Those who warned of the civil liberties issues with these cameras were 100% correct that they could be used to track and database the movement and associations of law abiding citizens. Why is this dangerous? Let’s say one day the government does something that you don’t like. Then, lawfully exercising your right to free speech and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievance, you protest it. Suddenly you have popped up on the government’s radar screen. The government can then check the voluminous records they have already started keeping on Americans, such as travel and flight records.

The government can go back and go through your call logs, Internet traffic, movement logs, and other electronic traces with a fine tooth comb looking for things that woud allow them to harrass or intimidate you.

There are millions of laws on the books, many of them complex and hard for the average person to understand and follow. How many of these laws are you aware of? How many of them have you inadvertently broken? How many others exist that you don’t even know about!

Tracking movements and associations is especially useful when turning the power of  government against it’s citizens.

In order for cyberspace to be policed, Internet activity will have to be closely monitored. Ed Giorgio, who is working with ( Michael “Top Spy”) McConnell on the plan, said that would mean giving the government the authority to examine the content of any e-mail, file transfer, or Web search. “Google has records that could help in a cyber-investigation,” he said. Giorgio warned me, “We have a saying in this business: ‘Privacy and security are a zero-sum game.’” – Wired Magazine: NSA Must Examine All Internet Traffic to Prevent Cyber Nine-Eleven, Top Spy Says

For example, after checking on your life, they may find out that your best friend is a member of several environmental groups, one of them suspected of links to environmental terrorism. You or someone you know were in close proximity to a drug dealer, or that mafia guy, or while at the local convenience store you spoke with a guy who recently got busted for breaking into homes.

Even though you are a law abiding citizen, can you be sure that every single person you ever have come in contact with is, or was, as well? That is the true danger of this: guilt by association or proximity.

It is time for the Clarksville City Council to rescind their red-light camera program and not install these spy cameras in our community.

Vendors plan to add spy technology to existing red light camera and speed camera installations.

Private companies in the US are hoping to use red light cameras and speed cameras as the basis for a nationwide surveillance network similar to one that will be active next year in the UK. Redflex and American Traffic Solutions (ATS), the top two photo enforcement providers in the US, are quietly shopping new motorist tracking options to prospective state and local government clients. Redflex explained the company’s latest developments in an August 7 meeting with Homestead, Florida officials.

“We are moving into areas such as homeland security on a national level and on a local level,” Redflex regional director Cherif Elsadek said. “Optical character recognition is our next roll out which will be coming out in a few months — probably about five months or so.”

The technology would be integrated with the Australian company’s existing red light camera and speed camera systems. It allows officials to keep full video records of passing motorists and their passengers, limited only by available hard drive space and the types of cameras installed. To gain public acceptance, the surveillance program is being initially sold as an aid for police looking to solve Amber Alert cases and locate stolen cars.

“Imagine if you had 1500 or 2000 cameras out there that could look out for the partial plate or full plate number across the 21 states where we do business today,” Elsadek said. “This is the next step for our technology.”

ATS likewise is promoting motorist tracking technologies. In a recent proposal to operate 200 speed cameras for the Arizona state police, the company explained that its ticketing cameras could be integrated into a national vehicle tracking database. This would allow a police officer to simply enter a license plate number into a laptop computer and receive an email as soon as a speed camera anywhere in the state recognized that plate.

Such programs would be fully consistent with existing law on searches and seizures. In the 2003 case Washington v. William Bradley Jackson, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled that police could not use a physical GPS tracking device to monitor a suspect’s movements without first obtaining a warrant. No warrant would be needed or restrictions applied to license plate tracking systems which do not require any physical contact. Instead, individual police officers could monitor the movements of suspected criminals or even their wives and neighbors at any time.

In the past, police databases have been used to intimidate innocent motorists. An Edmonton, Canada police sergeant, for example, found himself outraged after he read columnist Kerry Diotte criticize his city’s photo radar operation in the Edmonton Sun newspaper. The sergeant looked up Diotte’s personal information, and, without the assistance of electronic scanners, ordered his subordinates to “be on the lookout” for Diotte’s BMW. Eventually a team of officers followed Diotte to a local bar where they hoped to trap the journalist and accuse him of driving under the influence of alcohol. Diotte took a cab home and the officers’ plan was exposed after tapes of radio traffic were leaked to the press. Police later cleared themselves of any serious wrong-doing following an extensive investigation.

