming a lot easier
for politicians to use force rather than fix social problems. It's becoming more
tempting for them to choose coercion rather than cooperation. Negotiation and
compromise are outdated concepts.

     Even worse, the new technology makes it easy for them to disguise the
amount of coercive force they're using.

     Put yourself in their shoes. Why go to the trouble of consulting with the
people? Why go to the trouble of negotiating with protesters? Why bother
listening to dissenting points of view? Instead, all you need do is pick up the
phone and arrange their destruction. A few words from the bureaucrat and the
political control apparatus swings into gear computerized nationwide
surveillance of potential troublemakers, militarized police SWAT teams for
demonstrations and meetings, and a friendly salesrep standing by in case
government needs more fiendish devices for controlling its citizens.

     How to make people say yes. When authority fails, repression begins.
Eventually terror becomes official government policy. Look around you.
Futuristic scenario? Sci-fi thriller? Hollywood's next blockbuster? Nope. Get
real.

     Wake-up call. It's already here. Stop and think. Waco. Vickie Weaver.
No-knock search warrants. Property confiscation. National identity cards. A
cashless society. Across the USA, more and more people worry that
governing-by-authority has become ruling-through-repression.

     Governments today can arm themselves with ghoulish toolkits for political
control over individuals and over entire populations. Most people are unaware
of the nightmarish systems that technology has made available to bureaucrats. It
ain't pretty. And it ain't cheap. But, hey, it's your money they're spending to
protect themselves from you.

     What is the real problem? The crux of the problem is bureaucrats who don't
like people. They don't care about people the way you and I do. They only care
about themselves and power. Technology is about to give these social misfits
the power to exercise absolute political control over entire populations.

     The scientists who are providing this technology refuse to accept blame for
how their monstrous devices are used. These antisocial idiot-savants have
created the ultimate Frankenstein's monster a juggernaut that will make
worldwide slavery a reality.

     Background What you need to put this article in perspective. This article
is based on information from official sources. Recently the European Parliament
commissioned a study about political control in today's world. This article is
based on that study.

     The study was intended as a guide for Members of the European Parliament to
inform them about recent developments in technology useful for political control
over people. The resulting document, released through the Directorate General
for Research, was a political bombshell.

     The report first surfaced on 6 January 1998 in Luxembourg as a consultative
version of a working document. The original document is a whopping 293KB in
size. It is available on the Web at http://www.jya.com/stoa-atpc.htm. A 112-page
paper version is available from the European Parliament department responsible,
at fax number 352-4300-22418.

Twisted science... New technology for political control over people
The crisis has been about thirty years in the making. In 1972 the British
Society for Social Responsibility in Science issued a warning about the
emergence of a "new technology of repression". In 1977 a report called The
Technology of Political Control further described the looming menace.

     Britain, with help from its allies, was using the conflict in Northern
Ireland as a laboratory. The authorities tested new technologies of
repression and control on a large population. They perfected watchtowers built
over underground three-story bunkers filled with computers that used sonar and
infrared technology to watch people through the walls of their homes. The
arrogant British soldiers couldn't resist gloating they routinely taunted and
humiliated Irish women by describing the undergarments the women were wearing.
Keep this in mind the next time you see a snooty British prime minister on TV
waxing eloquent about principles. The fact that the IRA was able to operate in
such an environment is testament to their countersurveillance and insurgency
skills.

     The US, with help from its allies, further refined the technology during
the Vietnam war and afterwards. Smart bombs. Surveillance satellites.
Psychological profiling. Defoliants. Stealth aircraft. Stun guns. Motion
sensors. Night vision. Human odor sensors. DNA fingerprinting. Kill fencing.
Helicopter-based telephoto surveillance. Laser sights. Repellent electrified
panels on crowd-control vehicles. Psychological-based torture techniques.

     There has been a dramatic change in the technology of socio-political
control during the previous 25 years, especially in the USA, UK, Germany, and
France. And yet there has been no control over the research, manufacture,
deployment, and export of these new technologies. Outdated laws and regulations
have simply not kept pace. Much of this new technology is dual-use, so it can be
purchased under misleading pretenses. The video surveillance cameras in
Tiananmen Square were purchased from a US company as an advanced traffic control
system. They enabled China's dreaded security service, the Guoanbu, to identify
and arrest all of the activists who were demonstrating for democracy.

A new type of weaponry...
Simply stated, the technology of political control is a new type of weaponry.
This technology is used to neutralize the state's internal enemies. In most
cases this means the population. Most governments today see their own population
as the major threat to their existence.

     The technology of political control is made up of three components
hardware, software, and liveware. Hardware is the apparatus. It consists of
instruments, tools, machines, appliances, weapons, and gadgets. Software is the
method. It consists of standard operating procedures, routines, skills,
techniques, and methods. Liveware is the implementation. It consists of the
human element rationalized human social organizations, arrangements, systems,
and networks.

     This new technology has created a growing pattern of abuses. It threatens
the rights of assembly, privacy, and due process. It smothers freedom of
political and cultural expression. It weakens what little protection we have
against arbitrary arrest, torture, and extra-judicial execution.

