-Militarizing the “Homeland”: NORTHCOM’s Joint Task Force-Civil Support.

Anti-Fascist Calling (snippet):

Based on a document (AR 500-3) published by the whistleblowing website Wikileaks, it described “all hazards COOP planning” as the mechanism by which “the Army remains capable of continuing mission-essential operations during any situation, including military attack, terrorist activities, and natural or man-made disasters.”

The Wikileaks document is all the more relevant since a September report in Army Times described how the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team (BCT) would be deployed October 1 “under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North,” the “service component” of NORTHCOM.

Since that article appeared September 8, Army Times has done a partial climb-down and now claims that the “non-lethal crowd control package” described earlier for operations in the heimat, “is intended for use on deployments to the war zone, not in the U.S., as previously stated.”

But this mendacious claim by Army Times is belied by current political trends in the U.S. Under cover of the “war on terror,” driftnet surveillance and moves toward suppressing dissent, most recently on display when protests during the Democratic and Republican National Conventions were criminalized and organizers were charged with “domestic terrorism” under the Patriot Act, are but the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Huge Writeup. READ IT.

-Glenn Beck: “New World Order is the endgame”.

Sometimes I like this guy. I’m still inclined to think he’s a paid propagandist whose job is to make a certain demograph believe they can trust him… on certain obvious stuff to then snub them on other matters… but when you’re right you’re right:

“There is a global meltdown coming. It is global depression. And one world currency and one world financial system is the endgame.” Glen Beck Says, “China said last week they want one global currency. France said yesterday … they want one world order - a new world order at the end of this event.

Click for video.

-Sarah Palin’s Email: A Crime Used To Expose A Crime?

Crooks & Liars:

By now everyone has heard about David Kernell, the 20 year old college student who hacked into Sarah Palin’s Yahoo email account. He was indicted this week on charges for illegally accessing Palin’s account and could get up to five years.

This case has raised a few flags to some in the public. First it leaves one wondering why the DOJ took such an active role in going after this guy. Email accounts get hacked on a daily basis, not to mention bank accounts and other items of higher fiscal value, yet the DOJ puts these on a low priority list.

The other big flag is that the hacker actually uncovered some violations by Palin:

The Justice Department seems to be setting one of its amazing new rules. When a Republican political figure is damaged in her expectation of being elected to office, it is telling us, that’s a felony. And why is that the case here? Because the hacker helped establish something important: Sarah Palin has been systematically violating the Open Records Act. As David Corn has noted at Mother Jones, Palin relied heavily on private email accounts for improper purposes. As governor of Alaska, she was obligated to maintain as public records her communications with respect to her discharge of official duties. Palin skirted this obligation by turning to private email accounts for government related dealings. In fact, the hacker in question helped flush out Palin’s violations. The hacker also helped establish a motive for the illegal conduct: Palin regularly involved her husband in official business, and it’s easy to understand why she did not want to leave behind evidence of her husband’s involvement.

(emphasis added)

I’m sure some out there would come to Palin’s defense, claiming that this evidence wasn’t properly obtained, however such issues have already been argued in court. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on a similar case where a hacker turned over evidence that eventually lead to the conviction of some involved in child pornography. The basics of the case are the same, someone used illegal means to gain access to someones personal email account. The information obtained by those means lead to the conviction of the victims of the hack. The court claimed it was a ‘loophole’ in federal privacy law.

So why isn’t Palin now facing questions about her violation of the Open Records Act? Hopefully more in the media will start asking her about this.

-New neural interface video game.

AFP:

Willpower is set to replace fast fingers in a new video game in which players move characters through a headset that monitors their brain waves.

California-based NeuroSky Inc. showed off the new headset — named Mindset — at the Tokyo Game Show, the industry’s biggest exhibition which opened near the Japanese capital Thursday.

The Mindset monitors whether the player is focused or relaxed and accordingly moves the character on a personal computer.

“We brought this to the game show as a new interface, a new platform for game creators,” NeuroSky managing director Kikuo Ito told AFP.

Children’s games using the system will hit the US market next year, Ito said.

“We are exploring the use of brain waves in the game industry because games are fun and so close to people,” he said.

“Once people get used to the idea of using brain waves for various applications, I hope we will see various products using this technology,” he said.

In distance learning courses, for example, teachers could monitor whether students were attentive, Ito said.

Train drivers and motorists could use it to judge their stress levels and alertness, Ito added.

Japan’s Keio University put similar technology to use this year to let a paralysed man take a virtual stroll on the popular Second Life website, with the machine reading what he wanted to do with his immobile legs.

