The Department of Homeland Security Wants to Friend You?
First the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does away with color-coded terror alerts. Then Janet Napolitano tells Congress that the terror threat is at an all-time high. What’s going on?
In January 2009, when studying the color-coded terror alerts, a group of UCLA researchers found “the mentally ill, the disabled, African Americans, Latinos, Chinese Americans, Korean Americans and non-U.S. citizens were likelier to think the HSAS [Homeland Security Advisory System] alert level was higher than it was, and to worry more and change their behavior due to those fears.” The Obama administration — deciding that the “threat condition has economic, physical, and psychological effects on the nation” — set about to change the Bush administration’s pre-existing system. Come April, the color-coding terror alert system will cease to exist. In its place will be Facebook and Twitter.
Wait. Are you really being asked to friend DHS? The answer is yes.
It’s a supremely odd marriage: terrorism alerts and social networking sites. And one that is not necessarily as innocuous as it seems. While this friendship may make UCLA test subjects less fearful, it might make others terribly nervous, and should. Absent from Napolitano’s congressional speech is the fact that as DHS is encouraging citizens to get information about their safety and security via cyberspace, DHS is simultaneously in the process of “deploying” its ability to monitor cyberspace in the civilian sector. It is doing this through a federal technology package known as Einstein 3, developed by the National Security Agency, or NSA.
An earlier version, called Einstein 1, was originally intended to prevent a cyberattack on federal government networks from the Pentagon to the FAA. In 2009, this “initiative” made up the single largest request for funds in the classified intelligence budget. By 2010, President Obama’s assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications, Greg Schaffer, said during an interview that the department was evaluating whether Einstein “makes sense for expansion” over time. Last month Einstein 3 was deployed — and with it the ability to read content of emails in the civilian sector. The White House obliquely confirmed as much in an unclassified release of information on the new program just last month. Right around that same time, in a speech at George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute, Janet Napolitano also confirmed that Einstein 3 had been “deployed.”
Instead of deploying human intelligence assets within major hot spots all over the US,on the scale necessary to thwart major homegrown & foreign attacks, the (mis)leading lights in the Obama regime have taken to general surveillance, not of the Islamists, but akin to the Russians and Iranian thugocrats.
Not for nothing has this regime maintained that a crisis should NEVER go to waste, as they operate incrementally to gain greater access to average Americans. While Islamists are FREE as birds to operate ALL over the US within Saudi/MB backed mosques, DEEP within the BOWELS of Washington agencies(Infiltration, by Sperry, tells the Islamic tale)average American are being invaded via cyberspace.
Moreover, Washington’s community organizer in chief has been able to deploy vast assets in order to not only undermine the US economy, but to upend Constitutional freedoms.
He and his lackeys are nothing more than a junta-of the elitist kind!!Those who subscribe to their new invitation are in for a whirlwind of trouble.
Bravo!
Are you saying that if I’m in New York City and a nuclear bomb goes off, I can read about my death on Facebook and Twitter? A lot of good THAT’s going to do me! Ugh, and Democrats wonder why most Americans are petrified with this administration, not to mention Janet “The man-made disaster altert is high” Napolitano. Please, can we get some grownups to run this country again, people who actually HAVE some experience in National Security?
“DHS wants to be seen as a gentler, softer agency.”
Really..?
Facebook and Twitter are home to several of the most potent threats to Obama’s political career that exist.
Sarah Palin is among them. She has had the shrewdness to communicate, dialog with and make friends of the largest across the spectrum block of voters in our country. She is making sure that the young people know and understand tens of thousands of things that Obama withholds from them out of fear for his own skinny rear end. Now you know why Obama’s daughters are not allowed to have Facebook friends.
If DHS using Facebook and Twitter is anything it is step one to total control of the world’s most powerful medium of communication, the Internet.
One questionable homeland security hiccup event anywhere in the world equals Obama (exercising impending National Threat authority) can shut down Facebook, Twitter and the Internet.
With the flip of one switch almost all of the opposition to Obama can be neutralized indefinitely. Goodbye Sarah Palin, Matt Drudge, Tea Party and PJM among many others.
Only a fool would believe that anything other than this kind of thinking is the reason for the new DHS terror alerts system.
“DHS wants to be seen as a gentler, softer agency.”
(The Commando sees this as an oxymoron and, as such, unintentionally both funny and scary.)
Sure hope they get those tweets out before Obombya hits that internet kill switch!
“the mentally ill, the disabled, African Americans, Latinos, Chinese Americans, Korean Americans and non-U.S. citizens were likelier to think the HSAS [Homeland Security Advisory System] alert level was higher than it was, and to worry more and change their behavior due to those fears.” So. We have catered our new policy to these groups. Why not? They have been the focus of fawning, arse kissing, favoritism, and catering for generations. So the majority of the people in this country count for squat. Nothing has changed. Re the non- U.S. citizens: how many are potential terrorists who change their behavior to remain undetected before the damage? What a stupendously moronic policy – straight from the administration of the Messianic Moron.