     What makes this new technology so scary is the people using it.
Bureaucrats. Faceless people operating behind closed doors.
Unaccountable. Uncaring. Unrelenting.

     Even in the so-called democracies, it is the bureaucrat who runs the show.
A well-documented phenomenon called bureaucratic capture is the cause. Around
the world, senior bureaucrats in government control their elected ministers,
rather than the other way around. Elected politicians may come and go, but the
bureaucrat remains as a virtual dictator. If there is such a thing as a ghoul,
surely it is the bureaucrat.

     The police-industrial complex. During the 1990s huge sums are being spent
on the research, development, procurement, and deployment of new technology for
police and internal security forces. A massive police-industrial complex has
come into being. It is similar to the military-industrial complex. Many
companies are doing business in this newly-emerging market. There are huge
profits being made.

     From the bureaucrat's viewpoint, all this is good. It increases efficiency
and cost-effectiveness. After all, only those with something to hide resist,
right? To the bureaucrat's way of thinking, the use of so-called minimum force
is always justifiable. Existing regulations and controls are satisfactory. After
all, technology upholds democracy, they assert.

     Well, folks, that's just polite talk for what's really happening. Social
conflicts and their participants are either reconciled, managed, repressed,
lost, or efficiently destroyed. This ruthless application of cold logic is made
possible by the new technology of political control and by a class of
bureaucrats who simply don't like people, except for the rich and powerful for
whom they act, of course.

Privacy forbidden... New surveillance capabilities
 Life was a lot simpler 40 years ago at the peak of the Cold War. In 1963 the
East German security service (the notorious Stasi) used 500,000 informants to
monitor and intimidate the population. The Stasi needed a staff of 10,000 agents
just to eavesdrop on telephone calls throughout East Germany.

     That was then. This is now. Today an entire population can be automatically
monitored. The trick is to use computers running
word-recognition software. Every telephone conversation is scanned for
suspicious words if any are found the conversation is stored on disk for a
human agent to review at a later time. Today's computers also feature
voice-recognition software. The security service can tell who is making the
call, even if it's from a public pay telephone. Even more unsettling is the
newest generation of mapping software. It creates a graphic display a city map
showing locations of who-called-who. It makes police roundups a lot easier.
(Alas, the more things change, the more they stay the same. 40 years ago the
East German security service rounded up dissidents during a so-called
ratissage a rat hunt. Today the FBI calls it a no-knock entry.)

     All this computer hardware and software may seem impressive, but in the USA
the National Security Agency continues to push the envelope with self-learning
neural network software that uses human-like artificial intelligence.

     All this technology gives the government tremendous power over us.

     Looking for trouble. Today's surveillance apparatus is routinely used by
both the government security service and the police. They go on fishing
expeditions, looking for trouble that doesn't exist yet or creating trouble
where none exists.

     The security service uses surveillance to track dissidents, journalists,
human rights activists, student leaders, political opponents, and union leaders.
This is illegal, of course.

     The police use surveillance for pre-emptive policing. They track certain
classes of people. This surveillance, identification, and networking results in
mass routine surveillance of large segments of the population without the need
for warrants and formal investigations. This too is illegal, of course.

     Huge amounts of low-grade intelligence are created. It is used by the
government to monitor certain social classes of people and certain races of
people living in so-called red-lined areas before any crime is committed. Hey,
in the eyes of the government, you're automatically presumed to be guilty and
deserving of surveillance.

     The curse of dataveillance. When computers are employed to tie together
unrelated databases for use by the security service or police, it is called
dataveillance. In the USA, 700 databases can be monitored simultaneously. A
surveillance team has instant access to your driver's license, your marital
status, your last credit card purchase, the mortgage on your house, your health
records, your employment history, your tax return, political contributions, and
a potpourri of other personal information.

     Combine this information with a network of closed-circuit television
cameras (CCTV) and you've got an impressive apparatus for population control.
So-called traffic-control cameras can recognize vehicle license plates and
track your movement around the city. Cameras in shopping malls, retail stores,
fast food outlets, parking lots, and other public places can track you on foot.

     When this network of surveillance devices is tied together by computer
networks, it results in pre-emptive policing. The system targets certain classes
of people rather than specific types of criminal activity. Much of the
surveillance apparatus is automatic. It runs on artificial intelligence.

     Now it starts to get scary. Here's why. This massive apparatus of
surveillance and repression can be easily be refocused and retargeted if the
political environment changes. Even in the world's so-called democracies, all it
takes is a word from the nation's leader to declare a national emergency and
implement special measures (this is polite talk for setting up a dictatorship,
folks). Just stop for a moment and imagine living under a dictator equipped with
such enormous capabilities of surveillance, repression, and control over the
general population. Hitler and Stalin were a couple of milquetoasts compared to
what's coming next.

