San Francisco To Get Pre-Crime Surveillance Cameras

System alerts authorities to “suspicious behavior” before crime is committed

Hundreds of pre-crime surveillance cameras are to be installed in San Francisco’s subway system that will analyze “suspicious behavior” and alert guards to potential criminal or terrorist activity – before any crime has been committed.

“Manufacturers BRS Labs said it has installed the cameras at tourist attractions, government buildings and military bases in the U.S. In its latest project BRS Labs is to install its devices on the transport system in San Francisco, which includes buses, trams and subways,” reports the Daily Mail.

The cameras are programmed with a list of behaviors considered “normal”. Anything that deviates from usual activity is classified as suspicious and guards are immediately alerted via text message or a phone call.

Equipped with the ability to track up to 150 suspects at a time, the cameras build up a “memory” of suspicious behavior to determine what constitutes potential criminal activity.

A total of 288 cameras will be installed across 12 transport hubs.

Authorities are increasingly turning to pre-crime methods of surveillance in order to reduce the need for human intelligence and eliminate the requirement for camera footage to be watched by employees in real time.

The technology is inextricably linked with the 2002 science fiction film Minority Report starring Tom Cruise, based on the short story by Philip K. Dick. The movie depicts a ruthless police state that employs psychics called “precogs” to apprehend criminals before crimes occur.

Law enforcement agencies in Washington D.C. are already using a software database developed by the University of Pennsylvania that they claim can predict when crimes will be committed and who will commit them, before they actually happen.

The program operates without any direct evidence that a crime will be committed, it simply takes datasets and computes possibilities.

The technology sifts through a database of thousands of crimes and uses algorithms and different variables, such as geographical location, criminal records and ages of previous offenders, to come up with predictions of where, when, and how a crime could possibly be committed and by who.

Other forms of pre-crime technology in use or under development include neurological brain scanners that can read people’s intentions before they act, thus detecting whether or not a person has “hostile intent”.

Pre-crime technology is also being rolled out in airports and other public venues in order to identify suspect travelers and single them out for interrogations. This face-scanning system “successfully discriminates between truth and lies in about two-thirds of cases,” which equates to little more accuracy than chance alone, making it even less reliable than the notorious polygraph test, which has been widely discredited and is habitually inaccurate.

As we have previously documented, the Department of Homeland Security’s FAST program is based around similar technology that professes to detect “malintent” by means of pre-crime interrogations and physiological scans.

A promotional video for the program shows individuals who attend “security events” being led into trailers before they are interrogated as to whether they are terrorists while lie detector-style computer programs analyze their physiological responses. The subjects are asked about their whereabouts, and if they are attempting to smuggle bombs or recording devices into the “expo,” proving that the technology is intended to be used at public events and not just airports. Individuals who do not satisfy the first lie detector-style test are then asked “additional questions”.

As surveillance cameras become more sophisticated, the temptation to use pre-crime technology is likely to intersect with the rollout of so-called “smart” street lighting systems that double as “homeland security” spying hubs.

As we have documented, talking surveillance cameras that bark orders at passers-by and can also record conversations are heading for U.S. streets, with the government-backed introduction of the ‘Intellistreets’ system.

Phony ‘Houla Massacre’: How Media Manipulates Public Opinion on Syria

If you are still needing an academic tutorial on exactly how the mainstream media is able to generate a completely phony public consensus to support foreign intervention projects, you need look no further than the dangerous, fictional narrative currently being rolled out regarding Syria.

This past Saturday and Sunday morning, almost every major corporate mainstream newspaper and TV network in North America and in Europe ran with the average headline,“Massacre of the children as Syrian forces hit rebels”, giving hundreds of millions of readers and viewers to artificial impression that it was Syrian government forces – and not western-backed terrorist groups, who carried out a massacre on children and others days ago – even though, the true culprit of these attacks has not yet been determined – a fact which was only briefly mentioned later on in these very same media reports.

It shouldn’t take a genius to see through this relentless western effort to takeover Syria, but not having learned their lesson from Libya, so many hard working and well educated westerners are bound to fall for it all over again.

