If you make the haystack bigger, the needle will be harder to find, right?
Wrong, the government says. We are no longer on the farm. In the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), the bigger the electronic mound of data, the easier to detect any shard aimed at the vitals of the “homeland.” So pile it on!
Just this week we warned about the combination of powerful surveillance technologies, arguing that each of these tools alone is troublesome but that their combined use spells privacy disaster.
We told you so.
Back on March 12, we wrote here about yet another subpoena to Twitter for information about an Occupy Wall Street activist, Jeff Rae. Both he and another target, Malcolm Harris, challenged the subpoenas in court and were represented by the National Lawyers Guild.
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License plate readers. Biometric iris scans and face recognition. CCTV cameras that can track you as you move through the city. Video analytics that automatically flag "suspicious activities" and allow police or private spooks to zoom in on your location.
When President Bush created the Department of Homeland Security after 9/11, he said that the agency would "develop all-hazards plans and capabilities, including those of greatest importance to the security of the United States homeland, such as the prevention of terrorist attacks and preparedness for the potential use of weapons of mass destruction, and ensure that state, local, and federal plans are compatible."
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Will each day at #OWS bring yet more ridiculous police brutality and intimidation of non-violent protesters? What is the NYPD so afraid of?
So said NSA whistleblower William Binney, holding his thumb and forefinger close together.
Binney should know what he is talking about. For some 40 years, he worked with the giant NSA and was instrumental in automating its worldwide eavesdropping network. He told James Bamford why he left the NSA in 2001: