INQUISITION NEWS

A vote for Mitt Romney is a vote for the overreaching homeland security initiatives put in place by the George W. Bush Administration Department of Homeland Security.
According to reports, the Presidential candidate was instrumental in helping to create some of the most controversial safety initiatives put into place by the Bush Administration in the years following the attack on the World Trade Centers in New York.
According to the Huffington Post, during his tenure as Governor of Massachusetts, Romney issued executive orders to set up two of the Nation’s first fusion centers — the intelligence hubs where vast amounts of Americans’ personal data is analyzed by law enforcement agencies — in his State.
Romney’s security record makes it seem that he believes that everyone is essentially guilty until proven innocent, which is largely in line with current Department of Homeland Security policy.
In a September 2005 speech to the Heritage Foundation, Romney gave Americans a good idea about what the security state might be like under his Administration by advocating wiretaps in mosques and churches when he uttered the words: “Are we monitoring that? Are we wiretapping? Are we following what’s going on?”
Earlier in the campaign, Romney also let Americans know that he is in line with President Barack Obama on issues such as the National Defense Authorization Act, which makes possible the capture and indefinite detainment of American citizens.
“Yes, I would have,” said Romney when asked during a debate whether he would have signed the legislation, as Obama did. “…I recognize that in a setting where they are enemy combatants and some of them on our own soil, that could be abused. There are lots of things I think this president does wrong — lots of them — but I don’t think he will abuse this power, and if I were president I would not abuse this power.“
Romney knows the power of police state tactics in protecting the elite. The director of operations of his 2008 Presidential campaign, Jay Garrity, was placed on a paid leave of absence in 2007 while the authorities investigated accusations that he impersonated a State trooper in Massachusetts and harassed reporters that were following the campaign by pulling them over.
Garrity worked on planning events for the campaign and also helped control access to Romney.

Personal Liberty Alerts

Latest From Bob Livingston	May 7, 2012

Hastening The March To A North American Union And Global Governance »
The march toward a union of the United States, Canada and Mexico — and ultimately global government — continues apace. The ultimate goal of the elites is to create a one world socialist government. They have succeeded in combining most of Europe into a European Union. More »

On Your Own

Don't Drink The Water (Without Taking Precautions) »
Water is one of the most critical things that we need for survival. If you drink bad water, you can die very quickly. You really can't trust any of the sources of water in the wild that you'll have. It is critical that you purify whatever water you put into your body. Don't be unprepared. More »

Personal Liberty News

Police State Mitt Romney »
A vote for Mitt Romney is a vote for the overreaching homeland security initiatives put in place by the George W. Bush Administration Department of Homeland Security. Romney's security record makes it seem that he believes that everyone is essentially guilty until proven innocent. More »

Rand Paul: End The TSA »
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Illegal Aliens In Los Angeles Get Health Insurance »
About 75,000 restaurant workers in Los Angeles don't have health insurance because they are illegal aliens. But that might be changing. The health insurance part, that is. A restaurant workers' group and a Los Angeles community clinic are working together to provide illegal aliens with healthcare. More »

Brooklyn Man Dresses Up As Dead Mother To Cash Social Security Checks »
A Brooklyn man is facing time behind bars for stealing the identity of his dead mother. Thomas Prusik Parkin has been found guilty of grand larceny, mortgage fraud and criminal possession of a forged instrument. More »

States show way to defund Planned Parenthood

When President Barack Obama first came to office abortion was already protected by judicial fiat in all 50 states.

So, to show his gratitude to his supporters in the abortion lobby, Mr. Obama made it a priority to funnel billions of taxpayer dollars to pro-abortion causes.

Sadly, in this administration taxpayer funding of abortions has seen the greatest explosion since Roe v. Wade.

To counter this attack, National Pro-Life Alliance members and other pro-lifers have been fighting not just in Congress, but also in their home states to end the use of your tax dollars in funding abortions.

As you may remember, I wrote you recently that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius gave Texas an ultimatum:

Texas must either use Medicaid funding for the Women's Health Program to pay Planned Parenthood and other abortion related businesses – or the 30 million in federal tax dollars that supported the program would be cut off.

This federal blackmail was a serious threat to the health of tens of thousands of Texas women who were being served by the program.

But in true Texas fashion, Governor Rick Perry and the Texas Legislature held their ground and didn't flinch.

