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FBI‬ Wants a Database of Your Tattoos

Ever since President Obama signed National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2012 into law, US law enforcement and military agencies have begun to document everything they can about American citizens. Whether it is the new biometric database that the FBI has started or the use of military spy drones domestically. Just this week, the firm D-Star Engineering has received what appears to be the first contract (for $4.8 million) awarded under the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (IARPA) Great Horned Owl (GHO) program to develop a new class of quiet small unmanned aircraft.

Now, FBI is consulting local police and vendors about new technology already at their disposable that would allow them to spot anyone by interpreting the symbolism of their tattoos.

According to recently released government documents, last week the FBI issued a request for information on existing databases “containing tattoo/symbol images, their possible meanings, gang affiliations, terrorist groups or other criminal organizations.” The request asks that all law enforcement agencies, vendors and academics to supply by Aug. 13 information about the capabilities of tattoo analysis systems. This follows work already underway by the FBI and Homeland Security Department to add iris and facial recognition services to their respective fingerprint databases.

Already, the FBI has amassed a large collection of biometric markers, including vocal tracks and handwriting samples. The question is who will the FBI and DHS target and how citizens can be sure that the government will not misuse this technology against innocent people. Another goal is to find out how tattoo databases draw on the knowledge of gang experts and how they may be used to document “possible meanings and gang affiliations” observed by officials nationwide.

Unfortunately, the overreaching activities of the FBI and DHS under the Obama administration raise major privacy and liberty concerns. Many of the activities described in the document, just like their online activities, are basic practices of any individual concerned with security or privacy. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Bureau have already stoked considerable privacy concerns from groups such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have called for more transparency and oversight of such monitoring activities.

FBI and Reporters Team to Solve Murders during Civil Rights Era

It is not often that we can look at the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration within the context of crime. However, there still are many unsolved murders that occurred during the civil rights era that remain. In 2007, the FBI presented a list of unsolved civil rights murders that they were going to re-open and investigate.

In fact, they have released the names of some of the victims of murders that occurred before 1969. This includes more than 100 unsolved murder cases are under review through the Civil Rights Era Cold Case Initiative, a 2007 partnership between the FBI, civil rights groups, and federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. 

At the end of last year, The FBI reopened investigations into three more Alabama slayings from the 1960s, including one case involving a former state trooper charged in 2007 with another civil-rights era murder.

The cases included the May 1966 killing of a black motorist at the Alabaster police station by James Bonard Fowler, the former trooper charged in 2007 with two counts of murder in the 1965 shooting of Jimmie Lee Jackson in Marion and the September 1963 shooting by Birmingham police officer Jack Parker of a black teenager on the day of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing.

Now a writer for a small Louisiana Newspaper has revealed information that may lead to the arrest and conviction in the arson/murder of Frank Morris on December 10, 1964 in Ferriday, LA.  Morris was a business owner who allegedly was the target of the Ku Klux Klan. Stanley Nelson, a writer for the Concordia Sentinel has uncovered that a Richland Parish truck driver who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan told them he participated in the arson that killed Frank Morris. In total, three people including the suspects’ son and truck drivers former wife have provided credible eyewitness report s that placed the truck driver at the scene of the arson when the fire was ignited more than 46 years ago. The suspect,  Arthur Leonard Spencer, 71, of Rayville.  Has yet to be charged but is expected to be targeted by FBI soon.

COINTELPRO Revisited

Carl Rowan once said, “There are two ways to circumvent or trample over a constitution…one way is to arouse public fear and hatred…the second way is to amass enough police or military power to force your will upon society.” This was decades before the election of President Obama and he said it in reference to a book that I read as an adolescent and greatly admired called The Choice: The Issue of Black Survival in America by Samuel Yette.

Written at the 1970s it addressed “the colonized colored people of the United States.” He referenced that black and white political leadership had rendered African Americans obsolete people, spoke of massive un-employment, big business of the prison-industrial-complex, and how black and white so-called liberal politicians avoided examining the fact that black was “unsightly in America.” Most importantly, he pointed out that Black elected leadership means nothing in the face of systemic racism because they are “powerless” and too incompetent to tackle the “arrogance of superiority” of racist American political machinery.

Seems that the same is true today. Although there is a person that looks like the African American community in that mansion on Pennsylvania Avenue, he appears powerless to address the ills of our community and continue the policies that have maintained political hegemony over people of color around the globe.

Recently the Obama Administration’s Justice Department attorney, via Douglas Letter suggested that no judge in this nation has authority to be “looking over the shoulder” of the Obama administration’s targeted-killing program. Yes, the present administration claims a right to kill American citizens without trial, notice, and or the chance to object legally to such within the purview of due process. In effect, the present administration has expanded the Bush administration’s “targeted killing” program to include Americans far from any war zone. In order to accomplish this, the administration is hiding behind state secrets – meaning they don’t even have to explain why the president has the right to kill Americans without trial. This position according to Center for Constitutional Rights attorney Pardiss Kebriae, “Would allow the executive unreviewable authority to target and kill any U.S. citizen it deems a suspect of terrorism anywhere.” In summary, if it is accepted that the U.S. government can label Americans as enemies of the state and kill them without due process they can kill anyone they desire anywhere for any reason.

From my perspective, it is recollective of the FBI counterintelligence programs designed to neutralize political dissidents (COINTELPRO). From 1956 to 1971, COINTELPRO efforts were broadly targeted against radical political organizations per the desire of J. Edgar Hoover, longtime Director of the FBI. More than 2000 COINTELPRO operations before the programs were officially discontinued in 1971. The FBI’s COINTELPRO program continually stretched its target list from real political targets to “the kid with a picket sign, and from the kid with the picket sign to the kid with the bumper sticker of the opposing candidate.

The goals according to official FBI documents were: 1. Prevent a coalition of militant black nationalist groups, 2. Prevent the rise of a messiah who could unify and electrify the militant nationalist movement ... Martin Luther King, Stokely Carmichael and Elijah Muhammad all aspire to this position, 3. Prevent violence on the part of black nationalist groups, 4. Prevent militant black nationalist groups and leaders from gaining respectability by discrediting them and 5. Prevent the long-range growth of militant Black Nationalist organizations, especially among youth. The target organizations" included groups such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), and the Nation of Islam (NOI). It was expressly directed against such leaders as Martin Luther King, Jr., Stokley Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, Maxwell Stanford, and Elijah Muhammad.
Anyone with an ounce of problem solving ability could see the parallels of what was implemented under J. Edgar Hoover via COINTELPRO and what the Obama administration has proposed with its targeted killing program. Like the FBI, many individuals were framed as the record confirmed and killed without due process. The same is consistent with the “targeted killing” efforts of this administration. Both trampled on liberty and due process and evinced the tendency of mission creep, even to the point of fabricating evidence to justify targeted assignation and incarceration as well as to try and gather public support. New laws support this giving approval for roving wiretaps in foreign intelligence investigations that are not focused or specific to a specific person, or the ability to seize business or other records in a presumptive terror investigation or threat (Patriot Act Section 215).

Regardless, both, especially the new Obama approach, give the President and Federal government a blank check to target and kill enemies of the state. It is far removed from our constitutional reality and more akin to what dictators have done throughout history. Not to mention sovereign immunity will not allow for any Obama administration official to be held liable, regardless of whom the U.S. government kills.

Yes indeed, COINTELPRO is back, revisited and there is a new Sheriff in town.

Bye Bye 1st Amendment and Due Process

Imagine that there was no March on Washington led by the late great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., or that there was no Montgomery to Selma March or Bus boycott as a direct consequence of the actions of a Rosa Parks, or even no sit in's at Woolworths. All may have never have happened if legislation was existence during that time like the recently passed H.R. 347. Last week on a late Monday evening, the bill described by some as the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011 was passed by the US House of Representatives voted 388-to-3.

