Homeland Security – Psyops on US?

We now have two reported instances of trolling traced to Homeland Security IP addresses:

Homeland Security Trolling We Won’t Fly Blog (comments on a blog re- TSA's illegal scannings and gropings).

Racist Web Posts Traced to Homeland Security (comments on a local newspaper article re- detention of Mexican immigrants).

Facebook and Twitter Now Blocked in China

per my friend there, 'cuz of the Han – Uyghur rioting in Xinjiang. See The NYT for the full story and how the Chinese government controls internet access there.

Leading Surveillance Societies

Bigger image and more info here.

Big Brother Has Biometric Data on You (or Soon Will)

I'd prefer to focus my posts more on art and trash, but these days, that's not easy.

According to The Washington Post, the FBI, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are cooperating to create recognition equipment coupled with a vast database of biometrics that would enable them to capture or identify images of people's irises at distances of up to 15 feet and faces from as far away as 200 yards. The database will also retain fingerprints and palm patterns, scars, and perhaps characteristic ways of walking and talking.

The FBI will also retain, upon request by employers, the fingerprints of employees who have undergone criminal background checks, "so the employers can be notified if employees 'have brushes with the law'" -- i.e., any contact with the law whatsoever, whether you’ve actually done anything wrong or not.

Director Lawrence A. Hornak of the West Virginia University Center for Identification Technology Research, which has been awarded a contract to further develop the system’s recognition capabilities, says, "The long-term goal" is "ubiquitous use" of biometrics. As WaPo put it, “[a] traveler may walk down an airport corridor and allow his face and iris images to be captured without ever stepping up to a kiosk and looking into a camera . . . .”

See also engadget and the U.S. Department of Justice, indicating that in 2006, the same or a similar system was projected to cost U.S. taxpayers $1 billion.

Another good reason to get yourself a gas mask, preferably with mirrored lenses -- and if you plan to protest, don't leave home without it.

(Thanks, Craig and Ben!)

NYC to Restrict Photos and Videos in Public Places

A group called Picture New York is organizing resistance. You can view and add protest videos and comments on YouTube starting here, and you can sign a petition here. As one interviewee comments, "I already have a permit for my camera; it's called the First Amendment." It seems likely the new rules would have required Picture NY to get a permit to shoot its protest videos -- a process that might easily have delayed the effort beyond the closing of the comment period on the rules, which ends August 3.

"The NY Times reports that the city’s tentative rules include requiring any group of two or more people who want to use a camera in a single public location for more than a half hour (including setup and breakdown time) to get a city permit and $1 million in liability insurance. The regulation would also apply to any group of five or more people who would be using a tripod for more than ten minutes, including setup and breakdown time. (Excerpted from the Gothamist)."

In the small world category, the organizers quote an e-mail from Jem Cohen (here) on their website to help explain why the new rules would be so burdensome. Cohen is the maker of one of my favorite videos in the Dallas Video Festival this year, Smells Like Teen Spirit, described in my previous post, here, as well as several other short pieces in the Festival. But I learned about this story not from Cohen but here.