01/5/17

AmmoMan.com is pushing security-minded Americans to cover up computer cameras with “Lens Liberator”

By: Eric the AmmoMan | AmmoMan

Facebook found Mark Zuckerberg and FBI Director James Comey are two high-profile, relatively tech-savvy individuals who cover their computer cameras up to prevent a potential hack.

With relative ease, foreign and domestic hackers have proven they can gain access to computer camera footage and in some cases have been known to exploit whatever that camera sees for financial gain.

It’s enough of a problem that James Comey blocks his camera with tape and suggests the general public consider it as well.

“You go into any government office and we all have the little camera things that sit on top of the screen,” Comey said during a conference in the fall. “They all have a little lid that closes down on them. “You do that so that people who don’t have authority don’t look at you. I think that’s a good thing.”

In other words, while you can have strong passwords and even firewalls on your network to help defend against hackers, you should still take additional steps to protect yourself against hackers who might to try to access your camera.

To help make it easier (and less of an eye-sore) AmmoMan.com is pushing security-minded Americans to cover up their computer cameras with something they call the “Lens Liberator”.

Cut in two different sizes to best fit your computer or smartphone camera lens, the Lens Liberator promises “complete annihilation of privacy-breaching photons” that might make their way to your computer’s camera lens and put your privacy at risk.

The small, custom made one-half and three-quarter inch stickers are re-stickable. So, users can easily remove the sticker to access their camera as they see fit. While supplies last, 10,000 of the Lens Liberators are available for free to any American who requests one be sent to them.

“While we deal mostly with firearms and ammunition, security is about more than just gunpowder and the shooting guns,” Eric Schepps of AmmoMan.com said. “We see this as a good opportunity to help the shooting community take the proper steps to secure other aspects of their life.”

Liberating Your Lens – A Look at Domestic Spying and Cyber Security in the U.S.A. – An infographic by the team at Lens Liberator

12/29/16

The Russian Dachas in Maryland and Long Island

By: Denise Simon | FoundersCode.com

This 45 acre compound in Maryland was purchased in 1972. This is used as a safe hour and listening post along with database and communications systems.

WashingtonLife: Russian Ambassador Yuri Ushakov and his wife Svetlana continue the Russian tradition of summer escapes and family bonding on Maryland’s Eastern Shore

Russians cherish the dacha, a word meaning summer house or cottage. During summers and weekends, millions of them leave the stress of congested city life for the solace of a cabin or house in the countryside. “It’s a Russian tradition,” explains Yuri Ushakov, ambassador of the Russian Federation. “You will find Moscow empty on Saturdays and Sundays, even in winter. A dacha is a good place to spend time outdoors with family and friends.”

Since arriving in Washington eight years ago, the Ushakov and his wife Svetlana Ushakova have kept up this tradition on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. They spend nearly every weekend and longer stretches during the summer at the embassy’s three-story brick dacha fronting the Chester River. While the 1920s Georgian-style house doesn’t exactly look Russian, it offers the couple the same pleasures as their dacha outside of Moscow, especially the chance to spend time with their 10-year-old grandson Misha, grilling shashlik (Russian shish kebob), with friends, or relaxing in the bania, Russian for steam room.

“Because we have such a hectic life in Washington, we need a place to hide for awhile,” says Ushakova on a recent tour of the dacha, accompanied by Simon, her west highland terrier. “This is the best spot for really being alone with your family. Of course, we entertain friends, colleagues and officials here but not as much as we do in the city. We prefer to host small gatherings where you can really talk, exchange opinions and enjoy each other’s company.”

Strolling the grounds of this park-like setting, lushly planted with magnolias, cypress and boxwood, it’s easy to understand why these diplomats treasure their getaway. It is located right on the waterfront with all the amenities of a resort. Within a short walk from the main house are a swimming pool and cabana, tennis court and waterfront dock. While the 57-yearold ambassador’s wife likes the seclusion of the pool near the river, her husband, a fit 60-yearold, prefers swatting balls on the tennis court, boating on the river or cycling around the grounds with his grandson in tow. The couple can also be found browsing the antique shops in nearby Centreville, Chestertown and Easton, looking for the porcelains that Ushakova collects or the old books treasured by Ushakov, who also collects red wine.