In simple terms it is another way of further reducing the constitutional First Amendment rights guaranteed to all US citizens. Through this legislation, Congress makes it illegal to trespass on the grounds of the White House and any building or grounds where the president is visiting even if just for a moment or temporarily. According to the legislation, these are considered areas “restricted in conjunction with an event designated as a special event of national significance." Consequently it allows the government to charge anyone who enters a building without permission or with the intent to disrupt a government function via protest or civil disobedience with a federal offense if Secret Service is on the scene.

Yes that is correct, any person protected by the Secret Service is covered under the bill meaning it will be a federal offense to even accidently disrupts an event attended by a person thus abrogating the right to assemble and peacefully protest as stated in the constitution. We all know that they not only protect past Presidents and current candidates, they also protect foreign dignitaries, many of which are mass murderers, supporters of state sponsored terrorist and human rights violators. To protest the former South African regime that practiced apartheid or even the current Syrian President Haffad al- Assad would be a federal offence punishable by a fine under this title or imprisonment for not more than 10 years, or both, for a violation. In simple terms the federal government could consider a demonstration against any foreign president on American soil as a violation of federal law, if perceived to be “disruptive.”

I was under the assumption that Brandenburg V. Ohio concluded that the state cannot prohibit inflammatory speech unless it incites or produces “imminent lawlessness.” Brandenburg, a leader in the Ku Klux Klan, made a speech at a Klan rally and was later convicted under an Ohio criminal syndicalism law. The Court's Per Curiam opinion held that the Ohio law violated Brandenburg's right to free speech. The Court used a two-pronged test to evaluate speech acts: (1) speech can be prohibited if it is "directed at inciting or producing imminent lawless action" and (2) it is "likely to incite or produce such action."

We as a people are slowly losing all of our constitutional guarantees. It may even be considered against the law to even assert such. We have already seen the president approve the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, essentially suspending habeas corpus from American citizens and now what is an obvious assault on the freedom to assemble via this “Trespass Bill”. In many places it is even illegal to film police making arrest on your own property. To top it off, US Attorney General Eric Holder made a speech at Northwestern University last week in which he gave the current administrations legal justification for assassination of U.S citizens. When asked about it while addressing a hearing on the FBIs budget held by House lawmakers, FBI Director Robert Mueller said he would have to check with the Department of Justice whether Attorney General Eric Holder's "three criteria" for the targeted killing of Americans also applied to Americans inside the U.S.

This albeit as former CIA Officer Philip Giraldi wrote, “The Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution guarantee a citizen due process and a public trial, as well as the right to confront his accuser. The Obama administration is arguing that these American turncoats do not have constitutional rights because they are not physically in the United States and are actively engaged in planning terrorist acts that the government has the right to disrupt by killing them preemptively.”

Giraldi also notes that the assignation of dissident “citizens without due process is not a unique practice. Libyans, Iranians, and Soviets all did it in the 1980s and 1990s” but suggest it is out of the ordinary for a self-purported “liberal democracy.”

So if any of you all have any bright ideas about expressing your constitutional right wile in Chicago this spring for the 2012 G8 and NATO summits, be forewarned. These fools or idiots have absolved the first amendment and have curtailed due process. Although it is written, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” this is not the case anymore.

New York City Criminalizes Food Stamp Recipients By Requiring Fingerprints

When we think of fingerprinting, the first thing that often comes to fruition is its use in criminal investigations and its strong association with one being considered a criminal. It is so powerful a tool in tracking alleged suspects of criminal activity that last spring, the Federal Bureau of Investigation began the roll-out of a nationwide biometric identification system for suspects, inclusive of a new fingerprinting database for law enforcement.

However, now it seems that fingerprinting is being used for less than criminal activity. In New York City, the Bloomberg Administration has implemented a program that will require applicants for food stamps to be electronically fingerprinted. This requirement makes the city one of only two jurisdictions in the country that require applicants to be fingerprinted along with Arizona. Approximately 1.8 million people receive food stamps in New York City.

