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Title: FBI Mining Information on Americans in Search for Possible Terrorists
Source:
Associated Press
URL Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288873,00.html
Published: Jul 10, 2007
Author: Associated Press
Post Date: 2007-07-10 22:14:53 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 195
Comments: 15
WASHINGTON — The FBI is gathering and sorting information about Americans to help search for potential terrorists, insurance cheats and crooked pharmacists, according to a government report obtained Tuesday. Records about identity thefts, real estate transactions, motor vehicle accidents and complaints about Internet drug companies are being searched for common threads to aid law enforcement officials, the Justice Department said in a report to Congress on the agency's data-mining practices. In addition, the report disclosed government plans to build a new database to assess the risk posed by people identified as potential or suspected terrorists. The chairman of the Senate committee that oversees the Justice Department said the database was "ripe for abuse." The American Civil Liberties Union immediately derided the quality of the information that could be used to score someone as a terror threat. The report, sent to Congress this week, marked the department's first public detailing of six of its data-mining tools, which look for patterns to catch criminals. The disclosure was required by lawmakers when they renewed the USA Patriot Act in 2005. It comes as the Justice Department faces sharp criticism from Congress and civil liberties advocates for violating peoples' privacy rights in terror and spy investigations. Justice spokesman Dean Boyd said the databases are strictly regulated to protect privacy rights and civil liberties. "Each of these initiatives is extremely valuable for investigators, allowing them to analyze and process lawfully acquired information more effectively in order to detect potential criminal activity and focus resources appropriately," Boyd said in a statement. All but one of the databases — the one to track terrorists — have been up and running for several years, the report showed. The lone exception is the System to Assess Risk, or STAR, program to rate the threat posed by people already identified as suspected terrorists or named on terror watch lists. The system, still under construction, is designed to help counterterror investigators save time by narrowing the field of people who pose the greatest potential threat and will not label anyone a terrorist, Boyd said. But it could be based, in part at least, on commercial or public information that might not be accurate — potentially ranking an innocent person as a terror threat. Watch lists, for example, have mistakenly identified people as suspects based on their similar names or birthdates to terrorists. The Justice report also leaves open the possibility that the STAR program might draw up lists of terror suspects based on information from other sources, including from Data Mart. The report described Data Mart as a collector of government information, but also travel data from the Airlines Reporting Corp. and other information from private data-aggregators like Choicepoint. Private data aggregators often sell commercial credit records as well as other databases, like voter and vehicle registration. "When you put bad information into a system and you don't have any mechanism of ensuring the information is of high quality, you're certain to get bad information spit out on the back end," said ACLU senior legislative counsel Tim Sparapani. "And that has profoundly negative consequences for the individuals who are wrongly identified as potential terrorists." The five other databases detailed in the report include: —An identity theft intelligence program, used since 2003, to examine and analyze consumer complaints to identify major identity theft rings in a given geographic area. —A health care fraud system that looks at billing records in government and private insurance claims databases to identify fraud or over-billing by health care providers. It also has been running since 2003. —A database created in 2005 that looks at consumer complaints to the Food and Drug Administration to identify larger trends about fraud by Internet pharmacies. —A housing fraud program that analyzes public data on real estate transactions to identify fraudulent housing purchases, including so-called property flipping. The database was built in 1999. —A system that compares National Insurance Crime Bureau information against other data to crack down on fake car accident insurance claims and identify major offenders. The 38-page report was four months late in being sent to Congress for required oversight. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy said it "raises more questions than it answers." "Unfortunately, the Congress and the American public know very little about these and other data mining programs, making them ripe for abuse," said Leahy, D-Vt.
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
(Edited)
An assessment of Washington D.C. IP addresses should prove advantageous in this endevour. I would like to become an informant as I have names to provide. Michael Chertoff, George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, David Wurmser, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Wm. Kristol, Dov Zakheim, Doug Feith, Richard Armitage, Colin Powell, and many more.
Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say 'what should be the reward of such sacrifices?' Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship, plough, sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!”
This "war on terror" on those evil foreigners who would harm Americans is surely morphing into a war on American citizens. As time goes on things are getting worse in that regard. Just last week some military people came out here to install some kind of special computer in the pharmacy at the hospital out here which serves this whole region, no one knows what it's purpose is, probably something to do with catching possible "terrorists" who live in this area. Also I just got a phone call from a girl who moved away from here about 3 years ago, she's in TX now and has 2 kids, and is moving back here because the CPS people are on her case because some Mexican girl who claims she stole her boyfriend (!) called them on her and told them a bunch of lies, that she was abusing her children, the Mexican girl wanted to make trouble for her for revenge. So a CPS agent came to her house, and saw the children had no shoes on (it was hot) and that she had a hickie on her neck, so she has to go through some kind of evaluation now, and the CPS worker told her that the boyfriend who gave the hickie has to go through a background check. I could not believe what I was hearing. This girl is going to pack up her kids and move back to Alaska, she's been harrassed by a gang of Mexican women, has had her tires slit, and now they have put the CPS on her butt. I told her things did not used to be this way, life used to be somewhat normal and free in this country. I guess now not only do jealous and vengeful people call the IRS on people in an attempt to get them in trouble, they call CPS, and done by Mexicans who should not even be in this country at that. Her story may not be entirely related to this article, but to me it is because it's another example of how government is sticking it's nose into people's private affairs where it does not belong. I found her story to be very disturbing and another sign of how the rights of Americans are vanishing.
