The following article is reprinted with the kind permission of the
author Doctor Walter Belford and the publisher PT Shamrock.

The Thief of Privacy
By Doctor Walter Belford Copyright 2006-2007

"A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the
high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws
of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in
danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a
scrupulous adherence to written law would be to lose the law itself,
with life, liberty, property, and all those who are enjoying them
with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means."
 - Thomas Jefferson to John Colvin, 1810

Preface

We have arrived at a crossroads in history; a turning point where
America's 231 year history of expanding liberty ends, and the
reversal of American constitutional democracy begins. Privacy's
epitaph is being chiseled in stone as I write these words. The last
chance for salvation is rapidity descending through the hour glass.
Privacy destroying technologies, programs, polices and laws gain
momentum like a locomotive running full speed ahead unable to be
stopped, turned or slowed down as its unprecedented, unrelenting
and pernicious assault on our freedoms continue unabated.

I do not presume for a moment that this appraisal on the state of
privacy and civil liberties contains any definitive answer(s)
regarding the thief thereof. Nor do I intend this as some
do-it-yourself, take back your privacy or other similar type of "how
to" book.

I do, however, believe in the individual's freedom to make their own
choices, about their life. Where they'll live, how they'll live,
how they'll raise their family without government interference or
snooping. I also believe in the individual's ability to realize
when they are being hoodwinked by government and big business.
Knowledge is power and acts as a strong deterrent fighting the
ongoing plunder of our freedoms.

As the years pass, it has become exceedingly more difficult for us
to keep the freedoms we previously enjoyed. Therefore as sovereign
individuals, or persons seeking to become sovereign individuals, we
are bound to get off that abominable government locomotive. At the
very least, one should get out of its way in order to preserve and
hopefully regain our liberties. Being cognizant of the policies,
programs and technologies that continue to defalcate our freedoms is
imperative, if we are to remain and or become sovereign individuals.

The first step in any recovery program (getting better) is
acknowledging there is a problem. That is the first and, in many
cases, perhaps the most difficult of all steps, i.e. confronting
there is a problem. Though many people in the west fail to
recognize or in fact concede there is any problem regarding their
lost of privacy, clearly in today's world the thief of privacy is,
or should be, a very real concern as I will outline in this report.

The next step in recovery is to analyze what the problem is, in
other words what ailes the patient. Amongst the maladies afflicting
our privacy are the countless big business and government privacy
stealing technologies, programs and laws that will be revealed in
"The Thief of Privacy."

In order to rid oneself of the maladies or problem, the final step
in any recovery is taking an appropriate course of action based on
the diagnosis of the disease in step two. What course of action
that might be is left entirely to the reader, though admittedly I
outline my thoughts regarding various options and courses of action.

As with a malignant cancer, at times radical surgery might be
necessary.  Such an operation may require that an organ or limb be
"amputated or removed" in order to prevent the cancer from spreading
and to save the patients life. In many instances, if the disease is
diagnosed properly, early enough and the operation is conducted in a
punctual manner, the patient recovers fully and lives a normal,
healthy and productive life surviving well into old age.

In other instances an operation may not entirely eradicate the
disease and the disease spreads. In that event the patient's health
deteriorates and eventually the patient dies.

However one thing is certain; failure to take any course of action
will result in the demise of the patient, sooner rather than later.

I have concluded from my research that many of the government
programs mentioned in this report are destroying democracy in
America and the UK as we knew it. These programs are nothing less
than a cancer eating away, day by day, week by week and month by
month, at our freedoms and liberties. At the same time it is
becoming latish to recover and live a normal and prosperous life.
We either have to amputate and remove ourselves from this cancer or
suffer the consequence, face having our freedoms annihilated.

Both America and the Kingdom are turning into police states
taking your rights and civil liberties along for the ride with their
absolutism. I would like to believe that by the time any logical
person finishes reading this report, they will likely concede that
at least some of these government programs have or will indeed
affect them in one way or another, and not necessarily for the
better. [Note 1]

At what point have we arrived at in recovery, i.e. "getting
better"? Perhaps we are arriving at the first step, a point where
the general public is finally beginning to realize there's a problem
regarding their privacy along with governments tracking and
monitoring them. Whether or not it is too late to diagnosis the
disease and cure it remains to be seen. Perhaps it is already too
late; perhaps not as I'd like to believe that hope springs eternal.

Regardless of the above, all of us are patients afflicted with these
maladies. Whether or not you agree with my analysis of these
programs and the implications drawn thereof, the fact of the matter
is that these programs, technologies and laws are very real and very
much alive and in place today monitoring, watching and recording
you're every move. Therefore it would behoove us to become as
enlightened as possible about those government programs that
recrudesce in order to take an appropriate course of action.

Being well informed and equipped with the right tools, knowledge,
options and alternatives can empower us to make intelligent
decisions, decisions which offer the highest probability of success
in fending off these insidious afflictions. As such and as sovereign
individuals we can recover and lead a normal, healthy and productive
life free of government interference.

During the course of my research for this report, I've discovered
and learnt much. One is never too old to learn something new, so in
that regard I consider myself a very lucky man indeed. Some of the
material and information for this report I had previously researched
already knew and perhaps even wrote about antecedently. Other
material, along with some of the newer programs I discovered,
frankly amazed as well as greatly alarmed me. Even the immensely
well informed publisher of this report exhibited considerable dismay
when they first read the material contained herein. I suspect that
many reading this may experience similar anxieties as well.

It is, therefore, my desire is to pass this knowledge onto those who
cherish their freedoms and liberties as I do. With the above in
mind, I trust The Thief of Privacy will be of some benefit to you
and other sovereign individuals.
 - Dr. Walter Belford - December 2006

Chapter I - Knowledge is power

"If you preserve secrecy, half the battle is already won."
 - Saloth Sar, aka Pol Pot

Let's face it; your life is like an open book and extremely
transparent in today's world.

Today's privacy stealing technologies records every kilometer you
drive, everything you purchase, every financial transaction you
make, every bill you receive and pay, how much water, electricity
and petrol (gasoline) you consume, what television programs you
watch, what tape or DVD's you rent or buy at your local video store,
and what books and CD's you purchase. These programs also reveal
and record what books you read or check out at your local library,
what web sites you browse, what you have underneath your cloths,
what you are doing whilst inside your home, plus when, how and to
whom you communicate and even when, where and how you travel, what
you eat and how you pay for everything!

You have to fill out a government application form (under penalty,)
and have your picture taken just to be granted one privilege or
another from your government, e.g. driving. Naturally this
information is supposed to be "voluntary." However fail to supply
the requested information or include your (US) social security
(identifying) number and you don't get a drivers license, period.
The same holds true when applying for a passport or when renewing an
existing passport. No 'voluntary' social security number, no
passport! So much for voluntary information!

You also have to prove who you are whilst traveling, i.e. produce a
government issued ID in order to fly the friendly skies, take a bus,
train or even to travel by automobile on state and federal highways
in today's post 9/11 world. Today people are increasingly being
asked by the authorities "papers please," whilst conducting their
day to day affairs. Expect this to occur considerably more
frequently staring May 11th, 2008 in the united States [correct
spelling - Note 2.] You'll read more about that in Chapter XVI
- 2007 and beyond!

Both personal and business mail via your local post office is
routinely tracked and recorded on databases. Suspicious envelopes
or mail of "interest" are opened without a warrant, scanned and
processed for further investigation, then resealed and delivered
unbeknownst to the original recipient, or sender, of its scrutiny.
Courier packages are habitually opened and checked both inbound
and outbound, even domestically within the US and UK!

I've had Fed Exp, DHL and UPS personnel open my outgoing packets,
tear open the inside envelope and start to read my private
correspondence, that is until I started yelling at them to stop as
they were infringing on my private communications and privacy. It's
one thing to see if there's contraband inside a courier packet or
letter. However reading ones private communications is a bit overboard
I trust you'd agree!

Biometric passports and soon to be mandated biometric ID cards will
track you thousands of miles from home and record where, when and
how you travel, whether or not you use a wheelchair, if you select a
window or aisle seat, the type of accommodation you pay for, how you
pay for it and even what kind of meals you take, i.e. vegetarian,
diabetic, etc..

This intrusive surveillance and data collection of your personal
habits, as well as the tracking of your whereabouts, is expanding
exponentially. It has entered daily life these days. For instance,
besides government and big business surveillance you also have
workplace surveillance, surveillance in public places as well as on
the streets.  Plus there are all kinds of surveillance in business
establishments and public mass transportation systems. See
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/17/nipswich17.xml

Persons can have their background and very intimate details about
themselves checked out unbeknownst to them by potential dates that
hire a private investigator or use an internet service like
http://backgroundchecks.corragroup.com/ for just a few dollars.

Then you have parental surveillance, i.e. parents monitoring their
children, house keepers, baby sitters and spouse spying on spouse
and vice versa. See http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110008750

Then there's facial and voice recognition technology and other
biometrics, mobile-phone tracking, vehicle tracking, satellite monitoring,
internet tracking, i.e. cookies and clicktrails, hardware based
identifiers, transactional data, intellectual property protecting
"snitchware." Least you forget you now have very intrusive
sense-enhanced imaging or thermal imaging searches that allow observers
to see through everything from the walls of your home and business to
the clothes you're wearing, all without your permission and in many
cases, without your knowledge or a warrant! You'll read more about
that in Chapter X - Guess whose coming to dinner?

