Big Brother is WWWatching You - feat. George Orwell [RAP NEWS 15]

TrapWire's Alleged Corporate and Government Connections Grow As TrapWire searches out and scrubs all references in the mainstream media to its global surveillance system, new connections between it and other tracking technologies are being uncovered. Tartan is software designed by Ntrepid Corporation that “exposes and quantifies key influencers and hidden connections in social networks using mathematical algorithms for objective, un-biased output. Our analysts, mathematicians and computer scientists are continually exploring new quantification, mining and visualization techniques in order to better analyze social networks.” According to RT, Tartan “aims to track down alleged anarchists by specifically singling out Occupy Wall Street protesters and the publicly funded media — all with the aid of federal agents.” The Tartan website proudly admits this use of its technology. “Tartan was used to reveal a hidden network of relationships among anarchist leaders of seemingly unrelated movements,” the website reads. Exactly what is TrapWire?

Jeff Connaughton The Payoff Justice Department And Wall Street TrapWire: Internet rumors about the "surveillance" software aren't based in reality. Photo by YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/GettyImages Internet activists have whipped up a storm on Twitter in recent days over TrapWire, which they claim is a secret international facial-recognition and social-media monitoring network for use by governments. It sounds like an outrageous infringement of our rights. Unfortunately—or, perhaps, fortunately—most of it is rooted in hyperbole and misinformation, heavier on fiction than fact. Ryan Gallagher is a journalist who reports on surveillance, security, and civil liberties. Follow The hysteria began last week after WikiLeaks published a series of internal emails from Stratfor, a security and intelligence think tank. So what is TrapWire? In essence, TrapWire is a kind of intelligent database. What makes TrapWire stand out is what it does with the stored information. Since 2003, so-called Fusion Centers in U.S. cities have been gathering, sharing, and analyzing “threat-related information” on a federal and local level.

US democracy: The power of money - Empire The US presidential elections in November 2012 are expected to become the most expensive in history. One estimate by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) goes as high as $11bn. The vast majority of this political money has come from a handful of super-rich supporters of the Republican Party dwarfing the attempts by citizens, associations or labour unions to do the same. Many on the right claim deregulating campaign financing as a victory for free speech whilst most on the left fear the changes are corrupting democracy. Controversial campaign funding rule changes brought in after a Supreme Court ruling in 2010 have opened the floodgates to billionaire donors with the potential to buy influence all the way to the White House. The new system is rarely challenged in the mainstream media. But more fundamentally, in a free market society where the richest 400 people have more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans, Empire asks if money transforms or distorts the whole political process.

I think we need to ask 'our' representatives who voted to purchase and implement #trapwire : ukpolitics Activists warned to watch what they say as social media monitoring becomes 'next big thing in law enforcement' - Crime - UK John Cooper QC said that police are monitoring key activists online and that officers and the courts are becoming increasingly savvy when it comes to social media. But, speaking to The Independent, he added that he also expected that to drive an increase in the number of criminals being brought to justice in the coming months. "People involved in public protest should use social media to their strengths, like getting their message across. But they should not use them for things like discussing tactics. They might as well be having a tactical meeting with their opponents sitting in and listening. "For example, if antifascist organisers were discussing their plans on social media, they can assume that a fascist organisation will be watching. Mr Cooper QC's warning comes after a New York court ordered Twitter to hand over messages posted on the site by a demonstrator belonging to the Occupy Wall Street movement in America. Mr Cooper QC added: "activists are putting themselves at more risk.

ELI5 Trapwire and why it is bad : explainlikeimfive Green Party candidate: Police handcuffed me to a chair for eight hours By Arturo GarciaWednesday, October 17, 2012 12:47 EDT Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein said Wednesday police handcuffed her to a chair during her eight-hour imprisonment following her arrest outside the second presidential debate. “For most of the time it was just [running mate] Cheri Honkala and myself,” Stein told Democracy Now anchor Amy Goodman. Stein and Honkala were arrested Tuesday while sitting in the street to protest their exclusion from this year’s presidential debates between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney. During her arrest, Stein criticized the group that organized the event, the Commission on Presidential Debates, which was put together as a joint effort by Democrats and Republicans to administer the debates after the League of Women Voters stepped out of that role in 1987. Stein also said she and Honkala were not released until about 30 minutes after the Obama-Romney debate, when they were told “their car” was waiting for them.

Wikileaks reveals "TrapWire," a government spy network that uses ordinary surveillance cameras It's one thing to have single actions out of context being watched by various people, it's quite another to have every action watched by a handful of people. The former keeps you from performing a suspicious action, the latter keeps you from having a suspicious lifestyle. I wonder if people agree with this because cameras are such an abstraction. Would it seem just as okay if a government agent was waiting for you outside your door to follow you around your daily life? But I already exist in a world that includes other people. Private investigators follow people around in public. there is a huge difference between a man following me and a camera. scale. one of these ways costs a lot to follow me. one costs little to follow every last one of us. Wrong. Now, the presumption of privacy is not absolute out in public, if someone overhears your discussion but is not actively following you, they are not stalking.

Jill Stein Arrested Before Hofstra Debate, Campaign Reports Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was arrested outside of Hofstra University on Tuesday after she attempted to enter the debate grounds. According to Stein's campaign press statement, Stein and running mate Cheri Honkala joined supporters outside the Hofstra campus at 2 p.m., where Stein declared: "We are here to bring the courage of those excluded from our politics to this mock debate, this mockery of democracy." When they started to walk onto the debate grounds, they were stopped by police officers, and then the two women sat down on the ground. Student-run news organization Long Island Report posted a video of Stein and Honkala sitting, with an officer arguing, "You're blocking traffic." According to the campaign, Stein and Honkala were then arrested. Earlier in the day, Stein told Philadelphia Weekly that despite some butterflies in the stomach, "We are prepared to be arrested in the service of democracy and a future that serves us all.” Also on HuffPost: