TSA To Roll Out “Covert Surveillance” Vans

[Rebelitarian]

TSA To Roll Out “Covert Surveillance” Vans


Details of snooping technology kept secret

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
September 26, 2013

In another indication of how the TSA is expanding its turf way beyond airport security, the federal agency is about to roll out high-tech vehicles that will utilize secret technology to conduct “covert surveillance operations” in cities around the country.


Image: DHS Surveillance Van.
According to a synopsis posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website (PDF), the TSA is set to purchase technology to retrofit three vans in Arlington, VA, Chicago, IL, and San Francisco, CA in order to convert them into surveillance vehicles that will “conduct covert surveillance operations in the course of investigations.”

Precisely where such covert surveillance will take place is not mentioned, although in 2010 it was revealed that US government agencies were already using roving street surveillance vans that deployed backscatter x-ray vision technology to inspect other vehicles.

In 2011, the Electronic Privacy Information Center also revealed plans for the Department of Homeland Security and the TSA to roll out mobile surveillance vans that had long-distance X-ray capability and eye movement tracking.

TSA Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams are responsible for around 10,000 checkpoints every year in the US, and have expanded from airports to bus & train terminals and even highways despite the fact that there is “no proof that the roving viper teams have foiled any terrorist plots or thwarted any major threat to public safety,” according to the L.A. Times.

The total cost of outfitting just three vans with the covert surveillance technology will be a jaw-dropping $160,000 dollars.

Despite their tax dollars paying for such equipment, American citizens are not privy to any detailed information on what this surveillance system will actually entail.


Image: “Access Denied” on details of snoop tech.
The TSA vehicles will be fitted with Crime Point IP Network Surveillance technology. When attempting to access details of the technology via the Crime Point website, the user is met with the message, “Due to its sensitive nature, the product content on this website is restricted to law enforcement professionals and government agencies only,” and a password is required to go any further.

Although the general public is barred from scrutinizing specific details, the company says that it provides “covert outdoor video systems” that “incorporate the latest emerging technologies.”

Crime Point provides surveillance vans of its own but, like details of the surveillance systems, that information is also restricted.

The legality of the TSA conducting “covert surveillance” of Americans, whether it be at transport hubs or on highways, conflicts with the Fourth Amendment, which protects the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.”

Prison Planet.com » TSA To Roll Out ?Covert Surveillance? Vans

 

[MACAULAY]

When, after the vicious attack on our country on 9/11 by lunatic Muslims, our leaders set in motion a series of detection measures designed to prevent future similar attacks....no one considered that it would turn loose Big Brother in the monstrous form that it has taken.

The actuality is even worse than the appearance.

The original enemy was...as it should have been...lunatic Muslims who think they will get 72 virgins in Paradise if they take a few Americans with them when they blow themselves up.

But, it is becoming increasingly apparent, most notably through Obama's notorious duplicity and his maladministration of the laws of this country that the "terriost" his Chicago Political Apparatus is worried about, is any white boy with a deer rifle from Montana to Mississippi; from Arizona to Pennsylvania.

That's who you can expect Homeland Security to be going after as soon as all the elements for oppression are in place.

Just my opinion of course.

 

[waltky]

Obama's 'transparency'...

NSA to senator: If we were collecting your phone records, we couldn't tell you
January 14th, 2014 (CNN) - National Security Agency chief Gen. Keith Alexander, in response to a letter from Sen. Bernie Sanders, said Tuesday that nothing the agency does "can fairly be characterized as 'spying on Members of Congress or American elected officials.'"

Alexander did not offer any further details about members of Congress specifically, arguing that doing so would require him to violate the civilian protections incorporated into the surveillance programs. "Among those protections is the condition that NSA can query the metadata only based on phone numbers reasonably suspected to be associated with specific foreign terrorist groups," Alexander wrote. Sanders, I-Vermont, had written to Alexander earlier this month asking whether the NSA is currently spying "on members of Congress or other American elected officials" or had in the past.

An NSA spokesperson gave a general response to the inquiry at the time, saying that "members of Congress have the same privacy protections as all U.S. persons" and that they were reviewing the senator's letter. Alexander's letter, which was personally addressed to Sanders, was more specific. Sanders has publicly questioned the legality of the NSA surveillance programs recently, calling them "a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches."

When asked about the balance between civilian privacy and counterterrorism surveillance earlier this month, Sanders told CNN: "We have to be vigorous in protecting the American people from terrorism. But I very strongly believe we can do that in the context of the U.S. Constitution. I believe what the NSA is doing now is not constitutional." The push back against the possible surveillance practices of the NSA has created unlikely bedfellows in the Senate, with tea party favorite Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, suggesting the methods of data collection have "not been effective enough monitoring and surveilling bad guys" but rather "too broad with respect to law-abiding citizens."

Cruz added that the NSA's response to Sanders' question of whether members of Congress have had phone records or other data monitored "suggests the answer to that question was in the affirmative." The NSA has been the subject of scrutiny since former agency contractor Edward Snowden released extensive classified documents on various domestic surveillance programs last year. For his part, Sanders has introduced legislation that would prohibit the collection of phone records without a warrant, although it is unlikely such a law would make any progress in Congress.

NSA to senator: If we were collecting your phone records, we couldn't tell you ? CNN Security Clearance - CNN.com Blogs

See also:

Obama has room to maneuver on NSA reforms
January 14th, 2014 ~ President Barack Obama has some room to maneuver in crafting reforms to the National Security Agency’s massive data collection program. A national security expert tells CNN that the President, in fact, has “a lot of leeway in terms of what to recommend and not recommend.”

Obama is expected to announce changes to the surveillance initiative at a speech at the Justice Department on Friday . An independent review ordered by Obama amid concerns that NSA snooping, revealed in leaks by Edward Snowden last year, had gone too far recommended that government do a better job of protecting civil liberties. The choice Obama makes will permanently place his signature on the intelligence initiative and help define his legacy as a chief executive who promised a more open and transparent government when he entered the White House five years ago.

NSA domestic and international phone and e-mail surveillance is considered some of the most widespread intelligence gathering performed by the U.S. government. Karen Greenberg, Director of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law School in New York, believes Obama will probably err on the side of transparency, “This is a President who, despite his critics and despite his wanting to keep some things secret, has always wanted to be seen as a President who embraces transparency,” Greenberg said. She said Obama faces “the tenor” of the public, which seems to indicate that “there is a trend toward wanting to restrain the powers of the intelligence community.”

White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Monday that the Obama administration wants to be as transparent as possible. “We are talking about intelligence gathering and there are, almost by definition, aspects of it that have to remain secret in order to be effective. But there should be, in the President's view, steps that we can take to build confidence about the way these programs are administered,” Carney said. Greenberg said steps going forward most likely will include implementing some recommendations from the review. She predicted he will order private companies to assume responsibility for storing private data, which the government could not access unless requested. Greenberg said Obama also may recommend establishing an adversarial legal process to protect civil liberties.

For example, when the government asks for court approval to collect data or other information, some kind of board or person could be tapped “to fight for the other side for the right to privacy – the right not to be surveilled and to have the government have your information if there is not some standard of cause to do so.” Greenberg said Obama could also adopt ”the strengthening of a civil liberties and privacy protection board to make sure there is an ongoing conversation on the proper balance between liberty and security when it comes to the issue of surveillance.” Carney said Monday that Obama had not yet finalized his recommendations. He said the President’s goal is to give the public “more confidence” in NSA programs and demonstrate “that they are pursued in a way that meets the standard the President set, which is that we do what we should do in order to keep the American people safe and the country safe and our allies safe, not just what we can do because we have the capacity to do it.“

Obama has room to maneuver on NSA reforms ? CNN Security Clearance - CNN.com Blogs

 

[ScienceRocks]

You extremist on the right truly feel we have no enemies? I'll admit our government has gone to far but we'd be insane to drop our guard too far.