Governments and big business have gone to extremes and completely
overboard in tracking and monitoring you and your family. All
reasonable proportion of sensibility has been lost in their undying
quest for controlling you, your details and all your movements.

You are now recorded anywhere from 300 to 400 times per day on closed
circuit TV (CCTV) alone, whilst you're personal movements are recorded
and details stored on who knows how many hundreds, perhaps thousands
of databases forever never to be deleted!

You're even being talked at and your conversations listen in on by
big brother on Main Street, USA and High Road, UK in today's newly
improved and safer world as governments would like to lead you to
believe.

The fact of the matter is that today ones personal privacy and civil
liberties continue to erode in an appalling, invasive and
threatening manner conducted intentionally by big business and your
government. Anyone concerned with, or who should be concerned with,
their privacy and civil liberties should ponder what laws and
technologies to 'protect and help us' have been enacted and are
looming on the horizon soon to be forced on hundreds of millions of
unwilling participants in America's and the UK's never ending war on
terrorism, drugs, crime, immigration, etc..

Personal behavior and habits are being modified by government and
big business surveillance. Just knowing that your activities are
being recorded can have a chilling effect on ones conduct, speech
and reading. Customers may find it uncomfortable knowing that a
sales clerk knows their annual income or indebtedness, what you're
monthly rent or house payments are, whether or not you've paid on
time or if you have had any late payments and other very personal
data.

Irrespective of Bush et al's debacle in the November 2006 election,
5 1/2 years on from 9/11 finds us in a daunting and nearly untenable
position trying to protect our freedoms and privacy, or rather
what's left of our freedoms and privacy.

President Clinton (the Hillary variety,) and the UK's most likely
next Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, are unlikely to change horses in
the middle of the stream if elected to office, if you get my drift!

Understand that it was first lady Hillary "Rodham" Clinton who was
the driving force behind the 1993 "Health Care ID Card" scheme, [see
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Medical/privexperts_ssn_medical_card_hcrtf.letter].
Hillary's proposal once exposed drew howls of protest, so much so,
that it died on the grapevine. That is unlikely to happen again if
and when Mrs. Clinton is elected to the US' highest office and
becomes President in January 2009 along with First Gentlemen Bill
"Slick Willie" Clinton!

And why we are talking about the US' next pres, let's not forget
about our Brit friends. Good old boy Gordie Brown has been
patiently waiting in the wings to take over from double crosser Tony
Blair for years now. The fact of the matter is that Brown supports
police calls to extend a 28-day maximum limit on holding "suspected"
terrorist without trial. See
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/12112006/325/brown-backs-stronger-anti-terrorism-powers.html

And let's not forget that Brown backed Blair on each and every law
that greatly diminished civil liberties along with a horrific lost
of privacy for all Brit's.

As if the current diminution of Britain's civil liberties and
privacy were not bad enough, the UK authorities have mandated
compulsory ID cards for each and every person residing in the UK
starting in 2010. That's just three (3) years from now! Even Irish
nationals residing within the UK will be required to carry UK ID
cards. This is law in spite of the fact that there is a written
agreement between The Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom
from years ago forbidding such ID cards from ever being required for
Irish nationals living in the UK. So much for the UK honoring their
written agreements!

Under a recently passed law, again starting in 2010, every non-EU
national upon entry the UK for 89 days or longer, will be required
to provide their fingers prints (count that ten fingers,) have their
irises scanned plus have their picture taken digitally, all for the
UK's own brand of "special visitor ID card."  Refusal to provide any
of the above will see that person placed immediately on the next
plane out of the UK and blacklisted against future entry forever!
Naturally it's all being gone for the sake of saving you from the
bogeymen that Blair et al say are out to get you!

Starting in 2008 (next year) all British nationals starting from age
16 applying for their first adult passport will have to attend their
nearest centre where they will be subject to background checks,
questioning to test their story against official records,
photographs, and, before long, fingerprinting. I believe when that
starts happening, public support will slide away. At least I hope
it will because it should. The vast majority of people do not want
to be treated like numbers or common criminals, yet governments keep
ramming these unwanted ID cards and other biometric passport like
products down their throats whilst heaping untold evils on them as
well.

Chapter II - You're being watched

"If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its
freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that
it values more, it will lose that too." - Somerset Maugham

The British are the second most watched people on earth, with the
dubious honor of being most watched going to the North Koreans.

Britain stands guard with more than 4 million security cameras,
or CCTV's, as they call them in the United Kingdom. They're everywhere
too. CCTV's can be spotted on street corners, highways, tunnels,
bridges, buses, the underground or subway
(better known as the tube in London,) plus trains, planes, airports,
banks, the post office, department stores and small business
establishments, bars, restaurants, grocery stores, newsstands, parks,
outside and even inside public lavatories, churches, temples, mosques,
movie theaters, banks, laundromats, ATM cash tills, and even in taxis
amongst numerous other places. They are also installed on deserted
roads and quiet neighborhood streets that are rarely used. And worse
of all, they are even installed and being used in public toilets to
spy on children as young as 4 years old, a truly shocking development.
See
http://www.bdrecorder.co.uk/content/barkinganddagenham/recorder/news/story.aspx?brand=RECOnline&category=newsBarkDag&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsBarkDag&itemid=WeED27%20Dec%202006%2016%3A55%3A39%3A070

All reasonable sense of use has been tossed out with the baby and
the bath water. The number of CCTV's and insane measures like having
CCTV's spy on 4 year olds in a school toilet are growing and getting
worse by the week.

Think about it; 4 million CCTV's with no end in sight! That's one
CCTV for every 14 people in the UK, an appalling number of CCTV's
if I say so myself!

In 2005 local UK governments started using satellite imaging to
check UK homes in order to discover whether or not property owners
added on or built conservatories or other room extensions.
Allegedly this is being conducted in order for the government to
increase the tax rate on the citizen's already exorbitant council
tax or property tax bills. Never mind that building permits are
required for such add-ons; never mind that most citizens are honest
and have or would report any additions, the government simply does
not trust or believe you and hence they spy on you from the sky like
your are some criminal or as one would toddlers in kindergarten!

Worse the UK Government has the absolute right to enter your home
WITHOUT a warrant if the government suspects you have made some home
improvement. This so-called inspection of your premises is for the
council members (government agents) to photograph your personal
property, which of course is none of their damn business and is
supposedly for tax accessing purposes. Failure to allow entry to
such government officials can see you fined and charged with a
criminal (not civil) offense. This is, I believe, one of the most
horrific examples on the breach of privacy and warrant less searches
in modern British times and, in my humble opinion, is a blatant
breach of EU privacy laws.

And don't believe for a moment that the Yankee authorities aren't
watching you either!

Millions of travelers are being tagged as terrorists

Homeland Security Department's Automated Targeting System or the ATS
program virtually captures data for every person entering and
leaving the united States, even Americans. This shocking new "ATS"
program records each traveler's mode of travel, whether by air, sea
or land including walking across the border. All this gathered data
is scored accordingly by ATS. The scores are based on ATS' analysis
of their travel record and "other" data.

Among the records checked are;

* Passenger manifests
* Immigration control records
* Information from personal searches
* Property seizure records
* Vehicle seizure records
* Visa data
* FBI National Criminal Information Center data
* Dates of travel
* Form of travel payment
* E-mail address
* Telephone numbers
* Frequent-flier miles
* Travel agency used
* Passenger travel status
* History of one-way travel
* History of missing flights
* Number of bags
* Special services (wheel-chair needs or special meals)
* Upgrades
* Historical changes to the passenger's record

The program's existence was quietly disclosed in November when the
government surreptitiously placed an announcement detailing the
Automated Targeting System, or ATS, for the first time in the
Federal Register, a fine-print compendium of federal rules. Privacy
and civil liberties lawyers, congressional aides and law enforcement
officers said they thought the system had been applied only to
cargo. Cargo indeed. You and I are the cargo and we are considered
nothing but cannon fodder for their programs!

The government shares this ATS information with local, state and
other federal agencies and worse, with private businesses and
overseas governments. However the traveler is forbidden from seeing
their own data and or to correct any "misinformation" for forty
years! Once again here is yet another piece of work from George W
et al! Source:
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/living/travel/16137475.htm

Chapter III - Big brother is talking to you

"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses
both." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Just recently local UK government agencies, called councils, started
installing speakers or monitors on the thousand's of CCTV's located
throughout the country.

These mini me like talking big brothers verbally inform people when
they have committed an offense of some sort, i.e. a minor
infraction for some minuscule law. [Editors note: Mini me is the
fictional midget character in the second and third Austin Powers
movies; Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and Austin Powers in
Goldmember.]

For example a voice booms out at a person and instructs that person
to clean up the litter their dog just made, another person to
reframe from spitting on the sidewalk, another to replace a strip
light he just pulled off the side of a restaurant, and a smoker to
pick up the cigarette butt he just chucked on the sidewalk.

