statism watch

by Dana Gabriel, BeYourOwnLeader
February 21, 2012

In a move that went largely unnoticed, the U.S. government unveiled a new counter-narcotics strategy for the northern border which will work towards closer cooperation with Canada in the war on drugs. This includes both countries strengthening integrated cross-border intelligence sharing and law enforcement operations. Canada has also released a comprehensive counter-terrorism plan aimed at combating the threats of domestic and international violent extremism. The separate U.S.-Canada undertakings are both tied to the Beyond the Border deal and efforts to establish a North American security perimeter.

In January, the Obama administration announced the National Northern Border Counternarcotics Strategy. A press release by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) described how the plan seeks, “to reduce the two-way flow of illicit drugs between the United States and Canada by increasing coordination among Federal, state, local, and tribal enforcement authorities, enhancing intelligence sharing between counterdrug agencies, and strengthening ongoing counterdrug partnerships and initiatives with the Government of Canada and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).” Senator Charles Schumer proclaimed, “I pushed so hard for this strategy to be finalized because we have to immediately stop the flow of drugs from Canada into New York, and it’s going to take an inter-agency and international effort.” He added, “I’m pleased that this agreement lays the groundwork for Canadian and American law enforcement to work hand-in-glove to fight the drug trade.” Schumer has also endorsed the new cross-border action plan. In addition, he is pushing to establish a Northern Border Intelligence Center in Franklin County, NY to better coordinate efforts to fight drug smuggling and other cross-border criminal activities.

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by Todd Howe, We Are Change Toronto
June 30, 2011

Public Service Announcement: If you object to warrantless state surveillance of your online activities, visit http://stopspying.ca now and sign the OpenMedia.ca petition to stop the Harper government’s forthcoming ‘Lawful Access’ provision.

“If we understand the revolutionary transformations caused by new media, we can anticipate and control them; but if we continue in our self-induced subliminal trance, we will be their slaves.” – Marshall McLuhan

During a 1969 interview conducted during the dawn of the new age of electronic media, oft-cited futurist and tech critic Marshall McLuhan made the point that for our species, the market of information we call ‘culture’ is the frame we think within, a common set of ideas and symbols analogous to the air we breathe. Because this set of ideas is so all-pervasive and seemingly without boundaries, leaving us with little to compare and contrast it to, it slips into the background of our awareness.

One of the consequences of this reflexive inability to see the forest for the trees is that it’s precisely those technologies capable of causing social upheaval, of changing the ways people interact with their culture and with each other, that do much of their transformative work out on the liminal edges of awareness. And we tend to prefer it this way, McLuhan suggests — taking refuge in the familiar, numbing our responses to great change like trauma survivors might while technology extends the reach of our nervous system to new and unaccustomed horizons. All the while, we try bravely to take it in stride while the world is changed around us.

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By Dana Gabriel, BeYourOwnLeader
April 21, 2011

Without much fanfare and overshadowed by Canadians heading to the polls on May 2 for the fourth election in seven years, a controversial bill that would further comply with U.S. aviation security practices became law. The measure supports plans for a North American security perimeter and illustrates how the Canadian government is more interested in appeasing U.S. interests than protecting the privacy and freedoms of its own citizens.

In November of 2007, the Conservative government expressed concerns over privacy implications associated with the U.S. Secure Flight Program and filed objections with the Department of Homeland Security. They were urging an exemption on a measure that would require Canadian airlines to turn over information on passengers flying over the U.S. en route to other destinations. Despite their grievances being dismissed, they eventually caved in to U.S. demands. In a move to further bring Canada in line with American air travel security rules, Bill C-42, An Act to amend the Aeronautics Act was introduced in Parliament on June 17 of last year. With little media attention, it passed through the House of Commons on March 2, 2011, by a vote of 246 to 34. On March 23, it received royal assent and became law. Under Bill C-42, Canadian airlines are required to send traveler information through the Secure Flight Program 72 hours before departure. The Transportation Security Administration checks the data against security watch lists which could result in passengers receiving extra screening or even being barred from boarding their flight.

