The U.S. military has become expert at controlling urban populations in Iraq – but why is the Department of Homeland Security building similar capabilities here?
Unfortunately, the federal government’s war on freedom is a subject still dominated mostly by conspiracy theorists, end-of-the-worlders, and yes, crackpots who hold highly marginal and dismissible views. Fortunately, some of that is changing with the rise of “smart preppers.”
I think most people concerned about liberty would appreciate an honest, probative look at actual plans and initiatives that federal authorities are now developing in earnest. Not wild conclusions based on dark conspiracy theories that make most rational people roll their eyes. But a careful assessment of what Uncle Sam and his legions of high-tech crony capitalists are actually building and developing.
In this case, what’s on the table for scrutiny is nothing less than the creation of a national population surveillance and control grid.
Mushrooming Government Capabilities to Control Society
This is sadly a subject that is so big, wide, and dynamic that in many cases, even members of Congress do not understand the extent of bureaucratic planning to control our lives. Or that the Department of Homeland Security’s big-picture plans, tactics, and technology are based on population control tactics originally developed and used in Iraq.
For example, airport screening bureaucrats, whose authority Americans are being conditioned to accept without question, are no longer limited to airports. The Transportation Security Administration and many other agencies are expanding airport-screening technologies and systems to cover all forms of ground transportation. Complete with traveler checkpoints and individualized tracking of cars, trains, telephones, and computers.
Understanding what Big Brother has in mind for us all could well matter to you. After all, there are some quite extreme options being offered by rather expensive repatriation services. Their solutions range from renouncing your citizenship, to moving out of the country, to getting a second passport, to simply evacuating your wealth from the jurisdiction of an all-powerful central government that has slipped the leash of the Constitution.
Do We Really Want Population Control Tactics Forged in Iraq Used Here at Home?
Perhaps all these advances in population control learned in Iraq – establishing checkpoints, round-up intelligence collection, and the tracking of individuals’ movements – are appropriate to a military occupation.
But one has to wonder why so many James Bond toys and tactics are being actively evaluated, tested, adapted, and funded for domestic use by the Department of Homeland Security. And distributed to all manner of government agencies, even on a local level, as more and more now have (or are seeking) arrest and detention powers.
Here’s what I believe is driving the process: The Pentagon has nine years of bloody urban warfare under its belt in Iraq and Afghanistan, where they did battle not so much against an organized, uniformed, standing army as in prior conflicts, but against freelance warriors (including women and children) dressed as and living among civilians. In coping with that mess, the U.S. military has worked closely with high-tech private companies to develop advanced surveillance and tracking tactics designed to quell hostile urban and rural areas.
A New Breed of High-Tech Crony Capitalists Get Rich by Feeding Off Our Freedoms
With the wind-down of the Afghan and Iraq conflicts, these same legions of high-tech companies were at risk of not having a reason to exist, and worse, of losing their biggest source of taxpayer-guaranteed profit. Unfortunately, these are very well connected interests. And like all lobbies, they need a huge new mission to justify their existence and expand.
Enter the Department of Homeland Security – which has put numerous high-tech companies that helped the military set up population control systems in Iraq to work doing the same thing here at home.
Perhaps most disturbingly, DHS is creating an artificial domestic market for all this new technology – aggressively making grants to local law enforcement agencies designed to get them into the domestic intelligence collection business (Fusion Centers) as well as militarize local police departments with the latest shiny new crowd control equipment.
The end result is the birth of an iron triangle of powerful interests that are heavily vested in unprecedented levels of federally directed policing of the general public. Kinda like the ethanol scandal, except in this case we are being robbed of our freedoms, not just our tax dollars.
Crony Capitalist Trade Shows Sell Government Surveillance Technologies
A recent Wall Street Journal story, “High Tech Surveillance Comes to Small Towns,” notes the proliferation of high-tech trade shows that cater to the urgent central planning agenda of the federal government, especially Homeland Security. These citizen-tracking technology expos are attracting numerous small town local police departments – many of which are flush with DHS grant money and a long shopping list for the most advanced and prestigious new military weapons being made available to them.
High-tech companies selling these intrusive surveillance and crowd control technologies do so at secretive conferences that are closed to the media. The Journal reports that small sheriffs’ departments are particularly enthusiastic about the most popular training sessions offered by these trade show organizers, such as “Online Social Media and Internet Investigations” and “Exploiting Computer and Mobile Vulnerabilities for Electronic Surveillance.”
You may have even noticed that many local law enforcement departments around the country are already engaged in major “mission creep” to justify their new surveillance capabilities. They are proactively looking for extremist or criminal activity on Internet trading forums, such as Craigslist.
Lessons from Iraq on Urban Conflict Being Misapplied Domestically
The re-focusing of the “War on Terror’s” highest tech innovations against American citizens is the worst form of crony capitalism. And the most dangerous of all. Because the alliance of high-tech companies working in cahoots with the political class is helping to spawn an advanced national population control grid that Uncle Sam’s armies of stodgy bureaucrats could never have created on their own.
For example, new FOIA documents show TSA is planning a national campaign to expand Mobile Body Scanners to train stations and all forms of ground transportation. Part of a broader TSA program to expand road and highway test checkpoints throughout the country.
The agency’s so-called VIPR (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response) system is part of a federal program known as “Checkpoint USA,” where federal VIPR teams “screen” travelers.