Don't think for a moment that the American authorities aren't
watching and talking to you either. America appears to be following
the UK's lead with this surveillance and monitoring mentality and
technology. So don't be surprised if one day in the not too distant
future you're riding your bicycle down a pedestrian street in any
town, USA when suddenly a booming voice rings out; "Will the person
in the blue denim jacket on the red bike dismount and leave the
pedestrian area?"

As if big brother talking to you isn't bad enough, they're listening
to you on the streets as well. UK police and councils are soon to
be monitoring conversations in the street using high-powered
microphones attached to CCTV cameras. The microphones can detect
conversations 100 yards away and record aggressive exchanges before
they become violent.  See
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C2087-2471987%2C00.html

Guess whose tracking you?

By now you probably realize big business and your government are
very interested in you and your habits. A single US firm, Acxiom,
headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, with other locations
throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia
and Japan, now holds personal and financial information about almost
every United States, United Kingdom, French, Japanese and Australian
consumer. That's just one firm with hundreds of millions of
person's details worldwide!

Naturally the US Government remains the worse offender when it comes
to gathering information about you. The US government (as well as
other governments,) maintains files and databases on every visitor,
American citizen, resident and even Americans living abroad. Some,
but not all, of those agencies that snoop on you are:

The Department of Homeland Security
Executive Office of the President
Department of Justice (USDOJ)
The State Department
The Veterans Administration
Department of the Treasury
Department of Energy
The U.S. Senate
The U.S. Congress
Washington Headquarters Services
Superior Court of the District of Columbia
General Services Administration (GSA)
NASA
The FDIC - Federal Deposit Insurance Agency
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Federal Bureau of Prisons
FinCEN - The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
SPAWAR (Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command)
Library of Congress
Small Business Administration (SBA)
USDA
Internal Revenue Service - IRS [See Note 3]
U.S. Secret Service
U.S. Bureau of Vital Statistics
Bureau of Land Management
Social Security Administration
Federal Aviation Administration
U.S. Geological Survey
Joint Spectrum Center
Defense Logistics Agency
Defense Threat Reduction Agency
Office of the U.S. Courts
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
The Pentagon
The Federal Bureau of Investigation - FBI
The US Marshals Office
Drug Enforcement Agency - D.E.A.
Special Weapons and Tactics - SWAT
Office of Defense
Dept. of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
National Computer Security Center
National Security Agency (NSA)
Patent and Trademark Office
US Parole Board
US Federal Reserve
Health Care Financing Administration
Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, Argonne, Sandia, Lawrence Berkeley, and
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories
Defense Nuclear Facilities
Safety Board nipr.mil, osis.gov Tennessee Valley Authority
U.S. Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard
Everywhere DCITP (
DoD - Department of Defense
Computer Investigations Training Program)
Dept. of Labor - Employment and Training Administration
Joint National Testing Facility
Federal Reserve Board
Federal Trade Commission - FTC
US Passport Office
US Naturalization and Immigration Office
Defense Information Systems Agency
Small Business Administration - SBA
Dept. of Health Education and Welfare
Social Security Administration
National Science Foundation
Corporation for National Service
Dept. of Housing and Urban Development
Environmental Protection Agency
Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration

Big brother has indeed arrived and is working full tilt to not only
monitor your every movement, but more important, to change and
modify your behavior and personal day to day habits so you will
become "politically correct" whatever politically correct is
determined to mean by big brother for their new world order.

With the above in mind (plus a great deal more,) in order to get a
better grasp for what the near future may have in store for us, it
would behoove us to take a good look at the past. The past often
acts as a trusted guide, whist offering an excellent peek into the
future and what might lay ahead for all of us.

Chapter IV - Recent History

"Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave."
- Frederick Douglass

Probably the first assault on privacy and civil liberties against
Americans in the twentieth century was initiated by the former life
long director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover, circa 1917,
influenced by his work at the Library of Congress, decided to create
a massive card index of people with left-wing political views. Over
the next few years 450,000 names were indexed and detailed
biographical notes were written up on the 60,000 that Hoover
considered the most dangerous. Hoover then advised the powers to be
to have these people rounded up and deported.

On the second anniversary of the Russian Revolution, 7th November,
1919, over 10,000 suspected communists and anarchists were arrested
in twenty-three different American cities. The vast majorities of
these people were American citizens and eventually had to be
released. However, Hoover now had the names of hundreds of lawyers
who were willing to represent radicals in court. These were now
added to his growing list of names in his indexed database.

Hoover then decided he needed a high profile case to help his
campaign against subversives and of course, to feed his political
ambitions. He selected Emma Goldman, as he had been particularly
upset by her views on birth control, free love and religion.
Goldman had also been imprisoned for two years for opposing
America's involvement in the First World War. This was a subject
that Hoover felt very strongly about, even though he was never
willing to discuss how he had managed to avoid being drafted.
Hypocrisy knows no bounds!

Hoover knew it would be a difficult task having Goldman deported.
She had been living in the United States for thirty-four years and
both her father and husband were both citizens of the United States.
In court Hoover argued that Goldman's speeches had inspired Leon
Czolgosz to assassinate President William McKinley. Hoover won his
case and Goldman, along with 247 other people, were deported to
Russia.

Hoover's persecution of people with left-wing views had the desired
effect and membership of the Communist Party, estimated to have been
80,000 before the raids, fell to less that 6,000. In 1921 Hoover
was rewarded by being promoted to the post of assistant director of
the US Bureau of Investigation. The function of the FBI at that
time was the investigation of violations of federal law and
assisting the police and other criminal investigation agencies in
the United States.

Hoover was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation in
1924. The three years that he had spent in the organization had
convinced Hoover that the organization needed to improve the quality
of its staff. Great care was spent in recruiting and training
agents. In 1926 Hoover established a fingerprint file that
eventually became the largest in the world.

The power of the bureau was limited. Law enforcement was a state
activity, not a federal one. Hoover's agents were not allowed to
carry guns, nor did they have the right to arrest suspects. Hoover
complained about this situation and in 1935 Congress agreed to
establish the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Agents were
now armed and could act against crimes of violence throughout the
United States.

Of course spying on American's was not limited to suspected
communists. Hoover spied on public figures like Marilyn Monroe,
Jack Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Beatle John Lennon and
of course Dr. Martin Luther King amongst thousands of others. It
is alleged that Hoover blackmailed presidents and others into
granting him life long directorship of the FBI as Hoover had the
"goods" on them. Naturally keeping Hoover at the helm of the FBI
until he died was a dreadful mistake as history clearly reveals.

Hoover also fed US Senator Joseph McCarthy inside information about
alleged 'communists' in public office and Hollywood Movie-land.
During the post-war heyday of Communist witch-hunts, courtesy of
Joseph McCarthy, Edward G. Robinson was among many innocent people
blacklisted as Communist sympathizers. He was later cleared by the
House Un-American Activities Committee (I can't help but chuckle at
that name), but his career suffered greatly during the intervening
time. McCarthy's witch hunt attacked Robinson and many other
"American style communists," destroying thousands of people's lives,
families and careers and eventually led millions to believe that
communists were under every bed in the US. It was a modern day
version of a "Salem witch hunt."

I'm offering this pass perspective on Hoover and recent American
history because I'd like to ask you; is it possible that history may
be repeating itself with massive surveillance systems and databases
collecting untold trillions of pieces of information on each and
every American and visitor to the united States? Could it be a
follow on of Hoover's domestic spy polices? I believe there is more
than a reasonable possibility of that. Do you? Read on! [Note 4]

1960's

Privacy matters stayed fairly calm until the 1960's when a social
security number became mandatory in order to open a bank account in
the united States [correct spelling - Note 1.] This was the case in
spite of the fact that the original US Social Security law clearly
stated that a person's social security number was never to be used
as an identifying number.

The SSN as National Identifier

The issuance of a single, unique number to Americans raises the risk
that the SSN will become a de jure or de facto national identifier.
This is certain to happen starting May 11th, 2008 as you'll read in a
little while. This risk is not new; it was voiced at the creation
of the SSN and has since been raised repeatedly. The SSN was
created in 1936 for the sole purpose of accurately recording
individual worker's contributions to the social security fund. The
public and legislators were immediately suspicious and distrustful
of this tracking system fearing that the SSN would quickly become a
system containing vast amounts of personal information, such as
race, religion and family history that could be used by the
government to track down and control the action of citizens. Public
concern over the potential for abuse inherent in the SSN tracking
system was so high, that in an effort to dispel public concern the
first regulation issued by the Social Security Board declared that
the SSN was for the exclusive use of the Social Security system.
Just try to open a bank account or obtain a passport in the US today
without providing your social security number. Oh well, so much for
social security laws protecting your privacy.
Source - http://www.epic.org/privacy/ssn/

Until the late 1930's and early 1940's one could walk into any bank
in the US and open a bank account in any name without ID or
anything. W. C. Fields was notorious for doing exactly that and
it is alleged he opened hundreds of bank accounts as he traveled
around the US and the world during his vaudeville act days. It is
said that W.C. Fields used the very funny names that he was later
to make famous in his movies as the account beneficiaries!  See
Character Names - http://louisville.edu/~kprayb01/WCWords.html

Even as late as the 1970's and early 1980's one could open a bank
account in the UK by just popping into a local bank branch, give a
name (any name,) and address and viola, you had a bank account and
cheque book. No ID, no utility bills, no references, no hassles or
BS asked for or given. The banks just wanted your money and your
business.