NeuroSky said the Mindset could help people with other types of disabilities.

“For people with difficulty speaking, this can be a tool for communication,” Ito said.

Ito was hopeful that the technology would eventually go on sale outside the United States. Prices have not been announced.

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SEE ALSO:

Brainloop: Functional Advanced Brain Interfacing System

“Project Epoc” non-invasive ‘brain cap’ gaming device

‘Mental typewriter’ controlled by thought alone

Sony Patent Covers Real-Life Matrix

-VIDEO: General Wesley Clark grilled on Operation Gladio, KLA and 9/11 wargames.

On 10/3/08, retired Four-Star General Wesley Kanne Clark took part in a discussion about International Justice at the UCLA Law School. Clark, who had been Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) of NATO during Operation Allied Force in the Kosovo War, insisted that international justice is important but in conflict with the long history in the United States of acting as seen fit in the moment.

Operation Gladio – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Related pages at History Commons:

Al-Qaeda in Balkans (165)

Military Exercises (74)

-VIDEO: National Debt Clock Billboard Runs Out of Digits.

-The Orwellosphere: Anglo-American Drive to ‘Total Security State’ Rolls On.

Empire Burlesque (snippet):

“technology to wipe out truth is now available. not everybody can afford it but it’s available. when the cost comes down look out!” – Bob Dylan, “World Gone Wrong”

“toleration of the unacceptable leads to the last round-up.” – Dylan, ibid.

In the whirlwind of anxiety and confusion surrounding the global economic meltdown, one thing is certain: governments will use the crisis to augment their own power.

This may occur directly, as with the Bush-Paulson bailout plan, which gives the Treasury Secretary virtually unlimited and unsupervised power to give billions of taxpayer dollars to his cronies on Wall Street, while also allowing him to override the few restrictions left on the machinations of raw greed in the financial markets. (Yes, of course, all of this will change completely after Barack Obama is elected: instead of Hank Paulson and George Bush doling out bailout pork to their Wall Street pals, a brand-new Treasury chief and Obama will be doling out bailout pork to their Wall Street pals.)

But the economic freak-out will also be employed as a distraction, with governments using it to enact measures hugger-mugger while public attention is obsessively focused elsewhere. A prime — and chilling — example of this can be found in a new law slouching its way through the legislative process in Britain, where it is likely to emerge in the stark light of day next year. And it is a very rough beast indeed; the measure will, as Jenni Russell puts it in the Guardian

[create a] centralised database that will track, in real time, every call we make, every website we visit, and every text and email we send. That information will then be stored and analysed – perhaps for decades. It will mean the end of privacy as we know it.

Or rather, what’s left of privacy as we used to know it. And Americans should not take comfort in the fact that this truly Orwellian law is being prepared across the sea. Britain has long been a bellwether for repressive measures in the United States, blazing a path on detention without charges, omnipresent camera surveillance, “strenuous interrogation,” and other liberty-stripping “counterterrorism” measures, many of them honed in the glory days of the dirty war with the IRA. [For more on how British dirty war tactics cross-pollinated American black ops in Iraq, see "Ulster on the Euphrates."]

Full article.

-Cops test license-plate cameras that store, trace data.

The Portland Tribune:

Portland police are testing a high-tech camera system that rivals anything in a science fiction movie.

It can reach back in time and track your movements across the city — and even produce photos of your previous locations.

But — while some are raising Big Brother civil liberties questions about the concept — the police promise they will only use it to solve crimes, like finding stolen cars or locating wanted criminals.

The system features a series of cameras that mount on patrol cars that automatically read and photograph the license plates of all passing vehicles — including those parked along the sides of the streets. Plates of stolen and suspect-linked vehicles trigger an alarm, allowing the officers to immediately locate them.

The camera also is hooked into a computer that records the exact time and location where each plate was photographed, allowing the police to later map its previous locations around town.

“It’s not magic, but it’s pretty cool,” said Portland Police Southeast Precinct officer Terry Colbert, who has been sharing the Dodge Charger patrol car used in the test.

The test car only has been equipped with the system for a few weeks. But Colbert already has recovered seven stolen cars it identified.

Colbert believes the “data-mining” ability of the system has the potential to be even more important to the police, however.

FULL ARTICLE

-Army Orders Pain Ray Trucks; New Report Shows ‘Potential for Death’.

Danger Room:

After years of testing, the Active Denial System — the pain ray which drives off rioters with a microwave-like beam — could finally have its day. The Army is buying five of the truck-mounted systems for $25 million. But the energy weapon may face new hurdles, before it’s shipped off to the battlefield; a new report details how the supposedly non-lethal blaster could be turned into a flesh-frying killer.

