Watch list not so exclusive a club any more

Terror watch list swells to more than 755,000 names

The government's terrorist watch list has swelled to more than 755,000 names, according to a new government report that has raised worries about the list's effectiveness.
The size of the list, typically used to check people entering the country through land border crossings, airports and sea ports, has been growing by 200,000 names a year since 2004. Some lawmakers, security experts and civil rights advocates warn that it will become useless if it includes too many people.

Know what we should do? We should all do something to get on the list. If no one can fly, the airlines take the hit. They might as well watch everyone and keep a list of people not to watch. People would have to pay a huge application fee to get on it, and they could use that money to bail out the airlines. An innovative way to tax the rich.

But they would probably just make a sublist of people to really really watch, and let the others fly. But it'd make a great paperwork bomb, nonetheless. You like the idea of peaceful revolution? Well, there you go.

Be careful not to actually break the law to get on the list. Just start all your phone conversations with the words "Bomb, bomb, bomb" so the line tap switches on.

Who's being sneaky?

Online Videos May Be Conduits for Viruses

One worm discovered in November 2006 launches a corrupt Web site without prompting after a user opens a media file in a player. Another program silently installs spyware when a video file is opened. Attackers have also tried to spread fake video links via postings on YouTube.

Or, the entertainment corporations are claiming this -- or who knows, actually putting them there -- to scare people away from using YouTube and the other deeeemon spawn of "Web 2.0".

Another soft spot involves social networking sites, blogs and wikis. These community-focused sites, which are driving the next generation of Web applications, are also becoming one of the juiciest targets for malicious hackers.

Computers surfing the sites silently communicate with a Web application in the background, but hackers sometimes secretly embed malicious code when they edit the open sites, and a Web browser will unknowingly execute the code. These chinks in the armor could let hackers steal private data, hijack Web transactions or spy on users.

See what I mean?

Paging Andrew Keen...Andrew Keen to the front desk, the amateur cult would like to have a word with you...

Plus, I'm kind of interested in that last bit, "spy on users". Hackers have better things to do. The government and the corporations, on the other hand...

Are you a replicant...er, a terrorist?

Security firms working on devices to spot would-be terrorists in crowd

Under Project Hostile Intent, scientists will aim to build devices that can pick up tell-tale signs of hostile intent or deception from people's heart rates, perspiration and tiny shifts in facial expressions.

This is uber-cool.

It's also horrifying, but you have to remember I'm a geek, I grew up reading science fiction, and I already know how most of these things turn out no matter which Schrodinger's branch we take: cat alive, or cat dead. Those of us who've read these books live in an ongoing world of simultaneous boredom (yeah, we knew they'd be able to do that), excitement (they can do that already?), and fear (oh, shit, they can do that ALREADY?).

So, yes, I've read books about, and seen (in movies like Minority Report, the film this article references), the different paths of consequence that will stem from the use of this technology. But Minority Report was more about ESP. The film this technology brings most easily to my mind is Bladerunner. A test to tell whether you're a replicant. How about if you're a terrorist? A test to tell whether you harbor seditious thoughts. Whether you disagree with your government, your employer, the law, or the church you've been assigned to. You know...to decide whether you're fit to live.

Dramatic...but then it should be; we're talking about movies. We are...right?

What I am certain they won't be able to do for a long time is to do it accurately, which could mean either that we won't have to worry about it for some time (the less likely scenario), or that they will rush it out there and start merrily misusing it (the more likely scenario).

For my part, I smile and wave hi at security cameras. I'm waiting for the study to come out that explains that terrorists do this, so they can take me down.

Ground Zero articles of interest:

B-b-but safety!

WTF, people?

Surveillance Cameras Win Broad Support

Given the chief arguments, pro and con — a way to help solve crimes vs. too much of a government intrusion on privacy — it isn't close: 71 percent of Americans favor the increased use of surveillance cameras, while 25 percent oppose it.

I want you all to note the key word here: "solve".

Solve crimes. Not PREVENT crimes!

Cameras do not make you any safer!

Not even as deterrents. Deterrents only make criminals more careful and more creative.

"B-b-but it'll help catch the criminals and get them off the streets so they won't do it to anyone else!"

Yeah, whatever. Once the bomb blows up, the bomb has blown up. Catching criminals serves no purpose save vengeance. If that's a viable goal for you, fine. Have at it. Meanwhile the dead are still dead.

Shall I count the ways cameras are a bad idea? No need to do it here; you can read the article below. Our being for or against the cameras won't make any difference in whether they go up anyway, only in how easy they are to spot.

Oh, and this article predates Google Earth. Think about Google Earth for a while. And remember: if they see you, they can shoot you.

Ground Zero articles of interest:

secret aaa-gent man....

Two great tastes that taste great together: more American informants, and more Russian spies!

FBI Proposes Building Network of U.S. Informants

Putin Orders Boost in Military, Spying

Welcome back, Cold War. We missed you. We missed the pervasive, yet incomprehensible threat of hearing a siren whoop and then suddenly ceasing to exist. We missed the genteel cloak-and-dagger days, so free of vulgarities like dirty little brown people blowing things up right in front of us. War should be abstract. It lasts so much longer that way. And the supermarket fiction was better.

