Earthside Comments: Though Bush and Cheney are now recognized as the most un-American, anti-liberty 'leaders' in U.S. history, the policy of spying on Americans continues to expand. The fear and propaganda engendered by 9/11 still motivates government to contract freedom.
"Innocent" activity is legal in the United States of the Bill of Rights. We should not be afraid of the government -- the government should be afraid of us.
Earthside recommends, in light of the article linked to below, that citizens refuse cooperation with nosy agents of the government or any other stranger paying too much attention to what you are saying or doing.
Link: Terror Watch Uses Local Eyes 181 Trained in Colorado | Denver Post
Hundreds of police, firefighters, paramedics and even utility workers have been trained and recently dispatched as "Terrorism Liaison Officers" in Colorado and a handful of other states to hunt for "suspicious activity" — and are reporting their findings into secret government databases.
It's a tactic intended to feed better data into terrorism early-warning systems and uncover intelligence that could help fight anti-U.S. forces. But the vague nature of the TLOs' mission, and their focus on reporting both legal and illegal activity, has generated objections from privacy advocates and civil libertarians.
"Suspicious activity" is broadly defined in TLO training as behavior that could lead to terrorism: taking photos of no apparent aesthetic value, making measurements or notes, espousing extremist beliefs or conversing in code, according to a draft Department of Justice/Major Cities Chiefs Association document.
All this is anathema to opponents of domestic surveillance.
Yet U.S. intelligence and homeland security officials say they support the widening use of TLOs — state-run under federal agreements — as part of a necessary integrated network for preventing attacks. ... MORE
Comments