In the UK, officials are planning to dramatically expand the use of average speed cameras that track cars over distances as great as six miles. Records on all vehicle movements taken from a nationwide network of cameras will be stored for five years in a central government Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) server, allowing police to keep tabs on criminals and political opponents. Work on the data center in north London began in 2005 and officials expect real-time, nationwide tracking capability to be available by January.

Source: The Newspaper, Photo Ticket Cameras to Track Drivers Nationwide

About The Newspaper

The Newspaper is a journal covering motoring issues around the world from a political perspective.

The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. – THE FEDERALIST NO. 47, at 301 (James Madison)

Here’s the meat of the issue.

George W. Bush, Jr personally stated that he had over 30 times authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans suspected of terrorist connections without a warrant.

The secret eavesdropping program, which President Bush authorized shortly after the September 11 attacks, allows the NSA to intercept domestic communications without a warrant, as long as one party is outside the United States…Bush, who first authorized the program in early 2002, said he has renewed the program over 30 times since its inception and reviews it every 45 days.� – Inquiry into leak of NSA spying program launched, CNN

But that contrary to what the law says on the matter.

Federal law says that “exclusive means” to conduct electronic surveillance is FISA and Title III (which governs the use of wiretaps by law enforcement)…Federal law says that any surveillance that is not conducted under those two statues is illegal. [18 U.S.C. 2551(2)(f); 50 U.S.C. 1809(a)] – The Department of Justice Memo Debunked, Think progress

The Department of Justice issued a memo in defense of the President’s program, and his authorization of it making two basic arguments.

The Department of Justice has released a memo defending President Bush’s warrantless domestic spying argument. There are two main arguments:

• Any limitations FISA places on the President’s authority to issue warrantless domestic searches are unconstitutional, and
• Congress gave the President authority to issue warrantless domestic searches

Two days ago a Judge issued a ruling on this� program which invalidated those two defenses:

Defendants have violated the Constitutional rights of their citizens including the First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, and the Separation of Powers doctrine.

****

This court is constrained to grant to Plaintiffs the Partial Summary Judgment requested, and holds that the TSP violates the Administrative Procedures Act ("APA"); the Separation of Powers doctrine; the First and Fourth Amendments of the United States Constitution; and the statutory law.

She also said:

The President of the United States, a creature of the same Constitution which gave us these Amendments, has undisputedly violated the Fourth in failing to procure judicial orders as required by FISA, and accordingly has violated the First Amendment Rights of these Plaintiffs as well.

One of the duties of the President of the United States enumerated in article� II section 3 of our Constitution:

…he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed…

He also swears in his oath of office to protect and defend the constitution of the United States. Our founders felt this oath was so important they enshrined it in our Constitution also in Article II section 1.

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

By authorizing this illegal program George W. Bush, Jr is also guilty of a Felony punishable by a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than five years, or both.

A person is guilty of an offense if he intentionally:

(1) engages in electronic surveillance under color of law except� as authorized by statute;

President Bush, violated his oath of office, the constitution, and the law� by authorizing this program. We impeached Bill Clinton for lying under oath about an affair in a civil law suit. How can we not respond the same for this much more serious breach by President Bush.

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

If our elected representatives do not take prompt action to punish the President for violating his oath, and abrogating one of the primary duties as president, they will be violating their oaths of office as well.

Read on for the full text of the Judges ruling….

If you looked behind the grandiose press conferences of the cases against Abu Ali, Jose Padilla’s, and others like theirs, you find the flimsiest of facts – Counter punch

So, take these new claims of Terrorist plots with a grain of salt.

Much like that in the terrorism conspiracy claims made against 7 men from Miami, Florida recently.

“As been reported, seven men were arrested yesterday in Miami on charges of conspiring to support the al Qaeda terrorist organization by planning attacks on numerous targets, including bombing the Sears Tower in Chicago, the FBI building in North Miami Beach, Florida, and other government buildings in Miami-Date County.” – U.S. Department of Justice Press Release

But in reality the men were not linked to any terrorist groups, attempted no terrorist actions other than reportedly swearing oaths to a terrorist organization which they had never any contact with.