California used to have this requirement, but just this month, Gov. Jerry Brown acted to eliminate the requirement that food stamp recipients in California be fingerprinted. Brown signed a bill that ended the Statewide Finger Imaging System for the 3.8 million Californians participating in the federally funded Cal Fresh program, starting Jan. 1 – a program that is designed to increase participation in programs to feed the poorest residents.

Politicians, in particular suggest that fingerprinting is an effective way to reduce and prevent fraud. However there has yet to be any evidence that such is the case with respect to efficacy and utility. Not to mention that economist have pointed out that the process cost an estimated $187,364 a year to implement for the already cash-strapped city and state.

Research from the Urban Institute, as cited by New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, estimates that around 30,000 people are deterred from getting food stamps because of the fingerprinting requirement.

Use of fingerprinting in the current economy in which a majority of African Americans are disproportionately impacted, will only serves to criminalize being poor.In addition, there are no guarantees that this information will not end up in the data bases of law enforcement agencies bring to the fore a forth and fourteenth amendment concerns. Last, it adds more to the already existing stigma around applying for federal aid by treating poor and minority individuals like criminals for trying to access a legal program.

The question is why it does in New York City when it is not required anywhere else in the state of New York?

The Help Protects the Legacy of Institutional Racism and Historical Inaccuracy in Hollywood

Over the summer I have been spending an inordinate amount of time in the library and state archives with my daughter. This past week I was there to find out if a book I had requested, Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate by Juan Williams had arrived. Upon finding out it had not come yet, I passed a little blue Book called the Help – the 2009 Novel by Kathryn Stockett.

After reading the book I could not see what was all the fuss. The two words I would use to describe it are quick and unimpressed. So unimpressed that I wanted to see why folks were marketing the Movie as if it were the Ten Commandments. And thankful to all that is available on the internet, I did not have to pay to see it. I hope people do not take this as a history lesson, but I am afraid many, who do not remember their being only four television channels or when there was no such thing as a self-service gas station probably will. Both the book and the movie gave me the same feeling I got as a child watching Tarzan, running Africa like a king over all the black folk there as a single white man. Or like I did when I first saw Mississippi Burning, and was so vehemently upset because the portrayed the FBI as helping the civil Rights movement when history and fact states FBI under J. Edgar Hoover regarded the movement as public enemy number one: The book although supposedly written during civil rights struggle, barely mentions Edgar Evers assignation, the 16^th street bombing or other issues that were daily occurrences in Mississippi. The help needs major help. It the kind of book and movie that make white folk feel good about themselves and black folk mad at the fabrications being presented. In the book, all the attention is on Skeeter as the narrator but in the movie it is one of the maids (Aibileen). *In fact, given the time period, there was only one mention of violence in the story and that involved domestic black on black crime between one of the maids and her man. Although lynching’s were as frequent as the post man delivered mail. Hollywood as usual has sugar-coated the daily impact of racial discrimination and prejudice in America as if the truth is too painful. As a most movies about race (the legend of Baggar Vance comes to mind) white Hollywood need to create white super heroes who are made to be more involved in the struggle against racial oppression than whites. Nelson George described this as “the magic negro” phenomena, where the black character is simple a mirror for the white man character to see themselves. The films of Hollywood especially that deal with race reflect the institutional racism common place to movie industry itself. To shine a real light on racism would be too show the real Hollywood. The Help is another in this tradition of having white folk tell the story of discrimination and racial hatred as if they lived it, while playing down the experiences of those who actually did.

FBI can listen to you when phone is turned off-can do same with digital TV

Why do the Democrats Want My DNA

The U.S. Congress decided this past May to expand the FBI's DNA database. Strange ain't it, folks cannot get a budget passed, deal with the econonmy or stop the massive rate of foreclosures but the House can vote 357 to 32 to support legislation that “will pay state governments to require DNA samples” collected via blood, from anyone arrested for major crimes. The bill, called the Katie Sepich Enhanced DNA Collection Act of 2010.

