http://www.infowars.com/sheriff-wants-drones-to-peek-inside-buildings/
http://www.infowars.com/coming-next-tsa-taser-bracelets/
Sheriff Wants Drones To Peek Inside Buildings
Technology previously used to hunt insurgents in Afghanistan
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
October 10, 2012
Infowars.com
October 10, 2012
Sheriff Gregory Ahern wants to put Alameda County on the map as the first jurisdiction in California to use surveillance drones for law enforcement purposes, turning to technology previously used to hunt insurgents in Afghanistan that would allow police to peek inside buildings to detect heat sources of people or the lights of indoor pot growing operations.
Although Sheriff Ahern promised that the drones would only be used in “emergency” situations such as high speed chases, he told NBC News that the devices could also be used for “proactive policing,” including scanning buildings for heat sources such as people or lights that could indicate illegal marijuana growing operations.
The drones, which cost $50,000-$100,000 dollars, weigh just four pounds and can stream live video back to the operator. The Sheriff’s office is looking into whether a Homeland Security “community policing” grant can be utilized to cover the cost of the devices.
The ACLU points out that the drones violate the 4th Amendment because they allow police surveillance of private property without a warrant.
“Drone manufacturers are also considering offering police the option of arming these remote-controlled aircraft with weapons like rubber bullets, Tasers, and tear gas,” the group said in a statement.
The Sheriff’s office will join with 30 other law enforcement agencies later this month for its annual “Urban Shield” preparedness exercise, during which different versions of the drones will be field tested.
After Congress passed the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization earlier this year, requiring the FAA to permit the operation of drones weighing 25 pounds or less, observers predicted that anything up to 30,000 spy drones could be flying in U.S. skies by 2020.
As we reported earlier this week, the Department of Homeland Security announced in a solicitation that it would be testing small spy drones at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, signaling that the devices will be used for “public safety” applications in the near future.
Much larger drones are already being used in law enforcement operations across the country. The most infamous case involved the Brossart family in North Dakota, who were targeted for surveillance with a Predator B drone last year after six missing cows wandered onto their land. Police had already used the drone, which is based at Grand Forks Air Force Base, on two dozen occasions beforehand.
Police departments are also attempting to get approval to use surveillance blimps that hover over cities and watch for “suspicious activity.”
The U.S. Army recently tested a football field-sized blimp over the city of New Jersey. The blimp can fly for a period of 21 hours and “is equipped with high-tech sensors that can monitor insurgents from above.”
Recently released FAA documents obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting revealed that the FAA gave the green light for surveillance drones to be used in U.S. skies despite the fact that during the FAA’s own tests the drones crashed numerous times even in areas of airspace where no other aircraft were flying.
The documents illustrate how the drones pose a huge public safety risk, contradicting a recent coordinated PR campaign on behalf of the drone industry which sought to portray drones as safe, reliable and privacy-friendly.
And we all recall , first they came for ......
What Is Happening to Muslims Will Happen to the Rest of Us
The decision by the European Court of Human Rights last week to refuse to block the extradition of the radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri and four others to the United States on terrorism charges removes one of the last external checks on our emerging gulag state.
Masri and the four others, all held in British jails, will soon join hundreds of other Muslims tried in Article III federal courts in the United States over the last decade. Fair trials are unlikely. A disturbing pattern of gross infringements on basic civil liberties, put in place in the name of national security, has poisoned our legal system. These infringements include intrusive surveillance, vague material support charges, the use of prolonged pretrial solitary confinement, classified evidence that the accused cannot review, and the use of political activities, normally protected under the First Amendment, to demonstrate mind-set and intent. Muslims caught up in the Article III courts are denied the opportunity to confront their accusers and to have their religious and political associations protected, and they rarely find a judge courageous enough to protect their rights. These violations of fundamental civil liberties will not, in the end, be reserved exclusively for Muslims once the corporate state feels under siege. What is happening to them will happen to the rest of us.
“One of the misapprehensions of the last decade is that the government had to go outside the law to places like Guantanamo or Bagram to abridge the rights of suspects in the name of national security,” said Jeanne Theoharis, a professor of political science at Brooklyn College who has been an outspoken critic of the rights abridgement occurring in Article III courts. “But this is not the case. A similar degradation of rights that has characterized the prison at Guantanamo has also affected the judicial system within the United States. The right to dissent, the right to see the evidence against you, the right to due process, the right to fair and speedy trial, the right to have a judge who will be impartial, the right to fair and not disproportionate punishment, and the right not to be punished before you are convicted have been taken from us in the name of national security. It is not just in special secret prisons that this occurs, but also—dismayingly—within the U.S. federal courts.”
http://www.infowars.com/coming-next-tsa-taser-bracelets/
Coming Next: TSA Taser Bracelets?