Some of the finds from those trips, along with a phone from a Soviet submarine, adorn the one-room “hunting lodge” where the couple hosts special visitors. “No one really hunts but that’s what we call it,” Ushakova says with a laugh. This shingled shed with its outdoor fireplace, one of many outbuildings on the property, is tucked off the tree-lined lane leading to the house. Inside, a long wooden table under timber ceiling beams and glass beer steins hanging from a rack create the feeling of a rustic pub. A colorful mural of Russian and American sailors clinking their beer glasses decorates the back wall; the Russian wears a naval hat inscribed with “Ushakov.”

The lodge is one of several recent renovations to the sprawling estate once known as Pioneer Point Farm. The current 45 acres originally belonged to a 700-acre land grant from Britain in the 1600s. In 1702, the farm was purchased by Richard Tilghman and remained in his family until 1925 when it was sold to John J. Raskob, an executive with Dupont and General Motors. Tombstones dating from the early 1800s still remain on the property, but the first wood-framed dwelling on the estate is long gone. Raskob built the current brick mansion where the front door knocker, inscribed with “Hartefield House,” bears the only witness to that original home. For his 13 children and their friends, he also constructed an equally grand, neighboring brick house, which is now being restored by the Russian government.

After Raskob died, the estate was sold to a succession of owners in the decades following World War II. The Soviet government purchased the two houses and surrounding land in 1972 and later obtained more acreage after a land swap with the State Department, which in return received property in Moscow. The deal, however, wasn’t initially well received by the locals who were worried about suspicious foreigners. “It was during the Cold War and people around here were afraid that the Russians would bring their battleships,” Ushakova says. “But then they realized that it wasn’t so bad because Russians started coming to the local shops to buy food and everything. They realized that there was no danger and saw that we took care of the house and property. Moreover, they realized that the Russians were friendly and hospitable.”

For more than two decades, the Eastern Shore property served as a dacha for Anatoly Dobrynin who was the Soviet ambassador during the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan administrations until he returned to Moscow in 1986. Dobrynin preserved the Flemish-bond red brick and ornate painted ironwork of the Raskob mansion and kept many of the furnishings that came with the house. Fourteen rental cottages, some built in Finland and shipped to the site, were added for embassy staff.

Much of the original flavor of the house remains intact. The formal living and dining rooms flanking the wide center hall retain their teak floors, oriental carpets and impressive crystal chandeliers. An archway on one side of the living room leads to the walnut-paneled library where built-in shelves hold many of the ambassador’s favorite books. Off the other side, a glass-enclosed porch overlooks a brick-walled courtyard where a fountain gurgles quietly. A two-story screened porch, set behind the rear colonnade of the house, provides a river view between nearly century-old boxwoods.

As an offshoot of the embassy, the dacha is frequently used for official functions. Every May, the entire staff is invited to celebrate Victory Day, a Russian holiday commemorating World War II, and on Labor Day, the Sailing Club of the Chesapeake arrives to enjoy an annual fete. “The main mission for us has been to keep the house and grounds alive,” Ushakov says.

On weekends, the couple prefers hosting smaller gatherings and house parties of no more than 10 people. Menus include fish freshly caught from the Chesapeake and salads tossed with lettuces, cucumbers and tomatoes picked from the vegetable gardens on the property. “People can relax and open up in way that they never do in the city,” Ushakova says. “A dacha is not just about entertaining. It’s about uniting people in a very spiritual way because here you are in harmony with nature. That’s why the dacha is so powerful for Russians.”

A painted mural of toasting Russian and American sailors decorates the rear wall of the rustic hunting lodge, a former outbuilding converted by the ambassador and his wife for entertaining.

****

NYT’s: The Soviet compound on Dosoris Lane, was the idea of Walter Green, chairman of the Harrison Conference Services, the parent concern, who invited his neighbors for the early-morning get-together.

Mr. Belonogov brought along two Soviet trade aides, Yuri D. Sherbena, president of the Amtorg Trading Company, and Dimitry A. Solovykn, deputy president of the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Trade and Economic Council, and said that a number of Soviet products, including textiles, nickel, plywood and fertilizers, could be marketed here effectively.

Calling it ”most urgent” to start to move in the armaments race, Mr. Belonogov said: ”The more arms at our disposal, the less secure we are. Arms today are more sophisticated. As a result, all are becoming hostages of military technology.”

The chief delegate escorted the businessmen -all presidents or chief executive officers of major Long Island concerns – and a few journalists around the mansion, which was built by George DuPont Pratt, an heir to the Standard Oil fortune, in 1913. The Soviet Government bought the 49-room mansion and its 36 acres of choice property in the 1940’s, around the time of the formation of the United Nations, as a facility for its staff at the world organization, then headquartered at Lake Success.