People sometimes allow CPS to exert authority that even a real cop doesn't have. If the sheriff needs a warrant to search the premises ... why would one think a CPS lackey wouldn't need one ? I'm sure this woman doesn't have the ability or knowledge to sue the assholes at CPS ... and that's too bad. Geographic changes are temporary improvements kinda like treating an illness rather than curing it. This CPS bullshit is going on all over our country. CPS is the kiddie GESTAPO !
Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say 'what should be the reward of such sacrifices?' Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship, plough, sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!”
It sure sounds that way. I can't believe they made a big deal out of the fact that her children were running around barefoot in 90+ degree weather, I didn't realize that was now considered child abuse. When I was little we ran around barefoot in summer. And no she doesn't have the knowledge or the resources to sue them. I just think it's unbelievable that something like this could happen.
Most people under estimate the insidious evil of the time we live in. Every known perversion and some new ones will be manifested right before our eyes. There is an organization in Texas called V.O.C.A.L. (Victims of Child Abuse Laws) that may offer some help. I did some work for them in California when a woman was accused of shaking syndrome murder of her son. That was 13 years ago ... I've not had occasion to be in contact with them since that time. They were headquartered in Dallas.
Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say 'what should be the reward of such sacrifices?' Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship, plough, sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!”
ping to Diana's post... It's happening right in front of our eyes. Trouble is most Americans are watching TV.
Ron Paul for President
You're right, government doesn't belong in people's private affairs, but as George Gordon would say we are the proximate cause of our own injuries. People don't know their rights, and don't exert them. Privacy is something you will only have if you guard it diligently, and most people let their guard down on a regular basis. If you call the electric company with a question concerning your bill they ask for your SS# and a dozen other things (like - are you married) before they get down to answering your question about the bill, and most people just answer them like it's no big deal... The information govt or anyone else has about you is information YOU originally provided. In the example I gave above, you should tell them (citing the 4th Amendment) that your SS# or whether you're married has no bearing whatsoever on what this new "tax" you've noticed on your bill is all about, and refuse to answer them. Don't allow any information about you to get into a database such as the electric company's which is easily searched by govt or anyone else...
If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man. Albert Einstein
This is very true around here. People don't care about these issues, they are more interested in the new episode of "Survivor" and who they like on there and who they don't like. It makes me sick. I was horrified when I heard what is happening to this girl, I did not know that CPS has such power, and that a person can get in trouble because their children are not wearing shoes, and then that business with the hickie, which should be no one's business. It makes me wonder how often this sort of thing happens, catty women getting angry at one another then calling CPS on the one they are angry with, making up a bunch of lies so that CPS will pay a surprise visit to the house of their target. The town she lives in used to be a sort of old hippie town, all white, now she says it's 90% Mexican, I was shocked to hear that too.
That is so absurd. Yes CPS has too much power. There are plenty of horror stories.
Ron Paul for President
She's going to call me back so I am going to tell her this information. I hope she acts upon it. If I had kids and something like this happened to me I would be so pissed.
Ex-Spouses do the same thing These miscreants from CPS don't have the authority that they claim. They aren't the Sheriff, they are an agency. If the Sheriff needs a warrant to enter your property why wouldn't the CPS ? No warrant means they're trespassing ! People have got to stop bending over for these goon squads.
Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say 'what should be the reward of such sacrifices?' Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship, plough, sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!”
Damn! I'd never even heard of CPS until I read a story of a couple who had children whom they home-schooled, and were vegetarians, and they were seen in a library with their kids and someone called CPS because the kids appeared thin. Apparently this couple had strong religious views, CPS came down hard on them, I can't remember the details now but I believe that case became somewhat famous, and I was horrified to read it, wondering how such a thing could happen in this country. With so many people fired up with revenge it makes it too easy to sick those people on others, often ruining lives. Govt has no business in family affairs, families should handle their own personal issues, like they have done for eons except during dictatorships.
Did you see the wonderful vid posted here 2 nites ago with the guy making the speech that we are failing to fight back as the Declaration of Independence suggested?
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition I'm sorry to have missed that one...
Click on "GREAT VIDEO" red link in this post by Ferret Mike.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibitionbuild a new database to assess the risk posed by people identified as potential or suspected terrorists.
#2. To: Brian S, robin, TX posters (#0)
#3. To: Diana (#2)
(Edited)
#4. To: noone222 (#3)
CPS is the kiddie GESTAPO !
#5. To: Diana (#4)
And no she doesn't have the knowledge or the resources to sue them. I just think it's unbelievable that something like this could happen.
#6. To: Diana, IndieTX, HOUNDDAWG, innieway, Red Jones, BTP Holdings, who knows what evil, Itisa1mosttoolate, AllTheKings'HorsesWontDoIt (#2)
#7. To: Diana (#2)
it's another example of how government is sticking it's nose into people's private affairs where it does not belong.
#8. To: robin, All (#6)
Trouble is most Americans are watching TV.
#9. To: Diana (#8)
that a person can get in trouble because their children are not wearing shoes
#10. To: noone222, innieway (#5)
There is an organization in Texas called V.O.C.A.L. (Victims of Child Abuse Laws) that may offer some help. I did some work for them in California when a woman was accused of shaking syndrome murder of her son.
#11. To: Diana (#8)
(Edited)
#12. To: noone222, robin (#11)
Ex-wives often do the same thing.
#13. To: Diana, redpanther (#2)
This "war on terror" on those evil foreigners who would harm Americans is surely morphing into a war on American citizens. As time goes on things are getting worse
#14. To: IndieTX (#13)
It's way past time, Claire.
#15. To: lodwick (#14)
http://freedom4um.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=56657&Disp=2#C2
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