Fast forward and today not only are personal visits to the bank
required, but you are treated like a criminal trying to hide dirty
money with all the intrusive "due diligence" compliance requirements
insisted on by the banks thanks to the Yankees. One must provide
several utility bills, a bankers and or solicitor's (lawyers)
reference plus, plus, plus in order to open a simple bank account.
Banks are even cold calling old and new customers at the home
telephone number listed on file in order to verify customers are
living where they say they are. Opening a bank account anywhere in
today's world is much like an unpleasant visit to the proctologist.
You can thank the Yankee's for this.

Chapter V - The War on Drugs

"No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be
vigilant in its preservation." - General Douglas MacArthur

President Richard "Tricky Dick" Nixon came along with his war on
drugs circa early 1970's. What started off, perhaps with good
intent, was a new federal agency that has since mushroomed into a
blob like monstrosity of an agency called the DEA, i.e. the Drug
Enforcement Agency.

Much has changed since former US President Richard Nixon launched
his "war on drugs." Starting in 1972 with 5,550 employees and an
annual budget of $65.2 million, the 2006 DEA has tumesced into an
agency with more than 21,782 known employees and a publicly
announced annual budget that has swelled to $2,415,000,000, [think
trillions of dollars!] I'd suspect that with additional budget
funding hidden here and there, the true annual DEA budget is
significantly higher.

The U.S. government's aggressive efforts to crack down on illegal
drug use have evolved in recent years to encompass everything from
television programming to foreign policy. The most serious loses
have been the lost of our financial privacy, freedom of movement, as
well the lost of many of our rights and civil liberties.

America's Gulags

More Americans are in prison than any other country in the world
including Red China. US prisons and jails added more than 1,000
inmates each week for a year, putting almost 2.2 million people, or
one in every 136 US residents, behind bars by the summer of 2005.
That is as many people as live in Namibia, or nearly five
Luxembourg's - and it is a number that continues to rise.
 - Source http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/052206R.shtml

Assuming recent incarceration rates remain unchanged, an estimated 1
of every 20 Americans (5 percent) can be expected to serve time in
prison during their lifetime. For African-American men, the number
is even more alarming; it is greater than 1 in 4 (28.5 percent).
Source - http://www.drugwarfacts.org/prison.htm

"Prisoners sentenced for drug offenses constituted the largest group
of Federal inmates (55 percent) in 2003, down from 60 percent in
1995 (table 14). On September 30, 2003, the date of the latest
available data in the Federal Justice Statistics Program, Federal
prisons held 86,972 sentenced drug offenders, compared to 52,782 at
year end 1995." - Source: Harrison, Paige M. & Allen J. Beck,
PhD, US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics,
Prisoners in 2004 (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, Oct.
2005), p. 10.

Ridiculous prison sentences ranging from 25 to 55 years are being
handed out in the US today like they are candy given to children.
When U.S. District Court Judge Paul Cassell sentenced Utah record
producer and pot dealer Weldon Angelos to 55 years in prison, he was
following the law. Judge Cassell said the sentence was unfair, but
he "had to" impose a 55 year sentence, because that was mandated by
law. Source - http://www.sltrib.com/ci_4798395

A report released by the justice department on Nov. 30 reported 1
in every 32 American adults -- or a record 7 million people -- were
incarcerated, on probation or on parole at the end of 2005, with
2.2 million of them in prison or jail. The International Center for
Prison Studies at King's College, London reported that this number
was the highest of any country, with China ranking second with 1.5
million prisoners, and Russia sitting in third with 870,000. The
United States also has the highest incarceration rate at 737 per
100,000 people, compared to nearest country Russia's 611 per
100,000 and St. Kitts and Nevis' 547.
Source - http://www.newstarget.com/021290.html

The Victory Act

While Patriot Acts I and II, with III on the way, have been become
law, another law, the Vital Interdiction of Criminal Terrorist
Organizations Act of 2003, better known as The VICTORY Act, is
potentially a very dangerous law indeed. The only victory this law
will produce will be the governments bringing on the demise of your
freedoms!

Amongst other serious civil liberty concerns, this bill treats
casual marijuana (and other) drug possession as a 'terrorist
offense' and drug dealers as 'narco-terrorist kingpins.' Since when
does smoking pot make you a terrorist? That's crazy and it is these
types of laws that are leading to democracy's demise in America.

Some of the Victory Acts provisions raise the threshold for
rejecting illegal wiretaps. The draft reads:

"A court may not grant a motion to suppress the contents of a wire
or oral communication, or evidence derived there from, unless the
court finds that the violation of this chapter involved bad faith by
law enforcement." Extend subpoena powers by giving law enforcement
the authority to issue non-judicial subpoenas which require a person
suspected of involvement in money laundering to turn over financial
records and appear in a prosecutor's office to answer questions.
Extend the power of the attorney general to issue so-called
administrative "sneak-and-peek" subpoenas to drug cases. These
subpoenas allow law enforcement to gather evidence from wire
communication, financial records or other sources before the subject
of the search is notified. Allow law enforcement to seek a court
order to require the "provider of an electronic communication
service or remote computing service" or a financial institution to
delay notifying a customer that their records had been subpoenaed.

Subsequent to the passage of this law, Bush et al disregarded
warrants and has extensively illegally wire tapped millions of
Americans telephone and other communications.

FinCEN

Arcane banking laws were enacted supposedly to prevent drug money
laundering. In fact these laws led to a massive lost of banking
privacy for hundreds of millions of persons worldwide.

Each and every financial transaction in the United States is placed
into a government "FinCEN" database for further investigation never
to be deleted. "FinCEN," the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network,
is a network of databases and financial records maintained by the
U.S. federal government. Housed within the Treasury Department,
FinCEN handles more than 140 million computerized financial records
compiled from 21,000 depository institutions and 200,000 nonbank
financial institutions annually. Banks, casinos, brokerage firms
and money transmitters all must file reports with FinCEN on cash
transactions over $10,000. And FinCen is the repository for
"Suspicious Activity Reports" which must be filed by financial
institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act.

Some firms, often chosen because of their location in neighborhoods
thought by law enforcement to be high drug trading zones, must
report transactions involving as little as US$750 in cash.

However the benefits of FinCEN in relation to its threat to privacy
are debatable. Its value is hard to gauge, but FinCEN and the money
laundering laws it supports have been criticized for being very
expensive and relatively ineffective, while bludgeoning Fourth
Amendment rights.

FinCEN is also a superlative example of a government database system
that can be used to investigate people instead of crimes. An
investigator, rightly or wrongly convinced of the guilt of a certain
party, may use FinCEN to investigate that person rather than the
crime the investigator is tasked with solving. This is an inversion
of the law and the proper way to fight crime, and it is very
dangerous.
Source - http://www.privacilla.org/government/fincen.html

As it is extremely time consuming for banks and businesses to
differentiate between their financial dealings of more or less than
US$10,000, ALL of their transactions are being turned over to
FinCen. In other words, even your US$500 payment to help Auntie Em
with her rent is likely to be sent to FinCEN along with millions of
other bits of other financial transactions. And therein lays the
problem.

Every bill created, every bill you pay is recorded in some database
somewhere... forever. Each and every USD and other currency wire
transfer around the world is scrutinized. Every ATM withdrawal,
each and every credit card transaction and even your payment habits
are placed into countless databases and searched for anomalies,
however the government wishes to define "anomalies." [Note 5]

Too many cash withdrawals at US ATM machines from overseas bank
cards, especially banks from the Caribbean, will see the US
authorities swoop down on that offshore banking institution and
force the bank to stop Americans from using their card and other
services. Even worse, as happened a few years back, the US demanded
and received the names, addresses and account details and balances
of thousands of US citizens using credit cards from Caribbean banks
in spite of so-called banking privacy laws in those offshore
locales. The US government has also successfully subpoenaed
millions of credit card customer's records from American Express,
Visa and MasterCard USA for tax accessing and other investigation
purposes.

Today it's not usual to see the serial numbers from US$100, US$50
and even US$20 bills typed (recorded) into a merchant's machine
along with your purchasing details when paying for a hotel bill,
purchasing an airline ticket, or simply buying products and services
at local stores, etc. And not just in the US either. This is
happening worldwide!

Pay off your credit card in full one month and you might face having
Homeland Security come knocking at your door! Buy or sell a used
car for a few thousand dollars cash and the FBI might come crashing
down your door at 4am! [Note 6]

The US and the UK might look the same - people driving their SUVs to
the mall or eating out at fast-food and drive through restaurants -
but clearly, America and the UK have changed internally. American's
and Brit's are watched, monitored and tracked from the time they
wake up in the morning until they go to sleep. In fact they're
being tracked and monitored 24/7 even whilst sleeping!

Today George W. Bush's and Tony Blair's grim vision of endless war
abroad and the end of a constitutional Republic at home affects
everyone; both Americans and Brit's as well as non American's and
non Brit's freedoms and privacy worldwide. Nearly four years after
the 2003 invasion of Iraq, codenamed "Operation Iraqi Freedom," with
thousands of American, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths and
causalities, Bush refuses to face reality and admit his War in Iraq
is a total disaster.  In spite of the fact that a government
bipartisan Iraq Study Group report lead by James A. Baker III and
Lee H. Hamilton points to America's dilemma with the
administrations current policy and that is simply not working, Bush
refuses to change course.