Today, the compound, called Killenworth, is used as a weekend retreat for members of the Soviet Mission to the United Nations.

Austere and sparsely furnished, the mansion has only a few of the lush trappings associated with turn-of-the-century elegance on the North Shore. The chapel still has all its original woodwork and decorations, and the mansion’s fireplaces work, Mr. Belonogov noted. Many of the sconces, chandeliers and some furnishings remain intact from the early days. The rest, with modern plumbing and electricity, is basically functional.

”The property is very picturesque,” Mr. Belonogov said, ”and two families live here on a permanent basis. There is a swimming pool and facilities for sports.”

The businessmen did not get a chance to explore the grounds, which include a rose garden and Roman and Greek-style statuary, because of inclement weather, but the landscape appeared well gardened, lush and verdant, with bursts of early spring flowers.

Mr. Green of the Harrison center said he expected to have additional meeting with diplomats and business leaders.

Among those who toured the Soviet compound were Martin Hills, president of Venus Scientific; Mervin H. First of RFI; Daniel M. Healy, managing partner of Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co.; Harry Mariani, president of Villa Banfi; W.F. Kenny of Meenan Oil; Douglas Maxwell of Powers Chemco; Sal J. Nuzzo of Hazeltine;, Aneen Solomon of Jack LaLanne Management, and Harold Lazarus of the School of Business of Hofstra University.

***

Or is it this one?

A House of Intrigue and, the Neighbors Say, Espionage

The house in the foreground, on Fieldston Road in the Bronx, was long rumored among neighbors to be used by the government to spy on the taller building behind it, which is used to house Russian diplomats.

The house in the foreground, on Fieldston Road in the Bronx, was long rumored among neighbors to be used by the government to spy on the taller building behind it, which is used to house Russian diplomats.Credit Ángel Franco/The New York Times

In real estate, the saying goes, location is key, and it is certainly true for the little white house at 5437 Fieldston Road in Riverdale.

In a world without global tensions and nuclear showdowns, this modest, single-family house in the Bronx might have enjoyed a perfectly neutral existence.

Instead it became infamous locally, gaining a reputation as a spy house because it is separated by a fence from the Russian Federation, which opened in 1974 as a diplomatic residence.

This unassuming house provided perhaps the best physical vantage point to the 20-story building on the property, which lies between Mosholu Avenue and Fieldston Road near 255th Street and is encircled by an imposing, spike-tipped fence.

Shortly after the Russian compound opened, the house was bought by a corporation, Van Cortland Realty, whose ownership was difficult to discern. Neighbors say they can never remember anyone living there – even up to the present day.

The property was maintained by a landscaper, and junk mail and circulars were presumably collected periodically, although none of about a dozen neighbors interviewed can recall how.

“I call it the mystery house,” said Mike O’Rourke, 86, who has been a doorman at Fieldston Manor, across the street from the house, for 20 years.

“I’ve never seen anyone go in or out,” Mr. O’Rourke said.

Herminio Sanes Jr., the superintendent at Fieldston Manor, said most neighbors assumed it was used by federal agents as a surveillance house to watch the Russian compound, which is now operated by Russia’s mission to the United Nations.

“Everyone always said it was an F.B.I. house,” said Mr. Sanes, who added that the most activity he ever spotted near the property were repair crews that seemed to constantly tend to the phone lines near the house.

“We used to always see men working on the telephone poles, and we used to say, ‘How many times can they possibly fix these lines?’” Mr. Sanes said.

But it appears this house of intrigue may be reborn as a house of worship. According to New York City finance records, the house has been purchased for $400,000 by the Talner Congregation Beth David. The congregation hopes to demolish the house and build a synagogue, according to New York City Department of Buildings officials.

Congregation officials did not return messages requesting comment, but Susan Goldy, a local real estate agent helping the congregation find temporary rental space, said she had discussed the sale with a congregation member.

“The congregation basically doesn’t even know who they bought the house from,” Ms. Goldy said. “The inside of the house looked as if it had never been lived in, and the lawyer for the seller who handled the closing never explained who the real owner was, beyond the corporate name.”

Two officers from Van Cortland Realty, a holding company that bought the house shortly after the compound opened, and which has a business address in Ellicott City, Md., near Washington, did not return phone calls.An F.B.I. spokesman in New York declined to comment about neighborhood rumors regarding the house. Officials of Russia’s United Nations mission also did not respond to a request for comment.

