Pre-Crime 'Minority Report' Computer Program Goes Live In Chicago

University professors have teamed up with the Chicago police department to develop a new technology which will allegedly predict violent criminal behavior. Using a computerized algorithm, Chicago has now generated a "Heat List" which indexes approximately 400 individuals they see as likely to commit violent crimes in the future. And some of the people on the list are not criminals at all.

So much for the tenet of "Innocent until Proven Guilty" or even the oft repeated police-apologist sentiment, "If you don't do anything wrong, have nothing to worry about."

For 22-year old Robert McDaniel, there certainly was something to worry about, when a police commander showed up at his house simply to issue a threat that he was being watched by police. McDaniel's grew up in a gritty neighborhood, but was guilty of no crime, and had no recent interactions with police of any kind. Yet there with this official authority standing there on his porch, issuing a stern warning that since he was being watched, there would be severe consequences if he committed a crime.

Stalking, verbal threats, is this what our modern police forces have been reduced to? Forget about the very tenets of due process for a moment, and consider that the actions of the police themselves border on criminality, in this instance, and all too often actually cross the line in countless others.

You certainly don't want the police showing up at your door for no reason or otherwise to specifically threaten you, especially when you consider cases like this one, where a woman called police for help after she was assaulted and wound up suffering this terrible ordeal.

Hope Steffey case

What good could possibly come from a police officer initiating a deliberately threatening confrontation with a citizen in their own home who as committed no crime?

"If you end up on that list, there’s a reason you’re there." -program commander in the Chicago Police Department

Perhaps, but that reason has nothing to do with being guilty of a crime. Where does this slippery slope end? DNA blood-draw checkpoints on every roadway? Cameras in your bedroom to ensure you aren't having deviant sex? Sound far-fetched? If you had told me, in the year 2000, the the government would be strip-searching children at airports I would have said you were nuts.

Read more at: The Verge


directives.chicagopolice.org

Custom Notifications in Chicago - Pilot Program
D13-09

I. Purpose

This directive announces the Chicago Police Department's pilot program for custom notification under the Violence Reduction Initiative in partnership with John Jay College of Criminal Justice Community Team, which will serve as outreach partners within the social service and community partners assembly.

II. Scope

The pilot program is effective 07 July 2013 and will continue until further notice in the 015 District.

III. General Information

A. While the Violence Reduction Strategy (VRS) is predicated upon group accountability, individuals within certain groups are identified as having the increased likelihood of victimization or engagement in criminal activity. The custom notification will identify those at-risk individuals and reach out to advise them of the risks and consequences of their actions should they engage in criminal conduct. The goal is to ensure the individual is not only informed of the law enforcement consequences for deciding to engage or continue in gun violence, but also of the devastating impact of gun violence within their community. Opportunities for seeking assistance will also be provided during the custom notification. However, it is ultimately the decision of the individual to choose not to engage in criminal activity.

B. For the identified individuals, custom notifications serve as notice that law enforcement action will not be random, but rather targeted and specific to the individual, and the failure to follow the clear and consistent message to cease participating in gun violence will have specific and cognizable penalties, as contained within the custom notification.

IV. Definitions

A. "Custom Notification" is a process that identifies potential criminal actors and victims associated with the continuum of violence. Once identified, the individual is notified of the consequences that will result should violent activity continue. The Custom Notification is predicated upon national research that concluded certain actions and associations within an individual’s environment are a precursor to certain outcomes should the individual decide to or continue to engage in criminal behavior. The Custom Notification will include a description of both federal and state sentencing options where applicable, as well as identification of the potential for seized assets and other consequences as appropriate.

1. Initial custom notifications may be predicated upon the Heat List generated by the Crime Prevention and Information Center (CPIC).

2. Ongoing custom notifications may be linked to public violence incidents (hot spots) or associated with call-ins as necessary and as approved by the district commander.

B. The "Heat List" is a rank-order list of potential victims and subjects with the greatest propensity for violence. The list is generated based on empirical data compared with known associates of the identified person.

C. "Influentials" are those individual seen as having importance or the ability to influence an individual’s actions. These can be both positive and negative influences.

D. The Custom Notification Letter will be used to inform individuals of the arrest, prosecution, and sentencing consequences they may face if they choose to or continue to engage in public violence. The letter will be specific to the identified individual and incorporate those factors known about the individual inclusive of prior arrests, impact of known associates, and potential sentencing outcomes for future criminal acts.

1. The Bureau of Organizational Development will work with the Office of Legal Affairs to develop a letter template for the Custom Notification.

2. The Office of Legal Affairs will provide review and approval of the Custom Notification Letter prior to distribution. The purpose is to confirm the range of outcomes identified as it applies to potential prosecution and sentencing outcomes.

