Be careful. But not too careful. TSA “Behavior Detection Officers” are watching, closely.
Photo: AFP
As The Intercept reports, the US Transportation Security Administration’s new checklist of suspicious Behaviors is quite long. A handy sampler:
exaggerated yawning
excessive throat clearing
widely open staring eyes
wearing improper attire for location
gazing down
exaggerated or repetitive grooming gestures
rigid posture
a bobbing Adam’s apple
arriving late for flight
and so on.
Remember: Avoid repetitive grooming gestures, excessive throat clearing, rigid posture, and – oh, just avoid all Behaviors, of any kind.
And welcome to the United States.
* For a short trip with eyes widely open into the murky depths of surveillance, see Bold Scientists. Read an excerpt here. Scroll down to chapter 6, The Cloud.
According to OpenMedia.ca, “The data they’re collecting can identify everything from your sexual orientation, religious and political beliefs, to your medical history. This sensitive information is being shared with the spy agencies of several other countries, without our knowledge or consent.”
If you oppose secretive, ever-expanding, high-cost, out-of-control spying on all of us, say so now.
This week, the Harper regime introduced dangerous new anti-terrorism legislation that will give spy agencies even more powers.
Michael Vonn, Policy Director, BC Civil Liberties Association: “Canada has utterly failed to respond to the urgent need for national security oversight and instead, proposes an unprecedented expansion of powers that will harm innocent Canadians and not increase our public safety.”
Communications Security Establishment Canada. We pay for it, they spy on us. That’s the deal. They spy on all our communications, all the time: phone, email and internet, contacts, conversations, relationships, religious and political affiliations, medical records, financial transactions….
OpenMedia.ca is on the case. But they can’t do it alone. The Canadian government needs to hear a very loud NO from everyone of us who cares.
David Lyon, world authority on surveillance and social control: “Indifference is appropriate only for those who think that efficiency, convenience and speed qualify as values to be placed over openness, fairness, and the accountability of those whose task it is to process personal data.”
“The ultimate goal of the NSA is total population control.” – William Binney, July 5, at a conference in London, England, organised by the Centre for Investigative Journalism.
Image: Reality Uncovered
Binney, one of the highest-level whistleblowers to escape the US National Security Agency, was a leading code-breaker against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Soon after September 11, 2001, he resigned in protest against Washington’s embrace of mass surveillance.
“At least 80% of fibre-optic cables globally go via the US”, Binney told the conference. “This is no accident and allows the US to view all communication coming in.”
All communication. That means you and me. Right now.
Details in The Guardian, UK, via Reader Supported News, here.
1984 + 30, and counting…
Surveil the surveillers inBold Scientists: dispatches from the battle for honest science, due September 2014 from Between the Lines.
Mark Zuckerberg wants everyone to friend Facebook. And the billionaire CEO of Facebook does mean everyone.
Recently he announced a grand new plan : internet.org, a consortium of corporations and government agencies that will harness an array of drones, satellites and other technologies to wrap the entire world in a vast global WiFi.
The primary government partner? None other than the US National Security Agency.
This is beyond sinister, says writer/internet activist/organizer Alfredo Lopez. “The NSA spies on everyone it can. It collects all the data it can. It has shown no respect for people’s rights or for constitutional restrictions. It is a criminal organization and, under this plan, it would control Internet access for large parts of the world.”
So much easier than the cumbersome business of Facebook handing over our data to the NSA. Via internet.org they can both vacuum it up at the same time.
And note that drones, which already serve as Big Brother’s remote-control weapon of mass destruction, will be among the primary vehicles.
Follow the ever-deepening surveillance story in Bold Scientists: dispatches from the battle for honest science, coming from Between the Lines, autumn 2014.
Photo: AFP
Michael Riordon 