So while the truth of the 5437 Fieldston Road may never be known, its history as a local legend with spy-novel status seems worth summarizing.

In the early 1970s, as the Russian compound was being built, the modest house was sold several times between real estate holding companies.

Cold-war-spy story lines flew about the house, which looked about as nondescript as a man in a tan overcoat and sunglasses reading a newspaper in a spy movie.

Its vantage point overlooked huge satellite dishes mounted on a lower floor of the Russian Federation building. The blinds on the windows that faced the federation building always seemed closed.

Neighbors theorized that the house was used for camera surveillance and to monitor phone lines at the Russian Federation, but no one ever seemed to come or go. After snowstorms, the front of the house would remain covered in smooth white snow, with no footsteps, sometimes for weeks until the snow melted.

“It was well known that it was a government house, one of the agencies,” said a longtime resident on the block who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is a retired deputy inspector with the New York Police Department and he did not feel comfortable being revealed speaking about the topic.

Several residents of Fieldston Manor said it was common knowledge that F.B.I. agents worked out of an apartment in the complex that faces both the house and the compound.

“A lot of us spoke to the agents, and they did not hide who they were,” said William Nage, 60, a retired interior designer.

Workers would show up so often to climb a utility pole outside the house and work on the lines, it became a running joke among residents.

“We used to say, ‘At least we probably have better television reception than anyone else,’” Ms. Goldy said.

And even after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the house remained empty yet well maintained, Mr. O’Rourke said.

As he spoke he stopped a passing resident and asked, “What do you know about that white house across the street?”

“Oh,’’ the resident replied nonchalantly, “that’s a government house.”

06/10/15

Will the Sharia save Morsi?

By: Ashraf Ramelah
Voice of the Copts

death-sentence

death-sentence

Just three weeks ago the Egyptian court sentenced Egypt’s former Muslim Brotherhood president, Mohammed Morsi, to the death penalty after evidence presented from Egyptian intelligence documents proved him guilty of spying for Qatar, Iran and Turkey.

There are more than one hundred names on the list with him who are all convicted of the same crimes: murdering protesters, transferring top secret military documents to foreign countries, and burning the museum library which destroyed rare manuscripts and ancient artifacts.

Included on the death-penalty list is Mohamed Badie, the former Muslim Brotherhood spiritual head and his two deputies, Khairat El-Shater and Mahmud Ezzat, as well as Yousef Al Qaradawy, Hamas’ spiritual leader now living in Qatar.

As required by Egyptian law, the Egyptian court directly transmitted the list of the sentenced to the Grand Mufti of Cairo for his pronouncement of the Sharia opinion (approval) on the court’s verdict and sentencing. This past week, a few hours before the court resumed on June 2, a sealed envelope was passed to the court containing the Grand Mufti’s decision.

The court postponed the June 2 proceedings until June 16, and the envelope remains sealed at this moment.  Some say the court did so to protect the country and President Al-Sisi who was in Germany on June 2 — waiting for his return in case violence erupts as a result of the announcement.

What are the chances that the Mufti has approved the death penalty? After all, the hundred or so Morsi aides and accomplices condemned to death along with the former president are guilty of nothing more than consistency with the cleric’s ideological and religious views.

If the death penalty is not approved and the civil court ignores the disapproval and goes forward to implement the death penalty, this could mean that the court is secured by the backing and protection of the President in order to serve justice. This in turn reveals that Al-Sisi is truly willing and able to go forward with cleaning corruption and rolling back religious extremism in an effort to reform the country.

But Al-Sisi is a mystery. He recently gave a statement to the German press indicating his agreement with the official story of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood wherein Morsi was elected fairly and democratically and won with 55 percent of the vote. This is very odd since Al-Sisi’s own legitimacy as the people’s president rests on the opposite view — the well-known truth that Morsi became president through corrupt elections, violence, fraud, and outside interference.

The second alternative would be for the civil court to comply with the Grand Mufti’s disapproval of the death sentences, subjecting itself to the authority of the religious clerics which is current practice. In an unreformed Egypt this can be expected from the court.

If we find that the Mufti has approved the death sentences, we are experiencing Al-Sisi’s power for the first time within his term of office and know as well that he is genuine.  If so, the promise of modern reform has real potential, and Al-Sisi will have succeeded in spite of outside pressures (Merkel, Obama, and the CIA), Egypt’s political legacy (Mubarak, Sadat, and Nasser) and religious ultra-conservatives threatening secular initiatives (Salafists, Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Ahzar Institute).

