Blog and Blogger (Free Speech) Protection Programs?

So what is being done to protect blogs and bloggers?

Something is being done about protecting blog posts via such archives as the memoryhole. However, I have not yet found any such resource for breakyourchains or warblogging. Why should that be?

Does any government entity -- the Central Intelligence Agency? -- ensure that blogs and their accessibility are neither tampered with or stymied, in order to protect our Constitutionally guaranteed liberties?

What is the U.S. government doing to safeguard against U.S. Department of Homeland Security resources being used for political reasons? Is there a secure log of all internal commands? Is there such cross-surveillance as constant cameras on government computer operators, along key tap logs? Is this cross-linked amongst different government entities (and even a public channel to provide an level playing field for all private watchdogs)?

Does the FBI investigate bloggers on their behalf? For instance do they investigate threats and other incidents suggestive of organized efforts to intimidate bloggers? Have they developed an algorithm to identify such blogs most likely at risk, perhaps for addressing issues that are blacked out in the mainstream media?

With the traditional safeguard against the abuse of the system to silence dissent being a search warrant, why is the administration of U.S. President George Walker Bush so adamant about subjecting the general public to USHS searches without warrant?

Illustration from Info Wars

Blog and Blogger Safety: 1st amendment vanguard

Obviously, blog and blogger safety are at the vanguard of freedom of speech: our God given right to write in a forum accessible to the masses.

Without this, bad ideas are granted a public monopoly at the whim of the most powerful, unchallenged in "mainstream" (controlled networks) publications, with the decision making being relegated to meetings in the dark, with free speech limited mainly to living rooms and dining tables.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
— The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Other supressed bloggers?

This blogger always appreciates hearing about these* and other bloggers targeted by the government and government connected entities.

Please use the comments feature below.

Or even, start a blog for each (something that I do not have the time myself to do).

*
http://wwwfreespeechbeneathushs.blogspot.com/2006/11/george-paine.html

http://wwwfreespeechbeneathushs.blogspot.com/2006/11/stephen-devoy_26.html

George Paine

www.warblogging.com
www.warblogging.blogspot.com

2002-2006

George Paine is another internet writer who became widely known for his work on the "Information Awareness Office" of mass computerized data mining surveillance of the general public. I found this, dated February 2005 at http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/feb05/piper_ramos.shtml

Warblogging [http://www.warblogging.com/] was founded in July 2002 by George Paine. "The purpose of the site is to provide another voice in the chorus of Americans calling for a balanced and reasonable foreign policy and a domestic policy that respects the United States Constitution and the rule of law." While this site leans left on certain issues, it attempts to adhere to strict constitutionalism. The site is not dedicated exclusively to the Iraq War, but the war news section, Warstories:CC, is searchable by keyword and can be limited to "Iraq and Gulf War Redux." The site also offers date limiting. When I searched for articles using the above limiter, the search retrieved 9,778 articles. Each article is posted in abbreviated form, with a link to the original article, time, date, source, and a feedback-post option.

In 2006 he suspended his work on warblogging.

When I enter the warblogging url, I get nothing but a time out. When I go to his site at blogspot.com, I get an error message saying that the blog does not exist (even though it has labled archive links).

It appears that an entity or entities have harassed George Paine in retaliation for his writings via his financial records. He presents an account of how his bank cards mysteriously went dead. And his warblogging site's "donate" link to donate goes to a deactivated or blocked Paypal account that states that "this recipient is currently unable to receive money."

George Paine, Anger, Shame and Fascism

• * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
  
  This re-posting is for those who missed it last November. And for those who miss George very much... --DN
  
  <><><><><><><><>
  
  George Paine, patriot, wrote this back on May 4, 2003. Can you imagine how much angrier he must be by now? Assuming he's not in Gitmo, or worse. He appears to have "disappeared." It's from his website warblogging.com. A blog he *stopped writing a while back. He said he was taking a break.
  
  We are all the poorer for his need for a break. We hope he's able to return sometime. Fortunately, we still have the archives.
  
  BTW, has anyone seen or heard from George since he suspended the blog? Anyone? How about you guys over at the FBI? CIA? Der Fatherland Security? Reichssicherheitshauptamt? Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti? ... –DN

http://radarcontact.blogspot.com/2006/04/george-paine-anger-shame-and-fascism.html

- - - - - - -

Anger, by George Paine

I said a few days ago that I'm ashamed of President Bush. I said that I'm ashamed that he feels that the Constitution is something that can be shredded in wartime. I said that I'm ashamed that he engages in aggressive war in my name. That isn't the half of it.

I'm angry at my President. I'm terribly, terribly angry. I'm angry that he sends out INS and Homeland Security Department thugs to harass diners in South Asian restaurants in Times Square. I'm angry that these thugs don't even allow those Americans that they harass and detain to contact a lawyer.

I'm angry that Mike Hawash was forced to languish in solitary confinement as a farcical "material witness". I'm angry that Jose Padilla still languishes in a US Navy brig and is still forbidden from seeing an attorney, more than a year after his detention. (And STILL there... --DN)

I'm angry that I know, personally, people who have been touched by the massive domestic "security" apparatus constructed after September 11. They say that in South America everyone knows someone who's been "disappeared". I feel like things are getting that way here, too, except that not quite that many people are being "disappeared" yet — they're just being harassed. I'm absolutely livid at the thought that a student at the State University of New York was interrogated by the Secret Service after he wrote an editorial in a school newspaper asking Jesus to smite President Bush.I'm furious, completely furious that a friend of mine was asked if he had a copy of Mein Kampf and the Unabomber's Manifesto as the Secret Service turned his apartment upside down. Do you realize that the Secret Service told him that his editorial was not "protected speech"?

I'm furious that a friend of a friend of mine was detained for almost a day in the bowels of the New York Federal Building after he was caught taking a picture of a surveillance camera. I'm furious that he, an American citizen, wasn't allowed to call an attorney, even as he was being interrogated by the FBI. I'm furious that it took a friendly FBI agent breaking the rules for him to contact the outside world and that the only reason he was released when he was released was because his boss happened to know the FBI agent who was interrogating him.

I'm absolutely livid that entire families have had their doors broken down and their homes searched and their patriarchs carted out in handcuffs on the word of some anonymous paid informant.

I can't believe that we live in a country where secret courts consider secret evidence when deciding whether or not to issue secret search warrants to secretly search people's homes and offices and plant listening and tracking devices. I'm livid that secret courts then rule that this behavior is perfectly acceptable because even though it "may violate" the Fourth Amendment, because it at least "comes close". I'm absolutely furious that Americans get detained for months on end in solitary confinement on the basis of secret evidence — without so much as the right to challenge their accuser in a court of law. Is this not the most basic, fundamental underpinning of Western jurisprudence?

