Feds to spy on Americans' communications?

[Guest Drewsett]

Republican, Democrat, Independent, 3rd Party....

I don't care what side of the political spectrum you come from, this should scare the hell out of you.

I'm not one usually to promote Alex Jones, but this article....

Authorities Plan To Trawl Phone Calls And E Mails For Signs Of “Resentment Toward Government”

Facecrime: Orwellian technology seeks to identify disgrunted Americans as terrorists

Photo: Pal Berge

Paul Joseph Watson

Prison Planet.com [1]

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Do you resent the government for enforcing Obamacare or raising your taxes? Write about it in an email or talk about it on the phone and you could be placed under surveillance as a potential terrorist, if frightening new technology being shopped to law enforcement agencies is implemented.

Forget pre-crime and get ready for face-crime, Big Brother is set to unleash a new wave of shockingly invasive and Orwellian technology on the American people if a recent symposium in Hamburg New York is anything to go by. Federal agencies, police departments and others were all in attendance to see a demonstration of a system that trawls phone conversations, emails and instant messages to detect “resentment toward government,†alerting authorities to potential “terrorists†who are then placed under surveillance.

The technology was demonstrated to law enforcement officials, mental health professionals, and military representatives at a recent International First Responder-Military Symposium held at Hilbert College.

“A Swiss professor working with a Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientist who heads the Mind Machine Project there outlined how this program operates through computerized scanning of phone calls and electronic messages sent through e-mail and social networking mechanisms,†reports the Buffalo News [2].

The system works by detecting “resentment in conversations through measurements in decibels and other voice biometrics,†more specifically the emotional spikes that characterize “hatred and deep resentment toward government.â€

“As for written transmissions scrutinized by the computer program, it can detect the same patterns of fixation on specified subjects,†states the report.

Once an individual has been identified as harboring “resentment toward government,†the information can be “passed along to authorities so surveillance can begin.â€

Besides law enforcement applications, the program is also designed to aid mental health professionals to help “war veterans†become emotionally stable, chillingly implying that distrust or hatred of government, which was hailed by the founding fathers as a vital virtue, is now considered a mental illness.

Of course, this technology completely violates the 4th amendment, but by introducing it as a tool to fight terrorism, authorities hope to skirt around the issue – the problem being that, as we have exhaustively documented, the federal government now sees any political activity whatsoever, be it anti-war protesters on the left, or anti-big government activists on the right, as potential domestic terrorists.

The technology is rationalized by its adherents, who claim that it will help stop terrorists in their tracks, while also being used against ‘troubled veterans and first responders’.

However, the introduction of a program that closely resembles George Orwell’s “facecrime†in 1984 has little to do with fighting extremist Muslims hiding in caves in central Asia, this is all about targeting the American people with total panopticon-style surveillance, while also creating a chilling atmosphere and reminding people that their every conversation, instant message or email is being scanned by super-computers for any sign of extremism or “resentment toward governmentâ€.

(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)

[3]

As we have seen from the MIAC report [4], the spying case in Pennsylvania [5], and a host of others in recent years, the federal government defines “terrorist propaganda†as any material critical of the state, therefore any dissent against Big Brother in a phone conversation or an email would automatically trigger the new technology.

This is not only a constitution killer, it represents a hammer blow to free speech. The Internet as a forum of open discourse and free exchange of ideas will be fundamentally damaged if people live in constant fear of being raided by the feds at any minute because they sounded off about the government in an e mail or a posting on a comment board.

Of course, with distrust towards the state touching all time highs [6], there are millions of Americans who “harbor hatred and deep resentment toward government,†but that doesn’t mean they plan on bombing federal buildings.

The technofascism blog [7] dug up a couple of quotes from George Orwell’s 1984 that almost precisely describe the exact same technology being used in the legendary dystopia about a totalitarian society that constantly hounds, harasses, and surreptitiously spies on its citizens.

“It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself–anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face…; was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime…â€

-George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 5

“Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your nervous system. At any moment the tension inside you was liable to translate itself into some visible symptom.â€

- George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 6

Rather than an improper facial expression or nervous tic, which was more within the purview of the equally ludicrous “gait analysis†division of Admiral John Poindexter’s Total Information Office [8], a program that claimed to be able to identify terrorists by the way they walk, the facecrime technology defines “abnormality†as being critical of the authorities, a frightening throwback to the Soviet psikhushkas — mental hospitals — which were used by the state as prisons in order to isolate political prisoners, discredit their ideas, and break them physically and mentally.

Indeed, the establishment media has intensified its dissemination of talking points that attempt to categorize distrust of authority as a mental disorder [9].