3. The letters will be signed by the district commanders.

V. Procedures

A. District intelligence officers will:

1. continually review and update information relative to individuals linked to gun violence. These reviews will include, but are not limited to:

a. review of the Heat List for the district including the identification of those individuals who live within district.

b. CPIC information relative to criminal activity and conflicts within the district.

c. the District Gang Audit and other database information.

d. intelligence information relayed from district officers, area-assigned officers, and officers assigned to the Bureau of Organized Crime and Bureau of Detectives.

e. review of those individuals who have attended previous call-ins within the district.

2. identify those individuals eligible for custom notifications. Factors for eligibility include, but are not limited to:

a. placement on the Heat List;

b. victim of a shooting incident, where prosecution has been declined for lack of cooperation;

c. identification as a repeat offender for public violence crimes; and

d. other factors as developed and linked to public violence within the district.

3. when an individual is identified and:

a. residency is established, inform the district commander who will ensure the Custom Notification procedure is initiated.

b. residency cannot be verified, forward such information to CPIC and record the information in the district Heat List database pending subsequent confirmation of a new address. Residency will be verified and notification will occur at a future date.

B. The Custom Notification will be conducted under the direction of the district commander.

1. Those present for notifications may vary, based upon identified criminal factors, identified influentials, and other factors as identified in the review process.

2. A CPD officer will always be present for a custom notification.

C. The Custom Notification Team will:

1. generally conduct the notification at the identified individual's residence;

2. explain the Custom Notification program and the contents of the Custom Notification Letter;

3. deliver the letter to the identified individual.

NOTE:
When an identified individual is not present at the time of the custom notification, or refuses to participate, the Custom Notification Team may deliver the letter and explain the program to a family member or leave the letter at the residence.

D. When a recipient of the custom notification engages in criminal activity for which he or she is arrested, then the district commander will ensure:

1. notification to and coordination with the appropriate Bureau of Detectives Area to ensure appropriate charging occurs. The highest possible charges will be pursued for any individual in the VRS Custom Notification Program.

2. Court advocacy volunteers are notified of the date, time, and place of the bond hearing or other court hearings and encourage attendance at the hearing to demonstrate the community’s support in decreasing the violence.

3. coordination with the Cook County State's Attorney Community Prosecutions Unit as appropriate.
E. A copy of the custom notification will be forward to the CPIC and maintained within the district.

Garry F. McCarthy
Superintendent of Police
13-080 TRH

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Black Box Mandate Will Let Gov't Track, Tax, and Remotely Control All Vehicles

Federal government planning black box vehicle mandate to track, tax and even remotely control all personal vehicles

(NaturalNews) The federal government is working on a plan that would mandate black box tracking devices be installed in every vehicle, with real-time uploading of vehicle location, speed and mileage to government authorities. This Orwellian technology is already technically feasible and will be promoted as a way to increase "highway safety" while boosting government revenues from mileage taxation.

"The devices, which track every mile a motorist drives and transmit that information to bureaucrats, are at the center of a controversial attempt in Washington and state planning offices to overhaul the outdated system for funding America's major roads," reports the LA Times.

"[Congress is] exploring how, over the next decade, they can move to a system in which drivers pay per mile of road they roll over. Thousands of motorists have already taken the black boxes, some of which have GPS monitoring, for a test drive."

There are three hugely important realizations to glean from all this:

Read more:

http://www.naturalnews.com/042690_vehicle_black_boxes_mileage_taxes_remote_control.html

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Facebook and Police Team-up to Subvert Your Rights

From RT News:


Partnership between Facebook and police could make planning protests impossible


A partnership between police departments and social media sites discussed at a convention in Philadelphia this week could allow law enforcement to keep anything deemed criminal off the Internet—and even stop people from organizing protests.

A high-ranking official from the Chicago Police Department told attendees at a law enforcement conference on Monday that his agency has been working with a security chief at Facebook to block certain users from the site “if it is determined they have posted what is deemed criminal content,” reports Kenneth Lipp, an independent journalist who attended the lecture.

Lipp reported throughout the week from the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference, and now says that a speaker during one of the presentations suggested that a relationship exists between law enforcement and social media that that could be considered a form of censorship.

According to Lipp, the unnamed CPD officer said specifically that his agency was working with Facebook to block users’ by their individual account, IP address or device, such as a cell phone or computer.


Read the rest here.



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Stealth Soldier Invisibility Cloak Revealed (VIDEO)

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World Trade Center Building 7 on 9/11: The Evidence

We are going to present a compilation here of material regarding the collapse of World Trade Center Building #7 on September 11, 2001.



Many have argued that the World Trade Center disaster was actually the result of a controlled demolition project planned well in advance by parties unknown. Much of the focus on the disaster that day has been centered on Towers 1 and 2, which were struck by aircraft. It has also been argued by many, that the damage from the aircraft and ensuing fires would not have been sufficient to cause a symmetrical collapse at nearly free-fall speed. There is compelling evidence to support the idea that the planes could not have brought down the towers, but perhaps the most compelling is that WTC7 was never struck by a plane at all, and yet that building too also collapsed in a way that seems to defy any explanation other than a controlled demolition.