Cui bono? Who benefits… from another civilian massacre? Clearly not the Syrian government. But western-backed terrorist groups who have been working to destablize the country for over one year now, do clearly benefit.

Do not underestimate for one second just how pivotal the western corporate media is in advancing an agenda of global destabilization:

One of the UK best-selling weekend papers and most widely read online journals, Guardian media group’s The Observer, ran such a headline which implied that the Syrian government carried out a massacre in Houla, and as we have seen used before in Syria and Libya, the alleged massacre in question is based soley on unsubstantiated evidence, in this case its more uploaded ‘Youtube’ footage:

“Videos uploaded to the internet and purporting to be from Houla show many dead and badly mutilated infants. Residents say some victims were killed with knives, while many more died from 18 hours of relentless shelling that left buildings wrecked and homes destroyed in a large residential area near the centre of town.”

Mainstream media 101

In order to shape concensus reality, first you need to frame the event. Here the story begins by laying soft blame on the Syrian government…

“Syria‘s fragile peace process is in shreds after what was claimed to be a regime-backed massacre…”

… and then proceeding to carefully cover themselves, so to speak, but retracting the allegations deeper into the article:

“Major General Robert Mood, head of the UN team in Syria, deplored the attack, which began at midday on Friday, as “indiscriminate and unforgivable” but did not say who had been to blame.”

Notice how the article itself states clearly that the persons responsible for the massacre is yet to be known, but The Observer has already framed the conclusion within the headline and in the beginning of the story, in order to fit a pre-determined conclusion. This conclusion happens to be directly in line with Washington and London’s foreign policy objective of regime change in Syria.

Take notes. Because this is how it’s done, time and time again – another clear example how large media outlets can effectively drive reality in the direction of their choosing, and this is why so many millions of public media consumers are left misinformed and dis informed, eventually leading to a marginal public endorsement of Washington, London and Tel Aviv’s interventionist foreign policy objectives. 

Hours after this fake story was circulated in the GMT timezone, it made its way to EST, as theNew York Times picks up the ball and runs it down the field. Here the story is further refined to streamline it with regime change policy objectives, codifying reality within North American sector, claiming that:

“More than 90 people, including at least 32 children under the age of 10, were killed in a central Syrian village, top United Nations officials said Saturday, accusing the government of perpetrating the “indiscriminate” shelling of civilian neighborhoods.”  

No real details are actually given to support this media-generated verdict, only that, “A United Nations statement said the observers confirmed that “artillery and tank shells were fired at a residential neighborhood.”

Shortly thereafter, the UN’s Ban Ki Moon and Save the Children charity weigh in with carefully-craft statements, but statements that are obviously framed and directed towards Syria’s Assad government, and not Gulf States, Washington and London-backed terrorist gangs currently operating under an all but official western mandate within Syria and from their NATO-sanctioned base over the border in southern Turkey. Reality is further shaped by the London Guardian’s Observer and others, with an official “international outcry”:

“The international community was united in its condemnation. UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said the killings were a “flagrant violation of international law” while the White House called the violence acts of “unspeakable and inhuman brutality.” Arab League head Nabil Elaraby said the killings were a “horrific crime” and urged UN action.

Save the Children’s chief executive, Justin Forsyth, echoed calls for intervention. He said: “This indiscriminate killing must stop now. The world cannot sit back and allow this to happen. Children are suffering terribly in this conflict.”

Even the BBC have gone so far as to run 9 year old photographs from Iraq, and sell them as from this latest massacre of children in Syria. Any other foreign media outlet in the UK would have its broadcasting license pulled for such a propaganda stunt. In the face of such damning manipulation, why then would so many people still believe the mainstream media’s version of reality in country’s like Syria?

Western-backed terrorists, many of whom are al-Qaida, mostly hailing from outside of Syria, are fomenting civil war and carrying out a series of attacks on UN observers and civilians, in order to create to narrative that “Assad must go.”