I'm furious that our Attorney General would float legislation called the "Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003" that, as I said several months ago would:

allow the Justice Department to name Warblogging — or a group that I belong to — a terrorist organization. Once they've done that they're free to break into my apartment at three in the morning and wake me up at gunpoint. They can take me to a military facility in North Carolina (or, even better, take me to Gitmo ) and tell a secret court that I have lost my citizenship by being a member of a terrorist organization. They can then try me in a secret military tribunal and sentence me to life in prison. All secretly. You'll never know about it. All you'll know is that Warblogging is no longer being updated. That's all you'll know. Me? I'll rot in a Navy brig for the rest of my life, at least until democracy is restored in this country. I never had an opportunity to convince others to no longer consent to this government. They snatched me before I could write my next article about civil liberties.

I'm absolutely, positively livid that even as the United States allies itself with terrorist dictatorships like Uzbekistan while the United States, the country I love, criticizes Canada because it "cares too much about liberties".

I can't imagine a country where the Director of Homeland Security (I'm sorry, but what kind of countries call themselves a "Homeland"? I remember the "Fatherland" and "Motherland"...) says that "Liberty is the most precious gift we offer to our citizens". Come on, Mr. Ridge, the government does not "give" us Liberty! We give ourselves Liberty! We hold these rights to be "self evident", Mr. Ridge! To say that you "give" us the right implies that you can also take it away! You are doing so, but I am here to tell you that I will not stand idly by as you do so!

I'm positively boiling that the White House wants to give the CIA and Department of Defense the right to subpoena records about ordinary Americans here in America. They actually want to give the Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Defense the right to spy on Americans in America! Have these people never heard of Posse Comitatus? Have they not read the executive orders forbidding CIA domestic operations against Americans?

I'm furious, completely furious, that the FBI can subpoena records of my interactions with various companies without so much as a court order. I'm livid, absolutely livid, that the White House still wants to develop the Total Information Awareness

I'm beside myself that the United States has become a nation where the news media censors itself to the point of deleting news!

I can't imagine that we live in a country — our United States! — where people routinely e-mail me asking me if I feel safe writing what I say. I'm absolutely ashamed that members of my family have to ask me if I'm worried that the Government will come after me. I'm furious that my relatives, friends and readers ask if I'm worried of tax audits — or worse — as retaliation for what I write here on Warblogging.

I'm absolutely, positively furious that my government wants the right to declare me a "foreign power" and "terrorist" and arrest me based on "secret evidence". I can't believe that they then want the right to hold me in solitary confinement in a military prison for the rest of my life as an enemy of the state! They want the right to strip me of my citizenship at their say-so to accomplish this neatly, without the interference of such pesky things as habeas corpus!

I'm furious that my country — even as it oppresses and strangles its citizens and allies itself with evil dictatorships that torture and execute people for exercising their religious beliefs — engages in aggressive "wars of liberation". I'm furious that my armed forces open fire on demonstrators in a foreign country that has been placed under our imperial thumb. I'm furious that the Department of Defense announces that we will be establishing massive military bases in Iraq before even a provisional Iraqi government can be established to so much as rubber stamp such an arrangement.

I'm furious that my President appears on the USS Abraham Lincoln in a military uniform to address the troops and announce combat in Iraq "over". I challenge him to tell that to the people of Fallujah, who have been massacred in the streets of their city! That aside, I'm trying to think of the last time I saw a "president" in military uniform. I can think of three in particular: Saddam Hussein, Pervez Musharraf and Manuel Noriega.

I'm furious that my President told me and the rest of the world that Iraq had WMD and that we knew that for a fact but that now his minions tell us that we're unlikely to find WMD at any site "suspected of having them before the war." I'm furious that they told us they had evidence and intelligence, and some of us trusted them, but that their evidence and intelligence repeatedly failed to pan out when given to UN weapons inspectors and even "exploitation teams" of the US Army currently operating in Iraq.

I've been ranting for quite a while now. I'm angry. I'm very angry. Perhaps most of all I'm angry that President Bush plans to exploit the memory of September 11 by spending the month of September traveling between campaign events and memorial services for people who died on that fateful day. He's been exploiting that tragedy for all it's worth since it happened, and it doesn't just make me angry — it makes me cry.

I was in New York City when the World Trade Center was hit. I woke up to a friend telling me that one tower had collapsed, that the Pentagon was on fire and that there was a car bomb at the State Department. I woke up and smelled the stench of death. I inhaled people's ashes. I inhaled the ground up concrete and steel for weeks. I hacked up phlegm impregnated with the cremated remains of people I would never know for weeks upon weeks. I watched the second tower fall from a New York CityUnion Square mourning with my fellow New Yorkers. I spent months upon months upon months walking by photographs of the missing.

President Bush is exploiting our national grief. He is using our grief to oppress Americans in the worst way since Woodrow Wilson signed the Espionage Act. He is using our grief to convince us to become "conquer monkeys" as Garry Trudeau put it. Now he plans to exploit September 11 to get himself reelected. And I think it will work. (Anyone remember what happened? I was curled up in the fetal position at the time... --DN)

We live in a country that no longer respects civil liberties or the rule of law. We live in a country where police officers say "Yes, we have every right. You are being held under the Patriot Act following suspicion under an internal Homeland Security investigation." We live in a country where they react to a request for an attorney like such:

When I asked to speak to a lawyer, the INS official informed me that I do have the right to a lawyer but I would have to be brought down to the station and await security clearance before being granted one. When I asked how long that would take, he replied with a coy smile: "Maybe a day, maybe a week, maybe a month."

We live in a country that celebrates Loyalty Day for God's sake!

We live in a country where the Internal Revenue Service announces a crackdown on poor families who may or may not be improperly claiming the benefit of the Earned Income Tax Credit even as they announce that they will be weakening investigations of corporate tax evaders due to budget issues.

I'm furious that the President that President Bush and his staff of neoconservatives most admire is Woodrow Wilson — the man who outlawed dissent with his Sedition Act of 1918 that outlawed:

Uttering, printing, writing, or publishing any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language intended to cause contempt, scorn, as regards the form of government of the United States or Constitution, or the flag or the uniform of the Army or Navy, urging any curtailment of the war with intent to hinder its prosecution; advocating, teaching, defending, or acts supporting or favoring the cause of any country at war with the United States, or opposing the cause of the United States. program — a program designed to spy on every aspect of every American's life. roof. I spent weeks in

What does this all add up to? I see only one pattern here: fascism.

Do you in the White House and in Congress hear me? How about you guys in the Department of Defense and the FBI? In the US Courts system? In the INS and in Homeland Security? I know you read Warblogging. I know you're reading this. What do you think of what I say here? Do you dare try to defend your policies, your lies and your oppression? I invite you to post comments! You've been lurkers for too long! Come forward, show yourselves, defend yourselves!