DHS seriously explored idea of forcing travelers to wear torture compliance device
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
October 10, 2012
Infowars.com
October 10, 2012
The TSA’s security policies are getting more and more bizarre, from testing people’s drinks for explosives to ordering all travelers to freeze on command, but could a frightening policy that was seriously explored by the DHS be resurrected – forcing people to wear taser bracelets that would deliver an electric shock if they got out of line?
The story sounds like it belongs in a South Park episode or on an urban myths website – but it was actually true.
In 2008, the Washington Times reported on how DHS official Paul S. Ruwaldt of the Science and Technology Directorate, office of Research and Development, wrote to Lamperd Less Lethal, Inc. indicating that the Department of Homeland Security was ready to purchase devices from the company that would be used to deliver incapacitating shocks to airline passengers, all of whom would be mandated to wear the taser bracelet once they checked in for their flight.
The so-called “safety bracelet,” also known as the Electronic ID Bracelet, was designed to replace a boarding pass and be capable of tracking the passenger through the airport by means of GPS technology. The device would also contain details about the passenger and their flight plans.
The primary function of the device was to allow airport officials and flight crews to deliver an incapacitating electric shock to travelers by means of Electro-Muscular Disruption (EMD), completely immobilizing the individual for minutes. The bracelet would be worn by all travelers until they disembarked at their location. The patent for the device admits that all passengers could be incapacitated if the devices are activated.
“Upon activation of the electric shock device, through receipt of an activating signal from the selectively operable remote control means, the passenger wearing that particular bracelet receives the disabling electrical shock from the electric shock device. Accordingly, the passenger becomes incapacitated for a few seconds or perhaps a few minutes, during which time the passenger can be fully subdued and handcuffed, if necessary. Depending on the type of transmission medium used to send the activating signal, other passengers may also become temporarily incapacitated, which is undesirable and unfortunate, but may be unavoidable,” reads the patent for the device.
In his letter to Lamperd Less Lethal, Inc., DHS official Ruwaldt also noted how the bracelet could be used as a “method of interrogation,” in other words a torture device. He also raised the prospect of using the device against protesters to allow the temporary “restraint of large numbers of individuals in open area environments by a small number of agents or Law Enforcement Officers.”
The letter stated that the DHS was “interested in…. the immobilizing security bracelet” and that it was “conceivable to envision a use to improve air security, on passenger planes.” Other letters made it clear that the DOD, the CDC, Department of Interior, Department of Agriculture Forestry service, as well as unnamed law enforcement agencies were also keen on acquiring the device.
Following a wave of negative publicity, the DHS pulled the plug on its interest in the torture bracelet, and Lamperd Less Lethal, Inc. set about removing the letters from Ruwaldt it had previously proudly displayed on its website.
However, given that the TSA is already doling out punishments for people who do not display the proper level of obedience, by either preventing them from flying, stealing their cash, or simply punching them in the balls, how far away are we from the hideous idea of the taser bracelet being resurrected? Especially given the heights of absurdity the TSA has already scaled by introducing its ludicrous “all stop” policy and its testing of drinks purchased inside the secure area of the airport?
The fact that the torture bracelet was ever seriously considered at all should send chills down the spine of every American who values their dignity, especially given the endless train of TSA abuse stories that pour in on a weekly basis.
Imagine a TSA goon not only having the power to squeeze your junk if you so much as look at them the wrong way, but also having the capability to deliver an electric shock to anyone who speaks out of turn. It’s a nightmare scenario, and another clear indication that the TSA is an odious insult to the very notion of America as a free country and needs to be defunded and ultimately abolished.
Given a recent survey which found that a majority of travelers were happy with the TSA’s performance and also In the interests of discovering exactly what level of indignity Americans will tolerate, Infowars is set to commission a poll to find out what passengers will tolerate when going through TSA checkpoints.
One of the questions will ask if Americans, given the apparent threat posed by terrorists who implant bombs in their own bodies, are willing to submit to an anal cavity search in order to fly. Although this sounds bizarre, we feel confident that a sizeable number would agree to it. Likewise, the idea of forcing travelers to wear a taser bracelet capable of delivering an electric shock is another question that will be included in the poll – which will be conducted by a professional polling agency.
Watch a Fox News report on the taser bracelet below.
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