MATRIX: Myths and Reality

[size=-1]Through a series of state “Freedom of Information Act” requests, the ACLU has begun to learn more about the secretive program known as the Multi-State Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange (MATRIX). [/size]

[size=-1]Documents obtained by the ACLU make it clear that there is a great deal of misinformation being spread about the program by the program’s law enforcement boosters as well as the private company that runs it. [/size]

[size=-1]A lot remains unknown about this secretive program – for example, what type of commercial data it contains, how it is being used to monitor Americans, and how much it will cost. But documents from state and federal authorities and the officials that run the program enable us to separate myth from reality. Especially instructive were the minutes of the state and corporate officials overseeing the MATRIX program.[/size]

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[size=-1]Myth: The MATRIX is about fighting terrorism.[/size]

[size=-1]Reality: The MATRIX has little to do with terrorism.[/size]

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[size=-1]Myth: MATRIX does not utilize data mining.[/size]

[size=-1]Reality: Data mining has always been one of the most important components of the MATRIX program.[/size]

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Myth: MATRIX contains information that has always been routinely available to law enforcement.[/size]

[size=-1]Reality: MATRIX gives law enforcement unprecedented access to enormous stores of commercially available information.[/size]

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[size=-1]Myth: MATRIX is run by states.[/size]

[size=-1]Reality: MATRIX is almost completely funded by the federal government.[/size]

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[size=-1]Myth: The accuracy of data in MATRIX is checked before law enforcement takes action.[/size]

[size=-1]Reality: There is no guarantee that the accuracy of the data will be checked and every reason to believe that it won’t be.[/size]

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[size=-1]Myth: MATRIX has adequate security measures in place.[/size]

[size=-1]Reality: State agencies have raised serious concerns about the safety of data in MATRIX. [/size]

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[size=-1]Myth: Information in MATRIX is only available to employees of law enforcement organizations.[/size]

[size=-1]Reality: A number of private individuals have access to the MATRIX.[/size]

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[size=-1]Myth: MATRIX is controlled by the state of Florida.[/size]

[size=-1]Reality: A private company, Seisint, Inc., has complete control over the MATRIX system.[/size]

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[size=-1]Myth: MATRIX is different from the Total Information Awareness system (TIA).[/size]

[size=-1]Reality: MATRIX shares almost every characteristic of the federal effort to monitor private citizens.[/size]

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More here at the ACLU webside


Here is the Matrix


How the Matrix is used


My German Source


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I always knew that type of information was out there, tucked away inside databases and never really utilized by anyone......until now.....now that we have a group of psychopaths in the White House. It's strange how all the terrorists that were involved in 9/11 were from other countries, not yet American citizens, yet our government puts together this database to keep tabs on us....not them. It would make much better sense to build a better database of those entering our country from somewhere else, and keep tabs on THOSE people -- like our Government was supposed to have done in the first place before 9/11.

I'm sure there will be those who will say "well, if you follow the law, keep your nose clean, then why should you be bothered if the government watches you, keeps tabs on you." This is just one more step towards fascism......

"Fascism - elevating a nation above the individual, and standing for a centralized, autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader; severe economic and social regimentation and forcible suppression of opposition."

Sounds like the U.S., just a little more each day.....

 

I think you're going a bit too far Skippy. Beleive it or not, Bush was elected by the American people. And have you turned of the TV lately? Censorship? HAH! While I can't argue with the constant war part, you can't say that only fascist nations go to war. Nobody is ridiculed for not supporting Bush (in fact it's just the opposite in some places), and for every political opponent that drops dead, there are 100 who will live long healthy lives.

Come on people, Bush sucks, but you have to be pretty dumb to think we're living under anything moderately resembeling fascism.

 

No. we are not yet living under an absolute fascist state. because the federal government, which, at least from what i can tell, is a world-wide organization of corporate stockholders, has realized from observing other attempts to institute fascist regimes that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, as the saying goes. it's is easier to subvert people's rights under the pretense of protecting them than it is to just brutally dictate one's power. and as far as bush being elected by the american people... well, you can say that. but did you personally count every vote?

much love

 

How old are you MaxP? 20 something? I'd say some of us have a couple more decades under our belts than you and we have witnessed the down hill slide our country has been in for quite some time now. Call them "subtle nuances" if you like, from censorship of movies (Moore), radio (Stern), t.v. (Koppel), to throwing peaceful protestors in jail, to building the Matrix database, the fallacy of "compassionate conservatism".....well, the list is long kiddo. And to quote you, "Bush was elected by the American people" -- no he wasn't, he stole the election and we all sat back and didn't say a word -- just let him waltz right into the White House and sit his pompous ass down in the Oval office.