You should be ashamed of yourselves! Your actions cast a pall over this great nation. Your actions are forcing our founding fathers to turn over in the graves, over and over again. Your actions are a betrayal — a stab in the back. The great Americans who fought and died defending freedom in World War II — did they die in vain? Did they die on the beaches of Normandy and in the forests of the Bulge and in the streets of Nice only to see America turn against itself?

What can we do about it? I honestly don't know. I have three thoughts:

First, I think that it's possible that we can suddenly gain an awareness, as a country, as a nation, of what's happening and fight against it. We can fight against President Bush and his neoconservative cronies and throw him out of the White House in disgrace. This is, of course, my preferred scenario — but I don't think it's very realistic. (Oh, George, ye of little faith. Have you checked the polls lately? The Lilliputians seem to be waking up. Quick - bring the ropes! ... --DN)

Second, I think that we can continue on the road we're on until things get so bad that even the apolitical people living in Des Moines must wake up and take notice — that things will get so bad that, like in South America, everyone will know one of the "disappeared". Maybe at this point we will strike back as a nation and throw these crooks and oppressors out of the White House. (See comment above --DN)

The third possibility is that the productive, intelligent members of our society who recognize what's going on will pick up and move. I've already received e-mail from at least half a dozen Americans who have done just this — they're now living in various European countries, in Canada and in New Zealand.

I just can't imagine that this country that I love so much — precisely because I've always considered it free, because I've always thought it was "the worst country in the world except all the others" — is doing all of this. I feel like a German in 1934. What do I do? I don't know what to do, but I am determined not to stand idly by as the country I love is destroyed systematically by a power-mad pseudo-dictator.

I apologize that I haven't provided hypertext links throughout this rant — I wrote it relatively quickly and it would take me hours upon hours to go through and link everything that should be linked. Please make good use of Google, the Warblogging search engine and the comments feature of this site to share information about the subjects I've talked about.Thank you for understanding.

Posted by George Paine Comments (266) TrackBack (15) --Unfortunately, those links are dead... --DN

*Warblogging
Warblogging is taking a break. Thanks to everyone who came, everyone who stayed, and everyone who cared.

The archives remain. When the energies return, maybe I will too. So long, and thanks for all the fish! http://radarcontact.blogspot.com/2006/04/george-paine-anger-shame-and-fascism.html

Guest Op-ed: "Your Bank Account, Your Liberties"

By George Paine

(Note: this op-ed was previously published in a longer form on January 2 at Warblogging.com)

On New Year's Eve, my debit and ATM card stopped functioning. When I got in touch with my bank the following Saturday I was told that it was disabled due to "possible fraud" and that I would have to visit the bank personally to review my account history and certify that no fraud occurred before my card could be reactivated.

I went to the bank that day and met with my banker, who greeted me by name as I arrived. He pulled up my account on his computer and scrolled through my financial history for the past several months. Together we set out to find anything suspicious. As the pages - the days - rolled by on-screen, I realized that these transactions brought back memories.

I mentioned this to him and he gave me a knowing smile. He began to extrapolate details of my life from the transactions. "So, here, on December 13th, you got a cup of coffee with a friend. Then you guys got some sushi...Is that place good? You took in a show. Had a couple of drinks afterward..."

He was right. That was exactly what I'd done that day. Eventually we got to my Christmas purchases. He asked if someone had liked a particular gift. I said that she did. He gave me a friendly wink.

It struck me then that this man knows where I eat, where I get my coffee, when and where I drink, when and where I travel. He knows where I buy books. He knows what political campaigns I've contributed to, and how much.

After we ruled out fraud, he reactivated my ATM card and I thanked him for the service. It was then that I noticed a small sign on his desk, an advertisement from a banking services company. It was designed to appear as patriotic as possible, right down to the American flag in the background. It read "USA PATRIOT Act compliance by..."

While I don't remember the name of the company that provided the advertisement to my banker, a quick Google search reveals many such companies. One of them is Aquilan, which offers a product called Aquilan Patriot Manager (APM). The APM tagline: "Know Your Customers. 'Red Flag' Suspicious Activity. Prevent Money Laundering."

My time with the banker was innocuous. But the PATRIOT Act requires banks to report any "suspicious activity" to the government. According to the Aquilan website, the complexity of the banking business these days makes correctly identifying such activity "nearly impossible," so banks use software like APM to make the impossible possible. But is it?

APM probably works much the same way as the fraud detection software that prevented me from accessing my own bank account. This means that it's just as likely to be flawed, just as likely to yield false positives. And just as likely to bring the FBI to my door as the fraud detection software was to bring me to the bank.

On December 13th, President Bush signed into law the "Intelligence Authorization Act for FY 2004." This bill contains a section that expands the FBI's power to access our bank records, and our interactions with most other businesses, without first obtaining permission from a judge.

No longer can a judge say, "You're on a fishing expedition. You can't see George Paine's banking information."

If this doesn't concern you, it should. Think back to the skeleton or two in your closet. Think about all the information that your bank records share about you.

The Fourth Amendment is written as it is for a reason - to prevent the abuse of power. The Constitution's framers understood that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

If you don't take the threat of abuse seriously, you need look no further than the FBI itself. Take, for example, COINTELPRO, a program conceived "to neutralize political dissidents" by "discrediting and publicly destroying" them.

Or consider the DEA's Kevin Tamez, Associate Special Agent in Charge of the New York office. On December 15th, Tamez was indicted for "illegally obtaining information from law enforcement [databases]" and using it to conduct his own private investigations.

It isn't wise to imagine that your status as a loyal and law-abiding citizen will protect you from having your personal records used against you. Dr. Martin Luther King was a loyal American citizen, yet was a target of COINTELPRO.

When the rubber hits the road things like loyalty and good citizenship don't matter. What matters is whether the people in power have been given the tools to abuse that power. Under PATRIOT and the Intelligence Authorization Act for FY 2004, they have them.

---

George Paine is the founder of Warblogging.com, a website "providing another voice in the chorus of Americans calling for a balanced and reasonable foreign policy and a domestic policy that respects the United States Constitution and the rule of law." For further details, see http://www.warblogging.com/about/

Who knew that this was the sort of nation that our soldiers had fought for?

Stephen DeVoy

http://www.breakyourchains.org

2002-2004

Stephen DeVoy became best known for reporting on John Poindexter “Information Awareness Office” of mass computerized data mining surveillance of the general public, turning its technologies against Poindexter, by posting some of Poindexter’s personal information.

Cyber citizen spies on a Pentagon spook

The man who heads the Pentagon's efforts to develop a computer program to keep an electronic eye out for terrorists is himself the object of scrutiny.