But let's start by looking at the official explanation first. Could fire be the reason that Building 7 collapsed, as we have been told by government officials? It seems rather unlikely, considering that it has never happened before, or since. Yet on 9/11, we are told that three steel buildings were brought down primarily by fire. And again, one of those buildings was not even hit by a plane loaded with fuel.

This is a picture of the fires still burning in WTC7 in the late afternoon of September 11.

Here are some examples, of burning skyscrapers from around the world, that did not collapse, despite the fact that they suffered fires that burned longer, and engulfed more square footage of the structure.

In 1975, World Trade Center Tower 1 also burned on several floors, for several hours, with no modernized fire suppression system or fire-proofing material in place, but did not collapse.


Of course, these towering infernos were not struck by aircraft and were not struck by the debris of the Twin Towers as they collapsed. So let's have a look now at what sort of damage a building can suffer and still remain standing.

This is an image of debris which struck and damaged WTC 7.

For comparison now, here is a picture of the Deutsche Bank building which suffered extensive damage on 9/11. A fire in 2007 claimed the lives of two FDNY firefighters. Nearly a decade later, a $100-million deconstruction project was completed and the building was no more.

The following two images show the damage done to WTC Building #3 on 9/11, and the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City after it was bombed in 1995. Despite the devastation, what remained of the buildings still did not collapse, and had to be brought down later.

Relatively small fires, comparatively far less structural damage than others, yet WTC7 still fell, uniformly, into a nice neat pile.

Even when buildings do happen to collapse, perhaps after an earthquake, they do not implode. Here are some images of what happens when critical supports in a building fail.

Even when specialists spend months planning and spend weeks placing huge amounts of explosives all throughout a building, it is still a difficult task to bring down a building in it's own footprint. There are no guarantees, as these videos show. Demolitions gone wrong, click here, here, and here to see them.

Larry Silverstein, the owner of the WTC complex first explained the collapse of Building 7 saying he gave the order to "pull it." This is a term often used in demolitions, meaning to pull down the building.


Strangely, given the subsequent information you will read here in a moment which has been kown for years, Secretary of State John Kerry also explained the destruction as a controlled demolition rather than an unexpected collapse. 

There is a very serious problem with that explanation though. Fire departments are not trained or equipped for demolitions operations. Fire trucks do not carry explosives, firefighters do not knock down buildings. Even for the world's leading specialists a demolition of that scale is not something that could be done in a matter of hours in a damaged and burning skyscraper. The only explanation could be that the explosives were set, before 9/11.

Silverstein later tried to revise the meaning of his statement, saying that he meant "pull it" as in to pull the rescue effort, and to pull out the firefighters in the building. The only problem with that, is that there were no firefighters in the building according to FEMA, because there was no water available to carry out interior firefighting operations. This video clip corroborates that. That clip also alludes to previous knowledge of impending collapse.

How did anyone know the building was going to collapse before it actually did? Why wasn't it predicted that other, more badly damaged buildings were going to fall, even though they never did? What were the telltale signs that Building 7 was going to collapse?

CRAIG BARTMER NYPD: "I walked around it (Building 7). I saw a hole. I didn't see a hole bad enough to knock a building down, though. Yeah there was definitely fire in the building, but I didn't hear any... I didn't hear any creaking, or... I didn't hear any indication that it was going to come down. And all of a sudden the radios exploded and everyone started screaming 'get away, get away, get away from it!'... It was at that moment... I looked up, and it was nothing I would ever imagine seeing in my life. The thing started pealing in on itself... Somebody grabbed my shoulder and I started running, and the shit's hitting the ground behind me, and the whole time you're hearing "boom, boom, boom, boom, boom." I think I know an explosion when I hear it... Yeah it had some damage to it, but nothing like what they're saying... Nothing to account for what we saw..."

Why did the BBC report that the building had collapsed, 20 minutes before it actually did?


In this video clip, you will hear someone declare that the building ia about to "blow up" as you hear what sounds like explosives going off in the background. Odd choice of words. Blow up. And who told them it was going to blow up?


Perhaps the sounds of bombs going off was a clue, but bombs had been going off all day. Something that was completely overlooked by the media and has never been explained.


But perhaps the most chilling account of bombs in WTC 7 comes from Barry Jennings, Deputy Director of the Emergency Services Department for the New York City Housing Authority. That fateful morning he raced to the Office of Emergency Management located in WTC7, to find it eerily empty, except for New York City's corporate counsel Michael Hess. An explosion trapped the two inside the building. Keep in mind that what he talks about here in the following interview happened before either of the Twin Towers fell, and therefore before the collapses had done any damage to Building 7.


(Videos of Barry Jennings' statements and interviews are routinely scrubbed from the internet. Unfortunately, this has happened again, as one of the most complete videos of his account has been removed, as you can see. For a less complete version, see this video here on YouTube.)

