Page Nine

Firefighters As Spies

The lamestream media told you:
The Patriot Act was a necessary compromise to protect the American homeland. The small changes to civil rights, like monitoring overseas phone calls, library records or emails to detect terrorist activity, is a small concession designed to keep us safe, and nothing to worry about. Fringe groups like the ACLU have objected to the common-sense plans.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
The government effort to monitor potentially dangerous activity may be a juggernaut with inadequate controls, plunging headlong into territory as dangerous as the threats it seeks to prevent. Islamic jihadis, without knowing it, may have unleashed a federalized terror force that could be worse than Islamists are.

Firefighters and ambulance personnel have constant daily access to people's homes without a search warrant. Now, according to a report in Newsday [see AP story here], "When going to private residences, for example, they are told to be alert for -- a person who is hostile, uncooperative or expressing hate or discontent with the United States; unusual chemicals or other materials that seem out of place; ammunition, firearms or weapons boxes; surveillance equipment; still and video cameras; night-vision goggles; maps, photos, blueprints; police manuals, training manuals, flight manuals; and little or no furniture other than a bed or mattress."

The Dept. of Homeland Security has opened intelligence channels in major cities to pursue this terror-watch tool.

"We're there to help people, and by discovering these type of events, we're helping people," said New York City Fire Chief Salvatore Cassano.

Programs are apparently underway in 13 states so far, with Atlanta, Phoenix and Wash., D.C., specifically named in the Nov. 23, 2007 report. According to open-minded apologists following the developments, "If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to worry about."

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes that, under the leaked guidelines, he might be subject to an awfully long time in the slammer, without having actually done anything wrong. He does, however, have a significant amount of furniture, which might be a mitigating factor and decrease the sentence.

Tags: Firefighters, Patriot Act, Department of Homeland Security

NSA Phone Database

The lamestream media told you:

Security forces in the United States, lead by the National Security Agency, a spy unit, have collected the pin register calling data from phone companies nationwide.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

Leaked news about secret security operations gravely threatens national security, but that is well known. This data, which already exists at the quasi-monopoly government-regulated tax-collecting phone companies, has been used for decades, on site at the phone companies, for numerous law enforcement and security purposes. The careful migration of the data from the companies to a central computer is the pot calling the kettle black.

By way of comparison, government-chartered banks, which provide detailed personal data to the government on a regular basis, under court orders that are handed out when requested by officials, goes on at such a great scale that banks maintain entire offices dedicated to nothing but government investigators, who work on site in bank skyscrapers, poring over the necessary files. The routine maintenance of these offices is not publicized when customers open new accounts. If government investigators want your data, the chances they cannot get it are slim and none. So fight that if you wish, not the media-kindled kafuffles of the day.

Tags: National Security Agency, NSA, telephone records