Although the John Poindexter Awareness Office was launched as a joke website on November 29 it has attracted thousands of hits and hundreds of responses.

"I would like to eliminate the surveillance of Americans from the war on terror equation," said Stephen DeVoy, the computer scientist who set up the Poindexter page as part of his site of disorganized resistance at http://www.breakyourchains.org

The site focuses on Poindexter, who is developing a program to sift through enormous amounts of individual data to detect patterns that could indicate terrorist activity. Visitors to the site are urged ... "if you see Mr Poindexter purchase something, travel somewhere or do, well, anything, send us a tip describing your observations."

And, while the site contains information on others who work with Poindexter, Mr DeVoy said he has received no reports on any of them.

Much of what he has received on Poindexter, a former national security adviser to president Ronald Reagan and convicted felon of the Iran-Contra scandal, has not been posted, Mr DeVoy said, because it appeared libellous or not legitimate.

Mr. Devoy, 40, a "rational anarchist," said he is self-employed and will not reveal where he lives because he has received death threats. He said the Government should not be involved in individuals' lives, and his site is an example of individual dissent against his country's tendency to spy on on its own citizens who do not conform.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/01/17/1042520778065.html

So where is his site?

So, I begin further internet research, and find such things as:

5. Break Your Chains! Someone is harassing myself and my family. They are engaging in cyber crimes to do so. My family has been through enough. I'm shutting this website down. http://www.breakyourchains.org/ - Last modified: 6 July 2004 @ 12:40

http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:McZ0OKFPwtEJ:www.bigsmoke.us/xbel/bookmarks/html/+BreakYourChains.org&hl=en&gl=us&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;ct=clnk&cd=10&client=firefox-a

Where did breakyourchains.org go? 19.10.2004 20:00

I am happy to see that Mr. DeVoy has contributed to an indymedia group. His work has been thorough and compelling on issues that matter to all of us interested in our liberties. I wish I could find that site. Any help would be appreciated.
Godspeed! matthew e-mail:: clumsiii@hotmail.com

And so have others (check out its various "spins"):

Anarchist becomes subject of Federal Probe
by Keanu Hamilton Saturday, Mar. 06, 2004 at 6:17 PM

Boston anarchist becomes subject of Federal Probe

Stephen DeVoy, anarchist, subject of Federal Probe

Illegal merchandise sales, defamation of corporations, suspicion of domestic terrorism

By Gabriela Herrera
American Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 7, 2004; Page A01

CAMBRIDGE, MA (Reuters) 13:30 - Stephen R. DeVoy, owner of websites at www.whiterosejournal.info, www.stop-fascism.org , www.breakyourchains.org, and www.rationalanarchism.org has become the subject of a Federal Probe in regard to illegal merchandise sales and sales tax evasion. In addition to Federal action, a civil lawsuit has been filed by the Austin-based corporation Cycorp, Inc. in connection to defamation and libel published on DeVoy's websites. Preliminary investigation reveals some substance to the investigation, authorities said.

Although Mr. DeVoy denies any wrongdoing, it has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that there has been more than casual defamation of several companies and individuals. Telephone records as well as files subpoenaed from EarthLink Hosting, (Mr. DeVoy's web host), contain cached web pages containing the libel as well as names of individuals who have accused Mr. DeVoy of harassment and defamation. In early 2003, Mr. DeVoy fled Austin, Texas shortly after being sought in connection with a computer store robbery in a southern California establishment. Mr. DeVoy, an unemployed programmer began his harassment campaign after being terminated from Cycorp, Inc. due to lack of performance and excessive absenteeism. DeVoy was also suspected of stealing company secrets for possible sale to unknown foreign parties. After the firm became aware that Mr. DeVoy was involved in an anarchist movement responsible for domestic terrorist activities, his termination was hastened.

In addition to defamation charges, the Federal Probe will investigate Mr. DeVoy's bumper sticker sales and online merchandising campaign. According to the Internal Revenue Service records, Mr. DeVoy failed to report income coming from such sales as well as failing to provide a return policy for defective merchandise. One customer reported that upon requesting a refund for bumper stickers he did not receive, Mr. DeVoy blocked e-mail messages from the sender. The stickers reportedly faded within days of being placed on the bumper of the purchaser's vehicle. In other reports, Mr. DeVoy's stickers began to appear on police cruisers owned by the Cambridge Police Department. The campus authorities have reported incidences of being forced to remove them from vehicles and building facades as well.

Mr. DeVoy is known to be suffering from a mental condition known as Paranoid Personality Disorder, for which he takes medication and is required to see a therapist. The mental health facility which has been assigned to Mr. DeVoy has reported that he has failed to keep appointments.

Given Mr. DeVoy's criminal record as well as his inclusion in the Department of Homeland Security's list of potential domestic terrorists, it is possible that the Federal Bureau of Investigation will play the biggest role in the investigation.

American Post

add your comments

http://hawaii.indymedia.org/news/2004/03/4135_comment.php

Stephen DeVoy Never Has Been Indicted for Any Crime
by Observer Sunday, Jun. 11, 2006 at 1:25 PM

More than two years have past since this libelous article was published. Not only has DeVoy not been indicted, but he has never been arrested, tried, or even questioned about any of the accusations published in the article. Time proves that Stephen DeVoy was the target of a deliberate cyber stalking harassment campaign.

add your comments

http://hawaii.indymedia.org/news/2004/03/4135_comment.php

HAS STEPHEN DEVOY BEEN MURDERED BY THE GOVERNMENT?
Mon Jul 11, 2005 13:39

61.2.184.178

Concerned Group of Activists

WHERE IS STEPHEN DEVOY?

A group of us are trying to reach Stephen Devoy but his website is down and all other lines of communication have also been stopped.

We seriously wonder if he has been murdered by the Government because of a message that was sent below... and of course because he tried to fight them single-handedly regarding ELECTRO-MAGNETIC weapons.

They had to tread lightly and not cause too much of an uproar as everything he said was 100% TRUE apparently.

http://www.raven1.net
http://www.raven1.net/mendosa.htm

All the criminal government could do was send out a phony email from him to try to discredit him...

The post below is regarding Stephen DeVoy. Obviously this was posted by someone in the Bush administration... as the person is illiterate...

This persons 'fearless leader' WILL BE IMPEACHED shortly...
(hush, hush... don't let George know... he might O.D. on the antidepressents he's been shoving down his throat)

Anyway this is the POST REGARDING STEPHEN DEVOY that has us deeply worried!

IS STEPHEN ALIVE? OR HAS HE BEEN MURDERED BY THE GOVERNMENT TOO, LIKE SO MANY OTHER DISSIDENTS?