Unfortunately, Barry Jennings will never be able to testify on record about what he saw that day. He died, for unknown reasons, just days before the NIST report on 9/11 was released in 2008. One of the film makers who interviewed Jennings for the film Loose Change hired an investigator to find out more about Jennings' mysterious death. All that he found was Jennings' home empty, and up for sale. He then returned the money to the man who hired him, and told the filmmaker to never contact him again. This only added to the mystery. A commenter at a website claimed to be Jennings' son, and claimed his father had died of leukemia, but the identity of the commenter has never been verified.

Hess publicly corroborated important elements of Jennings' account.


This video examines the collapse of WTC7 and some elements of the NIST report.


If that video was a little too technical for you, don't worry. Most of us are not engineers. There are plenty of real experts out there though, thousands of them, who disagree with the government's findings. This video summarizes the details of the WTC 7 collapse in terms we can all understand.

Architects & Engineers video CENSORED by YouTube

Enjoy these videos instead:






updated 2/15

Supermarket of The Beast, Sponsored by IBM

The mark of the beast is the sign of the Antichrist, and is mentioned in Revelation 13:15-18:

The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.

Also see:

Take the Mark of The Beast or Don't Eat

And let's make sure your Obamacare is valid.

Bonus video:








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Fire Baby of Tamil Nadu Won't Stop Lighting Up

In a rare medical condition, a three-month old baby boy from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu keeps catching fire spontaneously. The bizarre incident has stunned local doctors, and spooked the villagers who blame paranormal forces for the phenomenon, local media report.

Rahul, second son of farmhands Karnan and Rajeshwari from Villupuram village, seemed as healthy and normal as any other baby at birth. But since then, the baby reportedly burst into flames at least four times, beginning when he was just nine days old.

In the latest incident, the baby suffered extensive burns and is being treated at Kilpauk Medical College hospital in Chennai, the state’s capital. According to Rahul's parents, each time the child caught fire spontaneously and there was no source of fire in the vicinity.

Doctors at KMC, where the baby was admitted Thursday, blame a rare medical condition called spontaneous human combustion, or SHC, for the infant’s predicament. Rahul catches fire repeatedly because his body emits combustible gas and fluids through skin pores, the doctors told the Times of India.

There is no cure for the condition, and the baby is currently being treated for extensive burn injuries at the hospital’s neonatal unit.

Read more at: International Business Times


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Drop a Nuke!!! (Nuclear Bomb Simulator Program)

This is the third installment of the nuclear detonation simulator by Alex Wellerstein. An earlier version which is less graphic intense (smoother running for older PC's) has other features which make it still relevant. That earlier version is available on this blog's button keys in the right-hand column.

For this version you will have to be sure your Google Earth is up to date.

NUKEMAP 3D

Here are some screenshots I took when I decided to nuke NYC. These are simulated air-bursts over downtown Manhattan.

If one were to take the Metro-North Hudson Line train, north out of Grand Central Terminal to the end of the line, you would wind up in Poughkeepsie NY. That city is roughly the halfway point between NYC and the state capitol in Albany. So for these simulations, I decided to stand that far away, in order to get a sense of how large these explosions would be. By highway, it's a distance of about 85 miles from Poughkeepsie, to the foot of Manhattan at Battery Park. 

A great vantage point to see such a spectacle would be from atop the Walkway Over the Hudson, an old railroad bridge which has been converted into a public park. Most of these simulated long-distance images are taken from there.

This first shot simulates a 20 kiloton air-burst nuclear detonation over downtown Manhattan. Keep in mind here, that one single kiloton, is the general equivalent of 1,000 tons of TNT. The "Little Boy" bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima is believed to have detonated with the force of 13-18 kilotons. The "Fat Man" which was dropped on Nagasaki a few days later, was 20-22 kt. So in general, this simulates a bombing of NY about the size of what we did to Japan at the close of WWII.

This is what that same blast would look like if you were on Staten Island at the ferry docks.

And if you were flying over New York in an airliner at an altitude of 30,000 feet it would look something like this.

The following map depicts the general immediate effects of a nuclear blast. Keep in mind that there are many variables when estimating damage in a real world detonation based on the height of the burst, the specific sort of weapon that used, building materials and so forth. Weather patterns will greatly effect secondary radiation fallout patterns as well.

Effects radii for a 20 kiloton bomb (smallest to largest):

Fireball: 660 ft (0.05 mi²)Maximum size of the nuclear fireball; relevance to lived effects depends on height of detonation.

Air blast: 2,510 ft (0.71 mi²)20 psi overpressure; heavily built concrete buildings are severely damaged or demolished; fatalities approach 100%.

Radiation: 0.87 mi (2.4 mi²)500 rem radiation dose; between 50% and 90% mortality from acute effects alone; dying takes between several hours and several weeks.

Air blast: 1.17 mi (4.33 mi²)5 psi overpressure; most buildings collapse; injuries universal, fatalities widespread.

Thermal radiation: 1.52 mi (7.28 mi²)Third-degree burns to all exposed skin; can start fires.

Radioactive fallout could rain down as far away as Long Island is long.