     What we're talking about here are huge police databases and widespread
abuse of civil liberties. Systems like this are usually first forced on groups
with little political power like welfare recipients, the unemployed, and
minorities. If they complain about invasion of privacy, no one listens. Then, as
the oppression begins to be accepted, the dataveillance system is expanded up
the socio-economic system.

     The potential for abuse is so great that legislators in Denmark have banned
CCTV systems. But it's the only country in the world to do so. Some legislators
in Europe were so alarmed that they passed Article 15 of the 1995 European
Directive on the Protection of Individuals, which grants everyone the right "not
to be subject to a decision which produces legal effects concerning him which is
based solely on the automatic processing of data". Automatic video-camera
speed-traps are making a mockery of that legislation. (I am embarrassed to admit
that a key manufacturer of this new radar-trap technology is actually located in
the city where I live.)

     The core issue. As few as 20 years ago, personal information about each us
was fragmented. It was stored in many separate, unrelated locations. It was
extremely difficult to acquire and collate. That's where the safety factor was.
But it's gone now. In today's world, networked computers make retrieval easy.
Cross-referencing and collating is a snap. Simply stated, it is bureaucratic
heaven for the unelected, sociopathic, control-freaks that run the system.

     Biometric systems. The spread of computer-driven biometric systems promises
even greater loss of individual privacy. What we're talking about are devices
like automatic fingerprint readers and human identity recognition systems that
analyze characteristics like genes, odor, signatures, and the pattern of
capillaries at the back of the retina. For example, databases of DNA
fingerprints are popular with police in Britain. The data is already being used
to justify pre-dawn raids of large groups of suspects in the UK. Even more
disturbing, face recognition systems are being tested in the USA, France, and
Germany. In a few short years, you can expect FBI SWAT teams to be kicking in
doors at 5 am simply because some computer program has concluded that your
facial characteristics may match the description given by some sleazy informant
under duress by his FBI handler.

     Other goodies for bureaucrats. Bureaucrats and their toadies can choose
from a well-stocked toolkit of surveillance and oppression
gadgets. Night vision systems. Recognition and tracking of human heat signatures
in total darkness. Helicopter-based telephoto surveillance. Passive millimeter
wave imaging that can see through clothing this will add a new dimension to
airport pre-flight screening areas.

     In today's world, electronic bugs are disguised as light fixtures,
telephone packages, telephones, clocks, cable-TV decoders, even
cockroaches. Multi-room monitoring systems are becoming popular with both the
police and the government security service. And low-intensity magnetic pulse
tools can be used to momentarily disrupt your thinking and confuse you.

     A number of companies are currently selling converted notebook computers
than can eavesdrop on all cellular telephone conversations in a given area. The
software is compatible with Windows. Simply scroll down the menu and click on
the number(s) you want to listen to.

The interception networks...
The scope of the system is mind-boggling. For example, all email, telephone, and
fax communication is routinely intercepted by the NSA in Europe, USA, Central
America, South America, Canada, and Mexico.

     Project Echelon taps into the system of Intelsat satellites and the world's
long-distance telephone calls, Internet communications, email transmission,
faxes, and telexes. This is a billion dollar intelligence-gathering network. It
is used by NSA to monitor everything from dissidents to the activities of
international banks. Data processing sites are located at Yakima (USA),
Wailhopai (New Zealand), Geralton (Australia), Hong Kong, and Morwenstow (UK).
Other countries like Canada and Germany are also key participants in the
data-gathering scheme.

     Whistleblowers inside Project Echelon are claiming widespread abuse,
including malpractice and negligence. Even Amnesty International is routinely
surveilled by the spooks.

     Not to be outdone, the European Union (EU) is in the process of setting up
its own massive eavesdropping network.

A call to action... How to save yourself
It's worth saying again. It was important enough to say it at the beginning of
this article and it's important enough to repeat.

     You're about to lose something. It's already slipping from your grasp. And
once it's gone, you'll never get it back.

     As a people, we are facing the most serious threat to humanity in recorded
history the systematic stripping away of traditional freedoms by governments
worldwide. And that includes all governments.

     It is a situation far more serious than the plagues of the Middle Ages that
nearly wiped us out as a species. It is a threat never before seen in ten
thousand years of human history.

     You are about to become the property of the government.

     A call to action How to save yourself. A hundred years ago, privacy was
taken for granted. It took a lot of time and effort for the
authorities to invade your privacy.

     Today the situation is reversed. Surveillance is the norm. The technology
of political control has made it very easy for the authorities to watch you. It
takes deliberate effort by you to enforce your right to be left alone. In
today's world, you must earn the right to privacy. By doing nothing, you forfeit
your privacy and your life becomes an open book. Any bureaucrat can watch you.

     What can you do? Be aware of what's really going on. In your own way, work
against the dehumanizing political control that government is implementing.
Don't just blindly accept excuses for surveillance.  Much of the time these
excuses are false so...question authority!  Realize that when agents claim to be
doing an investigation on someone, this could be a ruse to make them look
guilty and destroy their good name.  This keeps the person isolated and is seen
as fit punishment for anyone on the government harassment list.
 
 

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