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Todd Howe, WeAreChangeToronto
December 8, 2010

Imagine the following. It’s dusk and you’re walking with your best friends down a quiet side street in a major urban centre. You all stop for a moment under the pooled glow of a streetlight — maybe you light a smoke, or send a text. A few minutes later, someone looks up and so you do, too. There on the utility pole above is a cluster of cameras, their dark spherical globes the strange fruit of an uneasy era, and a sign — Warning: This area under surveillance. In that moment, you see your image reflected in the glassy blister as you regard the camera eye. Freeze frame.

What goes through your mind? Do you feel a little uneasy? Do you feel protected? Or do you think nothing of it?

It’s an encounter and a question that an ever-expanding number of Canadians will experience for themselves in the coming months. On November 15th, Toronto police chief Bill Blair announced his intention to ‘buy back’ 52 of the 67 cameras the Federal government had purchased to monitor the June G20 summit (riot gear and LRAD acoustic cannons for crowd control are to be transferred as well in the federally subsidized arrangement). The G20 cameras, installed in May, were to be removed at the end of the summit and indeed came down in July as promised. It will come as no surprise to those following these developments, however, that they are now back on the agenda. For the past number of years, the Toronto Police Services have been building out the CCTV network in the city through a program of ‘pilot project’ installations and rotating trials that amount to nothing more than a shell game.

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Related: Airport body scanners raise radiation concerns — again | ‘Naked’ scanners may increase cancer risk | Full-body scanners are waste of money, Israeli expert says | Government Lied: Naked Body Scanners CAN Transmit Images | UK: Children must go through airport naked body scanners | UK Airport worker warned over harassment using naked body scanner | Body scans eventually mandatory, TSA official says | 11 More U.S. Airports Get Body Scanners | Exposed: Naked Body Scanner Images Of Film Star Printed, Circulated By Airport Staff | Radiation Safety Group Says Naked Body Scanners Increase Risk Of Cancer | UK: Airline passengers have ‘no right’ to refuse naked body scanners | Full-body scanner blind to bomb parts | Airport scanner companies queue for business after ‘underpants bomber’ | German ‘Fleshmob’ Protests Airport Scanners | Body scanners capable of storing, sending images, group says | Dutch police develop mobile body scans | Whole-body airport scanners are basically safe–or are they? | Airport security starts in the parking lot | Body scanners coming to Canadian airports | UK: New scanners break child porn laws | US implements travel profiling: Tougher air screening for ’security-risk’ countries | UK: Full-body scanners being ordered for airports, says Gordon Brown | Group slams Chertoff on conflict of interest in scanner promotion | The ‘Israelification’ of airports: High security, little bother | Underwear Bomber Renews Calls for ‘Naked Scanners’ | Federal Privacy Commissioner raises alarm over terror security measures | Privacy watchdog OKs ‘naked’ airport scanners | Security may soon test ‘virtual strip search’ at large Canadian aiports | US Border Guards to Expand Use of X-Ray Body Scanners | Homeland Security seeks Bladerunner-style lie detector | Greyhound introduces security screening of passengers, bans fruit, carry-ons | Germany rejects full-body scans at airports | Interpol wants facial recognition database to catch suspects | ‘Pre-crime’ detector shows promise | Eye scans, fingerprints to control NZ borders | Air passengers to undergo ‘virtual strip search’ | US Homeland Security Keen on ‘Novel’ Israeli Airport Security Technology | Israel startup uses behavioral science to identify terrorists | Airport scanner a ‘virtual strip search’

The Daily Mail
June 30, 2010

Full body scanners at airports could increase your risk of skin cancer, experts warn.

The X-ray machines have been brought in at Manchester, Gatwick and Heathrow.

But scientists say radiation from the scanners has been underestimated and could be particularly risky for children.

They say that the low level beam does deliver a small dose of radiation to the body but because the beam concentrates on the skin – one of the most radiation-sensitive organs of the human body – that dose may be up to 20 times higher than first estimated.

Dr David Brenner, head of Columbia University’s centre for radiological research, said although the danger posed to the individual passenger is ‘very low’, he is urging researchers to carry out more tests on the device to look at the way it affects specific groups who could be more sensitive to radiation.

He says children and passengers with gene mutations – around one in 20 of the population – are more at risk as they are less able to repair X-ray damage to their DNA.