This image simulates a 100 kiloton detonation over downtown Manhattan. This is the yield of America's most popular nuclear warhead, the W76. 8 to 12 of these warheads can be mounted on a single, submarine launched, Trident II ballistic missile in order to shower multiple independent targets. 

The "Ivy King" was the largest pure fission nuclear device ever tested by the United States. In November of 1952 it was dropped on an uninhabited Pacific atoll, and exploded with the force of 500 kilotons. (See video). This is what it would have looked like from Poughkeepsie, looking south to NYC.

This image simulates what it would look like if NYC were to be hit by one of China's Dong Feng 5 Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. Their premier ICBM detonates with a yield of 5 megatons, and can strike almost anywhere on the planet except for South America due to range limitations. China's nuclear arsenal is estimated to be anywhere from several hundred to several thousand warheads. Plans to put multiple warheads on the DF-5 have met with some technical difficulty and it is not believed that any of the missiles have been deployed with MIRV capability.

At 15 megatons, "Castle Bravo" reigns as America's largest ever nuclear detonation. Unfortunately, it was an unexpected achievement, with the yield only expected to be about 4 to 5 megatons. As a result of the unexpectedly large explosion, there was significant exposure to civilian populations from radiation and fallout. The 1954 test created international concern for atmospheric testing of nuclear bombs. (See video)

For better or worse, and perhaps having learned a lesson after getting burned playing with firecrackers, the Unites States appears to have been content enough to leave well enough alone. The Soviet bear on the other hand, felt they had more to prove.

The largest nuclear detonation ever on our planet was the former USSR's Tsar Bomba. That behemoth exploded with the nearly incomprehensible force of 50 megatons. Astonishingly, this test was set to go off with only half of the yield the bomb was actually designed for, an Earth-cracking 100 megatons. The following two images from about 80 miles from Ground Zero barely capture the scope of such explosions.

Now let's do a direct comparison from about 100 miles up, in a low-Earth orbit from space. We will place the marker in Poughkeepsie as a point of reference. In this first image we see the small spot over Manhattan that is the mushroom cloud from a 20 kiloton bomb like the ones that were dropped on Japan.

And here, is the Tsar Bomba, as seen from outer space.

Keep in mind, we human beings have created an explosion that large. Finally, this is what we have built, and are capable of. The 100 megaton blast which the Tsar Bomba was designed for. First in low earth orbit, and then from high above, directly overhead.

Here are the damage maps for the 100 megaton Tsar Bomba. The fireball alone would be nearly 4 miles wide. Anyone standing outside, almost as far away as Poughkeepsie, New York would suffer third degree burns to exposed skin and anything fairly combustible like cloth, paper and leaves would ignite. Stell liquifying firestorms would be widespread. Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Jersey City would be leveled.

If prevailing winds happened to move from east to west, fatal levels of radioactive fallout would reach as far as the Rocky Mountains. Alternately, if a bomb this size were to be detonated over Colorado Springs, deadly fallout would reach as far as New York.

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6 Sneaky Ways Surveillance Changes How You Think

The following article is presented in full for a point of reference, but is not meant as an alternative to the original source. Please visit the original source through the hyperlinked article title just below.

6 Insidious Ways Surveillance Changes the Way We Think and Act

Like it or not, we’re being transformed as citizens, neighbors and human beings.

When I moved to a Czech village in 1994 to teach English, I was fascinated by the cultural difference between Americans like me and my new community. At that time, the oppressive memory of the dreaded Communist secret police, the StB, was still fresh. (Check out a haunting series of street photos snapped by agents in their heyday.) As a brash young ex-pat, born after the era of McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover, I understood little of what it felt like to live under constant surveillance.

The Czechs knew better. Several decades under the watchful eyes of the StB (and before that, the spies of the Habsburg Empire) had molded their attitudes and behavior in ways that were both subtle and profound. They were on their guard with newcomers. When you got to know them, you might sense a tendency toward fatalism about the future. Signature Czech traits included a sophisticated gallows humor and a sharp sense of the absurd, honed by a lifetime of experiencing Kafka-esque political conditions (Kafka himself was a Czech).

Then there was that subversive streak. When you gained their trust, Czechs would often gleefully show you their old smuggled rock-and-roll records or describe a forbidden radio set up in some corner of the house. These proud tales of rebellious triumph over the StB were cast against stories of horror, like a student who told me of the day her daddy disappeared after “talking to the oven” where a radio was hidden. For most Czechs, the salient lesson of the police state was an us-against-them mentality. Only sometimes you didn’t know who “they” were.

1994 was the very beginning of the Information Age, and it has turned out rather differently than many expected. Instead of information made available for us, the key feature seems to be information collected about us. Rather of granting us anonymity and privacy with which to explore a world of facts and data, our own data is relentlessly and continually collected and monitored. The wondrous things that were supposed to make our lives easier—mobile devices, gmail, Skype, GPS, and Facebook—have become tools to track us, for whatever purposes the trackers decide. We have been happily shopping for the bars to our own prisons, one product at at time.