THIS IS THE POST:
..I hope you are feeling better..we will turn the power down on the impulse generator if you will just come outside and talk with us..SLOWLY approach the black Tahoe parked down the street..with your hands in sight at all times..when the agent in the passenger seat rolls down the window..say "I need to speak to Steve"..you will then be taken to an undisclosed location where Steve is waiting for you to join him..He is in a soundproof room lined with renyolds wrap..we have a tin foil helment in your size that will block all impulses into your brain..your mom is doing fine and likes her new room..she has adjusted well (as we're sure you will) to her new meds AND HAS AN UPBEAT OUTLOOK!!..you must get back to taking your vitamins..the agent in the Tahoe will have a fresh supply for you..Steve says "Hi"..Do not worry..everything will be fine..if you do not do as instructed your health will continue to deteriorate slowly..at 10:04 pm tonight blink your light on the patio twice to let us know you are ready to relocate and be with Steve..DO NOT speak to anyone about our plans..we will know if you do.

http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/07-13-05/discussion.cgi.68.html

I have found this later post, with his name; hopefully he is OK.

Ubiquitous NSA Telephone Call Logging: The Practical Significance
by Stephen DeVoy Friday, May. 12, 2006 at 7:52 PM

The significance of NSA spying.

Ubiquitous NSA Telephone Call Logging: The Practical Significance

Author: Stephen DeVoy

Recent revelations that the NSA is logging all telephone calls of all Americans, while blatantly illegally and outrageously anti-democratic, are far more significant than the media leads you to believe. These revelations are not really new. An earlier article made it clear that a defense contractor was being paid to build "a system to identify calling patterns between suspected terrorists." The new article states that the NSA "is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity." Since it has now been revealed that the goal is to log and database ALL telephone calls between Americans and analyze them to detect terrorist activity, we can conclude that the Bush Administration considers ALL Americans to be terrorists.

According to act"Administration propaganda network" Fox News, the Almighty Decider Bush declared, "Our intelligence ivities strictly target Al Qaeda and their known affiliates. Al Qaeda is our enemy and we want to know their plans." Bush is telling the truth. You see, there is no Al-Qaeda, at least not in reality. "Al-Qaeda" is just a term the Almighty Decider uses to signify everyone who opposes Him. As Bush Himself said, on November 6, 2001, "You are either with us or against us." Since "Us" means Bush, and since nearly 80% of the American population opposes Bush, 80% of the American population is "Al-Qaeda." That means that nearly every American IS IN FACT a member of "Al-Qaeda" (at least in Bush's fantasy world). Bush, therefore, is telling it like it is (to Him) when he says that the new NSA program is targeting Al-Qaeda only (read 80% of Americans). And why is it important to monitor this "Al-Qaeda"? Well, to protect the other 20% from the 80%. Who would that 20% be? Well, it appears to me that that 20% would be the kernel of his fascist state which, for the most part, is comprised of the ruling class and men with low IQ's (and yes, a few women who like men with low IQ's).

That said, lets get to what this really means. Bush is targeting everyone who disagrees with him. What could he possible gain by having a database of the relationships between each American and every other American as well as the relationships between each American and every business? You must keep in mind that Bush wants this information so that it can be used to protect the 20% of Americans who now rule over the other 80%. That means, he needs this information to keep 80% of the population from doing what they could easily do without some means of restraining them (e.g. overthrow the state, arrest all members of the corrupt regime, put the criminals on trial, etc).

How can one restrain 80% of the population by maintaining a database of all relationships (and face it, nearly all relationships are discernable through identifying who telephones whom)? Isn't it obvious? If you still can't guess, let me spell it out for you: BLACKMAIL, HARASSMENT, THREATS, INDUCEMENT OF LOSS OF EMPLOYMENT, DISINFORMATION and so on. Basically, all of the things that dictatorships do to keep the masses from overthrowing the elite. Indeed, all Bush and his STASI need do is make an example out of everyone who speaks up. In short shrift, no one will speak up. Many of us know first hand that the Bush Regime has interfered in our lives already using the aforementioned list of black deeds. I could name a long list of online writers who have already experienced these black deeds and I would be on that list.

What the Almighty Decider is doing is a direct and major threat to your liberty, your happiness, your future, and everything you value in life. Do not take it sitting down.

Stephen DeVoy's internet store is at:

http://www.cafepress.com/stopfascism

So "cute" how the media ignores people as Stephen DeVoy, instead feeding us a fluff of things such as John Mark Karr. How about an interview by Larry King!

Is anyone in the government or the media looking out for the safety of blogs and of bloggers?

Missing or Blocked Anti-IAO Blogs

www.breakyourchains.org (Stephen DeVoy)

www.warblogging.com (George Paine)

In researching the “Information Awareness Office”, these blogs came up link lists as two of the largest sources of information, and were particularly prominent in turning some of the spying technology on John Poindexter in a late 2002 blogger response against Poindexter and IAO. They are described as having received a lot of attention with thousands of blog site hits (clicks) from government officials.

Yet the links don't work; break your chains comes back as an unrelated site, and warblogging just continues to time out; though I am able to access a Google cache date September 2006, its link to donate goes to a deactivated or blocked Paypal account that states that "this recipient is currently unable to receive money."

IAO People

Missing Web Pages from the Information Awareness Office (IAO) Web site

• Dr. John Poindexter Bio
• Dr. Robert Popp Bio
• Mr. Thomas Armour Bio
• Dr. Mike Foster Bio

The above Web pages were removed from the IAO Web site on Nov. 26, 2002. They were retrieved from the Google cache on Dec. 2, 2002.

http://www.thememoryhole.org/policestate/iao-bios.htm

I have repeated some of them here as part of history.

John M. Poindexter

Education

Ph.D., Physics, California Institute of Technology, 1964

M.S., Physics, California Institute of Technology, 1961

B.S., Engineering, U.S. Naval Academy, 1958

Experience Summary

Brings a unique blend of experience to problems from the highest levels of government to the laboratory. Demonstrated exceptional management and command ability ranging from naval operations to the national security of the United States. Noted for creative solutions to difficult issues and ability to quickly grasp the essence of new tasks. Goal oriented.

Professional Background

DARPA Information Awareness Office, Director

2002 - Present

The mission of the Information Awareness Office (IAO) is to imagine, develop, apply, integrate, demonstrate and transition information technologies, components, and prototype closed-loop information systems that will counter asymmetric threats (most notably, terrorist threats) by achieving total information awareness: enabling preemption; national security warning; and, national security decision making.

SYNTEK Technologies, Senior Vice President

1996 - 2002

SYNTEK is a small high technology firm with contracts in domestic and international defense and commercial business. Poindexter was responsible for high-level advice on management and direction of information systems projects (for example Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's Project Genoa).