Everyday, I see traces of fascism (and by the way Skip, excellent writing -- I'll have to go get your book....). I'd say alot of us who are 40+ in years can feel a frightening, negative change occurring in our country because of the Bush Administration and the damage they are inflicting. And even those who are younger, can see it if they know what to look for. Sorry MaxP, but open your eyes.

 

Thanks Dad, I'm just a dumb kid eating whatever scraps my fascist overlords throw my way.

You say that America has "slid downhill" in recent decades with all the censoring going on and whatnot, but do I have to remind you that to say "ass" or "hell" on late night TV in the 70s was to be immediately ejected from showbusiness and slammed as a satan-worshipping anti-Christ? Turn on the TV or go to the movies and watch what's being played, then compare it to what the "accepted moral standard" of televisons's "golden age" was. Oh, the censorship.

And the arrest of peaceful protesters is a problem only recently rearing it's ugly head in the new millenium I guess, right? Such atrocities were unheard of in the sixties and seventies.......
I'm not going to fight hardline leftists on Bush anything, so you win there.

 

All hail King George!!

 

I love your post Cyberfly....


hey MaxP, sure there were arrests of protesters back in the 60's-70's and there will continue to be throughout our history, but it is this, along with everything else our administration is doing that reeks of fascism to me, and to some others obviously. A difference I see in this administration, as opposed to others in the past, say under Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, is that Bush Jr. is heading our country towards isolationism, alienating us from the rest of the world, including our own allies. He thumbs his nose at the world, much like Hitler, Stalin, and other well known dictators of the past. At least in other administrations, we had President's who respected other countries, practiced diplomacy and positive foreign relations. Bush is a fuck-up. An unpolished Texan hick who will go down in history as the worst President ever. I honestly don't believe that the American public is so stupid and blind as to re-elect him in November. A vote for Bush will be seen as a serious character flaw in an indivdual....

 

Maybe that's how it is in New York. Here in central Illinois - Redneckland - we non-Bushites get bashed alot. I live in a large university town (it's my hometown, I attend college elsewhere), sometimes it's been called a liberal hot-bed in a land of conservativism, and outside the campus area you'll meet some hardcore righties.

I'll always remember my history class in the senior year of high school. The teacher was awesome, very cool dude, but in the spring we had a student teacher for much of the class. She was timid and inept, and didn't know how to run a class. Back then the Iraq war was just beginning, and every other day the student teacher would begin class with "Current Issues" and meekly suggest we talk about the situation in Iraq, prompting a lot of vocal rednecks in the class to hail the virtues of Bush, cheer the war on and howl "Treason!" and "Communist!" at anyone who differed. Us left-wingers in the class soon got tired of being drowned out by screams of "AMERICA!!" and so we just sat quietly and bemusedly watched their jingoistic histrionics. In a way, it was almost a microcosm of our nation at the time.

 

Don't bet on voting bush out.
Not because people love him, but because he has set up the deck.

Republican money bought new voting "computers" for the presidential elections.
He doesn't need people to miscount ballots anymore; the computer program will do it for him.

 

Skippy-

As I said before in another thread, I'll be joining the air force after this summer. Since soldiers with IQs greater than their shoe sizes get assigned to jobs that require you to do more than rape prisoners all day, chances are I'll be behind a computer screen coordinating the raids on private homes or piloting a helicopter, raining down missiles on weddings.

 

Wow, MaxP....I feel safer already just knowing you'll be over in Iraq, protecting all us Ameeeeeeeerikans from those rowdy wedding attendees.

 

Looks like you people don't know good sarcasm when you see it........

And me conservative? So my supporting the war not because of oil, but because people like Saddam Hussein shouldn't be allowed to govern nations, makes me a warmongering imperialist?

And because I don't think that the media is being censored and that Bush is far from a fascist, that makes me a hardline right winger? So I guess in your mind anyone who is right of far left is an evil conservative?

Do you really think that the prison guards that abuse POWs are sadists and mass murderers? You must mean them, because the only mass murderer in Iraq's recent history is Saddam Hussein, and he's gone now because of America (and I know you'd be dammed before you support any miniscule thing that Bush does). Guess what, they're not. None of the people in those pictures are getting away with anything they did, and none of them are evil geniuses plotting mass murder.

 

Who the fuck are we to say how another sovereign country governs itself? Iraq wasn't a threat to the U.S. We had absolutely no right or reason to wage war on a sovereign nation that was not threatening us. Iraquis weren't invading the U.S. Our idiot President made it sound like, any day, the Iraquis would be on our doorsteps with biological weapons, killing our children, invading our country. Bush is a fucking liar -- he lied to us. And if you look at the recent polls, people are finally seeing through his hideous lies.