Further it's not likely that the new US Democratic controlled House
and Senate staring January 6th, 2007, or the next US President or
Prime Minister of the UK will change current, or curb future anti
privacy and anti civil liberty laws. Nor are they likely to
withdraw troops from Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, which may have
led to more instability worldwide rather than less. On the other
hand, maybe that's exactly what the US and UK governments want in
order to keep their "War on terror, drugs, crime and immigration"
campaigns going, i.e. more instability worldwide?

In the 1991 Gulf war, Saudi Arabia was the launch pad for the
American-led campaign to drive Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. At one
time there were 500,000 foreign troops in Saudi Arabia. As of the
start of the New Year, 2007 sees substantial American troops in
Saudi Arabia, nearly 17 years after Desert Storm circa 1990-1991.

Chapter VI - Privacy... just a word from the past!

"The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history,
whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a
small elite." - Thomas Jefferson

One day in the not so distant future, your children or grandchildren
might ask you: "Grandpa (or Grandma,) what was privacy?"

"Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to keep their
lives and personal affairs out of public view, or to control the
flow of information about themselves. Privacy is sometimes related
to anonymity although it is often most highly valued by people who
are publicly known. Privacy can be seen as an aspect of
security-one in which trade-offs between the interests of one group
and another can become particularly clear."
Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy

In 1948 when George Orwell wrote the words, "Big Brother is Watching
You," London taxi drivers were not allowed to install rear view
mirrors for fear of infringing on the privacy rights of passengers.
One's personal privacy was pretty much respected until the 1970's
when the intrusive paparazzi media and the government's "everyone is
guilty" mentality took solid whole. Today the government considers
you guilty until you prove yourself innocent. How does one prove
their innocence? More important why does one have to prove their
INNOCENCE when the written law is alleged to guarantee that,
"Everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of
law?" See
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1934370,00.html

As 2007 begins, today you need to confront the reality that there's
simply no privacy left in the united States, Britain, Canada,
Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand period. As Scott McNealy,
chief executive officer of Sun Microsystems told reporters (May 17,
1999), "You have zero privacy - Get Over it."

Government spies

In America today, paying cash for anything is frowned on and draws
unwanted attention and possibly more! Governments today equate cash
with criminal activity and terrorism and have been very effective in
dishing out mass hysteria to the public and whipping them into a
paranoid frenzy regarding terrorism.

Governments have also been extremely successful in recruiting
employees from the airlines, hotels, banks, accountants, stores and
even lawyers, amongst others, to become unpaid informants for the
government spying on you and all of your financial and personal
details and transactions. Any suspicious financial transaction, any
suspicious personal behavior may very well draw unwanted attention
to you along with the possibility of you being interviewed, detained
or even arrested. And the government determines at random, what
they define "suspicious" to mean.

Even your neighbors have been and are being brainwashed into
"reporting" their neighbors for any so-called suspicious behavior,
whatever they determine "suspicious" as. Now that is really scary
if you are to think about it. See
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/01/now_everyone_ge.html

The Men in the Crew Cuts

An old man paying cash, a praying Jew and a student reading a book
on a plane are considered suspicious persons or persons of interest
in today's new world order!

A well dressed gentleman pushing seventy (a Caucasian foreigner,)
paid cash for his hotel bill for a week long stay at a 5 star hotel
whilst visiting the US on holiday with his family. The 5 star
hotel's check-out clerk contacted the front office manager, who in
turn contacted Homeland Security (HS) because of that guest's
suspicious behavior, i.e. paying cash for their hotel bill. HS was
contacted in spite of the fact the guest gave and the hotel took a
copy of his credit card as a deposit guarantee when checking-in.
The result was HS' subsequent questioning of that gentleman. I know
of this, because I was that man!

I was ordered to present my passport, airline ticket and detailed
travel schedule whilst being "interviewed" by two HS thugs. I call
them the "men in the crew cuts." HS verified with immigration my
flight arrival details and checked with the airlines to confirm my
onward flight itinerary, which happened to be that very morning.
They also demanded to know why I paid cash and not use a credit card
to pay for my hotel bill. They also inquired as to how I obtained
the cash to pay for the hotel bill. Our hotel bill amounted to a
middle four figure sum. I explained to the men in the crew cuts
that my family and I were on an extensive around the world holiday
with several additional cities and countries to visit before heading
home. I didn't want my credit card to become maxed out, as we would
require it elsewhere during our onward journey. As to the cash;
thank goodness for ATM cards!

Unless I am mistaken, I believe that the men in the crew cuts made
photocopies of the dollar bills I used to pay my hotel bill. I
can't swear to that, but whilst I was being interviewed I saw one of
the crew cuts talk to the front office manager, who proceeded to
take my dollar bills out of the till and take them into the back
office.

As I was checking out of the hotel to return home (abroad,) the HS
query caused me to miss our onward flight. As a result we
experienced considerable inconvenience and unnecessary additional
expense. We had to wait another day for the next available flight
and also pay for an extra night at an airport hotel. Though the men
in the crew cuts were somewhat courteous and thanked me for my
cooperation; neither the hotel nor HS so much as apologized for
their causing us to miss our flight and our subsequent discomfort
and additional expense. Needless to say that well known hotel chain
has lost my business forever and you can be sure we'll never visit
America again.

I am confident that America is a much safer place because the Men in
the Crew Cuts, after questioning me, deemed we were safe enough to
depart that country. I trust my dear American readers that you will
be able to sleep better tonight knowing that your government is hard
at work protecting you from the likes of visitors to your country
like myself, i.e. an old man and his family.

Therefore paying cash for anything in America may very well see one
being required to show their ID, or worse, as with myself, being
interviewed by the men in the crew cuts, i.e. Homeland Security,
which by the way, wasn't a comfortable experience if I say so
myself.

Orthodox Jew

A Jew nodding his head, whilst praying on a US bound flight saw him
manhandled and taken off the flight because other passengers alerted
the flight attendants that this person was acting suspiciously.
This Orthodox Jew was removed from an Air Canada Jazz flight in
Montreal for praying. The man was a passenger on a Sept. 1 flight
from Montreal to New York City when the incident happened. He was
clearly a Hasidic Jew," said Yves Faguy, a passenger seated nearby.
"He had some sort of cover over his head. He was reading from a
book. He wasn't exactly praying out loud but he was lurching back
and forth."

The action didn't seem to bother anyone, Faguy said, but a flight
attendant approached the man and told him his praying was making
other passengers nervous. "The attendant actually recognized out
loud that he wasn't a Muslim and that she was sorry for the
situation but they had to ask him to leave," Faguy said.

The man, who spoke neither English nor French, was escorted off the
airplane. Since when is a Hassidic Jew praying considered dangerous
activity? This man was a Jew, so according to the airlines logic,
all Muslims are terrorist and should be considered criminals and
treated as such. Source -
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2006/09/05/qc-hasidicprayeronplane.html

A student reading Karl Marx's "Communist Manifesto" on another US
flight was taken off that flight as well, as fellow passengers
deemed reading Karl Marx's "Communist Manifesto" as "suspicious"
activity. Has the world lost all logic and common sense? Are we
beyond help and any semblance of fairness? Is everyone a "suspect"
today? Are you?

Simply depositing or withdrawing a few thousands dollars cash in or
out of your long held bank account could very well trigger a visit
from the Homeland Security Department for further questioning. At
the very least you will be placed in a database for further
investigation.

In their quest to gobble up personal data about customers, merchants
have turned to loyalty reward programs, such as frequent flyer,
frequent shopper cards and grocery club cards. Depending upon the
sophistication of the card, and of the system of which it is a part,
these loyalty programs can allow merchants to amass detailed
information about their customers and sell it to other interested
parties. Once again, citizens are simply handing over their details
in return for a few pennies discount or some ridiculous commercial
offer. Governments' routinely tap into such loyalty programs for
your particulars using programs like the new ATS program as
previously written in Chapter II - You're being watched.

Remember what Benjamin Franklin told us more than 230 years ago;

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

The list can go on and on. In fact it appears to be never ending.
Just read your local newspaper and you'll notice nearly everyday
there are more and more attacks on our freedoms, civil liberties and
privacy taking place. Ten years ago one would be hard pressed to
read or hear about any such attacks.

Even more alarming is the number of journalists jailed worldwide for
their work rose for the second year with Internet bloggers and
online reporters now one third of those incarcerated, a U.S.-based
media watchdog reported earlier this December. Freedom of the Press
as well as censorship of the Press and the Internet is becoming a
bigger problem these days.

What most people don't realize is when these attacks on the freedom
of speech, the press and privacy occur to others; the end result is
that they are happening to all of us and everyone suffers. Source -
http://today.reuters.com/misc/PrinterFriendlyPopup.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-12-07T193947Z_01_N07253538_RTRUKOC_0_US-JOURNALISTS-JAIL.xml

Chapter VII - Secure Flight

"The trade-off between freedom and security, so often proposed so
seductively, very often leads to the loss of both."
- Christopher Hitchens in the August, 2003 issue of Reason.