TP Systems, Inc., Co-founder

1990 - 1996

TP Systems was a software development firm specializing in commercial software for the IBM PC's and compatibles. Poindexter was the chief designer and programmer. Development included a symbolic debugger for multi-tasking environments, a BBS communications program plus numerous utility programs.

Elkins Group, Consultant

1993 - 1996

Elkins was a business alliance with Electronic Data Systems (EDS), has developed Elkins Interactive Training Network (EITN), a satellite based training delivery system that has world-wide marketing potential. Poindexter was the Chairman of the Maritime Advisory Committee and a member of the Board of Directors. He also provided advice on strategic planning.

Presearch, Inc., Senior Scientist

1988 - 1989

Presearch had primarily been involved with defense studies and analysis. Faced with anticipated defense budget reductions, Poindexter joined the firm to develop new commercial enterprises. He designed and developed hardware and software for the prototype of a digital real-time, imaging system to be used for physical security of high value facilities. It was used to obtain a contract for nuclear power plant security system.

The White House

National Security Advisor
1985 - 1986

Dep. National Security Advisor
1983 - 1985

Military Assistant
1981 - 1983

Joining President Reagan's White House staff in 1981, Poindexter was responsible for reviewing and improving the command and management systems to support The President in national security crisis management. Under Poindexter's leadership a new high technology crisis management center and secure video teleconferencing system were conceived, developed and created which greatly enhanced The President's ability in this vital area. As Deputy National Security Advisor, he was responsible for leading and managing the National Security Council Staff and was Chairman of the Crisis Pre-planning Group. As National Security Advisor, Vice Admiral Poindexter was responsible for providing recommendations to The President on national security, foreign policy and defense policy. He was directly involved in implementing The President's policies on a strong defense, freedom and democracy around the world, human rights, world hunger, economic and military assistance, combating terrorism and arms control.

Major events in which he played a significant role included: Strategic Defense Initiative, Grenada Rescue Operation, Achille Lauro incident, Libyan Operation to respond to terrorist attacks. Reykjavik Summit with Soviets, peaceful transition of government in the Philippines, support for the democratic resistance in Nicaragua, and an attempt to begin rationalization of U.S. relationship with strategically important Iran.

U.S. Navy, Numerous Positions

1958- 1987

As Deputy Commander Naval Education and Training Command, amongst his duties of commanding the U.S. Navy's extensive education and training programs, he initiated a project to develop a distributed data base management system for more efficient management of the training pipelines. When Commander of a destroyer squadron, he was Surface Warfare and ASW commander of battle groups in the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean and developed new tactics and battle management procedures under the Composite Warfare Commander concept. As Commanding Officer of a cruiser he pioneered the shipboard use of computers to manage the ship's force portion of yard overhauls. He has been an Executive Officer and a Chief Engineer of destroyers.

Significant staff assignments included: Executive Assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations, Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy and Special Assistant for Systems Analysis to the Secretary of Defense.

California Institute of Technology, Laboratory Assistant

1961-1964

Conducted laboratory research to further develop a model for understanding the Mossbauer Effect with Nobel Laureate Rudolph Mossbauer.

Dr. Robert L. Popp (Ph.D. Electrical Engineering '97)

Dr. Popp is Deputy Director of the DARPA Information Awareness Office, Arlington, VA. He is responsible for assisting the IAO Director in the oversight of programs and monitors the capabilities of existing and proposed information systems in the problem domains of the office to meet enhanced future threats and to identify and exploit advanced technologies offering potential solutions to deficiencies. He previously was Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, Advanced Systems & Concepts; Principal Scientist, Program Manager and Director of Business Development with ALPHATECH; and Senior Scientist and Program Manager with Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN). He has published more than 60 journal and conference technical papers and holds two U.S. patents.

Robert L. Popp

Deputy Director, Information Awareness Office

Education

Dr. Popp received his B.A. and M.A. degrees in computer science (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, distinction) from Boston University, and his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Connecticut.

Professional Background

Background Information

Dr. Popp has broad knowledge and expertise in military systems, IT, and a technical foundation that spans acoustic and radar signal processing, multi-sensor multi-target tracking, sensor data fusion, systems and software engineering, computer networking and data communications, security, parallel and distributed computing, and hardware design.

DARPA Information Awareness Office, Deputy Director

Dr. Popp is responsible for assisting the IAO Director in the oversight of programs and monitors the capabilities of existing and proposed information systems in the problem domains of the office to meet enhanced future threats and to identify and exploit advanced technologies offering potential solutions to deficiencies. Other responsibilities include assisting in the management of over $200 million of DoD RDT&E funds annually; oversight and analysis of solicited and unsolicited proposals submitted by other government agencies, private industry, and academia; and guidance to program managers in the translation of technical proposals into workable financial and management plans.

OSD (AT&L), Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, Advanced Systems & Concepts

Dr. Popp was responsible for the oversight of a portfolio of Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD)

programs totaling over $600M in total value primarily focused on information operations, homeland security, critical infrastructure protection, security, and C4ISR. He also supported OSD (AT&L) projects to improve joint and coalition interoperability and to improve the transition of science and technology to acquisition and fielding.

ALPHATECH, Principal Scientist, Program Manager, and Director of Business Development

Dr. Popp managed and oversaw numerous ISR-related R&D and technology transition programs in airborne radar sensor data fusion and exploitation for situational awareness and precision engagement of ground moving targets.

BBN, Senior Scientist and Program Manager

Dr. Popp managed and oversaw several Navy- and DARPA-sponsored efforts in operational maritime undersea surveillance, anti-submarine warfare (ASW), network performance monitoring, and automated hardware design using FPGAs, hardware description languages and genetic programming techniques.

University of Connecticut, Adjunct Professor, Computer Science and Engineering (CS&E) Department

Dr. Popp lectured Computer Networking & Data Communications undergraduate course, emphasizing network protocols and architecture, LAN/MAN/WAN technologies, routing, internetworks, and UNIX client/server programming. He also lectured Digital Logic Design undergraduate course, emphasizing fundamentals in Boolean algebra, combinational and sequential logic, and LSI/MSI integrated circuit (IC) design.

Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Visiting Research Scientist, Advanced Concepts Directorate

Dr. Popp developed parallel and distributed algorithms and software for several military/civilian air traffic surveillance problems. Implementations were in C/C++ and included multi-threaded shared-memory parallelizations for general-purpose

SUN multiprocessors and distributed-memory parallelizations for an Intel Paragon HPC.

Military Service

U.S. Air Force, Griffiss AFB, NY, Staff Sergeant (E-5) / Aircraft Maintenance Technician

Served on active duty in the 49th Fighter Interceptor Squadron and 416th Bomb Wing. Duties included flight-line and phase-dock aircraft maintenance for F106 fighters and B52 bombers. Honorable Discharge, AF Commendation Medal, Good Conduct Medal, Longevity Service Ribbon, Small Arms Expert Marksmanship.

