Canada's Spy Agency CSEC Comes up from the Basement into new $880m Compound

At a time when most government agencies are cutting and slashing, a little-known spy agency led by a Rhodes Scholar is the envy of Ottawa for its planned billion-dollar headquarters.

A rising force in the national-security apparatus, the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) is an electronic-eavesdropping agency that gathers intelligence from abroad. Led by 68-year-old military veteran John Adams, the agency keeps its operations quiet, reporting only to Canada’s military and civilian leadership.

For the first time since he took over the agency in 2005, Mr. Adams has discussed CSEC’s mission and future, which includes plans for an $880-million headquarters housing hundreds of mathematicians, engineers and computer scientists by 2015.

News of the planned 72,000 square-metre compound is raising eyebrows around the national capital, given few people outside of government know what CSEC is or what it does.

But “if you were to ask the Canadian Forces if there is anyone that has saved Canadian lives in Afghanistan, they would point to us,” Mr. Adams told The Globe and Mail. He said that well over half of the “actionable intelligence” that soldiers use in Afghanistan comes from his agency.

This work is distinct from that done by a far better known spy agency –the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

The difference between the two boils down to tradecraft and jurisdiction.

CSIS – Canada’s human-intelligence, or “HumInt” agency – has its people and agents train their actual eyes and ears on security threats inside the country.

CSEC – the “signals-intelligence” or “SigInt” counterpart – relies almost wholly on technology to hear what people are saying abroad (spying on Canadians is illegal). Since being formed in the 1940s, this agency has rarely told anyone the fruits of its findings, save for its two masters – the Department of National Defence and the Privy Council Office.

On paper, the two agencies’ mandates don’t overlap, but in practise their operations are running together more than ever. That’s why the new CSEC complex is being built next to CSIS’ current headquarters – and why architects are planning to install a glass bridge connecting the two.

As envisioned, the seven-building CSEC complex will be the equivalent of a 90-storey skyscraper turned on its side – a highly secure compound outfitted with the latest high-tech gear. Two nearby electrical generating stations will power the agency’s computers, which suck in millions of conversations from around the world each day and scour them for intelligence information.

CSEC’s 1,700 staff and $300-million budget are double what they were a decade ago. Yet the agency’s bricks-and-mortar surroundings have been neglected. Some staff complain that a wall-sized mainframe computer has even fallen through an old floor. The current complex, a scattering of Cold War-era buildings near Carleton University, can no longer suck enough energy off the grid to sustain operations.

“We’ve run out of power,” said Mr. Adams, whose facilities use about as much energy as a small town. “We’ve got 700 people buried in a basement.”

Now the plan is to bring staff out of their subterranean cloisters and into collaborative work spaces, ones where cryptologists and engineers work together in bright rooms surrounded by daylight and foliage.

The plan doesn’t just envision $880-million in construction costs. According to a union representing CSEC employees, there is also a somewhat unique arrangement that will commit Ottawa to spend up to $5-billion more over the next 34 years. These costs are part of a “public-private partnership” – incorporating a complex mix of debt-servicing costs, standard-operating payments and an unusual facilities-management deal with a private consortium.

Patriot App lets you Spy on Your Fellow Citizens, and Reports Directly to the Communist U.S. Govt

In yet another move towards an East Germany type snitch society, a company called Citizens Concept has launched an App with the catchy name, “PatriotApp.” Apparently this App is named after the Patriot Act and we all know how wonderful and patriotic that Orwellian, Constitution destroying law has been.

Just ask Susan Lindauer who was arrested as an Iraqi agent under the Patriot Act when she was clearly working for the U.S. government but had information that the Republican leadership did not want to hear!

This App allows citizens to snitch on their neighbors just as Hitler convinced thousands of Germans to tell on their own neighbors and family.

The App essentially connects your phone to the FBI, EPA, GAO, and CDCs tip line. Why would American citizens need to report suspicious activity to the EPA, the same agency who literally let our gulf been chemically raped by millions of gallons of toxic Corexit?

Are Americans expected to report tips to the FBI so that the FBI can go out and give the “suspicious” person fake bombs and claim they were scary Muslim terrorists?