Continue reading “Army Orders Pain Ray Trucks; New Report Shows ‘Potential for Death’” »

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SEE ALSO:

Marines Fund Non-Lethal Heat Ray

Future Protests = Futile Protests. Audio Cannons, Pain Beam’s and Laser Stun Rifles

-Report: Time for a New Arms Race With China.

Read the report by the ISAB Task Force on China’s Strategic Modernization (downloads PDF)

Danger Room (snippet):

A new report about U.S. military relations with China has just emerged from a State Department Advisory Board. And not only is it all kinds of hawkish. But the paper comes at the same time that we’re loading up Taiwan’s arsenal.

The Washington Times describes the paper here. Hans Kristensen at the Federation of American Scientists excoriates it here. But two telling passages need highlighting. First: “In addition to improving the ability to defend U.S. force capabilities targeted by the Chinese, the United States should focus R&D on high technology military capabilities not included in China’s military plans — military systems that will demonstrate to Beijing that trying to get ahead of the United States is futile (much the way [the Star Wars missile defense program] did against the Soviet Union).”

And second: “Washington should also make clear that it will not accept a mutual vulnerability relationship with China — something Beijing seeks through its expansion of offensive nuclear capabilities. To avoid the emerging creep toward a Chinese assured destruction capability, the United States will need to pursue new missile defense capabilities, including taking full advantage of space.”

Washington Times (snippets):

“Using superior U.S. military technical capacities, the United States should undertake the development of new weapons, sensors, communications, and other programs and tactics to convince China that it will not be able to overcome the U.S. militarily,” the report said.

…

The draft report said China’s “major objective is to counter U.S. presence and U.S. military capabilities in East Asia through the acquisition of offensive capacities in critical functional areas that systematically exploit U.S. vulnerabilities.” It said the buildup involves capabilities for “asymmetric warfare,” such as space and computer weapons, that could help Chinese forces defeat a stronger U.S. military.

Among the areas of U.S. strategic vulnerability identified in the report are gaps in U.S. missile defenses; dependence on space for communications; the U.S. inability to use force against China except through aircraft carrier groups; and “fragile electronics and the Internet.” The report recommends that the United States acquire new offensive space and cyber warfare capabilities and missile defenses as well as “more robust sea- and space-based capabilities” to deter any crisis over Taiwan.

…

China currently has about 20 missiles capable of reaching the United States but is projected to have more than 100 nuclear missiles, some likely with multiple warheads, by 2015, the report said.

Among the key findings:

• Continued rapid economic growth of 10 percent a year is “vital” for China to continue to compete with the United States and achieve its main goals of regime survival and regional dominance.

• China’s industrial and defense espionage is aimed at obtaining advanced technology for economic and military modernization.

• The scale, scope and speed of China’s rise fundamentally impacts U.S. national security, yet the U.S. “possesses only a limited understanding of Chinese intentions, and how Beijing’s economic and military expansion affects these interests.”

• China’s military and civilian leaders are not always on the same page and that separation is a potential “focal point” for mitigating hostility. China’s civilian leaders understand Americans but the Chinese military suffers from “clear paranoia and misperceptions” about U.S. intentions.

• To avoid an “emerging creep” by China toward strategic nuclear coercion, “the United States will need to pursue new missile defense capabilities, including taking full advantage of space,” the report said.

On China’s expansion after centuries as a regional power, the ISAB report stated that: “In China’s view, Taiwan is the key to breakout: If China is to become a global power, the first step must include control of this island.” Taking over the island would allow China to control the seas near its coasts and to project power eastward, the report said.

China views Taiwan, where nationalist forces fled from the mainland in 1949, as central to “the legitimacy of the regime and key to power projection,” the report said. Taiwan also is seen by China as a way to deny the United States a key ally in “a highly strategic location” of the western Pacific, the report said.

-New Killer Drones Could be Piloted by Teenagers.

Danger Room:

Today, only experienced Air Force pilots are allowed to remotely-operate the American fleet of killer drones. Tomorrow, the heavily-armed robotic planes could be flown by 19 year-olds, barely out of basic training.

The Army and Marine Corps use Shadow unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to spy on suspected militants. Not only are they smaller, cheaper, lighter, and lower-flying than the Air Force’s array of missile-laden Predator and Reaper drones. But Shadows are considered a “tactical assets,” meant to watch over relatively small patches of ground, for relatively small units. Predators, on the other hand, are “theater” or “operational-level” assets — controlled by generals, and sent all over.

Continue reading “New Killer Drones Could be Piloted by Teenagers” »