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Related: Fake Lakes not Required, But $50 Million of G8 ‘Legacy’ Spending Pours into Clement’s Riding | Security unit shows off G8 plans for Huntsville | G20 media centre with fake lake to cost $1.9M | Clement blasted for G8 riding spending, Baird drags out 9/11 trope | Budget watchdog probing G8/G20 summits’ $1-billion price tag | Toronto Police to take up to $100-million of G20 security funds | Toronto and Muskoka G8/20 Summit security costs hit $1.1B | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

Richard J Brennan, Toronto Star
June 22, 2010

They should chill out, says bemused resident

HUNTSVILLE–Sipping on a cold beer, Steve Groomes looks at the reinforced steel mesh wall in front of his place on Highway 60 outside Huntsville and lets out a chuckle.

“I call this part, prison valley,” said the 43-year-old contractor, who minutes earlier had been mowing the lawn, a simple chore that seemed somehow out of place.

His home and that of his father’s next door are behind the security perimeter that is meant to keep intruders away from nearby Deerhurst Lodge, where the long-awaited G8 is being held, starting Thursday evening, a kind of a warm-up act for the G20 in Toronto on Saturday.

Groomes’s home is not far from one of the checkpoints along this busy highway that bisects Algonquin Provincial Park, which was already starting to seal up like a drum on Monday. There are actually gates across the highway and only those with special passes get through.

Everywhere are police officers of all stripes, and soldiers to boot, especially along the highway, where they mean business.

That message comes across loud and clear with a LAV 3 Canadian Forces armoured vehicle – the kind used in Afghanistan – parked in a field along Hidden Valley Rd.

Even a Star reporter shooting photos along Highway 60 is soon rounded up and given the third degree. The call came into the OPP from the all-seeing RCMP.

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Wardriving, for those who may not know, is the practice of going around storing Wifi network info for later exploitation – precisely what Google was doing. And the reason they give?

The company says it uses the location of Wi-Fi networks to enhance location-based services on smartphones.

It’s just to help track your cellphone for location-based services. Oh, well, that’s okay then.

Related: Google, NSA may team up to probe cyberattacks | Google Street View goes live in Canadian cities | Google PowerMeter to track home energy usage in Toronto test drive | Britons block Google Street View van | Google Street View comes to Canada | Google Street View could care less about your privacy

Diane Bartz, Reuters
June 21, 2010

WASHINGTON — Connecticut’s attorney general will lead a multi-state probe of whether Google Inc. broke laws when it siphoned personal data off wireless networks around the world, which the Internet search leader has said was inadvertent.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said on Monday more than 30 states participated in a recent conference call on the issue. He said consumers have a right to know what information was collected, and whether U.S. states need to alter procedures to guard against such leaks in future.

Shares in Google slid 1.4% to US$492.81 in a relatively flat market.

In May, Google said its cars photographing streets around the world have for years accidentally collected personal data – which a security expert said at the time could have included email messages and passwords – sent by consumers over wireless networks.

“My office will lead a multi-state investigation – expected to involve a significant number of states – into Google’s deeply disturbing invasion of personal privacy,” Mr. Blumenthal said in a statement.

“Consumers have a right and a need to know what personal information – which could include emails, Web browsing and passwords – Google may have collected, how and why.”

Mr. Blumenthal said Google has cooperated but “its response so far raises as many questions as it answers.”

“Our investigation will consider whether laws may have been broken and whether changes to state and federal statutes may be necessary,” he said.

The revelation marked the latest development in a privacy controversy surrounding Google. The company already faces an informal investigation over the matter by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, a variety of probes overseas, and class action lawsuits.

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Spy blimps – coming soon to a major domestic event near you. Like the Indy race.