But what is a more closer version of reality is this:

Western readers should be under no illusion – your government operators are sanctioning civilian killing in places like Syria, and your corporate media are being used to place the blame on the west’s political enemy in the region – and therefore influence western public support for regime change.

After over one year of intervening through their own favored terrorist guerrilla proxy fighters and running arms into Syria – arms that are admittedly for going into the hands of western-backed al-Qaida groups there, the west has not yet succeeded in toppling the Assad government and installing a new puppet regime, as they did by using NATO military force in Libya last autumn. But western project managers like Hillary Clinton and William Hague have not given up, and if their corporate media outlets are allowed to determine their version reality in Syria, they will eventually get their “humanitarian intervention”, and the country will slowly be destroyed from within. Then regime change will happen

It’s as simple as that.

Syrian people are the ones who will lose if Washington, London, Tel Aviv and the Gulf States succeed in destroying Syria.

When this is done, then they will move on to destabilize Lebanon in order to unseat and neutralize Hezbollah.

After that, the door to attack Iran will be wide open.

There’s your World War Three in earnest.

Ron Paul Supporters Planning Festival

Three-day event would take place immediately before convention.

By RICHARD DANIELSON
Tampa Bay Times

Published: Sunday, May 27, 2012 at 10:14 p.m.

Last Modified: Sunday, May 27, 2012 at 10:14 p.m.

TAMPA | Supporters of presidential candidate Ron Paul are negotiating to hold a three-day festival of music, entertainment and activism at the Florida State Fairgrounds immediately before the Republican National Convention.

Paul Festival 2012 would run from Aug. 24-26, ending the day before the convention begins.

Details like ticket prices and who would be on stage have not been announced, but the festival could draw 20,000 or more people per day, estimated Deborah Robinet, an organizer who lives near San Diego.

“Ron Paul supporters are very enthusiastic, and there’s going to be a bunch of them in Tampa,” said Robinet, one of five directors of the nonprofit group Liberty Unleashed, which was incorporated this month in Florida to make arrangements for the festival.

Robinet and fair director of sales and marketing Terri Parnell said they expected a contract to be finished soon. Because the state fair property is one of the 73 official venues for the convention, Parnell said fair officials also have been in touch with the GOP’s Committee on Arrangements, which is in charge of convention planning.

Robinet said she expects the variety to reflect a saying of the movement: “Diversity finds unity in the message of freedom.”

“That’s one of the things about Ron Paul,” said Robinet, who helped organize a July 2008 march for Paul that attracted 15,000 in Washington, D.C.

The fair’s 1-800-Ask-Gary Amphitheatre already has two concerts not related to the convention booked that weekend, but that is not expected to be a problem. The fairgrounds have room for the festival and concerts.

As Europe Threatens to Implode, America Shrugs

Fears of a eurozone collapse make for scary headlines and worries in Washington, but the American public isn’t convinced

European workers are caught in a crisis that could hurt global recovery. Meanwhile, Americans’ thoughts are elsewhere.

Americans are increasingly inundated with news about the debt crisis rocking Europe, but that doesn’t mean they care. According to data from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, the European crisis was the No. 3 story in the news media last week, its biggest week since early December. And during the first 20 days of May, the crisis’ level of news coverage has well exceeded all other monthly levels seen thus far in 2012…(Read More)

US eases airport screening for travelers 75-plus

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  A sign informing travelers about new screening procedures by the US Transportation …

The US government is easing the airport screening process for travelers 75 and older, beginning to roll out new rules just in time for the long Memorial Day holiday weekend, an official said Friday.

From this weekend the elderly will no longer have to doff shoes, belts and jackets as they pass through security checkpoints at New York‘s three major airports: John F. Kennedy International, La Guardia, and Newark Liberty.

The Transportation Security Administration has said rollout of the new measures to the rest of the country could follow.

“Seventy-five-plus is in the process of being rolled out and customers will see it over the course of the summer and beyond,” said David Castelveter, chief spokesman of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

Castelveter said he did not have a precise timetable, but the New York rollout was expected to occur through the upcoming three-day weekend that unofficially kicks off the US summer vacation season.