Now let's consider CAPPS, CAPPS II and its replacement, Secure
Flight. These are programs to check travelers against the 40,000
plus names on the government's No-Fly list, and another 30,000 to
40,000 on its Selectee list.

Theses types of programs contain bizarre lists; people, names and
aliases who are too dangerous to be allowed to fly under any
circumstance, yet so innocent that they cannot be arrested, even
under the draconian provisions of the Patriot Acts I and II. The
Selectee list contains an equal number of travelers who must be
searched extensively before they're allowed to fly. Who are these
people, anyway?

The truth is in most cases, nobody knows. The lists come from the
Terrorist Screening Database (TSD,) a hodgepodge compiled in haste
from a variety of sources, with no clear rules about who should be
on it or how to get off it. The government is trying to clean up
the lists, but, with rubbish in and rubbish out - it's not having
much success.

In the event you are unlucky enough to have a common name like
Smith, Jones, Adams or Patel, etc., you could very well end up on
the TSD's no fly list and never get off. Don't believe me? Ask
David Nelson [think Ozzie & Harriet 1950's TV.]

David Nelson - a star of ABC-TV's "The Adventures of Ozzie and
Harriet," a family sitcom that ran from 1952 to 1966 - was stopped
by a ticket agent at John Wayne Airport in December 2002 while on
his way to visit his daughter in Salt Lake City for Christmas. Then
he was stopped again in Salt Lake City on his return flight because
the name "David Nelson" is on the government TSD's no fly list.

Or how about Yusuf Islam better known as former rock star/singer Cat
Stevens.

In September 2004 United Airlines Flight 919 from London to
Washington was diverted to Maine, USA after Islam's name turned up
on a list designed to keep terrorists or their supporters from
boarding flights. It is hard for me to fathom that Cat Stevens was
or is any threat to US security.

Even US Senator Edward "Teddy" Kennedy was on the TSD list, but,
surprise, surprise, he was taken off. Do you think for a moment
that if you were on that list you could get yourself taken off?  If
so, dream on my readers because a have a London bridge I can sell
you.

Registered Traveler

Alongside Secure Flight, the Transportation Security Administration
(TSA) is testing other similar programs under the auspices of
Registered Traveler programs. There are two that I am aware of: one
administered by the TSA called the Registered Traveler program, and
the other a commercial program from Verified Identity Pass called
"Clear." The basic idea is that you submit your biometric and other
details VOLUNTARY in advance, and if you're OK - whatever that means
- you get a card that lets you go through security faster. IMO,
it's just another means of grabbing your biometric and other details
and placing them in government and business databases. See
http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/layers/rt/index.shtm as well as
http://www.verifiedidentitypass.com/clear.html

And least you think that the UK wants to be left behind with
biometric monitor screening of persons entering and leaving the UK,
think again. The UK government is testing a new program that is
called miSenseallclear. This program involves the forwarding of
interactive Advance Passenger Information (iAPI) for analysis by UK
authorities, prior to passengers boarding their flight. This system
has quite a lot in common with another UK program, MiSense system.
The basic principle being that it turns the departure lounge into a
secure zone with biometrics governing entry and exit. Think
fingerprints, iris scans and digital pictures! Source -
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/08/uk_biometric_air_travel/

There was a minuscule by note that I almost missed when reading up
on both programs. Both the US' Registered Traveler programs and the
UK' miSenseallclear programs are setup so they are "compatible" with
one another! Read that dear reader to mean that both systems are
setup to exchange data with one another! In other words the full
details of all persons entering and departing the US and UK will be
exchanged with the other country, unbeknownst to the traveler!

Heathrow's fingerprint scanners

Another program is being tested at London Heathrow airport, the
world's busiest international airport. This particular goodie sees
fingerprint scanners used once again, on 'voluntary' victims, I mean
passengers. It purports to cut the waiting time for departures,
i.e. a shortcut to get to the front of the line.

This London Heathrow airport trial lasts until 31 January 2007 and
only includes two flights out of Heathrow - one to Hong Kong and the
other to Dubai. It is only open to residents of the European
Economic Area and applicants to the scheme will need UK background
checks. Currently these programs are "voluntary." However I've
never in my entire life seen a voluntary government program that
hasn't turned into some mandatory program under penalty within a
short period of time after being announced as voluntary! You can
bet your bottom pence this is exactly what will happen with both of
the above mentioned UK 'voluntary' programs.

Staying Out of Trouble

The reality today is that you might get into serious trouble just
walking down the street or by trying to protect what's left of your
privacy in America and not so Great Britain! For example, it's a
serious Federal offense to open a mail drop in the USA with non
government issued ID. You have to sign a government form under
penalty of perjury when applying for any mail drop service within
the USA. Lie on that government form, which is mandatory if you
want to open any mail drop today in the US, and you face the
prospect of up to 25 years in the pokey under the infamous Patriot
Acts I and II, with Act III loaming on the horizon!

Fortunately under current UK law, ID is not required in order for
anyone to open a mail accommodation there.  UK law simply requires
that a name and forwarding address be given at the time of
application for such mail accommodation service.

UK mail drop law aside, in the event you become "a person of
interest" in the UK, you can be brought to the nearest police
station for questioning and your fingerprints, iris scanned and DNA
taken never to be deleted from police files, even for just walking
down the street. For example you could be an ethnic minority
walking to the corner store to purchase bread, milk or whatever.
However because the police think you are suspicious or a "person of
interest," they can bring you in for questioning. Section 44 of the
Terrorism Act in Britain enables police to obtain the name and
address details of anyone they choose, whether they are acting
suspiciously or not. Those details remain on a database forever.
You'll read more about that in Chapter XV - The Pink Triangles.

Confidentiality is history

Confidentiality with you're lawyer, accountant and even you're
doctor is no longer respected and also a thing of the past. Failure
for any professional in America today to disclose your details,
should they be demanded, can subject that professional to serious
criminal action and they could end up losing their professional
license to practice or worse, they might end up in prison with a
thirty year sentence. No joy in that! Just ask Lynne Stewart, the
67-year-old rights lawyer who spent a lifetime helping unpopular
defendants and political causes. See
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0610170177oct17,1,7426222.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

Freedom given away

Though not understanding the full importance of their actions or
rather inactions, both Americans and Brit's have allowed their
privacy, civil liberties and freedoms to be taken from them with but
the barest of protest.

Court-stripping provisions - barring "any claim or cause of action
whatsoever" - have been enacted into law in the US and UK that would
deny American and British citizens habeas corpus rights just as it
does for non-citizens. If a person can't file a motion with a
court, he can't assert any constitutional right, including habeas
corpus.

New tribunal law also applies to alleged spies, defined as "any
person" who "collects or attempts to collect information by
clandestine means or while acting under false pretenses, for the
purpose of conveying such information to an enemy of the United
States." The definition of "enemy of the United States" has never
been defined.

Chapter VIII - The Thief of Your Privacy Has Just Begun

"In 1776, 1950, or now, there's never been a golden age of liberty,
and there never will be. People who value freedom will always have
to defend it from those who claim the right to wield power over
others... And, in today's world, that means more than a musket
by the door. It means being an active citizen." - David Boaz

Your privacy and especially your secrets are extremely difficult to
protect in today's electronic world, a world filled with phisling,
viruses, hackers, phrackers, and crackers, pirates, cookies, key
stroke loggers, big business and especially government snoopers.

Magic Lantern

The FBI and other government agencies routinely place key logger
Trojan horses, better known as Magic Lantern, on PC's without
warrants. In the 21st century it's no longer a matter of are you
being watched, it's a matter of who's watching you, how you are
being monitored and what data is being collected about you and
placed on what and how many databases; where are those databases and
how the data, whether or not the data is correct, is being used! As
Scott McNealy said, "Privacy is dead, get over it."

As you realize you're details are on more than a hundred databases.
The true figure is likely to be much higher. Unfortunately one will
never really know exactly how many databases contain information
about us, or what information about us is on those databases. That
information feds on itself and expands exponentially into God knows
what big business and government blob like monstrosities all those
databases are becoming, and for who knows what purpose and to what
end. One thing is for certain; clearly there are tens of millions
of bits of wrong data about millions of persons and the people don't
know it. In fact they'll probably never know it. Further even if
they did, they'd never be able to correct the misinformation about
themselves in the first place!

The confidentiality of medical records

According to Twila Brase, R.N. and President of the Citizens'
Council on Health Care, the lack of privacy can cost far more than
money. Brase wrote a while back:

"Outside access to phone and credit card information certainly can
make individuals feel vulnerable and can bring about loss of credit,
identity and finances.

However, phone numbers and credit card numbers can be changed and
funds can be moved to another bank. But with breaches in the
confidentiality of medical records, the stakes are higher,
particularly for those individuals in prominent positions.

Access to one's medical care, mental health status, and
pharmaceutical use allows intruders to gain permanent information
about an individual - information that can be damaging or can point
to personal weaknesses.

Such medical history, diagnoses and individual tendencies cannot be
changed like a credit card number. Access to this information can
provide a powerful tool to influence legislation, thwart an
election, make corporate decisions, decide terms of a merger or
build coalitions.
 
