Revelation 13:16-17
And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name...
Daniel 11:38a
"But instead he will honor a god of fortresses...
Proverbs 16:25
There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
Psalms 49:12
But man in his pomp will not endure; He is like the beasts that perish.
N.Y. scanners spark union cries of "geoslavery"
REUTERS - By Michelle Nichols - January 27, 2007 -- NEW YORK -- Every morning Dennis Colson, a surveyor at New York City's Department of Design and Construction, begins his work day by placing his hand on a scanner to log his time and attendance at the office.
The use of hand geometry and other biometric data, like facial and iris recognition, is not new -- the University of Georgia pioneered the use of hand geometry when it installed scanners in its student dining hall in 1974.
But the planned roll-out of hand geometry scanners in all New York City government agencies has sparked union cries of "geoslavery" and assertions that technology developed for security will be used to track, label and control workforces.
"It's frustrating, it's kind of an insult," Colson, 53, told Reuters. "They are talking about going to voice and retina scanners and that's an invasion of privacy in that they can track you wherever you go."
Jon Forster, of the Civil Service Technical Guild, which represents Department of Design and Construction workers, said the biometric systems gave the city a license to obtain personal, uniquely identifiable data to track workers.
"It's really a matter of this kind of technology having far outstripped any legislation or even case law in the United States in terms of what are the restrictions," Forster told Reuters.
"On the one hand I think people might all agree that if you put a GPS system in ambulances then that's a good thing. On the other hand you have an employer in Ohio who has demanded that two of his employees have chips implanted in their bodies."
"If these are the extremes, the question is where does the line get drawn?" he said.
"The unions' arguments keep changing, but the tracking workers throughout the day is not true. It's just for clicking in and out," said Stu Loeser, spokesman for New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, adding that there were no plans to install voice recognition or iris scanners.
IS HAND GEOMETRY THE REAL PROBLEM?
Biometrics expert Jim Wayman, who consults for the U.S., British and Australia governments, said mobile phones and credit cards were the "No. 1 enemies" for workers worried about geoslavery, not biometrics.
"There may be large forces at work in western society wishing to enslave the workforce. I want to acknowledge that fear. But hand geometry is not part of this," Wayman, who has studied biometrics for more than two decades, told Reuters.
He said monitoring computer and phone usage were the "tools by which an employer would seek to enslave the workforce -- it would not be done through biometrics."
In 2004, U.S. employers reportedly spent $9 billion on monitoring devices for the workplace, while a 2005 survey by American Management Association and The ePolicy Institute found 76 percent of companies monitor workers Web site use.
The survey of 526 U.S. companies also showed 36 percent of employers track computer content, keystrokes and time spent at the keyboard, while half store and review employees' computer files and 55 percent retain and review e-mail messages.
Only 5 percent used GPS in phones and 8 percent used GPS in company vehicles, while fingerprint scanning only accounted for 5 percent, facial recognition 2 percent and iris scans 0.5 percent.
"Most people in the industry are surprised that biometrics devices have not become more widespread already," Wayman said.
"There is a 40 year history of implementation of biometric devices, but use of these devices has never become widely popular and one of the reasons is they are thoroughly expensive to use and it's not clear the cost savings in their use."
Military Expands Intelligence Role in U.S.
NEW YORK TIMES - By Eric Lichtblau and Mark Mazzetti - January 14 2007 -- WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon has been using a little-known power to obtain banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage inside the United States, part of an aggressive expansion by the military into domestic intelligence gathering.
The C.I.A. has also been issuing what are known as national security letters to gain access to financial records from American companies, though it has done so only rarely, intelligence officials say.
Banks, credit card companies and other financial institutions receiving the letters usually have turned over documents voluntarily, allowing investigators to examine the financial assets and transactions of American military personnel and civilians, officials say.
The F.B.I., the lead agency on domestic counterterrorism and espionage, has issued thousands of national security letters since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, provoking criticism and court challenges from civil liberties advocates who see them as unjustified intrusions into Americans’ private lives.
But it was not previously known, even to some senior counterterrorism officials, that the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency have been using their own “noncompulsory” versions of the letters. Congress has rejected several attempts by the two agencies since 2001 for authority to issue mandatory letters, in part because of concerns about the dangers of expanding their role in domestic spying.
The military and the C.I.A. have long been restricted in their domestic intelligence operations, and both are barred from conducting traditional domestic law enforcement work. The C.I.A.’s role within the United States has been largely limited to recruiting people to spy on foreign countries.
Carl Kropf, a spokesman for the director of national intelligence, said intelligence agencies like the C.I.A. used the letters on only a “limited basis.
Pentagon officials defended the letters as valuable tools and said they were part of a broader strategy since the Sept. 11 attacks to use more aggressive intelligence-gathering tactics — a priority of former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. The letters “provide tremendous leads to follow and often with which to corroborate other evidence in the context of counterespionage and counterterrorism,” said Maj. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman.