Why didn't Bush just come out initially and say "we need to invade Iraq because Saddam is a bad guy and his people don't like him. We need to liberate this country." Because no one would have supported a misguided proclomation like this, having just come out of 9/11. People wanted Bin Laden!!!! Not fucking Saddam!!!!! So Bushboy, having his own agenda against Saddam made up some big ass lies to bolster his reasoning for invading Iraq. And now, since no link to Al Qaeda has been proven and no WMD's found, the liar is backtracking. Hoping everyone will forget his lies in front of the nation, saying he has proof of a link between Saddam and Al Qaeda and that there are vast stockpiles of WMD's. Now, as he's starting to worry about the upcoming election, he see's his popularity slipping in the polls, Iraq is being dubbed "Bush's Vietnam" and he's saying to us and himself....."Oops, wellllll, I guess there weren't any WMD's, uh, can't seem to link Saddam and Al Qaeda either, uumm -- oh well, hmmmmmmm - well, then, uhhhhh, let's see, uhhhhhh, how 'bout this reason folks, Saddam was a bad guy, hurting his people --- yeah, yeah that's the ticket, yeah, that's it, we, uh, really, uh went in to, uh hmmmm, uh, liberate the Iraqi's, yeah, that's the ticket, yeah, that's it, forget the WMD reason y'all, ummmm I goofed (lied)" Reminds me of the "liar" years ago on Saturday Night Live, always changing his story to fit his little scenario.....

And no, I don't believe the soldiers at Abu Graihb are mass murderers, but I honestly expected more from them. I hold them to a higher level than the terrorists who beheaded Berg. I expected that from those fanatics, to do something grotesque to shock the world, like sawing off someones head. But I am sickened by the antics at the prison because I expected more from our soldiers/MP's/military than to lower themselves to that degree of inhumaneness. And yes, they really seem like sadists in my eyes now, and to the world as well. That is so unfortunate, because it makes us all look bad, not just those soldiers at the prison. God, our world is so small now, we have to be better than the lowest common denominator, because everyone on this planet is watching what we do in relation to Iraq!

 

IMO, it's the responsibility of the democratic world to remove, forcibly if necessary, all totalitarian (see: non elected) governments. Anyone who lives in a free, democratic society and believes otherwise is a hypocrite. How are Iraqis, or Iranians, or North Koreans different from us? Are they somehow not entitled to freedoms that we are born with? Are they lesser human beings that don't deserve the "inaleible rights" that no government can deprive it's citizens of? No, they aren't. They have every right to liberties that Americans and Europeans take for granted every fucking day, and that the UN clearly spells out in it's Declaration of Universal Human Rights, but is too chicken shit to enforce. How people can go out, vote, protest the government about denying them civil liberties, but then turn around and watch those being opressed and truly censored, and truly denied basic human rights, but just say "oh well they're a sovergn nation not doing anything wrong, let's not bother them" perplexes me.

 

Ok, soory, but this is the finaly proof, that you only try, to spread bullshit, Maxpower. Why?

Remember the thousands in US, who were not allowed to vote during the last US election, only because having a similar name to someone whose name appeared on a Matrix generated short list. And is a government elected, by not the counting of all votes but a court decision to stop further counting? A court, whose members were called by the brother of one of the candidates?
A BLACKLIST BURNING FOR BUSH

What now? Disliking decisions of UN, calling them 'being to chicken' and using lies about WMD and 'connections to Al Quaida' as reasons for illegal invading other nations, complettly ignoring the UN and on the other side calling UN for help when the situation gets worse and worse, like it's happening at the moment. What, when the UN Security Councel decision next monday is again not such one, which your government would like to get?
All what you write about 'Declaration of Universal Human Rights' and 'every right to liberties' and the need to be inforced by UN means, that even the US government should be removed by the UN. Is this that, what you want to say us?

 

You're forgetting that not everyone thinks the same as us or Europe. Democracy, a government "of the people," comes from the people itself - it's not really a democracy when it's simply forced upon a populace. It may seem odd - to be forced to be democratic, but all the same we do not have the right to do that. For one, not every culture adapts well to democracy, leading to sham governments that are mockeries of democratic government, these are the ones that makes our democracy look wonderful. Russia is becoming one, as the Russians are so accustomed to a centralized government. Africa in particular is chock full of petty dictatorships that often masquerade as democracies. Africans largely never grasped the democratic concept very well, and so they were and are easily exploited by dictators. Democratic government is supposed to come with the support of the people, not by being forcibly instated. Otherwise it's lacking in legitimacy. To just assume that your own system of government should be pushed on everyone else, and saying it's justification to attack and invade other countries is nothing but imperialism.