Those who gain access to individual medical records through breaches
in electronic data systems can wield great power over those who have
the most to hide. In all likelihood, pre-election access to
President Clinton's medical record may have provided evidence of his
tendency to philander, thereby ending his presidential bid.

Patients and doctors need to begin to view all e-mail like a
postcard, open to the world. No physician should send sensitive
data by e-mail without specific written permission from the patient.
Although we've just heard about one e-mail virus, there are
undoubtedly others yet to come, along with intrusive devices yet to
be discovered and invented.

And let's not forget Carnivore, the great eavesdropping device of
the government that's now under scrutiny by civil rights and privacy
groups," so noted Brase.
 
Recent History

The thief of privacy started long before 9/11/2001. Both Clintons
started major attacks on your privacy prior to 9/11 as well as
George Herbert Bush before the Clintons! Carnivore, a past example
of FBI snooping software, is able to scoop up all of targeted
individuals' Internet traffic, including e-mail. Carnivore is only
one project aimed at destroying America's privacy. In fact, the FBI
under the Clinton administration started developing an entire series
of hardware and software devices intended to monitor U.S. citizens.

Carnivore has morphed into another name and is still alive and well.
Big brother is spying on you and stealing you're freedoms by
illegally and without any warrant, gathering, recording and copying
your entire mobile, telephone, facsimile and email communications.
Even hard copy mail and couriers are routinely opened, scanned then
resealed and delivered without the sender and or recipient ever
realizing their mail was "intercepted and read."

The Clinton years of attacks on privacy started with then first lady
Hillary and the top secret part of her 1993 health care task force.
Hillary's National ID Card

Mrs. Clinton's 1992-1993 task force drew up a plan to issue all U.S.
citizens a national health care ID card. According to documents
forced from the government using the Freedom of Information Act, the
plan included inserting a special government-designed chip into the
cards. The idea was the Department of Justice could then monitor
your health care providers for fraud and abuse. In fact the actual
purpose would be to monitor you wherever you presented your card.

The Clipper project, a computer chip with an "exploitable" feature,
was developed in secret by the U.S. government during the George
Herbert Bush's administration.

According to the documents, the snooper chip and some of Mrs.
Clinton's involvement became public in 1993. One smart-card
manufacturer wrote the Clinton administration and argued against the
plan for the Clipper chip to be part of mandatory Hillary Clinton
health care. "Health cards are a major new market for smart cards.
... One of their greatest features is to increase the privacy of a
citizen's health record," wrote John M. Taskett, vice president of
Microcard Technologies, a company in Dallas.

You can bet your bottom dollar that President Hillary Rodham Clinton
will have National Health Care ID cards with a Clipper Chip imbedded
in them back on the agenda in 2009 or thereafter. Do govern
yourself accordingly.

The Clipper Chip

The Clipper chip, however, was intended for more than just your
Hillary health care ID card. The Clipper chip project also included
provisions to make the super-chip required in every telephone, fax
and computer made or sold in the U.S.

According to a March 1993 Justice Department memo from Stephen
Colgate, assistant attorney general for administration, to Webster
Hubbell, the Clipper chip was to be required by law. Colgate's memo
to Hubbell details how the Clintons planned to bug every phone in
America. According to the March 1993 Colgate memo to Hubbell, "FBI,
NSA and NSC want to push legislation which would require all
government agencies and eventually everyone in the U.S. to use a
new [Clipper chip] public-key based cryptography method."

In 1997, the Clipper project sank after years of protests and
Freedom of Information requests. However, much about the Clipper
project remains top secret today. The National Security Agency
(NSA) refused to release the Clipper information provided to Hillary
Clinton and convicted Whitewater figure Webster Hubbell until 2005.

Since that time, the Clipper Chip, like all government programs that
have been found out and exposed, has morphed and its name changed.
The technology of the Clipper Chip is indeed alive and well and
spying on you.

Today much of your communications are being illegally monitored by
the government along with the help of most US telecom and other US
based companies.

The covert U.S. wiretapping program exposed by The New York Times
more than a year ago continues unabated nearly a year after
President Bush admitted its existence. Neither Congress nor the
courts have taken definitive action against the National Security
Agency program nor are they likely to. See
http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_4026-Covert-US-Wiretapping-Continues-Unabated.html

In fact as I write these words, every mobile phone, color copy
machine and facsimile sold in the united States has a clipper chip
of sorts imbedded in it.

The fact of the matter is that people are being tracked today
without the use of CCTV cameras or any other device. Mobile phones
must communicate their location to a base station in order to carry
or receive calls. Therefore, whenever a mobile phone is in use, or
set to receive calls, it effectively identifies the location of its
user every few minutes (within an area defined by the tolerance of
the telephone). The finer the cell phone zone, the more precisely a
person's location can be identified.

In the United States, a 2001 Federal Communications Commission
("FCC") regulation became law which requires all United States
cellular carriers to ensure that their telephones and networks are
able to pinpoint a caller's location to within 400 feet, about half
a block. The original objective of the rule was to allow emergency
911 calls to be traced. However the truth of the matter is that
mobile phones have become efficient tracking devices on all holders.

Today's mobile phones are equipped to use the Global Positioning
System, which will track you to within a few feet of where you are!
With the GPS add on, social mapping for mobiles appears to be the
next stage in social networking, i.e. you're exact whereabouts are
known at all times. A recent New York Times article laid it right
out there on the table for you regarding mobile phone tracking. See
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/19/business/yourmoney/19digi.html?pagewanted=print

As if all of the above wasn't bad enough, you have the FBI using a
rather new form of electronic surveillance in criminal
investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone's microphone and
using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations. Whoever can activate
your mobile phone wherever you are and listen in on your and nearby
person's conversations  even if your mobile phone is turned off.
That's a pretty darn good reason, IMHO, for getting an anonymous
offshore mobile and sim chip. Source -
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-6140191.html. You should also
check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKQBLTpnZec

This "remote" mobile phone spying is certainly not new. It's been
rumored to have being used for at least 4 to 5 years. However it is
has been proven to have been in use in the UK for at least two
years. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3522137.stm

Within the US copier/printer industry it's been well known for years
(no secret) that "invisible" IDs are imprinted on virtually all
color xerographic output, from all US manufacturers and machines
sold within the United States. While it can be argued how routine,
intrusive, or even mundane and innocent a particular case may be,
it's certainly true that people feel a lot better when they know
what's going on. Do something naughty with your color printer and
the FBI or Secret Service can locate you because of the imbedded
secret codes in the printer, which prints out with every color
xerographic output page you create!

Chapter IX - Big Business is spying on you

"Humanity is acquiring all the right technologies for all the wrong
reasons." - R. Buckminster Fuller

Spy chips are not limited to mobile phones, color copiers and other
such devices. Hardware manufacturers have deployed
privacy-compromising features in a wide variety of devices. The
General Motors corporation has equipped more than sixteen million
vehicles since some years back, with secret devices, akin to
airplane flight data recorders known as "black boxes," that are able
to record crash data amongst other data they wish to collect. First
introduced in 1990, the automobile black boxes have become
progressively more powerful along with sophisticated computer chips
inside today's vehicles.

Britain has the dubious honor of being the first country to monitor
every car journey. Staring in 2006 every journey by every car in
the UK is being monitored. See
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/article334686.ece

In the greater London area, the UK's version of automobile "black
boxes" and similar spy technology has become mandatory as Brits have
started to be taxed for each and every mile they drive. Whilst in
other areas of the UK RFID chips are being inserted in license
plates to do the dirty work for the government. As I write these
words thousands of radio receiving stations, some as small as a one
pound coin, are being installed around the UK that are or will read
your license plate as you drive pass the receiving station on your
way to the local pub, the store, church or whatever.

Lantern

Police and other government patrol vehicles in the US, the UK as
well as other European Union Nations, have the ability to instantly
track your license plate and other details. These patrol vehicles
have the absolute authority to stop you under any pretense, even if
you haven't committed so much as a minor infraction, if THEY think
you or your vehicle is suspicious or of "interest." If a vehicle is
stopped, police will be able to identify the driver and passengers
and fingerprints are taken never to be deleted from government
databases. This pilot program is codenamed Lantern. See
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6170070.stm

Makers of computer chips and ethernet card adapters used for
networking and for high-speed Internet access routinely build in
unique serial numbers to their hardware, which can then be accessed
easily over the web. Starting with the Intel Pentium III chips,
each and every Intel chip has a unique identification number. Intel
originally designed the chip ID to function continuously and be
accessible to software such as web browsers.
 
However the fact of the matter is that Intel and other spy chips
appear to have been to make electronic anonymity impossible.
Anonymous users might, Intel reasoned, commit fraud or pirate
digital intellectual property. With a unique, indelible ID number
on each chip, software could be configured to work only on one
system. Users could only mask their identities when many people
used a single machine, or when one person used several machines.
The unique ID could also serve as an index number for web sites,
cookie counters, and other means of tracking users across the
Internet.

The revelation that Intel was building unique serial numbers into
their Pentium III and beyond chips caused a small furor. In
response, Intel announced it would commission a software program
that would turn off the ID function.