Professional Affiliations

Dr. Popp is currently serving as the Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC), as Chairman of the IEEE SMC Society's Adaptive Computing Systems technical committee, and has chaired numerous IEEE conference sessions in high performance computing, aerospace systems, and information operations. He has published 3 book chapters, over 60 journal and conference technical papers, and is the holder of two patents.

http://www.computerbytesman.com/tia/poppbio.htm

Robert Popp, Ph.D.

---

Title: Deputy Office Director
Biography:

Dr. Robert Popp is presently serving as the Deputy Director of the Information Exploitation Office (IXO) at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In this capacity, Dr. Popp assists the IXO Director in guiding and directing a portfolio of R&D programs focused on sensing, exploitation and C4ISR to improve US military capabilities in combat operations. Dr. Popp is also spearheading an R&D thrust focused on a range of post-Cold War era strategic threats and problems, with particular emphasis on Pre- and Post-Conflict Stability Operations (P2COP).

Dr. Popp previously served as a Special Assistant to the DARPA Director for Strategic Matters, and earlier as the Acting and Deputy Director of the Information Awareness Office (IAO). At IAO, Dr. Popp guided and directed a portfolio of R&D programs focused on a variety of information technology solutions for counter-terrorism, foreign intelligence and other national security concerns. Among those programs was the Terrorism Information Awareness (TIA) program.

Prior to DARPA, Dr. Popp served as an Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Advanced Systems and Concepts (AS&C) within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). Dr. Popp directed and oversaw a number of Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) programs focused on cyber security, information operations, homeland defense, and command and control.

Before joining the government, Dr. Popp was a Senior Scientist and Program Manager with two defense contracting firms, BBN and ALPHATECH. Dr. Popp served as a principal investigator on numerous R&D programs focused on multi-sensor multi-target tracking and localization, automatic target recognition, anti-submarine warfare (ASW), and adaptive computing.

Dr. Popp has served as an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at the University of Connecticut, and as a Visiting Research Scientist with the Air Force Research Labs. Dr. Popp has also served in the military-six years of active duty service in the US Air Force as an aircraft maintenance technician of B52 bombers and F106 fighters, and three years in the Air National Guard as a welder on F15 fighters. Prior to his military service, Dr. Popp was a welder on Trident nuclear submarines.

Dr. Popp received his B.A. and M.A. degrees in computer science from Boston University, and his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Popp has authored three book chapters, over seventy journal and conference papers, and is the holder of two patents. Dr. Popp presently serves as the Associate Editor for both the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, and the Journal of Advances in Information Fusion. Dr. Popp is a member of the ACM, AAAS, senior member of the IEEE, and a lifetime member of HOG-Harley Owners Group.

Contact Information:
Robert Popp, Ph.D.
DARPA / IXO
3701 Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22203-1714

http://dtsn.darpa.mil/ixodarpatech/ixo_FeatureDetail.asp?id=32

Thomas P. Armour (no photo available)

Mr. Armour is Program Manager for Project Genoa II, a new program in the Information Awareness office of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Prior to returning to DARPA in January 2002 to take on this assignment, Mr. Armour was Chief Technology Officer at Creative Technology Incorporated of Herndon, Virginia.

Before retiring from US Government Service in December 2000, he had been detailed to the Information Systems Office of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as a Program Manager.

Prior to this assignment, Mr. Armour had been an Intelligence Officer at the Central Intelligence Agency since 1975. His last assignment at CIA was Senior Technology Officer for the Directorate of Intelligence, responsible for helping the Directorate think strategically about the impact of technology on its business. Mr. Armour served as Chief of Information Technology for the DCI's Nonproliferation Center.

Prior to this assignment, Mr. Armour was on the staff of CIA's Deputy Director for Science and Technology where he was involved in the Directorate's strategic planning process and conducted ad hoc studies for the Deputy Director. Mr. Armour has had a number of analytic and managerial assignments in CIA's Directorate of Intelligence involving foreign strategic missiles, the proliferation of missile technology worldwide, and Soviet naval weapons systems and strategic command and control, low-observable programs, cruise missiles, and antiballistic missile systems. He served as chief of the Directorate's computing and methodological support group, which had responsibility for applying computing and methodological tools to intelligence analysis. The group was involved in the full range of computing activities from direct end-user support through the design, development, and procurement of large ADP systems. Mr. Armour also has served in staff positions within the Office of Scientific and Weapons Research with collection and arms control support responsibilities and was Executive Assistant to the Deputy and Associate Deputy Directors for Intelligence. Prior to his CIA employment, Mr. Armour was a navigator in the United States Air Force, where he flew combat missions on the AC-119K gunship in Vietnam and worldwide airlift missions on the C-141A aircraft. He is married and has a son born in 1975 and is a private pilot with PP-SE:-IA ratings.

Education:

ß MBA, Southern Illinois University, 1975.
ß Master of Electrical Engineering, Cornell University, 1971.
ß Bachelor of Science, Cornell University, 1970,
Electrical Engineering, with distinction

Dr. Michael Foster (no photo available)

Program Manager: FutureMap
Dr. Michael Foster manages the FutureMAP program in IAO and the QuIST program in IPTO. Prior to Dr. Foster's assignment at DARPA, he was Program Director and Division Director, Experimental and Integrative Activities, for the National Science Foundation (NSF). From 1984 to 1988, Dr. Foster served on the faculty at Columbia University. Dr. Foster holds the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Carnegie-Mellon University and an SB in Mathematics from MIT.

Information Awareness Office Projects

IAO Programs

• Total Information Awareness (TIA) System
• Babylon
• Bio-Surveillance
• Communicator
• Effective, Affordable, Reusable Speech-to-Text (EARS)
• Evidence Extraction and Link Discovery (EELD)
• FutureMap
• Genisys
• Genoa
• Genoa II
• Human ID at a Distance (HumanID)
• Translingual Information Detection, Extraction and Summarization (TIDES)
• Wargaming the Asymmetric Environment (WAE)

Human ID at a Distance (HumanID)

For use with surveillance camera – such as the dome cameras that began appearing everywhere in mid 2006.

Genoa II

This would be used with analyzing “trees” of associations from such things as phone calls.

Genisys


Total Information Awareness (TIA) System


This is the schematic for the government collecting and analyzing together a person’s records.