PatriotApps -

Citizen Concepts announces the launch of PatriotAppTM, the world’s first iPhone application that empowers citizens to assist government agencies in creating safer, cleaner, and more efficient communities via social networking and mobile technology. This app was founded on the belief that citizens can provide the most sophisticated and broad network of eyes and ears necessary to prevent terrorism, crime, environmental negligence, or other maliciousbehavior.

More efficient communities? Is this App eventually going to be used and connected to the green police? Are American citizens being lined up to snitch on their neighbors if their “carbon input” is too high?

MSNBC, the same company who received millions in bailout money and has labeled 9/11 Truthers as terrorists had this to say:

MSNBC

Launched in September, the PatriotApp allows people to report criminal or suspicious activity to several federal agencies, including the FBI, EPA, CDC and GAO (Government Accountability Office), the office responsible for investigating public funds. It also includes RSS feeds for the FBI’s Most Wanted list and the Department of Homeland Security’s threat level, and allows people to report workplace harassment and discrimination.

The app doesn’t grant a user privileged access to these agencies; rather, it bundles each group’s Internet tip line (ITL) — the website feature used to report incidents — and makes them mobile-phone friendly, and even enables users to send pictures. While it offers users a direct portal to each site’s ITL, the user must still go through the same process — and obey the same policies and warnings — as they would if accessing the site on a computer.

Playing off the Patriot Act name, “the app was founded on the belief that citizens can provide the most sophisticated and broad network of eyes and ears necessary to prevent terrorism, crime, environmental negligence, or other malicious behavior,” according to Patriotapps.com.

Our country is headed towards a Nazi style police state. DHS in stores nationwide, citizens being urged to snitch on their neighbors, and Americans being arrested for “thought” crime.

Maybe you little commie wannabes can get this app for your iPhone after filling out your InfraGard application. Run along now and be sure to report this site you communist bastards..

“Monitoring America” the US Govt's new “See something, say something” Spy Network

The Washington Post today reports on the vast growing domestic spying apparatus that the federal government is using, in conjunction with the Pentagon, to target millions of law-abiding American citizens who have not been accused of any wrongdoing.

In a lengthy report entitled “Monitoring America”, the Post details how a vast centralized snooping machine is being constructed and employed by local, state and federal agencies as well as military investigators, to collect, store and analyze swathes of personal information.

Everything contained within the Post’s article has already been reported and covered in depth by this website and others in the alternative media that have consistently warned of the threat of the exponential rise of the big brother spy system over the past decade.

The report details Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano’s recent “See something, say something” campaign, which encompasses the federal government hooking up with Wal-Mart, Amtrak, major sports leagues, hotel chains and metro riders to encourage citizens to file “suspicious activity reports” if they see any activity they think could be criminal or terroristic.

The government defines a suspicious activity as “observed behavior reasonably indicative of pre-operational planning related to terrorism or other criminal activity” related to terrorism.

As we reported recently, critics of the program have been literally dubbed insane by it’s coordinators, despite legitimate concerns over asking citizens to effectively spy on each other for the government.

The Washington Post report notes that such suspicious activity reports are just one piece of information being collected at the local and state levels and fed into a vast “Guardian” database via fusion centers, which ultimately connect to the FBI, the DHS and even the Department of Defense.

According to the report, the spook network includes 4,058 federal, state and local organizations.

Intelligence centers run by states across the country have access to personal information about millions of Americans, including unlisted cell phone numbers, insurance claims, driver’s license photographs and credit reports.

Dozens of the fusion centers were created after 9/11 to identify potential threats and “improve the way information is shared”. The centers use law enforcement analysts and sophisticated computer systems to compile, or fuse, disparate tips and clues and pass along the refined information to other agencies.

The centers have received billions in funding from the Department of Homeland Security and also work in conjunction with the military arm of the DHS, NORTHCOM.

They also have subscriptions to private information-broker services that keep records about Americans’ locations, employment history, financial holdings, associates, relatives, firearms licenses and the like.

Some of these data-brokers, such as one in Maryland called Entersect, claim to hold records about 98 percent of Americans.