What was strange was that of all of the democrats in the house, not one voted in opposition of the bill, a bill that will dole out nearly $75 million for each state that agrees to make this practice mandatory. If states agree, the FBI's Convicted Offender DNA Index System (CODIS) database could grow massively, since annually it is estimated that state and local law enforcement entities arrest almost 14 million Americans, not including arrests for traffic violations.

The problem is that a number of Americans are arrested for crimes but never convicted. Th new legislation will mean that they risk having their DNA taken by force of law and added to a national data base, if the bill on the floor of the house is approved.

Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center has expressed concern of this expansion of DNA data collection and would like the United States to follow the model practiced in the Europe. The British government is in the process of reforming its National data base that began in the early 1990’s. Originally designed to store data only from convicted felons, it grew to contain data on millions of citizens, many of whom had only been arrested on suspicion and were never convicted of a crime.

The Bill was passed under what is called "suspension of the rules” which does not allow for an open and full debate on the subject. The Act referenced as H.R. 4614, would amend a section of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. The concern is that DNA samples should be limited only to individuals who have been convicted of a crime, meaning there is probable cause and DNA could be collected via warrant. Inevitably, individuals may presumed guilty prior to being convicted of a crime.

Strangely, there has been no discussion of the pending legislation on major news outlets, and more surprisingly how this was in essence “rammed” through the House of Representatives. The powers granted to the government or law enforcement agencies that exceed the constitution already impacts African Americans the hardest. The question is will we speak out vehemently as we did protesting the war on drugs, or will we just accept all that the power brokers — even democrats do on capital hill?

Obama Administration Wants to Give FBI Access to Personal Internet Activity

A recent report in The Washington Post has revealed that the Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to collect information on the personal Internet activities of American citizens without the requirement of a search warrant.

The change, if implemented, would give the executive branch and the FBI increased powers by forcing companies to provide upon request, the records of any individual’s Internet activity without being required to obtain a court order.

According to the Post, the Obama administration will be able to provide information to the FBI if they feel it is important and pertinent to a "terrorism or intelligence investigation." Merely by inserting the words "electronic communication transactional records" to a list of materials that current laws state that the FBI may request without the approval of a judge. This includes personal user Internet web browser activity and the addresses to which an individual sends e-mail. More important is that the request would be secretly obtained and withheld from the individual user.

Unknown to many is that according to government sources, many Internet and e-mail services already provide the government with such data. During his campaign, Obama ran on many issues, including enhancing individual civil liberties. However, this effort may lead to an erosion of individual rights and privacy. In 2007, a published report by the Inspector General’s office revealed that the FBI might have incurred many violations in requesting such data — including the solicitation of information without having an approved investigation to justify the request.

Warrantless surveillance programs are unconstitutional, yet the current administration, following where former President George W. Bush left off, argues that such information is the same or equal to telephone toll billing records, which the FBI can obtain without court authorization. This means that finding out who a person sends an e-mail to or a Facebook friend request is the same as a telephone call.

It would seem as a constitutional law scholar, Obama would understand that the First Amendment protects the personal association information of a citizen.

The question is how this might impact future government legislation. On March 4, 2010, the “Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010” was introduced by John McCain. This bill, if passed, would eliminate several constitutional protections allowing government to arbitrarily pick up Americans on mere suspicion — with no probable cause. Not to mention, in May of this year, the president gave a speech in which he asked Congress to pass legislation to give the president, power to detain any person in the U.S. that the government deems a “combatant” or likely to engage in a violent act in the future.

How far does the government plan to go invade the private lives of its citizens under the guise of national security? We will have to wait and see, for it seems to reflect what Huxley predicted would happen in a A recent report in The Washington Post has revealed that the Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to collect information on the personal Internet activities of American citizens without the requirement of a search warrant.