Total Information Awareness Ready Before 9/11

http://propagandamatrix.com/articles/december2004/061204tiaready.htm

Citizens For Legitimate Government | December 6 2004

Citizens For Legitimate Government can report today an exclusive story about the Total Information Awareness program (TIA), initiated by Admiral (retired) John Poindexter. CLG exclusive source tells us that a day after 9-11, Poindexter’s office of the TIA program was already established in the Pentagon. Says inside, unnamed source, Poindexter had the TIA program ready to roll out on 9/12/2001, the day after 9-11. Five days after 9-11, the TIA office was fully functional. Asked if that means the program was ready to rollout previous to 9/11, the source familiar with the program and privy to top-secret government contractors said, "of course."

The Total Information Awareness Program that was headed by Poindexter was disassembled after Congress decided against it, rightly asserting that it constituted an invasion of citizen privacy. TIA chief, Admiral John Poindexter, resigned August 29, 2003, amidst controversy over TIA as well as the revelation of a DARPA program that would have allowed investors to bet on assassinations and terror attacks.

However, the CLG's exclusive inside source familiar with program says that as is the case with all ghosts, they never really go away. The TIA program, headed by Poindexter, has been completely reassembled under an intelligence agency of the US government, operating under the same terms as intended by Poindexter. No longer called TIA, the new code name for the project is "Basketball." Under the name "Basketball," that is, TIA has bounced to a new office and is still collecting information about Americans.

http://www.legitgov.org/exclusive_tia_basketball_120204.html
http://www.legitgov.org/index.html

Knowledge is Power: IAO DARPA

Information Awareness Office
Scientia Est Potentia
Knowledge is Power
U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

It is difficult to counter the threat that terrorists pose. Currently, terrorists are able to move freely throughout the world, to hide when necessary, to find unpunished sponsorship and support, to operate in small, independent cells, and to strike infrequently, exploiting weapons of mass effects and media response to influence governments. This low-intensity/low-density form of warfare has an information signature, albeit not one that our intelligence infrastructure and other government agencies are optimized to detect. In all cases, terrorists have left detectable clues that are generally found after an attack. Even if we could find these clues faster and more easily, our counter-terrorism defenses are spread throughout many different agencies and organizations at the national, state, and local level. To fight terrorism, we need to create a new intelligence infrastructure to allow these agencies to share information and collaborate effectively, and new information technology aimed at exposing terrorists and their activities and support systems. This is a tremendously difficult problem, because terrorists understand how vulnerable they are and seek to hide their specific plans and capabilities. The key to fighting terrorism is information. Elements of the solution include gathering a much broader array of data than we do currently, discovering information from elements of the data, creating models of hypotheses, and analyzing these models in a collaborative environment to determine the most probable current or future scenario. DARPA has sponsored research in some of these technology areas, but additional research and development is warranted to accelerate, integrate, broaden, and automate current approaches.

http://infowar.net/tia/www.darpa.mil/iao/index.htm

Here’s what The New Yorker and The New York Times said back in 2002 about the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s data matrix infrastructure:

The Information Awareness Office plays it so weird that one can't help suspecting that somebody on its staff might be putting us on. The Information Awareness Office's official seal features an occult pyramid topped with mystic all-seeing eye, like the one on the dollar bill. Its official motto is "Scientia Est Potentia," which doesn't mean "science has a lot of potential." It means "knowledge is power." And its official mission is to "imagine, develop, apply, integrate, demonstrate and transition information technologies, components and prototype, closed-loop, information systems that will counter asymmetric threats by achieving total information awareness."

The phrase "total information awareness" is creepy enough to merit a place alongside "USA Patriot Act" and "Department of Homeland Security," but it is not the Information Awareness Office's only gift to the language. The "example technologies" which the Office intends to develop include "entity extraction from natural language text," "biologically inspired algorithms for agent control," and "truth maintenance." One of the Office's thirteen subdivisions, the Human Identification at a Distance (HumanID) program, is letting contracts not only for "Face Recognition" and "Iris Recognition" but also for "Gait Recognition." (Tony Blair has pledged the full coöperation of the Ministry of Silly Walks.) Another of the thirteen, FutureMap, "will concentrate on market-based techniques for avoiding surprise and predicting future events"—a sounder approach, ideologically, than regulation-based liberal soothsaying.

The Information Awareness Office is working on some really cool stuff that will eventually turn up at Brookstone and the Sharper Image, like a Palm Pilot-size PDA that does instantaneous English-Arabic and English-Chinese translations. But the Office's main assignment is, basically, to turn everything in cyberspace about everybody—tax records, driver's-license applications, travel records, bank records, raw F.B.I. files, telephone records, credit-card records, shopping-mall security-camera videotapes, medical records, every e-mail anybody ever sent—into a single, humongous, multi-googolplexibyte database that electronic robots will mine for patterns of information suggestive of terrorist activity. Dr. Strangelove's vision—"a chikentic gomplex of gumbyuders"—is at last coming into its own.

It's easy to ridicule this—fun, too, and fun is something the war on terrorism doesn't offer a lot of—but it's not so easy to dismiss the possibility that the project, nutty as it sounds, might actually be of significant help in uncovering terrorist networks. The problem is that it would also be of significant help in uncovering just about everything, including the last vestiges of individual and family privacy. This is why William Safire wrote the other day that the program should simply be shut down, as was Attorney General Ashcroft's Terrorism Information and Prevention System, which was going to enlist postal workers and the like as amateur spies.

At a minimum, a temporary shutdown, pending some sort of congressional review and the creation of safeguards, would seem to be in order…

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/021209ta_talk_hertzberg?021209ta_talk_hertzberg">http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/021209ta_talk_hertzberg?021209ta_talk_hertzberg

You Are a Suspect

WILLIAM SAFIRE
November 14, 2002

If the Homeland Security Act is not amended before passage, here is what will happen to you: Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend — all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as "a virtual, centralized grand database."

To this computerized dossier on your private life from commercial sources, add every piece of information that government has about you — passport application, driver's license and bridge toll records, judicial and divorce records, complaints from nosy neighbors to the F.B.I., your lifetime paper trail plus the latest hidden camera surveillance — and you have the supersnoop's dream: a "Total Information Awareness" about every U.S. citizen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/14/opinion/14SAFI.html?ex=1164344400&en=d09c57baa1330737&ei=5070

Mission

The IAO's stated mission is to gather as much information as possible about everyone in a centralized location for easy perusal by the United States government, including Internet activity, credit card purchase histories, airline ticket purchases, car rentals, medical records, educational transcripts, driver's licenses, utility bills, tax returns, and any other available data. In essence, the goal of the IAO is to be able to recreate a life history of thoughts and movements for any individual on the planet on demand, which the Bush administration deems necessary to counter the threat of terrorism. Critics claim the very existence of the IAO completely disregards the concept of individual privacy and liberties and is far too invasive and prone to abuse.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Information_Awareness

Since, this entity was supposedly disbanded.