The Washington Post report also details how equipment developed for use against insurgents and fighters in combat situations such as in Afghanistan is now being employed by police and law enforcement agencies to collect information on the American people.

From military-grade infrared cameras, to hand-held, wireless fingerprint scanners, to facial recognition surveillance cameras, to license plate readers, to Predator drones along the borders – all are being used to snap pictures and video and record swathes of information. This will all then be fed into a giant database, cross referenced with every other piece of information collected, analyzed and stored.

This year for the first time, the FBI, the DHS and the Defense Department are able to search each other’s fingerprint databases, said Myra Gray, head of the Defense Department’s Biometrics Identity Management Agency, speaking to an industry group recently. “Hopefully in the not-too-distant future,” she said, “our relationship with these federal agencies – along with state and local agencies – will be completely symbiotic.”

The justification is, as always, the war on terror, but the targets of the information gathering are everyday Americans.

As the Washington Post report also notes, Homeland Security and its state and local partners have routinely targeted peaceful and lawful groups and individuals as part of its surveillance reporting.

As we have seen from the MIAC report, DHS spying on tea Party and second amendment activists in Pennsylvania and a host of other examples in recent years, the federal government has little interest in Muslim extremists and has instead targeted Americans knowledgeable of their rights and critical of big government as the primary domestic terror threat. The feds have defined “terrorist propaganda” as any material critical of the state. The Department of Defense characterizes peaceful protest as “low level terrorism” in its own report.

Over the years we have seen countless instances of unaccountable government and military programs that have been in operation for decades, all centered around covertly spying and gathering information on American citizens.

We have extensively documented such programs from COINTELPRO through to Operation CHAOS, the Defense Department’s Counterintelligence Field Activity and the recent NSA warrantless wiretapping.

Large corporations such as Google, AT&T, Facebook and Yahoo to name but a few are also intimately involved in the overarching program. Those corporations have specific government arms that are supplying the software, hardware and tech support to US intelligence agencies in the process of creating a vast closed source database for global spy networks to share information.

We are now witnessing the coordination and mass consolidation of scores of these operations into one all encompassing panopticon program.

After 9/11 the work of 16 different intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the giant National Security Agency, which eavesdrops on international communications, as well as the Energy Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration was centralized under the office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Why such rampant centralization? Why is the military now so intent on fusing itself with the federal government via Homeland security and through the FBI and why are the targets of their operations always American citizens?

We are constantly bombarded with the notion that the biggest threat we face is from those who reject and abhor western values, yet the government and military continue to relentlessly focus their anti-terror activity directly upon freedom loving American people, while telling them they would be completely insane to voice any concern

INFRAGARD, Fill out the application and spy on your neighbors!

Nothing more American than this Commie Shit!

InfraGard Membership Application
Please complete and submit the following form to apply for InfraGard membership. All fields are required unless otherwise noted.

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Agreement
Membership Responsibilities and Privacy Act Statement
Membership Responsibilites

If accepted as a member of InfraGard, Applicant may receive information that is sensitive and not publicly available ("Protected Information"). Protected Information may be provided by or through the InfraGard National Organization, InfraGard chapters, InfraGard members, partners of InfraGard, or other sources, and will be marked accordingly. If accepted as an InfraGard member, Applicant understands and agrees to the following terms regarding Protected Information.

1. Participation is Voluntary. Applicant is not obligated as a condition of InfraGard membership to disclose any information to the InfraGard National Organization or any InfraGard chapter, partner, or member.

2. Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure. Protected Information is to be regarded as Business Confidential and shall not be disclosed beyond its intended scope.

3. No Guarantee of Fitness. Protected Information is provided as a service to InfraGard members and may be unevaluated and unverified. As such, Protected Information is not guaranteed to be accurate, complete, or actionable.

4. Submission in Good Faith. Applicant agrees that he/she will not submit information which he/she knew at the time of submission to be false, and that he/she will submit information only to further InfraGard's stated purposes.