The 75-plus measures have already been successfully tested in the Chicago, Denver, Orlando and Portland airports.

Last September the TSA decided to allow children 12 and under to pass through screening without removing their shoes.

The enhanced TSA airport screening was established after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States in which the attackers used airplanes as weapons.

The Al-Qaeda attacks claimed 2,976 lives in New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pennsylvania…(Read More)

Israel takes back promise to Obama not to attack Iran before the election

Israeli Air Force T-6A Texan aircraft fly in formation during a display for Israel’s 64th Independence Day over Jerusalem April 26, 2012 (Reuters/Amir Cohen)

Sources from inside Washington, DC are telling the international media that Israeli leadership is upset with US President Barack Obama’s handling of Iran’s alleged nuclear threat and may take military action before the November election.

The Debka news agency quotes sources from America’s capital that say Israel has withdrawn its earlier promise to avoid striking Iran before the upcoming US presidential election this fall. The reason, reports Debka, heavily revolves around President Obama’s refusal to side with Israel’s demands in dealing with the rumored emerging threat of a nuclear program in Iran.

Turn Out The Lights – The Largest U.S. Cities Are Becoming Cesspools Of Filth, Decay And Wretchedness

Once upon a time, the largest U.S. cities were the envy of the entire world.  Sadly, that is no longer the case.  Sure, there are areas of New York City, Boston, Washington and Los Angeles that are still absolutely beautiful but for the most part our major cities are rapidly rotting and decaying.  Cities such as Detroit, Cleveland, Baltimore, Memphis, New Orleans, St. Louis and Oakland were all once places where middle class American workers thrived and raised their families.  Today, all of those cities are rapidly being transformed into cesspools of filth, decay and wretchedness.  Millions of good jobs have left our major cities in recent decades and poverty has absolutely exploded.    Basically, you can turn out the lights because the party is over.  In fact, some major U.S. cities are literally turning out the lights.  In Detroit, about 40 percent of the streetlights are already broken and the city cannot afford to repair them.  So Mayor Bing has come up with a plan to cut the number of operating streetlights almost in half and leave vast sections of the city totally in the dark at night.  I wonder what that will do to the crime rate in the city.  But don’t look down on Detroit too much, because what is happening in Detroit will be happening where you live soon enough.

A recent Bloomberg article described Mayor Bing’s plan to eliminate nearly half of Detroit’s streetlights….(Read More)

Ron Paul Shocks The GOP Establishment Once Again – Check His Delegate Count

MAY 24, 2012

in ELECTION, POLITICS

By Mason Buran

The Republican National Convention is only three months away and the Republican GOP race has only just begun. After this previous weekend, only 818 of the 2286 delegates have been allocated. The Ron Paul Revolution is making a strong showing in second behind Romney.

In Maine, Ron Paul won decisively, 21 to 3. Virginia, a state in which Romney won by 20%, Paul has been allocated 17 delegates to Romney’s 16. However, 16 delegates have yet to be allocated and will be in the Virginia state convention which will be held on June 16th. In Michigan, where Paul was not expected to win any of the delegates, he won 8 to Romney’s 22. Minnesota, where Paul finished third, he was allocated a 32 to 8 victory over Romney. In Iowa, Paul has won all 13 of the allocated delegates and expects to win a large sum of the 12 yet to be allocated on June 15th. Colorado, Paul has won 18 to Romney’s 16. Lastly, Nevada, a state that has drawn a large amount of GOP controversy, Paul has won 22 of the 25 delegates. However, there are a few more states where Paul is expecting to win more delegates.

In Washington, Paul is expecting to do extremely well. Washington has 43 delegates yet to be allocated and will be …

Ron Paul shocks the GOP establishment once again [continued]

BREAKING: Cardinal Dolan of NY, Cardinal Wuerl of D.C., Notre Dame–And 40 Other Catholic Dioceses and Organizations–Sue Obama Administration

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (AP Photo)

Drones patrolling Washington state border

This photo provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows an unmanned drone used to patrol the U.S.-Canadian border.