Although it survives under a number of different names with private sector funding, Total Information Awareness was mothballed by Congress in 2003 after widespread criticism that it would lead to the implementation of a “mass surveillance systemâ€. Facecrime goes a step further, it not only creates a mass surveillance system of all our communications, it also corrodes and corrupts people’s confidence in being able to exercise their first amendment right to express “hatred and resentment toward government,†without being harassed and targeted as domestic terrorists.

Facecrime technology is illegal, immoral, anti-American and something that needs to be ditched permanently if the United States and indeed any free country is to heed George Orwell’s warning and resist the descent into totalitarianism.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

I betcha the inbox at that device fills up fast. I read about this somewhere else, also.

It would definitely be a constitution buster. Big brother is interested in controlling our lives

and that bunch, or really any bunch in charge, could use something like this to suppress

freedom real quick. With all the black funded items we don't know about, I imagine

there are similar items in use or under development.

Tyranny comes in all shapes and sizes.

[Guest mikedwood]

I think the government is doing a wonderful job and am grateful that they are serving all of us so well. Long live the government! (how's that?)

[Raoul]

I betcha the inbox at that device fills up fast. I read about this somewhere else, also.

It would definitely be a constitution buster. Big brother is interested in controlling our lives

and that bunch, or really any bunch in charge, could use something like this to suppress

freedom real quick. With all the black funded items we don't know about, I imagine

there are similar items in use or under development.

Tyranny comes in all shapes and sizes.

Amen 6.8

[Guest Drewsett]

I betcha the inbox at that device fills up fast. I read about this somewhere else, also.

It would definitely be a constitution buster. Big brother is interested in controlling our lives

and that bunch, or really any bunch in charge, could use something like this to suppress

freedom real quick. With all the black funded items we don't know about, I imagine

there are similar items in use or under development.

Tyranny comes in all shapes and sizes.

Heart of this issue, this is.

We need a better breed of government worker/politician --ones whose top priority is fixing the country, not getting reelected. (vote buying)

[JPS]

I think the government is doing a wonderful job and am grateful that they are serving all of us so well. Long live the government! (how's that?)

Surely something this advanced has a sarcasm filter, yes..?

[Guest 6.8 AR]

If you will notice, the government uses fear to gain more power over our

lives, when they are primarily trying to get re-elected. This eventually leads

to the 'absolute power' or tyranny. It's a slow and steady process and needs

to be fought against every time it is brought up. The Patriot Act was a prime

example. We gave up a lot of liberty for very little security.

A good example of this, while not necessarily affecting everyone, is the struggle

between the Republican leadership and the Tea Party challenges in the recent

primaries. That 'old guard leadership' funded at least three senate races that

were beat by the challengers in the Republican primaries. It took pressure to

get the leadership to concede their power over the people in the affected states.

It's the same principle in the government authority, but at a larger scale. If the

leadership had their way, the Republicans would have nullified Joe Miller and

allowed Lisa Murkowski to run as the Republican in Alaska. The same with

Mike Castle in Delaware. Marco Rubio didn't give them a chance to play the game.

He became too popular, too fast.

Federal, state and local governments will always strive to assert authority until

there is no freedom left. It's that way by design, unless the 'people' are actively

involved in the process and keep the power in check. It's why the Constitution

was written the way it was. The Founders knew this. Why do we keep forgetting

this?

We allowed this President to appoint a multitude of Czars, that are unaccountable

to anyone other than him, yet some around would rather go after this and say

"Nixon started this". Right! But does that fix anything? Childish rationalization

fixes nothing. It's called a 'power grab' and needs to stop.

We need to quit rationalizing away unconstitutional power grabs and elect people

to reverse this trend.

Some people think the Tea Party is a joke. That's a foolish thought. We want our

country back and are willing to do something about it. Are you?

If not, then keep electing these fools who will put us back in the middle ages. It

is, after all, our country, not theirs. When there is compromise between good and

evil, evil always wins. People like Jim Demint and the Tea Party are trying to put a

stop to this. Progressives are evil.

Quit compromising!

[Guest Swamprunner]

This is no surprise.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

This is much more important an issue than legalizing pot. This is a systemic problem

with anyone desiring power. They keep winning by incrementalism. We keep becoming

more complacent. Maybe we will start to win some battles next month.

[Guest FroggyOne2]

Some people think the Tea Party is a joke. People like Jim Demint and the Tea Party are trying to put a stop to this. Progressives are evil. Quit compromising!

Yes.. and I do feel that if the Republican party don't mend their ways... and embrace the new movement.. it will fall to the wayside like the Wigs!

[Oh Shoot]

Yes.. and I do feel that if the Republican party don't mend their ways... and embrace the new movement.. it will fall to the wayside like the Wigs!

Or the Whigs, even.

Actually, nothing will change.

This is just part of the good cop/bad cop cycle.

Same ole.

- OS