This is an attempt to emphasize the importance of taking site security *VERY* seriously, if you think you are safe, please read on, and make your own decisions. I think this site is so small and as it doesnt sell seeds or anything that it is not currently a target, but I do believe it is being datamined (read on) and that at some point in the future you may get a knock on your door if you arent careful.
For those of you who dont keep up with this stuff (I do, I have a degree in International Relations with an emphasis in Intelligence Agencies and Covert Political Warfare) Admiral Poindexter (felon from Reagan administration, who was granted a Presidential pardon for his illegal activities in Iran Contra and other illegal activities, violating the Boland Amendment, etc) resurfaced a few years ago (before 9/11) as the leader of a new government program called "Total Information Awareness".
This is a data gathering operation on all US citizens and citizens of other nations. They corilated credit card spending, driving records, criminal arrests, occupations, interests, travel habits, library records (books you checked out) photos, phone calls, cell phone records, computer information from purchases to what IP you use to what sites you post on, yes really its true. The idea is to create a profile on everyone in the US where the government can predict and react (proactive) to anyone who they consider a threat. One of the most interesting elements was the stated purpose, "The system, developed under the direction of John Poindexter, then-director of DARPA's Information Awareness Office, was envisioned
to give law enforcement access to private data without suspicion of wrongdoing or a warrant.
Data they admitted to gathering included, "
The project called for the development of "revolutionary technology for ultra-large all-source information repositories," which would contain information from multiple sources to create a "virtual, centralized, grand database." This database would be populated by transaction data contained in current databases such as financial records, medical records, communication records, and travel records as well as new sources of information. Also fed into the database would be intelligence data.
In a speach convicted felon Poindexter, the man in charge of this government program had the following to say
http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/dod/poindexter.html
Strangely enough, Poindexter, the felon, also OWNS a major share of the company which received the contract for this TIA program,
http://www.syntek.com here is a little information on what they do (in cooperation with TIA, which the government pays for to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars)
"Capabilities
Power Systems & Automation
Information Intelligence & Advanced Technology
Ship Systems
Systems Analysis Technology & Innovation
Information Intelligence & Advanced Technology Division
VP, John Tozzi
Focuses on solutions that provide collaborative, structured argumentation for workgroups at all levels of the enterprise.
High-level work involving modeling and recognizing aberrant human behavior.
All manner of future technologies, including organic light emitting diodes and ultra large lighter-than-air vehicles."
Human ID at a Distance program has already been impliemnted. This is a database which was constructed by accessing all the States in the US information regarding Driver's License information and non-driver ID, Social Security information and any additional information such as job applications, security clearence information, arrest information, banking records, etc. This program allows for computer image analysis of physical features of people in realtime, the first trial which was a huge success was the Superbowl in 2000 when everyone who entered as spectators were (without their knowledge or permission) compared in realtime to Human ID program, and resulted in over 200 arrests of people in the stadium for outstanding warrants or suspicion of violations of the law, particularly RICO violators and people wanted under the "drug kingpin" statute, and several members of organized crime families. This information regarding the fact that everyone entering the stadium was being video recorded and compared to the database in the Human ID program was never made public, it came to light in Senate hearings regarding TIA and some Freedom of Information Act documents requested by attorneys representing the accused. To date no major news agency has addressed this, and it is a clear violation of the 14th Amendment,
"Amendment XIV
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
Here is a review of the TIA, found at
http://www.epic.org/privacy/profiling/tia/
You can also access the TIA website at
http://www.darpa.mil
Introduction about Total Information Awareness and its role:
In November 2002, the New York Times reported that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was developing a tracking system called "Total Information Awareness" (TIA), which was intended to detect terrorists through analyzing troves of information. The system, developed under the direction of John Poindexter, then-director of DARPA's Information Awareness Office, was envisioned to give law enforcement access to private data without suspicion of wrongdoing or a warrant.
TIA purported to capture the "information signature" of people so that the government could track potential terrorists and criminals involved in "low-intensity/low-density" forms of warfare and crime. The goal was to track individuals through collecting as much information about them as possible and using computer algorithms and human analysis to detect potential activity.
The project called for the development of "revolutionary technology for ultra-large all-source information repositories," which would contain information from multiple sources to create a "virtual, centralized, grand database." This database would be populated by transaction data contained in current databases such as financial records, medical records, communication records, and travel records as well as new sources of information. Also fed into the database would be intelligence data.
A key component of the TIA project was to develop data-mining or knowledge discovery tools that would sort through the massive amounts of information to find patterns and associations. TIA would also develop search tools such as Project Genoa, which Admiral Poindexter's former employer Syntek Technologies assisted in developing. TIA aimed to fund the development of more such tools and data-mining technology to help analysts understand and even "preempt" future action.
A further crucial component was the development of biometric technology to enable the identification and tracking of individuals. DARPA had already funded its "Human ID at a Distance" program, which aimed to positively identify people from a distance through technologies such as face recognition or gait recognition. A nationwide identification system would have been of great assistance to such a project by providing an easy means to track individuals across multiple information sources.
DARPA's Broad Agency Announcement 02-08 soliciting proposals from industry stated that the initial plan was for a five year research project into these various technologies. The interim goal was to build "leave-behind prototypes with a limited number of proof-of-concept demonstrations in extremely high risk, high payoff areas."
In September 2003, Congress eliminated funding for the controversial project and closed the Pentagon's Information Awareness Office, which had developed TIA. This does not, however, necessarily signal the end of other government data-mining initiatives that are similar to TIA. Projects such as the Novel Intelligence from Massive Data within the Intelligence Community Advanced Research and Development Activity (ARDA) will apparently move forward. The FBI and the Transportation Security Administration are also working on data-mining projects that will fuse commercial databases, public databases, and intelligence data and had meetings with TIA developers.
Gooster, who knows what he is talking about
[/b]