Government lawyers say the legal authority for the Pentagon and the C.I.A. to use national security letters in gathering domestic records dates back nearly three decades and, by their reading, was strengthened by the antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act…..
Some national security experts and civil liberties advocates are troubled by the C.I.A. and military taking on domestic intelligence activities, particularly in light of recent disclosures that the Counterintelligence Field Activity office had maintained files on Iraq war protesters in the United States in violation of the military’s own guidelines. Some experts say the Pentagon has adopted an overly expansive view of its domestic role under the guise of “force protection,” or efforts to guard military installations.
“There’s a strong tradition of not using our military for domestic law enforcement,” said Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker, a former general counsel at both the National Security Agency and the C.I.A. who is the dean at the McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific. “They’re moving into territory where historically they have not been authorized or presumed to be operating.” …
Pentagon Viewing Americans' Bank Records
ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Lolita Baldor - January 14 2007 -- WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon and to a lesser extent the CIA have been using a little-known power to look at the banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage within the United States, officials said Saturday.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Saturday the Defense Department "makes requests for information under authorities of the National Security Letter statutes ... but does not use the specific term National Security Letter in its investigatory practice."
Whitman did not indicate the number of requests that have been made in recent years, but said authorities operate under the Right to Financial Privacy Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the National Security Act.
"These statutory tools may provide key leads for counterintelligence and counterterrorism investigations," Whitman said. "Because these are requests for information rather than court orders, a DOD request under the NSL statutes cannot be compelled absent court involvement."
"It is our understanding that the intelligence community agencies make such requests on a limited basis," said Carl Kropf, a spokesman for the Office of the National Intelligence Director, which oversees all 16 spy agencies in the government.
The national security letters permit the executive branch to seek records about people in terror and spy investigations without a judge's approval or grand jury subpoena.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the lead agency on domestic counterterrorism and espionage, has issued thousands of national security letters since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Whitman said Defense Department "counterintelligence investigators routinely coordinate ... with the FBI."
The national security letters have prompted criticism and court challenges from civil liberties advocates who claim they invade the privacy of Americans' lives, even though banks and other financial institutions typically turn over the financial records voluntarily. …http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070114/D8ML1VU01.html
Cheney admits expanded military spying role inside US
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - January 14 2007 -- US Vice-President Dick Cheney has admitted that the US military and CIA have been spying on the financial dealings of Americans -- intelligence gathering normally authorized only by civilian policing agencies.
The New York Times broke the story overnight, reporting that the Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency had been using "national security letters" to obtain the banking and credit records of Americans and foreigners suspected of terrorist activities in the United States.
The US military and the CIA have long been restricted in their spying activities inside the United States and are barred from conducting traditional domestic law enforcement work in the country.
But Cheney confirmed the main outlines of the report and defended the Pentagon and CIA activities as legal and necessary to protect military installations inside the United States.
"This is a dramatic story, but I think it's important for people to understand here this is a legitimate security effort that's been underway for a long time and it does not represent a new departure from the standpoint of our efforts to protect ourselves against terrorist attack," he said on Fox News Sunday.
"The defense department gets involved because we've got hundreds of bases inside the United States that are potential terrorist targets," he said.
He called the spying "a perfectly legitimate activity" that the military and CIA had authority to carry out going back "three or four decades" and more recently confirmed in the Patriot Act adopted following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
"It doesn't violate people's civil rights, and it's an institution that receives one of these national security letters disagrees with it, they're free to go to court to try to stop its execution," he said.
Citing unnamed intelligence officials, The New York Times said the Pentagon and CIA actions were part of an aggressive expansion by the military into domestic intelligence gathering which is traditionally the realm of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. …http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/01/14/070114153813.ahatfwm8.html
Transmitting Canadian coins found
CANADIAN PRESS - By Jim Bronskill - January 9, 2007 -- OTTAWA -- They say money talks, and a new report suggests Canadian currency is indeed chatting, at least electronically, on behalf of shadowy spies.
Canadian coins containing tiny transmitters have mysteriously turned up in the pockets of at least three American contractors who visited Canada, says a branch of the U.S. Defense Department.
Security experts believe the miniature devices could be used to track the movements of defence industry personnel dealing in sensitive military technology.
"You might want to know where the individual is going, what meetings the individual might be having and, above all, with whom," said David Harris, a former CSIS officer who consults on security matters.
"The more covert or clandestine the activity in which somebody might be involved, the more significant this kind of information could be."
The counterintelligence office of the U.S. Defense Security Service cites the currency caper as an example of the methods international spies have recently tried to illicitly acquire military technology.
The service's report, Technology Collection Trends in the U.S. Defense Industry, says foreign-hosted conventions, seminars and exhibits are popular venues for pilfering secrets.