My favorite quote from the FBI story:

"It's probably a good sign they are not adopting CIA recruitment techniques wholesale," said Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, an expert on classified programs. U.S. intelligence officers abroad can use bribery, extortion, and other patently illegal acts to corral sources into working for them, Aftergood noted. "You're not supposed to do that in the United States."

That's what I love about my country, by jingo: we'd never do things we're NOT SUPPOSED to do, right?

Boys and girls, if you are approached by these people, and you want to join up, ask what's in it for YOU. Take control of the negotiations immediately.

Unclean, unclean....

Microchips mulled for HIV carriers in Indonesia's Papua

"Among one of the means being considered is the monitoring of those infected people who can pose a danger to others," Manangsang said.

"The use of chip implants is one of the ways to do so, but only for those few who turn aggressive and clearly continue to disregard what they know about the disease and spread the virus to others."

I've already seen where this would lead. Norman Spinrad wrote a novella in the eighties called "Journals of the Plague Years". The spread of the plague (AIDS and mutations thereof, though it is not called by name in the story) is so prevalent that, included in the information on the national ID, there is a field with information about the person's infection status. Uninfected people's cards, when scanned, returned a blue indicator; the infected, or anyone who had missed their last scheduled medical test, came up black. Most black-carders were rounded up and shipped off to the quarantine city, San Francisco, which was surrounded by walls and guards in boats and all.

When people would meet and consider dating, there were readers in public places for the purpose of confirming one's status to the other. (I think there may have been home blood test kits, too; it's been twenty years, and the book is out of print now.)

And when a person's card registered black, they would often dive into the underground immediately, as it meant the authorities would be looking for them.

I won't go into the plot details. But that's where this is heading. Black cards, not just for diseases, but for any undesirable behavior.

Consider the usefulness of underground networks in such a case, or that of card counterfeiters and identity brokers. Should a similar future come to pass, They^TM will want to use chips because they're harder to counterfeit, but I have faith in human inventiveness.

Ground Zero articles of interest:

Fifties nostalgia

Who knew it wasn't all Brylcreem and poodle skirts?

FBI targets universities in new scheme to recruit informers

The kind of profiling the FBI has in mind was suggested by Bamford: “It could be [tracing] a telephone number from a cave in Afghanistan that could be completely innocent or it could be something else. The problem is, we don’t have the luxury of saying, ‘It’s probably nothing.’ ”

Tracing a what, from where?

“The FBI is asking university faculty, staff, and students to create a form of neighborhood watch against anything that is so called ‘suspicious.’ What kinds of things are they going to report on? Who has the right to be snitching? One of the scary things is who [on the campuses] will take it upon themselves to root out spies?”

Well, YOU, of course. Find out whom the FBI has recruited and plant seeds to get them informing on each other. It's fun, free, and excellent business training. Have at it, students.

Ground Zero articles of interest:

Homeland Security will decide whether we can work

No jobs for US citizens without Homeland Security approval

"Under this already flawed program no one would be able to work in the U.S. without DHS approval - creating a ‘No Work List’ similar to the government’s ‘No Fly List.’"

Whoever's surprised, raise your hand. Next come No Rent Lists, No Primary Education Lists, No Buying Food Lists...You think I'm joking, don't you.


Work bill would create new ID database

There is no privacy requirement that the federal government delete the information after work authorization is given or denied. Employers would be required to keep all the documentation in paper or electronic form for seven years "and make it available for inspection by officers of the Department of Homeland Security" and the Department of Labor. It would also open up the IRS' databases of confidential taxpayer information to Homeland Security and its contractors.

After the chaos that will ensue due to incompatibility of database software, the next step will be to create one database. The more centralized the information is, the easier it is to manipulate it, since you only have to crack one database, bribe one employee, or forge one card instead of several.

The ACLU's Sparapani argued that the bill's penalties for noncompliance aren't tough enough to discourage unscrupulous employers from continuing to pay undocumented workers under the table. Under the new rules, "the black market economy is likely to grow rather than shrink," he said.

No shit, Sherlock. If it's too much trouble to hire people legally, why would people even bother to hire citizens and legal immigrants? It's now going to be MORE likely that illegal immigrants will find work and stay here, not less.

Ground Zero articles of interest:

Well, that's fine for Europe...

(Follow-up to this post)

EU Probes Google Over Privacy Concerns

Oh, they'll get you too, Europe. Either that, or you'll find a competitive way to do it yourselves. You're not fooling anyone, you know.

Who needs the FBI when we have Google?

Yeah, because Google's who I want running my life...

Google's goal to organize your daily life

"Mr Schmidt told journalists in London: 'We cannot even answer the most basic questions because we don’t know enough about you. That is the most important aspect of Google’s expansion.'"

Really? Seems to me they know plenty:

Google in bed with U.S. intelligence

Ground Zero articles of interest:

Remember, remember...

Evey confronts the Fingermen after curfew.


The movie "V for Vendetta" showed us an alternate-universe police state in London, England.

Now coming to a universe near you!

Street lockdowns proposed in Baltimore

"Under Curran's plan, the mayor could declare "public safety act zones," which would allow police to close liquor stores and bars, limit the number of people on city sidewalks, and halt traffic during two-week intervals.

Police would be encouraged to aggressively stop and frisk individuals in those zones to search for weapons and drugs."