Related: FAA Experiments With Integrating Drones in Civil Airspace | Predator drones to begin flying Texas border patrol in a matter of months | Waterloo firm creates ‘flying robot spies from the skies’ for global law enforcement market | UK Police use spy drone for first domestic arrest — without airspace clearance | Future police: Meet the UK’s armed robot drones | UK police plan to use military-style spy drones | US Domestic Espionage Alert: Spy Drone Discovered | US Air Force confirms new ‘Beast of Kandahar’ drone | Clinton confronted by Pakistanis over attacks by aerial drones | UN: Drone attacks may violate international law | Kandahar spy blimp raises privacy concerns | US drone ’shot down over Somalia’ | Canada’s military peers into future, sees drone patrols, draft, insurgency | 250-Foot Long Hybrid Airship Will Spy Over Afghanistan Battlefields in 2011 | Sarnia resident plans ‘moon’ protest of US border spy balloon | Military spycraft patrols Ontario border from Fort Drum | Military spy blimp watched Indy race from on high | Homing chips are CIA’s latest weapon against ‘al-Qaida’ targets hiding in Pakistan’s tribal belt | CIA: Our Drones are Killing Terrorists. Promise | Pentagon plans blimp to spy from new heights | Remote-controlled planes could spy on British homes | Predator drones patrolling border irk Manitoba MLA | Report: CIA runs secret bases in Pakistan | U.S. set to launch Predator drones to monitor Manitoba border | Military Tech on the Home Front: Predator drones to begin surveillance of Canada-US border | Hoverdrone to be deployed to Iraq | Kids to Help Create Drones, ‘Fuzzy’ Line to Be Drawn between Military and Civil Spheres | Canadian military acquiring new helicopters, drones | Unmanned spy planes to police Britain | Austin police testing unmanned spy drones | Nunavut taken aback by military plan for drone patrols | U.S. to patrol Manitoba border with drone aircraft

Noah Schactman, Wired.com
June 17, 2010

God smiles when the Army spends a half-billion dollars on spy blimps the size of a football field.

I believe that’s the message Northrop Grumman is trying to convey in this illustration accompanying the company’s announcement of a $517 million, five-year contract to build three combat airships for the military.

The military already employs a fleet of blimps to look for enemies and relay communications. But none of them are as big, as high-flying, or as far-seeing as this Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle, or LEMV. It’s supposed to float at 20,000 feet for up to three weeks at a time, snooping on absolutely everything below with a variety of sensors.

“Basically what we see it as is an unblinking eye,” LEMV project manager Marty Sargent tells Inside Defense.

Sargent figures it would take as many as 12 of the military’s advanced Reaper surveillance drones “to do the same mission that the LEMV would do.”

The first airship is supposed to be inflated around 10 months from now. Eight months later, the Army hopes to have the first LEMV flying over Afghanistan. On that day, the clouds will part, the sun will shine, and the cherubs will sing as the unblinking eye begins looking for Taliban.

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What, are they going to try yellow stars next?

Related: French government prepares total ban on full Islamic veils | Niqab gets 2nd Quebec student expelled | US Airline Security Moves to Known Threat Descriptive Profiling | Australia to fingerprint, face-scan visitors from Muslim nations | ‘Unclear’ Whether US Air Security Profiling Violates Canadian Charter: Baird | US implements travel profiling: Tougher air screening for ’security-risk’ countries | They hate us for our bombs | How MI5 blackmails British Muslims

Paul Lewis, The Guardian
June 17, 2010

Bags placed over cameras in two Muslim areas of Birmingham after Guardian revealed scheme was a counterterrorism initiative

A project to place two Muslim areas in Birmingham under surveillance has been dramatically halted after an investigation by the Guardian revealed it was a counterterrorism initiative.

Bags are being placed over hundreds of cameras which were recently installed in the neighbourhoods of Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook, to reassure the community that their movements are not being monitored until a public consultation takes place.

Announcing that the cameras would not be turned on, West Midlands police and Birmingham city council apologised for not being “more explicit” about the funding arrangements of the project, which stipulated they should be used to combat terrorism.

But officials insisted the £3m project could still go ahead if the consultation showed support for the cameras. The programme could also be shelved altogether, which would require police and the council to take down the cameras.

Under the initiative, Project Champion, the suburbs were to be monitored by a network of 169 automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras — three times more than in the entire city centre. The cameras, which include covert cameras secretly installed in the street, form “rings of steel” meaning residents cannot enter or leave the areas without their cars being tracked. Data was to be stored for two years.