Texas would find the funds in its own budget.

Barely a month after Sebelius' threat, the Lone Star State announced that it would put in place its OWN Women's Health Program.

They promised it, and now they have delivered.

Similarly, nine states, including New Hampshire, Arizona and Alabama, have recently passed legislation that blocks their taxes from paying abortion providers.

And while Texas has provided one way of dealing with the Obama Administration's bullying, every state will be different.

For example, in Indiana pro-lifers are battling in the courts to uphold the new law that blocks state and federal Medicaid funding from going to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.

Already, both the Obama Administration and Planned Parenthood are trying to use activist judges to get around the new law.

You can be sure that Planned Parenthood and the Obama Administration will not hesitate to use both federal government power and the courts to strong-arm every state into funding abortion.

And according to Planned Parenthood's own financial report, the government is ALREADY giving them nearly a half a billion dollars in yours and my tax money annually.

That's why your National Pro-Life Alliance, in addition to supporting state laws to defund abortion, is also working to pass the No Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Act.

This bill, with massive support from National Pro-Life Alliance members, has already passed in the House and has been debated in the Senate.

The No Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Act would completely shut off the flow of any federal money going to fund abortion providers ANYWHERE.

Not a cent to state programs, federal programs, or even to foreign countries.

Ultimately, we must continue to put pressure on politicians at every level to do the right thing.

They need to know that the overwhelming majority of Americans - not just stalwart Texans, or independent-minded Indianans – want nothing to do with the slaughter of innocent babies, anywhere in our great nation.

And, if you haven't already signed the petition urging Congress to pass the No Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Act, please click here.

For Life,

Martin Fox, President
National Pro-Life Alliance

P.S. In addition to your petition, please consider chipping in with a small donation of $10 or $15 to help the National Pro-Life Alliance expand our mobilization program to contact even more pro-lifers.

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FBI: We need wiretap-ready Web sites - now

CNET learns the FBI is quietly pushing its plan to force surveillance backdoors on social networks, VoIP, and Web e-mail providers, and that the bureau is asking Internet companies not to oppose a law making those backdoors mandatory.

by Declan McCullagh

The FBI is asking Internet companies not to oppose a controversial proposal that would require firms, including Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, and Google, to build in backdoors for government surveillance.
In meetings with industry representatives, the White House, and U.S. senators, senior FBI officials argue the dramatic shift in communication from the telephone system to the Internet has made it far more difficult for agents to wiretap Americans suspected of illegal activities, CNET has learned.
The FBI general counsel's office has drafted a proposed law that the bureau claims is the best solution: requiring that social-networking Web sites and providers of VoIP, instant messaging, and Web e-mail alter their code to ensure their products are wiretap-friendly.
"If you create a service, product, or app that allows a user to communicate, you get the privilege of adding that extra coding," an industry representative who has reviewed the FBI's draft legislation told CNET. The requirements apply only if a threshold of a certain number of users is exceeded, according to a second industry representative briefed on it.
The FBI's proposal would amend a 1994 law, called the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA, that currently applies only to telecommunications providers, not Web companies. The Federal Communications Commission extended CALEA in 2004 to apply to broadband networks.

