Coming soon to a law enforcement department near you: The Matrix, Loaded. Not the movie—something far more disturbing: the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange. In reaction to public outrage, Congress cancelled funding for retired Adm. John Poindexter’s so-called Total Information Awareness (TIA) project at the Pentagon—even though the “T” was later changed to the more acceptable “Terrorism.” But it turns out… return to article
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Reader Comments (11)Page 1 of 1 pagesBut what about concerns that the system could lead to a world in which police monitor everyone? In response, Periandi laughs: ìI guess it comes down to whether you trust the police or not.î
In my life I’ve known about 8 police officers personally. Every single one of them were corrupt in some fashion. The corruption ran the gamut from not reporting 2nd job income to wife beating to shaking down suspects for money or property. One detective I knew in Fort Worth, TX bragged often about beating “niggers” with a rubber hose. Over the years I have come to view all police officers as scum that is not to be trusted. Who in their right mind would trust a paramilitary organization with this sort of information gathering & power? It would not surprise me if they started taking a closer look at people subscribing or reading In These Times. Should I become paranoid & cancel my subscription? HELL NO! We must go back to the days when the police were public servants charged with protecting the rights of American citizens. No law abiding American should feel awe & fear when a police officer approaches them.
Boyd Teague
Lincolnton, NC
Posted by Boyd Teague on Nov 12, 2003 at 2:13 PM Being a Floridian I am very aware of Matrix and though there is alot of truth to what is being said about Matrix, I believe Sept. 11th changed everything...yes privacy is an issue, and yes it is Orwellian, but
the informatiom in Matrix is derived from public records, which is available to Law Enforcement presently. Matrix returns 2 weeks of reseach in 2 minutes and if it can save a childs life after they are abducted or save just 1 Americans life, then I say so be it. These are changing times, I’ll ask you 1 question...If Matrix was able to save the life of one of your loved ones...what would you do?
Posted by Joseph Selma on Nov 12, 2003 at 3:38 PM The potential benefits of this program are far oughtweighted and overchadowed by the potential fo misuse. anyone else for moving to another country within the next few years? you know… while we still can.
Posted by Jon BBartholomew on Nov 12, 2003 at 5:25 PM When are we the people going to put an end to allowing our government to abuse our taxdollars to completely imprison us in this fascist-corporatist anti-democracy that once bragged about being an open society? Doesn’t anyone get it? It’s the watchers who need watching, stupid! Let’s see secret tapes of them aired on national television so WE can judge whether or not THEY are doing their job and not just gathering concocted trumped-up evidence against innocent people who disagree with their Orwellian-Huxlean-Machiavellian world view. After all, they are beholden to US for granting them the trust for the job they’re supposed to do. Why aren’t they aiming their lenses at their bosses? That’s where the REALLY monstrous crimes are being hatched up, after all. Then, let’s not forget that their bosses work for US too so they should be held to an even higher standard. Tapes of their lives, 24/7 must be made a standard for citizens’ assurance that our tax dollars are being spent as we wish them to be. I am personally sick and tired of our own abrogation of our civil rights as a consequence of being brainwashed by all the cop and prosecutor, FBI, CIA, et alia which leave us believing the presumption that these sleazebag goon bastards are beyond reproach. What, has everyone forgotten the last forty years of continuous real-life revelations of the the abuses of power? Cointelpro, MK Ultra, Iran-Contra, Watergate, this gate and that gate. Ollie North the confessed liar now a thriving TV good-guy. Poindexter the convict trying to spend our money to spy on all of us. When will we wake up? I say that until an equal amount of our money and trust is spent on making certain alleged criminals are the right suspects...those who accuse them must be suspects themselves. I have as much faith in our judicial system as I do in the fairy tale about Jack and the Beanstalk...none! And they want to keep an eye out on US...at OUR expense? I say: not until we get daily rushes on all the media displaying the private lives of those who would place themselves above the law!
Posted by Dominick on Nov 13, 2003 at 12:03 AM For those who still think that 9/11 is still a viable excuse for whatever the bastards who made we the people into criminals do...Let me remind you that this regime is stonewalling the 9/11 investigation. Let me remind you again that those who were blamed were blamed on a presumption that was never proved. The entire sordid march of events which have used 9/11 as the sacred cow excuse for every and all atrocities and infringements on our Constitutional Rights is built upon the say-so of those who are being found out to be the greatest liars since the Third Reich. Why would an administration that uses 9/11 as the excuse for all it wants to do NOT want to assist in it’s investigation. After all, if their accusations were correct, if they themselves were not complicit...all they’d have to do to quickly put everyone like me, who suspects their complicity, at ease is DIVULGE the evidence and documentation that led them to accuse whomever they did. Why does the 9/11commission have to resort to subpoenas if they are innocent of any wrongdoing? National Security? Bullshit! Where was national security on 9/11? Besides, we have the RIGHT TO KNOW because WE are the ones effected by the wars, we are the ones who must endure while they spout their lies from safe enclaves in kevlar suits. If they were innocent they would hand over the evidence requested of them with alacrity because it would prove their innocence. So, don’t keep referring to the 9/11 mantra to excuse these corrupt and murderous liars and hypocrites. They are all of them just Rush Limbaugh clones who do the nasty stuff instead of just talk about it. Get this through your heads, folks...these dragons in silk suits will stop at nothing to insure that they retain their power. This article is just exposing another application of their principle: Any atrocity or lie is justifiable in order to maintain dominance and keep the citizenry down. Fear and intimidation, injustice and abuse of power are the tools of their trade. If they want war and the blood money they make from it...let them and their children go fight it. Let’s make them pass a law that only those who stand to amass obscene wealth from war go fight it themselves. What do you think, will they go for that? Why not, it’s only just and fair. Enough of this blaming of alleged terrorists from strange countries. The worst terrorists run THIS country.
Posted by Dominick on Nov 13, 2003 at 12:28 AM 9-11 was an “inside job.”
It was the “American Reichstag Fire”
see http://www.oilempire.us/reichstag-fire.htmlIt was perpetrated in order to legitimize this sort of surveillance society, especially as the energy to power the endless growth economy starts to run low (the peak of petroleum production has probably already happened).
In These Times ran an article two months ago titled “Who Knew” that purported to be about the “unanswered questions” of 911, but that article merely mentioned the Saudi connection. In case anyone didn’t know, the Saudi’s don’t run our Air Force and NORAD, and were not responsible for the “stand down” of the Air Force on 911, nor did they make the Air Force and other agencies run 911 type simulations that day that confused the air defenses.
http://www.oilempire.us/wargames.html
http://www.oilempire.us/standdown.htmlI hope ITT won’t censor this post for criticizing their limited focus on 911, the event that supposedly changed the world.
Posted by mark on Nov 13, 2003 at 2:16 AM Its not about trust .Thats not an issue.Why do we have laws to protect our rights.Get a warrant show your work,no police state,fight for your freedom here and now or loose it.Travis occupied Austin
Posted by Travis on Nov 13, 2003 at 12:49 PM Did anyone happen to watch Bill Moyers’ PBS show “NOW” last night? One story was about how the Patriot Act II is being embedded in legislation that has nothing to do with national security or fighting terrorism. Want to fund Head Start for a coupla years? Wellll have they got a deal for you-just sign here and never mind about that rider that is attached robbing us of what little rights we have left. So not only are they coming at us with this Total Awareness crap through the front door, they’re coming at us through the back door as well. It is completely amazing that people are so utterly blind to what the Fascists Pigs that run this country now are doing-and not only do they run the country -they run the media, they run industry and they now run the justice system(what little of it there is left) and just doesn’t seem to outrage people a bit. “Let’s go shopping” seems to be their motto. But I’m hoping the operative word there is “seem"-because the fascists run the media, we wouldn’t be likely hear about any ground swell-look how the mainstream media treated the worldwide protest about Bush’s war in Iraq! As for those folks in law enforcement that are corrupt-lets not be fooled into beleiving that all cops are bad-that takes away from the proposition that absolute power corrupts absolutley-which it does regardless if you are corrupt or not.
Posted by Kate on Nov 16, 2003 at 9:22 PM I suggest that up front we allow the public to know all the personal data connected to the authors of this type of program, including all public officials like judges, politicians, presidents, police forces etc. this way we will know who to sue for misuse of the information. weekly drug testing/ and strip searches of all these officials is also a necessity. Sound radical? So does invasion of privacy. With these policies/solutions to these times the terroists win “big time”.
Posted by John Joseph on Nov 21, 2003 at 7:55 AM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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Posted by eduardo cunha on Nov 19, 2003 at 10:10 PM 
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