The Coptic minority remains under the same pressures today as during previous administrations ruling Egypt. Muslim supremacies prevail, often with violence, against the sub-class within Egypt’s population. Al-Sisi, the man and the president, is yet a sign of hope for the country – Muslim and Christian watch Al-Sisi teetering between positions usually by omissions but not defaulting to the comfortable pattern of his predecessors.

06/2/15

Skies are Filled with FBI Aircraft

By: Denise Simon
FoundersCode.com

More surveillance operations in those clouds above and they belong to the FBI even though there are alias names in front companies managing those aircrafts.

The FBI has under the ‘critical incident response group’ a fleet of aircraft. An inspector general has performed an audit of the division complete with redactions. Considering legitimacy of the program, then why the redactions and the fake companies and forged signatures?

FBI Runs Secret Air Force Posing As Fake Companies To Spy On U.S. Cities

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI is operating a small air force with scores of low-flying planes across the country carrying video and, at times, cellphone surveillance technology — all hidden behind fictitious companies that are fronts for the government, The Associated Press has learned.

The planes’ surveillance equipment is generally used without a judge’s approval, and the FBI said the flights are used for specific, ongoing investigations. In a recent 30-day period, the agency flew above more than 30 cities in 11 states across the country, an AP review found.

Aerial surveillance represents a changing frontier for law enforcement, providing what the government maintains is an important tool in criminal, terrorism or intelligence probes. But the program raises questions about whether there should be updated policies protecting civil liberties as new technologies pose intrusive opportunities for government spying.

U.S. law enforcement officials confirmed for the first time the wide-scale use of the aircraft, which the AP traced to at least 13 fake companies, such as FVX Research, KQM Aviation, NBR Aviation and PXW Services. Even basic aspects of the program are withheld from the public in censored versions of official reports from the Justice Department’s inspector general.

“The FBI’s aviation program is not secret,” spokesman Christopher Allen said in a statement. “Specific aircraft and their capabilities are protected for operational security purposes.” Allen added that the FBI’s planes “are not equipped, designed or used for bulk collection activities or mass surveillance.”

But the planes can capture video of unrelated criminal activity on the ground that could be handed over for prosecutions.

Some of the aircraft can also be equipped with technology that can identify thousands of people below through the cellphones they carry, even if they’re not making a call or in public. Officials said that practice, which mimics cell towers and gets phones to reveal basic subscriber information, is rare.

Details confirmed by the FBI track closely with published reports since at least 2003 that a government surveillance program might be behind suspicious-looking planes slowly circling neighborhoods. The AP traced at least 50 aircraft back to the FBI, and identified more than 100 flights since late April orbiting both major cities and rural areas.

One of the planes, photographed in flight last week by the AP in northern Virginia, bristled with unusual antennas under its fuselage and a camera on its left side. A federal budget document from 2010 mentioned at least 115 planes, including 90 Cessna aircraft, in the FBI’s surveillance fleet.

The FBI also occasionally helps local police with aerial support, such as during the recent disturbance in Baltimore that followed the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, who sustained grievous injuries while in police custody. Those types of requests are reviewed by senior FBI officials.

The surveillance flights comply with agency rules, an FBI spokesman said. Those rules, which are heavily redacted in publicly available documents, limit the types of equipment the agency can use, as well as the justifications and duration of the surveillance.

Details about the flights come as the Justice Department seeks to navigate privacy concerns arising from aerial surveillance by unmanned aircrafts, or drones. President Barack Obama has said he welcomes a debate on government surveillance, and has called for more transparency about spying in the wake of disclosures about classified programs.

“These are not your grandparents’ surveillance aircraft,” said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, calling the flights significant “if the federal government is maintaining a fleet of aircraft whose purpose is to circle over American cities, especially with the technology we know can be attached to those aircraft.”

During the past few weeks, the AP tracked planes from the FBI’s fleet on more than 100 flights over at least 11 states plus the District of Columbia, most with Cessna 182T Skylane aircraft. These included parts of Houston, Phoenix, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis and Southern California.

Evolving technology can record higher-quality video from long distances, even at night, and can capture certain identifying information from cellphones using a device known as a “cell-site simulator” — or Stingray, to use one of the product’s brand names. These can trick pinpointed cellphones into revealing identification numbers of subscribers, including those not suspected of a crime.