FBI Director Robert Mueller is not asking companies to support the bureau's CALEA expansion, but instead is "asking what can go in it to minimize impacts," one participant in the discussions says. That included a scheduled trip this month to the West Coast -- which was subsequently postponed -- to meet with Internet companies' CEOs and top lawyers.
A further expansion of CALEA is unlikely to be applauded by tech companies, their customers, or privacy groups. Apple (which distributes iChat and FaceTime) is currently lobbying on the topic, according to disclosure documents filed with Congress two weeks ago. Microsoft (which owns Skype and Hotmail) says its lobbyists are following the topic because it's "an area of ongoing interest to us." Google, Yahoo, and Facebook declined to comment.
In February 2011, CNET was the first to report that then-FBI general counsel Valerie Caproni was planning to warn Congress of what the bureau calls its "Going Dark" problem, meaning that its surveillance capabilities may diminish as technology advances. Caproni singled out "Web-based e-mail, social-networking sites, and peer-to-peer communications" as problems that have left the FBI "increasingly unable" to conduct the same kind of wiretapping it could in the past.
In addition to the FBI's legislative proposal, there are indications that the Federal Communications Commission is considering reinterpreting CALEA to demand that products that allow video or voice chat over the Internet -- from Skype to Google Hangouts to Xbox Live -- include surveillance backdoors to help the FBI with its "Going Dark" program. CALEA applies to technologies that are a "substantial replacement" for the telephone system.
"We have noticed a massive uptick in the amount of FCC CALEA inquiries and enforcement proceedings within the last year, most of which are intended to address 'Going Dark' issues," says Christopher Canter, lead compliance counsel at the Marashlian and Donahue law firm, which specializes in CALEA. "This generally means that the FCC is laying the groundwork for regulatory action."
Subsentio, a Colorado-based company that sells CALEA compliance products and worked with the Justice Department when it asked the FCC to extend CALEA seven years ago, says the FBI's draft legislation was prepared with the compliance costs of Internet companies in mind.
In a statement to CNET, Subsentio President Steve Bock said that the measure provides a "safe harbor" for Internet companies as long as the interception techniques are "'good enough' solutions approved by the attorney general."
Another option that would be permitted, Bock said, is if companies "supply the government with proprietary information to decode information" obtained through a wiretap or other type of lawful interception, rather than "provide a complex system for converting the information into an industry standard format."
A representative for the FBI told CNET today that: "(There are) significant challenges posed to the FBI in the accomplishment of our diverse mission. These include those that result from the advent of rapidly changing technology. A growing gap exists between the statutory authority of law enforcement to intercept electronic communications pursuant to court order and our practical ability to intercept those communications. The FBI believes that if this gap continues to grow, there is a very real risk of the government 'going dark,' resulting in an increased risk to national security and public safety."
Next steps
The FBI's legislation, which has been approved by the Department of Justice, is one component of what the bureau has internally called the "National Electronic Surveillance Strategy." Documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation show that since 2006, Going Dark has been a worry inside the bureau, which employed 107 full-time equivalent people on the project as of 2009, commissioned a RAND study, and sought extensive technical input from the bureau's secretive Operational Technology Division in Quantico, Va. The division boasts of developing the "latest and greatest investigative technologies to catch terrorists and criminals."
But the White House, perhaps less inclined than the bureau to initiate what would likely be a bruising privacy battle, has not sent the FBI's CALEA amendments to Capitol Hill, even though they were expected last year. (A representative for Sen. Patrick Leahy, head of the Judiciary committee and original author of CALEA, said today that "we have not seen any proposals from the administration.")
Mueller said in December that the CALEA amendments will be "coordinated through the interagency process," meaning they would need to receive administration-wide approval.
Stewart Baker, a partner at Steptoe and Johnson who is the former assistant secretary for policy at Homeland Security, said the FBI has "faced difficulty getting its legislative proposals through an administration staffed in large part by people who lived through the CALEA and crypto fights of the Clinton administration, and who are jaundiced about law enforcement regulation of technology -- overly jaundiced, in my view."
On the other hand, as a senator in the 1990s, Vice President Joe Biden introduced a bill at the FBI's behest that echoes the bureau's proposal today. Biden's bill said companies should "ensure that communications systems permit the government to obtain the plain text contents of voice, data, and other communications when appropriately authorized by law." (Biden's legislation spurred the public release of PGP, one of the first easy-to-use encryption utilities.)
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment. An FCC representative referred questions to the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, which declined to comment.
From the FBI's perspective, expanding CALEA to cover VoIP, Web e-mail, and social networks isn't expanding wiretapping law: If a court order is required today, one will be required tomorrow as well. Rather, it's making sure that a wiretap is guaranteed to produce results.
But that nuanced argument could prove radioactive among an Internet community already skeptical of government efforts in the wake of protests over the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, in January, and the CISPA data-sharing bill last month. And even if startups or hobbyist projects are exempted if they stay below the user threshold, it's hardly clear how open-source or free software projects such as Linphone, KPhone, and Zfone -- or Nicholas Merrill's proposal for a privacy-protective Internet provider -- will comply.
The FBI's CALEA amendments could be particularly troublesome for Zfone. Phil Zimmermann, the creator of PGP who became a privacy icon two decades ago after being threatened with criminal prosecution, announced Zfone in 2005 as a way to protect the privacy of VoIP users. Zfone scrambles the entire conversation from end to end.
"I worry about the government mandating backdoors into these kinds of communications," says Jennifer Lynch, an attorney at the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has obtained documents from the FBI relating to its proposed expansion of CALEA.
As CNET was the first to report in 2003, representatives of the FBI's Electronic Surveillance Technology Section in Chantilly, Va., began quietly lobbying the FCC to force broadband providers to provide more-efficient, standardized surveillance facilities. The FCC approved that requirement a year later, sweeping in Internet phone companies that tie into the existing telecommunications system. It was upheld in 2006 by a federal appeals court.
But the FCC never granted the FBI's request to rewrite CALEA to cover instant messaging and VoIP programs that are not "managed"--meaning peer-to-peer programs like Apple's Facetime, iChat/AIM, Gmail's video chat, and Xbox Live's in-game chat that do not use the public telephone network.
If there is going to be a CALEA rewrite, "industry would like to see any new legislation include some protections against disclosure of any trade secrets or other confidential information that might be shared with law enforcement, so that they are not released, for example, during open court proceedings," says Roszel Thomsen, a partner at Thomsen and Burke who represents technology companies and is a member of an FBI study group. He suggests that such language would make it "somewhat easier" for both industry and the police to respond to new technologies.
But industry groups aren't necessarily going to roll over without a fight. TechAmerica, a trade association that includes representatives of HP, eBay, IBM, Qualcomm, and other tech companies on its board of directors, has been lobbying against a CALEA expansion. Such a law would "represent a sea change in government surveillance law, imposing significant compliance costs on both traditional (think local exchange carriers) and nontraditional (think social media) communications companies," TechAmerica said in e-mail today.
Ross Schulman, public policy and regulatory counsel at the Computer and Communications Industry Association, adds: "New methods of communication should not be subject to a government green light before they can be used."