5. Federal Agencies Will Exercise Care to Protect Information. To the extent allowed by law, information received from InfraGard members that is marked "InfraGard Protected Information" shall be protected from agency disclosure under 5 USC 552 (commonly referred to as the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA")), and from publication, divulgence, or release in any other manner pursuant to the prohibitions of the Trade Secrets Act, 18 USC 1905.

6. Membership Profiles. Applicant agrees to participate in membership surveys as necessary to assist the FBI in gauging the knowledge and expertise of the InfraGard membership. (The profile is approximately 20 questions and may take 5-10 minutes to complete.)

Applicant understands and agrees that InfraGard is not to be commercially exploited as a forum to market products or services and that doing so may result in the revocation of Applicant's membership in InfraGard.

Applicant, if accepted as an InfraGard member, agrees to act in a manner consistent with the InfraGard National Bylaws, as the Bylaws may be amended from time to time, as well as any other duly enacted national requirements of InfraGard.

Applicant requirements:

* At least 18 years of age on the date of completion of this Application.

* Consent to a records check that yields a satisfactory result as determined by the FBI in its sole discretion.

* Consent to periodic re-confirmation of membership requirements.

* Agree to and complete this InfraGard Membership Application Form.

* Any further requirements (if more restrictive) mandated by the local chapter and approved by the FBI.


Privacy Act Statement

Authority:

Collection of this information is authorized under: Title 28, Section 534 28 CFR. 0.85.

Principal Purpose and Routine Uses

The information collected on this form will be used for the principal purpose of conducting security risk assessments on InfraGard Members and applicants. As part of this assessment, the collected data may also be used to assist in determining approval, denial, revocation or renewal of access to the InfraGard Secure web site and the authorization to receive InfraGard sensitive information. Information provided by me will be protected and used in strict compliance with the Privacy Act and the routine uses most recently published in the Federal Register for the FBI's Central Records System (Justice/FBI-002) and the FBI's Blanket Routine Uses (Justice/FBI-BRU).

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Your Social Security Account Number (SSAN) is requested to check criminal, immigration, national security and other electronic databases. Because other people may have the same name and birth date, your SSAN will be used to facilitate accurate identification and to help eliminate the possibility of misidentification of individuals for whom a security risk assessment or database check is being conducted.

Effects of Nondisclosure or Falsification

Completion of this application and provision of your SSAN is voluntary. However, failure to provide the requested information may result in your application being rejected for membership in InfraGard or your membership revoked. Knowingly falsifying or concealing information requested on this form will result in your application being rejected or your membership revoked. In addition, Title 18 Section 1001 of the U.S. Code provides that knowingly falsifying or concealing a material fact may under certain circumstances constitute a felony resulting in fines and/or imprisonment.
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By completing an InfraGard Membership Application Form, I hereby authorize the FBI to obtain and verify any information relevant to assessing my suitability to access, possess, use, receive or transfer sensitive InfraGard Information. This information may include, but is not limited to, law enforcement and intelligence information. I further authorize the FBI to disclose information obtained in connection with my security risk assessment in order to verify the accuracy of completeness of the information I have provided to the FBI

I understand that this is a legally binding document and false statements provided by me are violations of federal law and may lead to criminal prosecution or other legal action. To the best of my knowledge and belief, I affirm that a). I meet all of the requirements to be an InfraGard member; b). The information I have provided herein is true, complete and correct; and c). I have reviewed the InfraGard Code of Ethics and I agree to abide by its covenants.

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InfraGard - Untrained FBI Spies in the workplace SPYING on YOU

---GOALS AND OBJECTIVES---

The goal of InfraGard is to promote ongoing dialogue and timely communication between members and the FBI. InfraGard members gain access to information that enables them to protect their assets and in turn give information to government that facilitates its responsibilities to prevent and address terrorism and other crimes.

The relationship supports information sharing at national and local levels and its objectives are as follows:

* Increase the level of information and reporting between InfraGard members and the FBI on matters related to counterterrorism, cyber crime and other major crime programs.
* Increase interaction and information sharing among InfraGard members and the FBI regarding threats to the critical infrastructures, vulnerabilities, and interdependencies.
* Provide members value-added threat advisories, alerts, and warnings.
* Promote effective liaison with local, state and federal agencies, to include the Department of Homeland Security.
* Provide members a forum for education and training on counterterrorism, counterintelligence cyber crime and other matters relevant to informed reporting of potential crimes and attacks on the nation and U.S. interests.

---LOCAL CHAPTER ACTIVITIES---

Each FBI Field Office has a Special Agent Coordinator who gathers interested individuals to form a chapter. Any individual can join InfraGard. Local executive boards govern and share information within the membership. Chapters hold regular meetings to discuss issues, threats and other matters that impact their companies. Speakers from public and private agencies and the law enforcement communities are invited. The following illustrates additional activities that local chapters may offer:

* Training and education initiatives
* A local newsletter
* A Contingency Plan for using alternative systems in the event of a successful large scale attack on the information infrastructure

---INFRAGARD NATIONAL MEMBERS ALLIANCE---

InfraGard members are represented nationally by an elected board of seven representatives called the InfraGard Board of Directors. Elections are held annually at the InfraGard National Congress for voluntary two-year terms. The Board is responsible for representing the membership in the partnership with the FBI. They conduct weekly conference calls to address a variety of issues that face the organization. Board members travel to various chapter activities and attend conferences promoting InfraGard and other issues pertinent to the program.

The Board established several committees to address issues such as membership, incorporation, and partnerships with other private sector association / organizations.

Special Interest Groups (SIGs) have also been established to meet the challenges America faces in protecting against criminal, terrorist, and intelligence threats. One such SIG involves InfraGard, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Small Business Administration, and the FBI.

---INFRAGARD SECURE WEBSITE----

The InfraGard secure website provides members with information about recent intrusions, research related to critical infrastructure protection, and the capability to communicate securely with other members.


Best of all, its FREE to join!! Boasts the InfraGard website!! What? you want ME to work for the FBI for FREE??

Cops Allowed to FORCIBLY Draw Blood on Suspicion

BOISE, Idaho – When police officer Darryll Dowell is on patrol in the southwestern Idaho city of Nampa, he'll pull up at a stoplight and usually start casing the vehicle. Nowadays, his eyes will also focus on the driver's arms, as he tries to search for a plump, bouncy vein.

"I was looking at people's arms and hands, thinking, 'I could draw from that,'" Dowell said.

It's all part of training he and a select cadre of officers in Idaho and Texas have received in recent months to draw blood from those suspected of drunken or drugged driving. The federal program's aim is to determine if blood draws by cops can be an effective tool against drunk drivers and aid in their prosecution.

If the results seem promising after a year or two, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will encourage police nationwide to undergo similar training.

For years, defense attorneys in Idaho advised clients to always refuse breath tests, Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Christine Starr said. When the state toughened the penalties for refusing the tests a few years ago, the problem lessened, but it's still the main reason that drunk driving cases go to trial in the Boise region, Starr said.

Idaho had a 20 percent breath test refusal rate in 2005, compared with 22 percent nationally, according to an NHTSA study.

Starr hopes the new system will cut down on the number of drunken driving trials. Officers can't hold down a suspect and force them to breath into a tube, she noted, but they can forcefully take blood — a practice that's been upheld by Idaho's Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.

The nation's highest court ruled in 1966 that police could have blood tests forcibly done on a drunk driving suspect without a warrant, as long as the draw was based on a reasonable suspicion that a suspect was intoxicated, that it was done after an arrest and carried out in a medically approved manner.

The practice of cops drawing blood, implemented first in 1995 in Arizona, has also raised concerns about safety and the credibility of the evidence.

"I would imagine that a lot of people would be wary of having their blood drawn by an officer on the hood of their police vehicle," said Steve Oberman, chair of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers' DUI Committee.

The cops receive an abbreviated phlebotomy training that will be complete after they have logged 75 successful blood draws.

Once they're back on patrol, they will draw blood of any suspected drunk driver who refuses a breath test. They'll use force if they need to, such as getting help from another officer to pin down a suspect and potentially strap them down, Watson said.

Though most legal experts agree blood tests measure blood alcohol more accurately than breath tests, Oberman said the tests can be fraught with problems, too.