Researchers have long known that there are serious psychological consequences to being surveilled, and you can be sure that it's changing us, both as a society and as individuals. It’s throwing us off balance, heightening some characteristics and inhibiting others, and tailoring our behavior sometimes to show what the watcher wants to see, and other times to actively rebel against a condition that feels intrusive and disempowering.
If you think about it, “ Prism” is the perfect name for a secret program of extensive watching that will shift our perspective and potentially fracture our view of each other and of ourselves as citizens. Public opinion is now sorting itself out, and we don’t yet know how Americans will come to feel about the new revelations of spying on the part of the government, private contractors, and their enablers. But whether we like it or not, surveillance is now a factor in how we think and act. Here are some of the things that can happen when watching becomes the norm, a little map to the surveillance road ahead.

1. Shifting power dynamics: When an NSA agent sorts through our personal data, he makes judgments about us—what category to place us in, how to interpret and predict our behavior. He can manipulate, manage and influence us in ways we don’t even notice. He gains opportunities for discrimination, coercion and selective enforcement of laws. Because the analysis of megadata results in a high number of false positives, he may target us even if our activities are perfectly blameless from his perspective.

As Michel Foucault and other social theorists have realized, the watcher/watched scenario is chiefly about power. It amplifies and exaggerates the sense of power in the person doing the watching, and on the flip side, enhances the sense of powerlessness in the watched. Foucault knew that knowledge is linked to power in insidious ways. Each time the watcher observes, she gains new knowledge about the watched, and correspondingly increases her power. That power is then used to shape reality, and the watcher’s knowledge becomes “truth.” Other perspectives are delegitimized, or worse, criminalized.

2. Criminal activity: Every apologist for the surveillance state will make the claim that spying on citizens protects us from things like terrorism, crime and violence. That may indeed be true. What is also true is that surveillance can be used just as easily to commit a crime as to prevent it. History shows us ample cases of governments, including our own, using surveillance to turn upon their own people in unlawful ways, in some cases launching attacks that are just as devastating as those feared from outsiders.

Surveillance also turns citizens into criminals, either by distorting laws to criminalize behavior which was once considered lawful, or in breeding hostility and rebellion on the part of the populace which can lead to crime.

Today’s private contractors also have incentives to use surveillance to commit crimes outside of any political agenda. How about a little insider trading? How about stealing business ideas? How about using collected data to sexually prey upon others? To blackmail for any purpose imaginable? To sell our information to the highest bidder? For every Snowden who balks at the use of data collected for surveillance, you can bet there are two other contractors using it to enrich or empower themselves. Unlike elected officials, there is no way for us to even attempt to make them accountable.


3. Diminished citizenship: In his article, “The Dangers of Surveillance,” Neil M. Richards warns that state scrutiny can chill the exercise of our civil liberties and inhibit us from experimenting with “new, controversial, or deviant ideas.” Intellectual privacy, he argues, is key to a free society. Surveillance protects the status quo and serves as a brake on change.

We’ve begun to see this in the places where we expect intellectual freedom to be most strongly protected. Recently, Harvard University administrators were found to be spying on the email accounts of 16 deans while trying to find the source of a media leak, an action which curtails cherished academic freedom. The U.S. government was outed as spying on journalists at the Associated Press, behavior which dampens reporters’ enthusiasm for investigating the government’s secrets and analyzing its actions.

When intellectual privacy, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press are restricted through surveillance, powerful ideas about truth, values, and how we live are increasingly imposed from the top down, rather than generated by citizens from the bottom up. When Big Brother is watching, Big Brother decides what's best for us. Citizens become apathetic, disengaged, and worst of all, feel a loss of dignity in their very status as citizens.

4. Suspicious minds: Surveillance makes everyone seem suspicous. The watched become instilled with an air of criminality, and eventually begin to feel culpable. Psychological researchers have found that surveillance tends to create perceptions and expectations of dishonesty.

The growing mutual distrust between the watcher and wathed leads to hostility and paranoia. One of the key features of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon was the notion that the inmates of an institution based on his design, such as a prison, would never be able to tell whether they were being watched or not, creating a heightened sense of unease. The tradition of secret police operatives and informants blending in with citizens prevents the watched from knowing the identity of the watcher, as does the distance of technology firms and government entities spying through computers and communication devices. All of these can breed an unhealthy social atmosphere as well as an individual sense of discomfort and suspicion. 

5. Divided society: In his book, Brain on Fire, Tim McCormacks discusses the class divisions that tend to rise between the watcher and the watched. Rights, privileges and power become distributed according to who has the most access to observation. The watcher groups categorizes people based on who most arouses suspicion, which may be based on various prejudices or political agendas.
A watcher class may emerge which protects its interests by more watching, and more punishing and control of the watched. It increasingly wields power over technology, financial and legal systems, the political realms, and military capabilities. Those who hold power may become invisible to all but a few insiders, a nightmare scenario Orwell imagined in 1984. (Maybe that’s why sales of Orwell’s book have skyrocketed in the wake of revelations about Prism).