"Going Dark" timeline

June 2008: FBI Director Robert Mueller and his aides brief Sens. Barbara Mikulski, Richard Shelby, and Ted Stevens on "Going Dark."
June 2008: FBI Assistant Director Kerry Haynes holds "Going Dark" briefing for Senate appropriations subcommittee and offers a "classified version of this briefing" at Quantico.
August 2008: Mueller briefed on Going Dark at strategy meeting.
September 2008: FBI completes a "high-level explanation" of CALEA amendment package.
May 2009: FBI Assistant Director Rich Haley briefs Senate Intelligence committee and Mikulsi staffers on how bureau is "dealing with the 'Going Dark' issue.'" Mikulski plans to bring up "Going Dark" at a closed-door hearing the following week.
May 2009: Haley briefs Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, currently the top Democrat on House Intelligence, who would later co-author CISPA.
September 2008: FBI staff briefed by RAND, which was commissioned to "look at" Going Dark.
November 2008: FBI Assistant Director Marcus Thomas, who oversees the Quantico-based Operational Technology Division, prepares briefing for President-Elect Obama's transition team.
December 2008: FBI intelligence analyst in Communications Analysis Unit begins analysis of VoIP surveillance.
February 2009: FBI memo to all field offices asks for anecdotal information about cases where "investigations have been negatively impacted" by lack of data retention or Internet interception.
March 2009: Mueller's advisory board meets for a full-day briefing on Going Dark.
April 2009: FBI distributes presentation for White House meeting on Going Dark.
April 2009: FBI warns that the Going Dark project is "yellow," meaning limited progress, because of "new administration personnel not being in place for briefings."
April 2009: FBI general counsel's office reports that the bureau's Data Interception Technology Unit has "compiled a list of FISA dockets... that the FBI has been unable to fully implement." That's a reference to telecom companies that are already covered by the FCC's expansion of CALEA.
May 2009: FBI's internal Wikipedia-knockoff Bureaupedia entry for "National Lawful Intercept Strategy" includes section on "modernize lawful intercept laws."
May 2009: FBI e-mail boasts that the bureau's plan has "gotten attention" from industry, but "we need to strengthen the business case on this."
June 2009: FBI's Office of Congressional Affairs prepares Going Dark briefing for closed-door session of Senate Appropriations subcommittee.
July 2010: FBI e-mail says the "Going Dark Working Group (GDWG) continues to ask for examples from Cvber investigations where investigators have had problems" because of new technologies.
September 2010: FBI staff operations specialist in its Counterterrorism Division sends e-mail on difficulties in "obtaining information from Internet Service Providers and social-networking sites."

"Going Dark" timeline

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