connecticut is part of the matrix

and i'm NOT talking about keanu


January 8, 2006
UNPATRIOTIC SPYING
The struggle for America's soul
By Michael Hammerschlag
HAMMERNEWS
The decision by the Bush Administration to go after the New York Times for exposing a portion of their spying- the unauthorized NSA spying on calls to Afghanistan- sets up the central struggle for America’s soul. Truthfully, no one is much alarmed by monitoring connections with Afghanistan or scanning US mosques for radiation; both have a legitimate national security justification. But the FBI is spying on 30,000 people a year- according to the Washington Post, permitted by warrantless so-called national security letters (NSLs) under Section 505 of the Patriot Act, and now it turns out the Pentagon, CIA, and NSA have all also been engaged in illegitimate and unjustified spying on Americans, including harmless peace groups and all US-foreign e-mail.


.........................The Total Information Awareness program (run by John Pointdexter) mined and linked all government and commercial databases: 20 billion records including bank records, motor-vehicle records, driver's licenses with digital photographs, credit histories, family, Social Security #, names of neighbors and landlords… for “interesting” associations. It was supposedly shut down after a public outcry in 2003, but in reality it was just shifted to the Commerce Dept., and renamed the Matrix: the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange - built by Florida’s Seisint Inc. after 9-11, and run by ex-drug smuggler Hank Asher, whose company performed the Felon Purge against mostly black Florida voters in the 2000 election (42% inaccurate, according to our research*). “Seisint turned over the resulting 120,000 names- people the company claimed had a high terrorism quotient... - to federal and Florida law enforcement authorities.”-- St. Petersburg Times. Seisint has since been sold to Lexis/Nexis after Asher was forced out. States participating in Matrix include Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Connecticut; and formerly Alabama, Georgia, Utah, Kentucky, Louisiana, South Carolina, Oregon, and New York. Technically privately owned (though run by the FBI and HSA), the MATRIX has no oversight mechanism- inaccurate information can’t be corrected or removed. The program was supposedly partially dismantled last April. Meanwhile, the NSA’s and ex-British allies’ worldwide Eschelon monitoring system reportedly scans some 3 billion calls and messages a day. ...............