6. Unhappiness: Finallly, though you will not hear many pundits talking about it, surveillance tends to make us unhappy. Bentham's Panopticon was designed to inflict pain on a few (those in prison) for the sake of the happiness of the many in the community. But when everyone is being watched, everyone is experiencing pain, even, perhaps, the watcher. The brilliant  German film " The Lives of Others" depicts the mental anguish of an agent of the East German secret police as he spies on his neighbors.

Some kind os surveillance may make us feel happier, at least initially.  The presence of cameras on the street, for example, may give us a comforting sense of security (even though the cameras may actually be doing nothing to stop crime). But when we discover that we are being watched in ways we never imagined, for purposes we can hardly fathom, our happiness decreases. Bosses reading our email, technology firms tracking our Internet searches, and government agencies monitoring our communications for secret purposes makes us feel anxious and resentful. Systematic surveillance may squelch our creativity as we are managed to become more conformist. We come to distrust each other and our sense of unfairness rises.

The goal of using surveillance to produce a happy and stable state may well beget, perversely, the opposite: a society of edgy, unhappy beings whose sense of themselves is chronically diminished. Not exactly a recipe for Utopia.




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Close Ties Between NSA and Conspiracy Forums Shown On Internet Map

Let us first have a look at the tool which reveals this information.

The map of the Internet

Like any other map, The Internet map is a scheme displaying objects’ relative position; but unlike real maps (e.g. the map of the Earth) or virtual maps (e.g. the map of Mordor), the objects shown on it are not aligned on a surface. Mathematically speaking, The Internet map is a bi-dimensional presentation of links between websites on the Internet. Every site is a circle on the map, and its size is determined by website traffic, the larger the amount of traffic, the bigger the circle. Users’ switching between websites forms links, and the stronger the link, the closer the websites tend to arrange themselves to each other.

Read more at their ABOUT page.

Visit their home page at:

http://internet-map.net/

Now, using this tool, I decided to type in the search query www.nsa.gov to see who their closest relations are on the internet. The result is ironic, if not surprising to some of us who have been active on conspiracy forums for years, and those of us who have seen their inner workings. Conspiracies wrapped in conspiracies.

The result shows that two conspiracy forums have extremely close ties to the NSA. One is AboveTopSecret, the other, GodLikeProductions. A Google search on either of these sites will turn up all sorts of dirt which shows that neither are what they appear to be, and this new info seems to support that.

It could be argued that conspiracy websites might tend to have a natural sort of symbiosis with spy agencies, one checking out the other so to speak, but there are two things that should be pointed out here to rule out the idea that this is just a coincidence. First, there are plenty of conspiracy websites and discussion forums out there. None of those show up in close proximity to the NSA. And the same goes the other way. There is more than one spy agency in America, yet only this one appears in close proximity to these two particular conspiracy forums.

If you would like more information about the conspiracy behind conspiracy board, please comment below or email me using the address in the CONTACT key above.





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US Army Cyber Command Blocks Access to NSA Spy Story

The United States Army is now blocking access to portions of the Guardian news website covering leaked information about the National Security Agency's domestic spying program.

The Guardian first broke the story of the NSA's pervasive program to monitor and record virtually all digital communications within the United States including emails and social media through networks like Google, Facebook, and Verizon. The alarming news of the government agency's blatant disregard for the Constitution and liberty was brought to their attention by whistleblower Michael Snowden, a former NSA contractor who has since been charged with espionage by the U.S. government and is on the run across the globe.

The Monterey Herald reports:

Gordon Van Vleet, an Arizona-based spokesman for the Army Network Enterprise Technology Command, or NETCOM, said in an email the Army is filtering "some access to press coverage and online content about the NSA leaks."

He wrote it is routine for the Department of Defense to take preventative "network hygiene" measures to mitigate unauthorized disclosures of classified information.

 NETCOM is a subordinate of the US Army Cyber Command

This measure could be termed as a psychological operation, designed to leave American troops less informed than the general public, and ignorant of the crimes perpetrated by the same government which these troops fight and die in the name of. This is not simply a question of troop morale though, and cuts right to the heart of the core virtues of serving the government in a military capacity and leaves these troops open to allegations of complicity in crimes perpetrated by the government.

The Army has elevated the game another level, by threatening troops who access the classified information made public by the Guardian. The Presidio in San Francisco, information assurance security officer Jose Campos dispatched an email to employees warning of consequences for the troops.

He wrote that an employee who downloads classified information could face disciplinary action if found to have knowingly downloaded the material on an unclassified computer.

In other words, any soldier who downloads the publicly available information could be viewed as a spy, and charged criminally. Not only is this a serious implication for servicemembers, but the public in general, that the government still views this material as classified.

Could any one of us also be charged with espionage, even treason, for downloading the information on the NSA's program to spy on citizens? Website operators operating withing the U.S. could be particularly vulnerable to charges of espionage if they were to upload mirror images of the information. 

In the worst of ranting conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, "There's a war on for your mind."

You can read the classified documents at the following link, if you dare.