Giant software manufacture Microsoft, is probably more dangerous to
our privacy than Intel could possibly be. As Microsoft's software
is closed source, it's hard to determine what Bill Gates has
installed inside Microsoft's various operating systems to spy on
you. It has been alleged that Microsoft is in bed with big brother,
which seems a reasonable possibility. At the very least Microsoft's
software is so full of holes, bugs and security lapses, hackers and
crackers are having a field day taking over thousands of persons
computers for nefarious purposes, whilst spewing out Trojans and
other unpleasant virus like nastiness to many thousands of other
"Microsoft" users. Thanks Bill.

Cisco Systems have built "back doors" into their hardware and
software systems for access by police and other authorities. Other
IT companies in the US and elsewhere are following Cisco's lead.
All customers' data is fully accessible without the requirement of a
legally issued warrant. Toys 'R' Us has partnered with Wherify
Wireless to sell the "Wherifone," described by the company as
"destined to be on children's Christmas wish lists this year
(2006.)" Wherify promises it will give "on-the-go parents the peace
of mind of being able to quickly locate and communicate with their
young children, while also controlling who they can call and how
much it will cost." See http://www.wherifywireless.com/

Chapter X - Guess whose coming to dinner?

"Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program."
 - Dr. Milton Friedman, Nobel-Prize-winning economist,
July 15, 1912 - November 16, 2006

It may be that you think your home is your castle and fortress, as
well as for your last stand against any invasion of privacy, but the
walls of your fortress are far more permeable today than ever
before. It may come as somewhat of a surprise to you, but suitably
equipped observers can now draw informed conclusions about what is
occurring within a house without having to enter it or being
required to have a warrant to spy on you inside your home. Most of
these technologies are passive. They do not require the observer to
shine a light or any other particle or beam on the target; instead
they detect preexisting emanations.

Thermal imaging, for example, allows law enforcement to determine
whether a building has "hot spots." In several cases, law
enforcement agencies have argued that heat concentrated in one part
of a building tends to indicate the use of grow lights, which in
turn (they argue) suggests the cultivation of marijuana. The
warrantless discovery of hot spots has been used to justify the
issuance of a warrant to search the premises. Although the courts
are not unanimous, most hold that passive thermal imaging that does
not reveal details about the inside of the home does not require a
warrant.

Tell the above to the couple who were taking a steam bath in their
new steam/shower bath tub. The police came crashing down their door
that evening and caught them in a compromising position in the steam
bath! Thermal imaging caught the "hot spots," but the hot spot was
the steam bath and (?), not any marijuana growing.

These types of thermal imaging devices were installed in dozens of,
at first, secret UK governments vans. Fortunately a disgruntled
government civil servant, apparently unhappy with the government
spying in this manner, spilled the beans about these spy vans and
what they were up to a few years back and posted a picture of the
vans on the internet. These vans have reportedly been seen in
hundreds of neighborhoods in the greater London area over these past
months.

Unfortunately the government forced the removable of those thermal
imaging van vehicle pictures. However you can get a pretty good
idea of what they might look like by perusing
http://www.mwpower.co.uk/surveillance.html

And least you think that the good ole USA wouldn't dare conduct
intrusive body searching, think again my friends. A new full-body
x-ray machine was tested in December 2006 at a US airport. The
"Backscatter" machine to be used at Phoenix Sky Harbor International
Airport in Arizona will enable screeners to detect non-metallic
devices and objects as well as weapons on a person's body.  Source -
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/12/04/061204210338.yi5mw8je.html

Smart dust

Perhaps the ultimate privacy invasion would be ubiquitous miniature
sensors floating around in the air. Amazingly, someone is trying to
build them: The goal of the "smart dust" project is "to demonstrate
that a complete sensor/communication system can be integrated into a
cubic millimeter package" capable of carrying any one of a number of
sensors. While the current prototype is seven millimeters long (and
does not work properly), the engineers hope to meet their one cubic
millimeter goal shortly. At that size, the "motes" would float on
the breeze, and could work continuously for two weeks, or
intermittently for up to two years. A million dust motes would have
a total volume of only one liter. Although funded by the Pentagon,
the project managers foresee a large number of potential civilian as
well as military applications if they are able to perfect their
miniature sensor platform. Among the less incredible possibilities
they suggest are: battlefield surveillance, treaty monitoring,
transportation monitoring, scud hunting, inventory control, product
quality monitoring, and smart office spaces. They admit, however,
that the technology may have a "dark side" for personal privacy.

Asset Forfeiture

"Private property is the most important guarantee of freedom."
- F.A. Hayek

No need to get into the government confiscation of property, as that
is another report in and of itself. However that said, government
confiscation of citizen's property, even those never charged with a
crime nor found guilty of any crime, has become big business for
local, state and federal government agencies.

Government agencies use all of the above spy techniques and more for
this nefarious purpose. Tens of billions of dollars of assets have
been seized by the authorities over these last decades and there
seems to be no end in sight. Police can "arrest" or seize your
home, car, bank accounts and business without a trial. The
government agency seizing the goods gets to keep a good portion of
the loot and in fact are treating themselves to all kinds of
luxuries with these 'arrests'. No wonder there's no end in sight to
this craziness.

An excellent article on the subject is "Your House Is Under Arrest"
by California attorney Brenda Grantland.
See http://www.serendipity.li/wod/yhiua_in.html

Laws Gone Crazy

If one where to read the laws enacted since 9/11, and I doubt that
99% of the public has; in fact I doubt that the majority of US
Senators and Congress has; but if you were to actually read those
laws, nearly all of them go way beyond trying to stop terrorists.
They are an outright assault on freedom and privacy. Hundreds of
millions of innocent persons are being punished in the hopes that
the government will catch a mere handful of criminals. Law
enforcement today is nothing short of crazy in America. Prison
sentences of 25 to 40 years for first time white collar offenders
are being handed out like candy to children at Halloween. Laws
today in the US have lost any semblance of being fair or reasonable.
The harness and unfairness of the crime to the sentence can not
possibly be justified. Persons convicted of tax crimes are getting
15 year prison sentences for their first offense.

Many laws and programs mentioned in this report that have been
enacted were supposed to be temporary laws. According to the law(s)
that are used to implement programs like the former "Total
Information Awareness System," now morphed into the program called
Tangram, as well as Patriot Act I and II with III looming on the
horizon, those 'temporary' laws and many more have, surprise,
surprise, become permanent laws. Most likely they will never be
rescinded. I've never seen even one temporary government privacy
stealing law rescinded in my lifetime. The hypocrisy of all this is
that increasingly the US and UK government have been breaking the
law to enforce the law. More so, it creates new laws in order to
enforce the law(s) that benefits their agenda.

Chapter XI - Big Brother Never Sleeps

"Government should be our servant, not our master."
- Doug Guetzloe

The Clipper Chip idea morphed to monitor thousands, perhaps
millions, of communications at once, and has been reborn again and
again inside secret government computer labs that started in the
form of "Carnivore" - an FBI program designed to monitor all
Internet traffic. Yet, the FBI Carnivore and NSA Clipper systems
can be defeated with electronic scrambling and secret codes. One
legal right currently held by all Americans is the right to have
secret codes. Modern secret computer codes, also known as
encryption, have played a significant role in protecting U.S secrets
inside the Defense Department.

Today computer encryption is viewed as a form of digital alchemy,
turning "golden" data into "garbage" and back again. The rule
remains simple. Only those with the electronic keys can access the
golden data.

"Electronic data on a disk is easy to steal, to lose, to link, to
transfer, and to carry around the world. Just try to cart 1,000
paper medical records anywhere, and the difference is clear,"
pointed out Citizens' Council on Health Care President Twila Brase.

"Electronic data is vulnerable. Encryption can provide a measure of
safety, but those who develop encryption can break encryption. It's
much like the work of cryptographers and deciphering specialists
during the war. As the enemy broke the code, another code had to be
created," noted Brase.
 
FBI's Role

Today's FBI is no less intrusive into your affairs than during J.
Edgar's time. In fact if Hoover were alive today, he'd probably be
ecstatic to know how effective government techniques have become
gathering tons of information about ALL Americans and 'subversives.'

Former Clinton FBI Director Louis Freeh led the attack on encryption
[think pgp.] He opposed U.S. encryption while admitting the U.S.
is under digital attack. Freeh supported the mandatory Clipper chip
project to bug America. Freeh's FBI, and the FBI's subsequent
directors developed the intrusive Carnivore program, and Freeh
repeatedly testified that all encryption products should be banned.
In fact, Freeh testified before the Senate on Sept. 3, 1997 that
the Founding Fathers "did not foresee encryption."

Obviously, that FBI director flunked history class. The fact is the
Founding Fathers knew very well of codes and ciphers. Jefferson,
Franklin and even Washington used codes and ciphers for personal
business. Paul Revere used the same techniques that, today, the
government wants to ban. Using any kind of encryption in the state
of Michigan is a felony offense with a five year prison sentence for
each offense and each count. Mirror like Michigan encryption laws
are pending in 29 (US) states and nearing completion and final
passage into state law. Soon encryption will be outlawed throughout
the United States. As Philip Zimmerman, the creator of pgp said in
his famous 1991 quote;

"If privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy."
 - Phil Zimmermann, inventor of pgp, email encryption software.

The conclusion of "The Thief of Privacy" continues in Part II, our
next issue.

Until next issue stay cool and remain low profile!

Privacy World