D. S. Wright / FireDogLake – 2013-04-27 01:47:30
http://news.firedoglake.com/2013/04/26/boston-bombing-intelligence-failure-possibly-due-to-overly-expansive-terrorist-database/
Boston Bombing Intelligence Failure Possibly Due To Overly Expansive Terrorist Database
D. S. Wright / FireDogLake
(April 26, 2013) –The government’s potential terrorist list includes a stunning 450,000 people. More than the security services can keep track off apparently as it seems one of the Boston Bombing suspects had been included prior to the Boston Marathon Bombing.
The name of one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was listed on the US government’s highly classified central database of people it views as potential terrorists. But the list is so vast that this did not mean authorities automatically kept close tabs on him, sources close to the bombing investigation said on Tuesday.
Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a police shootout early Friday, while his younger brother Dzhokhar, 19, was captured later that day. Prosecutors say the brothers, ethnic Chechens who had been living in the United States for more than a decade, planted two bombs that exploded near the finish line of the marathon on April 15, killing three people and wounding more than 200.
So if he was in the terrorist database what went wrong?
The FBI found nothing to suggest he was an active threat, but all the same placed his name on the “Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment” list. The FBI has not said what it did find about Tsarnaev…
Because of its huge size, US investigators do not routinely monitor everyone registered there, said US officials familiar with the database.
As of 2008, TIDE contained more than 540,000 names, although they represented about 450,000 actual people, because some of the entries are aliases or different name spellings for the same person. Fewer than 5 percent of the TIDE entries were US citizens or legal residents, according to a description of the database on the NCTC website.
So, let me get this straight. The Department of Homeland Security routinely monitors peaceful protests [See story below] but the FBI does not seriously keep track of terrorists, including one that was in the system before he bombed the Boston Marathon? Almost like the security services were setup to crush political dissent not protect the public.
If there were actually half a million hard core terrorists trying to destroy America, game over. As the Boston Bombers just demonstrated, it does not take much to shut down a major city. The reason America has not been destroyed by “terrorism” is because there are not enough people who want to do it not because it is preventable. Let alone preventable by waging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which actually motivated the bombing.
The rampant and unrestrained growth of the police state in America is not only tyrannical it is counterproductive to stopping terrorism. If everyone is a threat then no amount of protection will be effective.
New Documents Reveal DHS Routinely Spies On Peaceful Americans
D. S. Wright / FireDogLake
(April 5, 2013) — If you are going to have an extremely unequal society, you better have a police state. And guess what? We do. New documents received by the Partnership For Civil Justice Fund reveal that the Department of Homeland Security routinely spies on peaceful activists as a matter of policy.
Government documents obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) through its FOIA records requests reveal that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), an agency created after the September 11 attacks under the rubric of combating terrorism, conducts daily monitoring of peaceful, lawful protests as a matter of policy.
Functioning as a secret political police force against people participating in lawful, peaceful free speech activity, the heavily redacted documents show that the DHS “Threat Management Division” directed Regional Intelligence Analysts to provide a “Daily Intelligence Briefing” that includes a category of reporting on “Peaceful Activist Demonstrations” along with “Domestic Terrorist Activity.”
The constitution is dead and buried — long live the constitution. Disagree with the government, previously protected activity, and you will be punished. But in order to punish you they need dirt and thanks to fighting “terrorism” they can conduct as much surveillance on you, your home, your friends, your family, your business, your online activity as they want. No judges, no juries, you’re guilty.
The documents show the routine use of Fusion Centers for intelligence gathering on peaceful demonstrations as well as the use of DHS’ “Mega Centers” for collection of surveillance information on demonstrations.
One document also shows the DHS engaging in what appears to be “off the books” intelligence gathering as one DHS agent writes in response to a request for information on the Occupy movement in New England, “This meeting should be finishing up soon and I’ll have access to a non-DHS computer that will allow me to do more looking.”
So in the event DHS has some minor safeguards, the secret police agents simply bypass them. Brilliant.
Well, my friends, it has been quite a journey since 1776 hasn’t it? As we head into the sunset of our freedom shall we take a moment to celebrate what we once had? The right to an opinion. The right to engage in open debate without being molested by the government. The right to pursue opportunities in fair competition. The faith that those, no matter how powerful, who broke the law would face some form of justice. Maybe it was always a dream.
But now, unfortunately, we the people are once again living under a feudal system where some are above the law and the remaining 99% are mere serfs with ever diminishing rights and opportunities. I guess some will still deny this. That in an age of “terrorism” — somehow a greater threat than Fascism and nuclear armed Communism — we simply have to protect ourselves by imprisoning ourselves.
We cannot abide these old expectations of liberty where everyone can think whatever they want or dare to demonstrate in public against the government and the powers behind it. No, true freedom is the freedom from imaginary threats and the worsening worst-case scenarios excreting from the dark bureaucracy of the National Security State. It’s the New America, freedom is slavery.
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