THE NSA FILES





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East Coast Tsunami Media Blackout

TSUNAMI of 13 June, 2013 (Northwestern Atlantic Ocean)

Tsunami-like waves were observed along the US east coast during the afternoon of June 13, 2013 (day 164). The source is complex and still under review, though the coincidence at several gages with strong atmospheric pressure fluctuations indicate that it is at least partly generated by meteorological causes. The event occurred in close conjunction with a weather system labeled by the National Weather Service as a low-end derecho which propagated from west to east over the New Jersey shore just before the tsunami. It is also possible that the slumping at the continental shelf east of New Jersey played a role. The tsunami was observed at over 30 tide gages and one DART buoy throughout the Northwestern Atlantic Ocean.

A first-hand description was provided by Brian Coen who observed the event at Barnegat Inlet in New Jersey:
Around 3:30pm on Thursday June 13, 2013, Brian Coen was spear fishing near the mouth of Barnegat Inlet; just south of the submerged northern breakwater. Earlier in the day around noon, thunderstorms had moved through the area. By 3:30pm the weather was overcast with a light east wind. At approximately 3:30, the outgoing tide was amplified by strong currents which carried divers over the submerged breakwater (normally 3-4 feet deep). This strong outrush continued for 1-2 minutes and eventually the rocks in the submerged breakwater were exposed. Brian backed his boat out before being sucked over as well.

At this point, Brian noticed a large wave coming in, approximately 6 feet peak-to-trough and spanning across the inlet. The upper 2 feet of the wave was breaking. This wave occurred in conjunction with a reversal of the current such that even though the tide was going out, a strong surge was entering the inlet. This surge carried the divers back over the submerged reef and into the inlet from where they were picked up. On the south jetty three people were swept off the rocks which were 5 to 6 feet above sea level at the time. At least two were injured requiring medical treatment. There was no more strong activity after about 5 minutes.

This event produced a tsunami that was recorded at tide gages monitored by the West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center (WCATWC). Many observatories provide data to the centers; such as the NOAA National Ocean Service, the U. of Hawaii Sea Level Center, the Chilean Navy, the Japan Meteorological Ageny and the National Tidal Facility in Australia among others. Click on the site name to see a graph of the tsunami, when available. Listed wave heights are maximum amplitude in cm (above sea level). Observed Arrival time is the actual tsunami arrival time in UTC on gages where it could be determined. The Sample Interval column shows the time between data samples.

SOURCE

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Curse of the Pharaohs Caught On Tape

It sounds like the something from the script of a Hollywood action adventure.

But the 'mystery of the moving mummy' - which has seen an Egyptian statue mysteriously start to spin round in a display case - has spooked museum bosses.

The 10-inch tall relic, an offering to the Egyptian God Osiris, was found in a mummy's tomb and has been at the Manchester Museum for 80 years.

But in recent weeks, curators have been left scratching their heads after they kept finding it facing the wrong way. They now believe there could be a 'spiritual explanation' for the turning statue.

It is believed that there is a curse of the pharaohs which strikes anyone who dares to take relics from a pyramid tomb.

Experts decided to monitor the room on time-lapse video and were astonished to see it clearly show the statuette spinning 180 degrees - with nobody going near it.

Read more at: Mail Online






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TWA Flight 800 Documentary (FULL VIDEO)

Also see more info at:

Retired Investigators Come Forward to Claim TWA Flight 800 Was Shot Down





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'Enemies of Israel' Targeted in Domestic Terror Plot

ALBANY, NY - Two men have been arrested by Federal authorities after a lengthy investigation which began in April of last year. Eric Feight, 54, of Hudson and Glendon Crawford, 49, of Galway, each face 15 years in prison. 

The duo are alleged to have designed and constructed a radiation weapon, but the FBI claims the device had been rendered inoperable and never posed any danger at any point during the undercover investigation.

The device was designed to operate as an  x-ray gun capable of delivering a fatal dose of radiation to remotely targeted individuals. The victims would not know that they had abosrbed a lethal dose of radiation until debilitating symptoms appeared days later.

The investigation began after Crawford approached Jewish organizations and synagogues soliciting interest in a device that could kill enemies of Israel "while they slept." Alternately, he claimed to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan and was arrested trying to sell the device to Federal agents posing as members of the KKK. Crawford was also a member of Tea Party Patriots and listed himself on Linkedin as an "obedient drone" working for General Electric.

Feight

Crawford

Crawford Complaint - Searchable

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TWA Flight 800 Was Shot Down Whistleblowers Claim

Conspiracy theorists appear to be vindicated yet again, as six original investigators of the Flight 800 disaster have come forward to claim the airliner was shot down by a missile. The official cause of the crash was reported to be an electrical short circuit in the plane's fuel tank, but there is substantial evidence which contradicts the findings of the NTSB.



Read more details on the story at: CNN, and FOX News

Read more about the so-called "missile theory" at the following links:  

Wikipedia    

WhatReallyHappened.com    

TWA800.com





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