Vials can be mixed up, preservative levels in the tubes used to collect the blood can be off, or the blood can be stored improperly, causing it to ferment and boosting the alcohol content.

Oberman said law enforcement agencies should also be concerned "about possible malpractice cases over somebody who was not properly trained."

Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative Coming in June 2009

Does "REAL ID" ring a bell? How about "Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative?" It looks like almost no one picked up on it in the media...what a shock.

From our resident Jew,(he holds dual Israeli and American citizenship) Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's speech Monday:

"We have a unique opportunity, one that may not come again, to partner with a determined leader in Mexico, so that we can address a shared problem in a partnership way that we cannot afford to ignore. Now of course we are not only focused on efforts to control the border between the ports of entry, we are increasing our security and our efficiency at the ports of entry themselves. We continue to move forward with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which is slated to go into effect in June 2009 at our land and sea ports of entry.

As you will remember, this initiative reduces the types of identification that can be presented at the border so that we get to a requirement of reliable identification for people who want to enter the United States. And it also has eliminated the old system of allowing people to simply orally declare their citizenship and get waved on through.

We have already implemented the first part of our effort to shrink the kind of acceptable documentation at our airports, and compliance has been close to 100 percent. Likewise, as we’ve increased the rigor of our requirements at the land and sea borders, we have found very high compliance rates. And we are working hard to increase the type of reliable documents, and the number of reliable documents which Americans and Canadians can use once this Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative gets implemented in June of next year.

For example, the new pass-card being issued by the State Department has received more than 200,000 applications, and production is set to begin this month. I have applied for one myself. I hope you have to, or you will shortly Secretary Gutierrez. What these cards are going to do is not be more reliable, but they will be faster, because instead of having to read a driver’s license, these will be machine-readable only. You can simply zip through a machine-reader, which will make the process times faster.

The states have also stepped up and become part of the solution to the issue of secure documentation. The state of Washington is currently issuing its own version of an approved, enhanced driver’s license that will be acceptable at the border. New York has announced that it has completed its business plan to begin producing enhanced driver’s licenses. And other states are on the way to doing so as well."

http://corneliusdurden.mindsay.com/north_american_union_is_here.mws

US Outsources Passport Manufacturing to Thailand

GPO is an agency little-known to most Americans, created by Congress almost two centuries ago as a virtual monopoly to print nearly all of the government's documents, from federal agency reports to the president's massive budget books that outline every penny of annual federal spending. Since 1926, it also has been charged with the job of printing the passports used by Americans to enter and leave the country.

When the government moved a few years ago to a new electronic passport designed to foil counterfeiting, GPO led the work of contracting with vendors to install the technology.

Each new e-passport contains a small computer chip inside the back cover that contains the passport number along with the photo and other personal data of the holder. The data is secured and is transmitted through a tiny wire antenna when it is scanned electronically at border entry points and compared to the actual traveler carrying it.

According to interviews and documents, GPO managers rejected limiting the contracts to U.S.-made computer chip makers and instead sought suppliers from several countries, including Israel, Germany and the Netherlands.

Mr. Somerset, the GPO spokesman, said foreign suppliers were picked because "no domestic company produced those parts" when the e-passport production began a few years ago.

After the computer chips are inserted into the back cover of the passports in Europe, the blank covers are shipped to a factory in Ayutthaya, Thailand, north of Bangkok, to be fitted with a wire Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID, antenna. The blank passports eventually are transported to Washington for final binding, according to the documents and interviews.

The stop in Thailand raises its own security concerns. The Southeast Asian country has battled social instability and terror threats. Anti-government groups backed by Islamists, including al Qaeda, have carried out attacks in southern Thailand and the Thai military took over in a coup in September 2006.

The Netherlands-based company that assembles the U.S. e-passport covers in Thailand, Smartrac Technology Ltd., warned in its latest annual report that, in a worst-case scenario, social unrest in Thailand could lead to a halt in production.

Smartrac divulged in an October 2007 court filing in The Hague that China had stolen its patented technology for e-passport chips, raising additional questions about the security of America's e-passports.