Homeland Security to data-mine American citizens

In an article by Audrey Hudson in the Washington Times, Homeland Security revives supernoop one would think we, law-abiding American citizens, are seen as the true threat to America's security. Homeland Security's re-worked scheme is right out of the Tom Cruise movie where they have a massive, intrusive computer program that "predicts" crime so that the police can arrest folks BEFORE they have committed a crime - based on predictors of behavior - thought up by someone who had ultimate power and control as his motive. How can any American seriously trust our government when that same government is spending millions of dollars to data-mine all records about us and can't even keep illegal aliens out? I'm finding it more difficult every day to avoid disillusionment based upon the actions of my government against law-abiding citizens. Thank goodness for the reporting of the Washinton Times and investigative journalists such as Audrey Hudson. At least we know a fraction of the truth. In this case, our society is growing ever-more "totalitarian" by the minute - we have data-mining, the Real ID - designed only to verify that legal American citizens are subjected to more scrutiny, we have the thought PC police (sort of akin to the religious police perhaps) who work mightily to shutdown discourse. My, my - and a Supreme Court that paved the way for the destruction of homes, ranches, businesses through upholding the right of cities, now nations to impose eminent domain upon us to build NAFTA's superhighway. All this and they can't even conduct real security checks on more than 3% of the cargo coming into the nation on cargo ships. Now, as if we don't have enough questionable drivers on the highways from Mexico, we're gonna build them a better highway to slice our nation apart. About the Supreme Court - this is the same august body that ruled that our bank records are not "part of our private" papers because they go through a third party. Well, duh! Try doing anything today without a checking account. Like I always say, "When you can't go after the real criminals, attack the law-abiding." I hope Hudson doesn't mind, but I want to include a few quotations from Hudson's article then I encourage you to read the complete article. ______________________ Homeland Security revives supersnoop By Audrey Hudson THE WASHINGTON TIMES March 8, 2007 Homeland Security officials are testing a supersnoop computer system that sifts through personal information on U.S. citizens to detect possible terrorist attacks, prompting concerns from lawmakers who have called for investigations. The system uses the same data-mining process that was developed by the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness (TIA) project that was banned by Congress in 2003 because of vast privacy violations. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation of the project called ADVISE -- Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic Enhancement -- was requested by Rep. David R. Obey, Wisconsin Democrat and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. .... The ADVISE and TIA data-mining projects rely on personal data to track individual behavior and consumer transactions to develop computer algorithms that create a pattern that some behavioral scientists say can predict terrorist behavior. Data can include credit-card purchases, telephone or Internet details, medical records, travel and banking information. Privacy concerns prompted lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to introduce legislation in January to require that government agencies disclose data-mining practices in regular reports to Congress. [My comment - keep in mind that medical records are supposed to be confidential but little medical technicians are busily typing all of our medical records into computers for a national health record sponsored I think by both Hillary and Newt.] "Many Americans are understandably concerned about the idea of secret government programs analyzing their personal information. Congress needs to know more about the operational aspects and privacy implications of data-mining programs before these programs are allowed to go forward," Mr. Feingold said. A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security did not return a call for comment. [Hmmm - notice how they all go silent when caught with their panties down?] Congress also tucked language inside Homeland Security's spending bill in September requiring an investigation by the agency's inspector general, but allowed $40 million in funding to go forward in this year's budget. "The ADVISE program is designed to extract relationships and correlations from large amounts of data to produce actionable intelligence on terrorists," the spending bill said. "A prototype is currently available to analysts in Intelligence and Analysis using departmental and other data, including some on U.S. citizens." According to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report in March 2003, TIA planned "to use data mining technologies to sift through personal transactions in electronic data to find patterns and associations connected to terrorist threats and activities." "Recent increased awareness about the existence of the TIA project provoked expressions of concern about the potential for the invasion of privacy of law-abiding citizens by the government, and about the direction of the project by John Poindexter, a central figure in the Iran-Contra affair," the CRS report said. "While the law enforcement and intelligence communities argue that more sophisticated information gathering techniques are essential to combat today's sophisticated terrorists, civil libertarians worry that the government's increased capability to assemble information will result in increased and unchecked government power, and the erosion of individual privacy," the report said. ADVISE was initiated in 2003 following the demise of the TIA project... __________________ You know, it would seem that if we got a better grip on the illegals and the folks coming into the nation from "terrorist" supporting nations, we'd be doing more to increase our security than having Americans data-mining and thereby micro-managing what should be personal and private information of other Americans. I don't want these folks who can't even secure our borders sifting through my records - it isn't that I have something to hide - it's just none of their damn business. Hat tip to Hudson for an excellent report to America's law-abiding citizens... My apologies if I used too much of the article; I was just overwhelmed by the administration's "clear, present, and never-ending assault" upon the privacy of law-abiding American citizens. Reports such as this one never cease to amaze me.