The change, if implemented, would give the executive branch and the FBI increased powers by forcing companies to provide upon request, the records of any individual’s Internet activity without being required to obtain a court order.

According to the Post, the Obama administration will be able to provide information to the FBI if they feel it is important and pertinent to a "terrorism or intelligence investigation." Merely by inserting the words "electronic communication transactional records" to a list of materials that current laws state that the FBI may request without the approval of a judge. This includes personal user Internet web browser activity and the addresses to which an individual sends e-mail. More important is that the request would be secretly obtained and withheld from the individual user.

Unknown to many is that according to government sources, many Internet and e-mail services already provide the government with such data. During his campaign, Obama ran on many issues, including enhancing individual civil liberties. However, this effort may lead to an erosion of individual rights and privacy. In 2007, a published report by the Inspector General’s office revealed that the FBI might have incurred many violations in requesting such data — including the solicitation of information without having an approved investigation to justify the request.

Warrantless surveillance programs are unconstitutional, yet the current administration, following where former President George W. Bush left off, argues that such information is the same or equal to telephone toll billing records, which the FBI can obtain without court authorization. This means that finding out who a person sends an e-mail to or a Facebook friend request is the same as a telephone call.

It would seem as a constitutional law scholar, Obama would understand that the First Amendment protects the personal association information of a citizen.

The question is how this might impact future government legislation. On March 4, 2010, the “Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010” was introduced by John McCain. This bill, if passed, would eliminate several constitutional protections allowing government to arbitrarily pick up Americans on mere suspicion — with no probable cause. Not to mention, in May of this year, the president gave a speech in which he asked Congress to pass legislation to give the president, power to detain any person in the U.S. that the government deems a “combatant” or likely to engage in a violent act in the future.

How far does the government plan to go invade the private lives of its citizens under the guise of national security? We will have to wait and see, for it seems to reflect what Huxley predicted would happen in a totalitarian society in his book Brave New World. society in his book Brave New World.

Introducing: eyeball stealing

I just wanted to thank the laws for putting into place a new crime to come – Eyeball stealing. Sure there is no code for it, or no fancy name like homicide, it too shall come to pass.

Trying to get what they can out of biometrics, the FBI wants to use precise body measurements unique to every human being, to help them fight crime. The new FBI plan announced last week notes that the agency plans to spend a $1 billion dollar on the effort. Now these fools cannot even solve or prevent identity theft and its text-based information so whom will they be able to secure a massive database of biometric data? I mean it last forever. One could even be dead and the still could be committing crimes with your eyeball. The only good may be a new specialty in plastic surgery or ophthalmology in changing and replacing human iris and retinas. According to the Washington Post, the FBI is going to give somebody a 10-year contract that would contain information on all from iris patterns, scars and the way people walk. The way I see it its my information and the FBI doesn’t own nor have the right to steal and keep my information – I am not no coin, stamp or baseball card. Add to that I have a major question concerning who will get this massive no-bid contract.

They call it “Next Generation Identification” According to Thomas Bush III, assistant director of the Criminal Justice Information Services section (I think he is related to the President but I cant find any info on him nor can I prove it yet). With this type of technology, it may be possible to scan a person with a video camera in a public place and capture and collect imagoes of their face and iris without their knowledge and/or permission. This is worrisome; I mean it was just a few weeks ago I was complaining about the amendments to he homeland security legislation and now this.

There is also limited information and research on the future utility of Biometric database security and full range of potential. At the West Virginia University Center for Identification Technology Research, which is less than an hour from the FBI’s biometric facility in Clarksburg, researcher is already underway dealing with clandestine iris image capturing from 15 feet to 200 yards. In Germany, scientist conducted the only large scalp study I could find on the subject. Conducted from October 2006 through January at a train station in Mainz, Germany, findings noted the ability to match correctly 60% of study volunteers in the daytime but less than 20 percent at night.

All I am saying is who is down with helping me develop optic image refractive contacts, It may make us millionaires in no time.