Officials say cellphone surveillance is rare, although the AP found in recent weeks FBI flights orbiting large, enclosed buildings for extended periods where aerial photography would be less effective than electronic signals collection. Those included above Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota.

After The Washington Post revealed flights by two planes circling over Baltimore in early May, the AP began analyzing detailed flight data and aircraft-ownership registrations that shared similar addresses and flight patterns. That review found some FBI missions circled above at least 40,000 residents during a single flight over Anaheim, California, in late May, according to Census data and records provided by the website FlightRadar24.com.

Most flight patterns occurred in counter-clockwise orbits up to several miles wide and roughly one mile above the ground at slow speeds. A 2003 newsletter from the company FLIR Systems Inc., which makes camera technology such as seen on the planes, described flying slowly in left-handed patterns.

“Aircraft surveillance has become an indispensable intelligence collection and investigative technique which serves as a force multiplier to the ground teams,” the FBI said in 2009 when it asked Congress for $5.1 million for the program.

Recently, independent journalists and websites have cited companies traced to post office boxes in Virginia, including one shared with the Justice Department. The AP analyzed similar data since early May, while also drawing upon aircraft registration documents, business records and interviews with U.S. officials to understand the scope of the operations.

The FBI asked the AP not to disclose the names of the fake companies it uncovered, saying that would saddle taxpayers with the expense of creating new cover companies to shield the government’s involvement, and could endanger the planes and integrity of the surveillance missions. The AP declined the FBI’s request because the companies’ names — as well as common addresses linked to the Justice Department — are listed on public documents and in government databases.

At least 13 front companies that AP identified being actively used by the FBI are registered to post office boxes in Bristow, Virginia, which is near a regional airport used for private and charter flights. Only one of them appears in state business records.

Included on most aircraft registrations is a mysterious name, Robert Lindley. He is listed as chief executive and has at least three distinct signatures among the companies. Two documents include a signature for Robert Taylor, which is strikingly similar to one of Lindley’s three handwriting patterns.

The FBI would not say whether Lindley is a U.S. government employee. The AP unsuccessfully tried to reach Lindley at phone numbers registered to people of the same name in the Washington area since Monday.

Law enforcement officials said Justice Department lawyers approved the decision to create fictitious companies to protect the flights’ operational security and that the Federal Aviation Administration was aware of the practice. One of the Lindley-headed companies shares a post office box openly used by the Justice Department.

Such elusive practices have endured for decades. A 1990 report by the then-General Accounting Office noted that, in July 1988, the FBI had moved its “headquarters-operated” aircraft into a company that wasn’t publicly linked to the bureau.

The FBI does not generally obtain warrants to record video from its planes of people moving outside in the open, but it also said that under a new policy it has recently begun obtaining court orders to use cell-site simulators. The Obama administration had until recently been directing local authorities through secret agreements not to reveal their own use of the devices, even encouraging prosecutors to drop cases rather than disclose the technology’s use in open court.

A Justice Department memo last month also expressly barred its component law enforcement agencies from using unmanned drones “solely for the purpose of monitoring activities protected by the First Amendment” and said they are to be used only in connection with authorized investigations and activities. A department spokeswoman said the policy applied only to unmanned aircraft systems rather than piloted airplanes.

02/25/15

NSA Spying: a greater threat than ISIS

By: Ryan Scott Welch
[email protected]
Hat Tip: T F Stern

The NSA spying is not only illegal and unconstitutional, but it is a greater threat to freedom than ISIS.

I have seen a fair amount of debate and discussion about the NSA spying program, but one thing I have not seen is how specifically this spying is a direct threat to every freedom loving American.  Sure many writers have written about how NSA spying can expose your computer and personal information to hackers,  and how the NSA can use your camera on your phone and laptop to secretly record anything you do in front of your laptop or smartphone,  but to my knowledge nobody is talking about how you can be controlled by the government, and really the entire United States can be controlled and even destroyed because of NSA spying.

Obama and his cohorts in both our political parties will tell you that the NSA is “not spying on Americans.”  What they mean in ‘Newspeak’ is that “though everything you do and say on your computer and phone is recorded, we are not watching everyone in real-time.”  This boils down to “nobody is watching everything you do at this moment….but we could, and will if you give us a reason”.  That is a threat to everyone.  “Step out of line, and we crush you” says the thugocrats.