The report is based on an analysis of 971 "suspicious contact reports" submitted in the fiscal year 2005 by security-cleared defence contractors and various official personnel....
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/01/09/3257344-cp.html
U.S. retracts spy coins claim
Note: I honestly don't believe one statement this government makes as a whole (except for two congressmen I can think of). It is the largest criminal organization on the planet.
I hope I am not rocking your boat as I know there are decent citizens and even godly Christians who are working hard to try and better this country from within it's organizational structure. I also believe in the Constitution and what the founding fathers originally intended, but what this nation has become is a beast and it is very, very evil.
We Americans should be on our face weeping before God for mercy for the USA rather than boasting.
BE/\LERT!
CANADIAN PRESS - By Jim Bronskill - January 29, 2007 -- OTTAWA -- It seems there's no danger of your spare change spying on you after all.
A U.S. government defence agency has suddenly retracted its claim that Canadian coins containing tiny transmitters were planted on at least three American contractors who visited Canada.
It's the latest twist in an intriguing cash caper.
Canadians began carefully scrutinizing their loonies following the Virginia-based Defense Security Service's claim that specially doctored coins were a new tool of the trade for shadowy figures out to steal sensitive U.S. military technology.
"On at least three separate occasions between October 2005 and January 2006, cleared defence contractors' employees travelling through Canada have discovered radio frequency transmitters embedded in Canadian coins placed on their persons," said the service's annual counterintelligence report for 2006.
The document did not indicate what sort of coins were involved, and a service spokeswoman said details of the incidents were classified.
Intelligence experts surmised the miniature transmitters in the supposedly rigged coins might be used to track the movements of defence industry personnel....
In a statement posted late Friday on its website, the Defense Security Service said the coin claims were based on a report provided to the agency.
"The allegations, however, were found later to be unsubstantiated following an investigation into the matter," the statement said, adding that "the 2006 annual report should not have contained this information." ...
Items of intrest from the CASPIAN NEWSLETTER
State Lawmakers Consider Anti-Chipping Bills
CASPIAN NEWSLETTER - January 25, 2007 -- Colorado State Representative Mary Hodge has introduced legislation to
make it a crime to require a human being to have a microchip implant in
that state. Similar bills have recently been introduced in Ohio,
Oklahoma, and North Dakota, and we anticipate more on the way. The bills
follow legislation passed unanimously in Wisconsin and signed into law
last year.
Rocky Mountain News
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5286748,00.html
Click here to read the full text of Colorado HB 07-1082:
http://www.leg.state.co.us/clics/clics2007a/csl.nsf/fsbillcont/CBC12C68118CE43787257251007B703D?Open&file=1082_01.pdf
Flashback -- Our May 2006 press release on the Wisconsin bill:
http://www.spychips.com/press-releases/verichip-wisconsin-ban.html
Tokyo Rfid Trial To Track Shoppers, Beam Ads
The "Tokyo Ubiquitous Network Project," running from now until March 10,
will use radio-frequency identification tags, infrared, and wireless
transmitters to identify Japanese shoppers and keep track of their
movements on the streets of Tokyo. The purpose? To send them ads and
coupons based on their habits.
Fort Wayne News Sentinel
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/business/16497861.htm
E-Passport: Doorway To The Panopticon
This in-depth article explains who's watching you when you travel, and
how they're doing it. Includes information about government agency
involvement, international plans, RFID, facial recognition, and more.
Immigration Daily
http://www.ilw.com/articles/2007,0104-scarmig.shtm
The Charliecard Mitten - Pay With Your Right Hand
All subway passengers in Boston must now pay with an RFID-laced card
dubbed the "CharlieCard" - no more tokens or coins. To simplify paying
on cold winter days, one commuter has knitted a pair of mittens with a
pocket to hold the card. Now all it takes is a swipe of the right hand
to board the train.
(Link below includes a photo of the mitten.)
Boston Real Estate Blog
http://bostonreb.com/blog/2007/01/17/most-excellent-mitten-ever-read-this-post/
Are Your Shopping Records Being Sold To Politicians?
Ever wonder what happens to all that information your grocery store
collects when they swipe your club card at the register? Politicians can
now take advantage of this data thanks to a vast information bank
profiling individual Americans. Credit-card data, social-security
information, census facts, magazine-subscription lists, and club card
records are all fair game for political campaigns now, thanks to a
practice known as "microtargeting."
The Province (Canada)
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/editorial/story.html?id=35a555ca-5304-48fd-afaa-7d78890d8286
(Site requires free registration)
Read how Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign used consumer data:
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/living/community/15847915.htm?source=rss&channel=siliconvalley_community
Note: This is only a small sample of the material available from CASPIAN.
CASPIAN: Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering
Protecting consumer privacy and opposing retail surveillance since 1999
http://www.spychips.com/
http://www.nocards.org/
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may find it of interest.
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