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Al-Qaeda has really big computers, and apparently they’re going to get us unless we let the NSA (or some other organization above state accountability) monitor networks.. See here and here and here for moves that have already been made to to create a global Internet Ministry (Mininet?). And then there’s cases like that of hacker Gary McKinnon, who found his way into a Pentagon computer, looking for evidence of UFOs and free energy. While we may dispute whether or not this is a productive use of one’s time – phreaking and hacking is how many of the present generation of digerati actually learned their skills – should Mr. McKinnon be subject to military response? And what would that entail, a drone strike? A bit cannon blasting his ISP with a government denial of service attack? We don’t know. All we know is that this really looks like it’s being hyped and trumped up to subject the free web to surveillance, as Wired has reported.

Related: Homeland Security’s Cyber Bill Would Codify Executive Emergency Powers | Lieberman Bill Gives Feds ‘Emergency’ Powers to Secure Civilian Nets | Cyber Command: We Don’t Wanna Defend the Internet (We Just Might Have To) | Pentagon: Let us monitor your network or else | US appoints first cyber warfare general | NSA head confirmed as chief of US cyber command | Cybersecurity event seeks to spur international talks | Danger Room What’s Next in National Security Prospective U.S. Cyber Commander Talks Terms of Digital Warfare | Canadian researchers reveal another botnet in China, call for state cybersecurity | U.S. cybersecurity bill introduced in Senate | Cyberattacks push CSIS to reach out to business | United States weighs massive expansion of Internet monitoring | Cyberwar Hype Intended to Destroy the Open Internet | Google, NSA may team up to probe cyberattacks | UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | Death Of The Internet: Censorship Bills In UK, Australia, U.S. Aim To Block “Undesirable” Websites | Australia introduces web filters | Obama Wants Computer Privacy Ruling Overturned | UK Internet surveillance plan to go ahead | Security boss calls for end to net anonymity | Case for Internet spying not closed | Planned Internet, wireless surveillance laws worry watchdogs | UK ISPs condemn Internet surveillance plans | UK to found new ‘cyber-security’ units attached to national eavesdropping centre | ISPs must help police snoop on internet under new bill | UK plans to integrate ‘cybersecurity’ centre with US, Canada | Cybersecurity Is Framework For Total Government Regulation & Control Of Our Lives | Obama Set to Create A Cybersecurity Czar With Broad Mandate | EU wants ‘Internet G12′ to govern cyberspace | UK Home Secretary has secret plan to surveil, ‘Master the Internet’ | Should Obama Control the Internet? | Cybersecurity law would give feds unprecedented net control | Munk Centre researchers discover botnet, call for international cyberspace ‘legal regime’ | NSA Dominance of Cybersecurity Would Lead to ‘Grave Peril’, Ex-Cyber Chief Tells Congress | Do We Need a New Internet? | Defense Contractors See $$$ in Cyber Security | RCMP to helm a Canadian “cyber-security strategy” | Sweden approves wiretapping law | Law Professor tells tech conference: plans to shut down Internet already on deck

Vito Pilieci, The Ottawa Citizen
June 14, 2010

Top defence official travels to Ottawa to launch initiative

OTTAWA – The U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense stopped in Ottawa Monday to drum up support for a new international organization to combat cyber warfare.

“A nuclear missile comes with a return address,” William Lynn told an audience of about 100 at the Château Laurier. With cyber warfare, on the other hand, “international co-operation is imperative.

“We can’t defend our networks by ourselves. The cyber threat is much larger.”

Lynn said the threat posed by hackers and computer viruses is steadily growing and poses a threat unlike anything the global community has seen.

“Previously, we would refer to the level of lethality. Terrorists did not have access to lethal weapons,” Lynn said in a speech hosted by the Conference of Defence Associations Institute.

“That no longer holds true. Terrorist organizations have access to sophisticated cyber warfare (weapons).”

Lynn’s comments come on the heels of a simulation by the Bi-Partisan Policy Institute in the U.S. The political think-tank simulated an Internet-based attack that wreaked havoc on the financial markets, hammered the Internet connections of millions, shut off the cellular phone connections of more than 20 million users, and caused sporadic blackouts affecting more than 10 million American homes.

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