Every electronic communication through email, text, phone, video, Facebook post and message, twitter, blogs and innumerable others is copied by the NSA and stored.  Then all this information is mined using sophisticated data mining algorithms to identify possible ‘threats’ for further more in-depth scrutiny, otherwise known as spying.  We are told that if you are not a terrorist you have nothing to worry about but nothing can be further from the truth.  The reason why is because essentially anyone who disagrees with Obama or is determined to be a hindrance to his agenda has been or could be declared a terrorist threat.  On Obama’s own website “Organizing for America” they warn of “Right-Wing Domestic Terrorists who are subverting the American Democratic Process”.  These right-wing ‘terrorists’  are not cutting people’s heads off or blowing up buildings, they are ‘terrorists’ by disagreeing with Democrats, by calling their congressmen, and by voting.  Remember this was on Obama’s official website.

Need more evidence?  Just this week the DHS released a report where they essentially say that right-wing extremists are a bigger threat than ISIS.  The DHS states that “federal and local law enforcement groups view the domestic terror threat from sovereign citizen groups as equal to — and in some cases greater than — the threat from foreign Islamic terror groups, such as ISIS”.  So they believe that those who disagree with and would oppose Obama are more dangerous than ISIS.  Get that?

Then there was the 2009 Department of Homeland Security hit job on conservatives titled “Rightwing Extremism:  Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling the Resurgence of Radicalization and Recruitment”.  In this document the DHS states that anyone who opposes abortion, illegal immigration, is a returning veteran, or who believes in the 2nd Amendment, or who is in “favor of state or local authority” over  federal authority is a potential terrorist.  The common theme is that anyone/everyone who disagrees with Obama’s Marxist “fundamental transformation” (otherwise known as destruction) of America is a potential terrorist threat, and as such is subject to as much unconstitutional and illegal spying as needed to crush them.

Let me walk you through a few scenarios to show how this works or could work.  Say that you are a judge and are about to rule on a program that Obama is pushing to further his “fundamental transformation” and you are inclined to rule that Obama has overstepped his authority?  The CIA or other operatives can then show up at your home or office, drop a folder on your desk with information about you or your family gleaned from NSA spying, and then inform you that if you rule against Obama, this information is leaked to the world.  If you don’t do what they say, they destroy you and your family.

Or say you are a congressman and you are about to submit legislation or vote on a bill that Obama does not like?  People in sunglasses show up, drop a folder on your desk or table with information obtained illegally and unconstitutionally, and suggest that you “play ball”…or else.

What if you are a local Tea Party activist and you are spearheading the removal of a corrupt politician? Again, the operatives show up, drop a folder in your lap, and explain that this can all be kept secret if you just lose interest in your activities.

Who is so completely 100% squeaky clean that they cannot be controlled this way?  And even if they were clean, what about their spouse, their parents, brothers and sisters, or children or grandchildren?   If your son or daughter or one of your parents had compromising pictures or emails, would that persuade people to change their minds?   How many people need to be controlled before the government can effectively do anything it wants? How much power does the NSA spying give to those who hold the reins?  And remember that Obama comes from the Chicago school of politics where the rule is you must “pay to play” and he has a history of destroying his opponents using protected information.    Would a politician who comes to power by exposing the sealed court documents of his opponents abuse the information gathered by the NSA in order to gain more power?

I submit that the NSA spying is already being used to ‘influence’ politics.  Some people believe that Obama used NSA information to make Justice Roberts change his mind and rule in favor of Obamacare.   Remember that Justice Roberts had already ruled that Obamacare was unconstitutional and had already written the, then majority opinion, that Obamacare was unconstitutional.   Then, mysteriously two weeks after writing the opinion that Obamacare was unconstitutional, Justice Roberts changed his mind and wrote the opposite opinion.  One wonders what exactly happened during those two weeks and who visited Justice Roberts?

I’m not going to write about how the NSA spying is unconstitutional and illegal.  Many other writers have thoroughly addressed those subjects. The bottom line here is that regardless of legality, I believe that the NSA spying is more dangerous than ISIS because it can literally be used to destroy America, our constitution, and the freedoms of every American.  It is the literal manifestation of “Big Brother” in George Orwell’s 1984, the only difference is that we carry around with us our own “Telescreens”.

Author Credit:  Ryan Scott Welch is an outside-the-box thinker, writer, and political activist.  You can read more articles at his blog.  http://theintellectualbarbarian.com