Our own government privately dismissed the risk of these so called conspirators, while at the same time making sensational claims to the contrary to the press.

Buzz Flash a online progressive news organization compiled a list of quotes:

The Chicago Police told the NY Daily News that There was “No credible threat… They had no capability to (destroy the Sears tower). They never got to that point – or could have.”

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that a Sears Tower executive informed them that “Law enforcement continues to tell us that they have never found evidence of a credible terrorism threat against Sears Tower that has gone beyond criminal discussions.”

A Senior federal law-enforcement source was quite clear that the group had “No means” to attack Sears Tower or other buildings. “There was no threat at all.” according to the Chicago Tribune.

The Executive Director of the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communication said “The plan developed in Florida was never an actual plan, and therefore, nobody was in danger” so says a CBS News report.

Buzzflash also released a report that in June, Karl Rove ratcheted his much vaunted fear machine up again.

I am sure we all remember this the quote from Fahrenheit 9/11:

“You can make people do anything when they’re afraid.” – Jim McDermott (D-WA)

I feel that George Bush needs a dictionary. In a press conference he recently held, Bush said:

The recent arrests that our fellow citizens are now learning about are a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to — to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our nation.

The Wikipedia defines fascism as “a radical totalitarian political philosophy that combines elements of corporatism, authoritarianism, extreme nationalism, militarism, anti-anarchism, anti-communism and anti-liberalism.”

Sure sounds like the George W. Bush’s vision of his ideal government. Could this be a classic example of projection?

Projection is a defense mechanism where an individual attributes to other people impulses and traits that he himself has, but cannot accept.

He also made claims that our nation is safer since 9/11

The — this country is safer than it was prior to 9/11. We’ve taken a lot of measures to protect the American people. But obviously we’re still not completely safe, because there are people that still plot and people who want to harm us for what we believe in. It is a mistake to believe there is no threat to the United States of America.

And that is why we have given our officials the tools they need to protect our people.

He doesn’t care that he’s had to trash the laws of this nation and the Constitution that he swore to protect and defend, in order to do it either.

A quote that some attribute to Benjamin Franklin says it quite well:

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Our nation may be safer, but we have lost too much of the freedoms we used to take for granted in exchange. The goal of terrorism is to make the targeted society change. In this, we have given victory to the terrorists.

We nibble away at the liberties which made America the envy of the world, all in the name of protecting our citizens. Yes steps should be taken to protect our nation from terrorist attacks, but not at the cost of our personal, civil, and constitutionally protected liberties.

We have had The Constitution in Crisis; The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution, and Coverups in the Iraq War, and Illegal Domestic Surveillance, a recent report released by the minority members of Congress which details some of the constitutional issues created by the use of these Bush Administration tactics.

Bush also said:

It — travelers are going to be inconvenienced as a result of the steps we’ve taken. I urge their patience and ask them to be vigilant. The inconveniences occurs because we will take the steps necessary to protect the American people.

…The American people need to know we live in a dangerous world, but our government will do everything we can to protect our people from those dangers.

We lived in a dangerous world long before 2001, the only thing that changed was the people and the party in charge, and how badly they over reacted to it.

It is past time that we show the Republicans, the Bush Administration, and their enablers, that our freedoms are not something that we are willing to surrender, that they are accountable to the people of the United States, and to the rule of law. No one in our nation is above the law, and our president and his administration should not be held to a lesser standard, but to a higher one.

Here’s someone who says why this is necessary, much better than I ever could:

-5356028356890054402

San Francisco

EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston, EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn, and Robert Fram of Heller Ehrman LLP will analyze the ruling and answer questions in a conference call at 1:30pm.

EFF filed the class-action suit against AT&T in January, alleging that the telecommunications company has given the National Security Agency (NSA) secret, direct access to the phone calls and emails going over its network and has been handing over communications logs detailing the activities of millions of ordinary Americans.

For the judge’s decision:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/308_order_on_mtns_to_dismiss.pdf

For more on the AT&T lawsuit:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/

Contacts:

Rebecca Jeschke
Media Coordinator
Electronic Frontier Foundation

John J. Buchanan
Director of Communications
Heller Ehrman LLP
john.