Oh now be sensitive to their plan. It took Janet, Holder and Clapper all night to think this plan up by themselves. Then it took another night to teach Obama to read their plan, that`s a lot of work for them.
I dont’ know what to say about this, let them watch me if they have nothing better to do, I don’t give a fig, Eaves droppers never hear anything good about themselves. In all honesty, Janet Napolitano and the rest of her ilk are starting look and sound like comic book characters. They had plenty of warnings or “red lights” concering the fort hood shooter, no one did anything to stop him and once he had done his deed we never have heard how many years he got after his court martial/murder trial, there was a trial wasn’t there? no , gee, what a shock.
If The Government is so worried aobut terrorists why are they bringing in 80,000 more next month? why did they bring in 40,000 of these muslims within 2 weeks of 9-11, and why are there millions here when you can’t get more than a 6 month visa for the Nordic countries or Ireland? There is no answer to that, just the usual skull duggery, Tom foolishness that our Government actually thinks is OK. If thats the way they want to spend /waste our money then let them go for it, maybe they can tell me if my hat is on straight, I hope they get a good look. I don’t appreciate my tax dollars being spent to watch me. Friend them? I think not.
The assertions in the headline and subtitle are not supported by the facts presented in the article. “Big Sis” has done a lot of things to make me not trust her, but there was not new evidence presented here.
Is it good news or bad news that DHS is not getting their information from the media, like CIA Directer Panetta this week?
Does DHS think the Muslim Brotherhood is secular organization, like the Director of National Intelligence, Mr. Clapper?
The DHS seems to be just another layer of bureaucracy on top of all the rival gaggles of Keystone Kops that we already have.
Private, voluntary organizations, such as The Jawa Report, do a far better job of tracking security threats in cyberspace than our goverment can do. Why? Because they are not constrained by political correctness and the obvious pro-Islamic bias of the Obama Administration.
So, lets see where we are at.
According to Obama via the Department of Homeland Security the real terror threats to America’s security are now coming from the heartland of America’s good old boys (aka homegrown, right wing, Tea Party, so forth).
The new Emergency Broadcast notification system will prominently feature Obama’s face and voice before and/or after the already familiar tones.
Using the aforementioned increased internal threat to our National Security to implement a new, much stricter Fairness Doctrine the Good Old Boys network of communications; talk radio and FoxNews cable will be controlled by Obama.
Now using the same terror alert threat justification Facebook, Twitter and the Internet will be controlled by Obama.
Whats left..?
Oh yes. Government Motors, Onboard Star that is. We can locate, start and stop your transportation anywhere you go in the world. Nah.. they wouldn’t do anything like that would they..?
Ah Ha. Cell Phones! Millions upon millions and millions of Cell Phones. All of them alive and completely dependent upon Cell Towers covering every square inch of our country at 5 to 10 miles intervals. Can you say, ” Seize control of the satellite Up and Down Link systems right now!” Bubba..?
Embedded one way spike strips will take care of the rebels that drive Fords and Toyotas.
Camels can and will simply step over them; meaning that our new best friends (according to Obama and DHS) the Muslim Brotherhood can easily go wherever they want with no problem.
My how much life has changed in the last two years.
We have so many new Friends to be grateful for…
And Hope…. Is everywhere.
If they are so smart, how come they can’t find out who hijacked my first email account, and is using it to spam the internet?
Communists the world over, are watching these policies unfold in the United States, and saying to themselves, “Why didn’t we think of that”?
And so it begins….
Wait. Are you really being asked to friend DHS?
The “if you see something, say something” crowd ?
Janet’s advice for you while you’re shopping in Wal-Mart or if you’re attending the Super Bowl ?
If I see Janet, Barry et al. unintelligently fomenting paranoia, should I say something ?
DHS has shown an obsession with the “domestic” or home grown terrorist, not so much focus on guys like the Underwear Bomber whose own father had warned the American embassy about his son. Janet’s immediate response to that near débacle was “the system worked”.
The system in that case was the underwear guy’s fellow plane travelers jumping him.
I can’t wait to see the reaction of the suckers that sign up for this ‘service’ when the system is hacked by China and is telling everyone that a nuclear event is taking place in Washington D.C.
There’ll be a ‘run’ on toilet paper and ‘depends’. Pun intended.
Actually, I’d be more interested to see Anonymous do something with it instead. They could hack it to make fun of NSA/DHS as well as use it to get their point across to all of the followers of those sites.
Most on the Left in Washington DC see leadership in the context of control and regulation.
Almost all their impulses are towards exerting and exercising greater supervision over you.
They don’t have any grasp at all of what constitutes true leadership.
With “friends” like this, who needs enemies?
What’s that chirping sound I’m hearing over at HuffPo and Kos in response to “Einstein 3″ and the surveillance of the citizenry at large? Crickets?
Guess I’ll never get the warnings because I don’t use Facebook or Twitter.
I find putting my personal information on the internet creepy. If the scammers and crooks want to find out something about me, they’ll have to work a little harder and find it on their own.
Could not agree more.
I keep thinking that these two are overrated (I mean Facebook and Twitter, but it goes for Obama and Napalitano, too.) Just ‘cos you’re on the net a lot does not mean you use those. I also prefer to keep my private life as private as possible in these “Be my friend” days. (“Creepy” describes it perfectly.)
Some of us are still so un-social-networked that when we saw Zuckerman on Time in December, we said “Who’s that?” Man of the Year? Rrrrright.
The whole color coded alert level was useless anyway. What good does it do anyone to know that the threat level is “elevated” without specific information on which to act or be watchful about?
This thing was a cover-your-ass mechanism from the very beginning. Am I the only one that figured out it would be at perpetual amber from the very day it was announced? No politician will let it go to green lest there be a terror attack while green and people will scream for their heads because OBVIOUSLY the threat level wasn’t green.
It was all a huge distraction and had no practical consequence, except to make crazy people more paranoid. Good riddance.
So first they feel us up, now they want to friend us.
In addition to what the author has described, there’s the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, which has the potential to eliminate online anonymity. Watch it closely. http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/ns_tic.pdf
The inmates have indeed taken over the asylum. I’m another that will not get the alerts in that placing that much personal information in those places is just not wise. My life revolves around real stuff not “social networking” sites.
None of the administrations minions had a clue about what went down in Egypt and even less of a clue about the players. Par for the course.
Meanwhile 0gabe’s union brown shirts and importation of his muzzie army continues unabated while we are fed ever increasing quantities of bovine feces.
God help us all.
IF BEING “FRIENDS” WITH DHS MEANS I HAVE THE SAME “FRIENDS” OBAMA HAS CHOSEN FOR HIMSELF, NO THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!
I thought it was Nixon who was the most paranoid prez in history. This shit is insane. I used to tell people back in the mid 1990′s that one day we would be asking the Russians how to restore democracy. I sure hope I was wrong. I used to say the news media is getting a lot like TASS. I still say people are fools to use Facebook and twittering is for birds.
They have got to be kidding. These folks are the enemy from with-in and the want to be friends……I think this entire administration should be in jail. Then your cellmates can be your friends because you are not going to find any in the real America.
Hah!
Hmmm. Perhaps this explains the Administration’s trying to shove ‘broadband-for-everybody’ down our throats.
Does anyone believe DHS will know anything about any disaster, natural or man made, until it’s too late?
You’d be better off with a modest stockpile of food and water, and a go bag. Don’t worry, your friend Janet will be OK. Your tax dollars are looking after her. You are, as always, on your own. I don’t need DHS as a friend, I’ve got Oscar the Grouch and the Cookie Monster. My imaginary friends do more for me than DHS will for you.
We all need to do everything we can to overload the system just like with the old carnivore one.
In every email, blog, tweet, facebook post add words like
Hijack, truck rental, amonia-nitrate, or fertalizer
flight # (add random number) bomb, Allah, target, Washington, whitehouse, NYC, Sears Tower,
Just adding 3 of these random words will get every message sent read by program thereby overloading and severly slowing down the system.
Just do not be stupid and say your GOING to bomb so and so or this or that place.
On the plus side we can use facebook to track down the “Friends of DHS” and explain to them how in real life “Snitches get stitches”
We are living in the Twilight Zone.
If this is true, we’re in for serious trouble in the near future. I will never “friend” the DHS on any social media site, Facebook, MySpace, etc. There is something sinister hidden in this movement.
The DHS looks more an more like the KGB
I recall all the alerts and warnings that were tested for emergency civil defense daily did not go off the day the towers fell.
I expect any other attack will also NOT set off the color coded, cell phone alerts or any face book alersts.
There will be no time or no power to send such alerts no doubt but I believe the whole alert system is simply to make us think there is an alert system in place.
If there is a terrorist attack we will see it on the news hours later after the fact if at all. Even then the first reports will state “This is NOT a terrorist attack” and then the news will switch to charlie sheens next foulup.
And just how long will it be before “Janet’s Friends” will be required to tell her all bout the guns they own. How long will it take before the “friends” will be asked to contribute to Obama’s re-election campaign. How long will it be before the “friends” will be notified to mobilize against those “wascally Wepublicans” as a group in order to secure the Blessings of Obama and the Democrats upon us, and our posterity?
And how long before participants will be listed, categorized, and threat assessed by an over-reaching federal bureaucracy? Immediate!
’nuff said