The Mexican pork cloud team thwarted the Al Qaeda terrorist dirty bomb attack

I realize the above title is nowhere near as all-encompassing as the famous pangram, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”

But it packs in a lot of suspicious words that we are being warned not to use because the idiots geniuses at the DHS are on the lookout for them.

The Department of Homeland Security has been forced to release a list of keywords and phrases it uses to monitor social networking sites and online media for signs of terrorist or other threats against the U.S.

The intriguing the list includes obvious choices such as ‘attack’, ‘Al Qaeda’, ‘terrorism’ and ‘dirty bomb’ alongside dozens of seemingly innocent words like ‘pork’, ‘cloud’, ‘team’ and ‘Mexico’.

Released under a freedom of information request, the information sheds new light on how government analysts are instructed to patrol the internet searching for domestic and external threats.

The words are included in the department’s 2011 Analyst’s Desktop Binder‘ used by workers at their National Operations Center which instructs workers to identify ‘media reports that reflect adversely on DHS and response activities’.

I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried. To give you an example of the agency’s priorities, according to their own manual, they are searching for what are called IOIs (Items Of Interest), which include (naturally) any and all criticism of the DHS!

1.2  Critical Information Requirements

The attribution of IOIs by CIR allows the MMC to catalog articles into five specific categories dependingon the potential impact or type of article that is being distributed. These CIRs include:

1) Potential Threat to DHS, other federal, and state/ local response units, facilities,and resources.

2) Potential impact on DHS capability to accomplish the HSPD-5 mission

3) Identifying events with operational value…corroborating critical information

4) Identifying media reports that reflect adversely on DHS and response activities

Read through the manual. Orwell couldn’t have done a better job.

This — and a whole host of other things — are happening in in a once-free country. Last night’s Drudge headlines provide a good enough example:

NSA, FBI secretly mining data from Internet firms...
'THEY QUITE LITERALLY CAN WATCH YOUR IDEAS AS YOU TYPE'...

Top secret PRISM program... 
MICROSOFTYAHOOGOOGLEYOUTUBEFACEBOOKSKYPEAPPLE...
Obama administration collecting phone records of millions daily...
Secret court order requires VERIZON to hand over ALL CALL DATA...
White House: Critical tool against 'terrorist threats'...
Specifically targeted Americans, not foreigners...
'Homeland Security': Laptops, phones can be searched based on hunches...
NSA SEES ALL: Phone Sex, Banks, Emails...
CIA: We'll Spy on You Through Your Dishwasher...
'1984' Published 64 Years Ago Today...

Such stuff ought to concern more people but alas! I am very much afraid that many (fortunately not all!) of today’s young are a hopeless lost cause where it comes to privacy. This is a serious and ongoing problem, and I have been thinking about it a lot recently.

Americans traditionally love their privacy, but a new generation couldn’t care less, and I think I am beginning to finally understand how the dynamic has changed. Narcissism has come into full bloom in a new generation, and I think that part of the reason is that they grew up in an age when their so-called “self esteem” reigned supreme over normal considerations.

There has been a massive shift in child raising and child education which revolves around the premise that a child’s SELF ESTEEM must be constantly stoked with praise and that never “harmed.” Not only does this fuel narcissism (because kids grow up expecting to be told they are great no matter what), but it ironically makes it very difficult for the children to ever develop true and independent self esteem, which inner directed people have. There is now a large portion of a generation who are not inner directed, but are dependent on others for praise and for validation. As they lack true self esteem, they become puppets of others without even knowing it. It is beyond depressing, and while it may not have been evil by design, I worry that evil may be the result.

Narcissism is a huge, general problem with young people today. Malignant narcissism in children comes up constantly, and as this recent example illustrates, is not limited to any group.

The other night as I pondered narcissism, my thoughts turned to Facebook and the generally rampant invasions of what we used to call privacy that are now routine, and a very simple insight dawned on me.

We cannot have a sane discussion about privacy because we are simply not on the same page.

Think about narcissism. A narcissist wants attention. To be looked at. They feel meaningless without it. To talk about “privacy” in this context is so absurd that it is a complete cognitive disconnect. Privacy is alien and not seen as a right or a concern with a large number young people. And there are enough of them that the government can get away with this stuff.

It would be misleading to say that they “don’t care” about privacy or a “right to privacy,” because they neither need it or want it. In fact, they actively don’t want it. It’s almost as crazy as talking about a sun-craving plant’s “right to dark.”

I don’t know how I could hope to communicate my concerns to them.

As to DHS, for years I have argued that it is unconstitutional and should be disbanded. That this makes what I write an IOI and me a suspicious character a and a possible threat only proves my point.

But again, who cares? To worry about something being unconstitutional, you have to believe that something called the Constitution is the law of the land — something very few people believe today. This makes them safer, actually, because the Department of Homeland Security considers “constitutionalists” a terrorist threat.

If my concerns are well-grounded, perhaps the best approach is not to kvetch about the loss of privacy or the Constitution, but to sound the alarm about how the government is taking over Facebook and Google.


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8 responses to “The Mexican pork cloud team thwarted the Al Qaeda terrorist dirty bomb attack”

  1. asdf Avatar
    asdf

    The way to argue for people’s right to privacy to the ‘if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear’ crowd is to point out that there are literally more laws than can be counted, and virtually anything one does can be a crime. This means that EVERYONE has something to hide.

  2. Will Avatar
    Will

    I just don’t see this going away. Metadata is just too useful and powerful as a forensic tool for backtracking organized criminal and terrorist communications.

    “Many other criminal suspects have given themselves away through their metadata trails. In fact, Landau told me, metadata and other new surveillance tools have helped cut the average amount of time it takes the U.S. Marshals to capture a fugitive from forty-two days to two.”
    http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/06/verizon-nsa-metadata-surveillance-problem.html

    Of course it can and will be misused and abused especially since almost any action or speech can now be construed as a crime, but stopped and abandoned? Not likely.

  3. Neil Avatar
    Neil

    You’re thinking about it backwards. The “right to privacy” is not about a right to secret behavior. It’s the right to engage in normal behavior without fear of government retribution. “Normal behavior” now encompasses making an ass of yourself on the internet.

  4. Kathy Kinsley Avatar
    Kathy Kinsley

    ‘THEY QUITE LITERALLY CAN WATCH YOUR IDEAS AS YOU TYPE’

    Then slow them down.

    Good software for paranoids like me (though I wasn’t considering the government at ALL when I originally bought it – really, still am not…lol but it keeps keyloggers away…or at least slowed down immensely, since they get nonsense).

    Basic description – encrypt your own typing. And yes, I have, here. Just as I do almost everywhere. (I’ve got the pay version – pro.)

  5. Kathy Kinsley Avatar
    Kathy Kinsley

    Oh – and…no, that’s not an affiliate link, it’s a real-live-honest-to-goddess “I like it.”

  6. Will Avatar
    Will

    If the US Government now has the worlds largest collection of porn, you can bet Federal employees will fight to keep it.

  7. Eric Scheie Avatar

    If the US Government now has the worlds largest collection of porn, you can bet Federal employees will fight to keep it.

    And market it.

    Kathy, thanks for that link!

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