FBI's 'suspicious' files on suspicious people...

[revelarts]

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/monitoring-america/3/


The FBI's 'suspicious' files
.....
At the same time that the FBI is expanding its West Virginia database, it is building a vast repository controlled by people who work in a top-secret vault on the fourth floor of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building in Washington. This one stores the profiles of tens of thousands of Americans and legal residents who are not accused of any crime. What they have done is appear to be acting suspiciously to a town sheriff, a traffic cop or even a neighbor.

If the new Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative, or SAR, works as intended, the Guardian database may someday hold files forwarded by all police departments across the country in America's continuing search for terrorists within its borders.

The effectiveness of this database depends, in fact, on collecting the identities of people who are not known criminals or terrorists - and on being able to quickly compile in-depth profiles of them.

"If we want to get to the point where we connect the dots, the dots have to be there," said Richard A. McFeely, special agent in charge of the FBI's Baltimore office.

In response to concerns that information in the database could be improperly used or released, FBI officials say anyone with access has been trained in privacy rules and the penalties for breaking them.

But not everyone is convinced. "It opens a door for all kinds of abuses," said Michael German, a former FBI agent who now leads the American Civil Liberties Union's campaign on national security and privacy matters. "How do we know there are enough controls?"

The government defines a suspicious activity as "observed behavior reasonably indicative of pre-operational planning related to terrorism or other criminal activity" related to terrorism.

State intelligence analysts and FBI investigators use the reports to determine whether a person is buying fertilizer to make a bomb or to plant tomatoes; whether she is plotting to poison a city's drinking water or studying for a metallurgy test; whether, as happened on a Sunday morning in late September, the man snapping a picture of a ferry in the Newport Beach harbor in Southern California simply liked the way it looked or was plotting to blow it up.

Suspicious Activity Report N03821 says a local law enforcement officer observed "a suspicious subject . . . taking photographs of the Orange County Sheriff Department Fire Boat and the Balboa Ferry with a cellular phone camera." The confidential report, marked "For Official Use Only," noted that the subject next made a phone call, walked to his car and returned five minutes later to take more pictures. He was then met by another person, both of whom stood and "observed the boat traffic in the harbor." Next another adult with two small children joined them, and then they all boarded the ferry and crossed the channel.

All of this information was forwarded to the Los Angeles fusion center for further investigation after the local officer ran information about the vehicle and its owner through several crime databases and found nothing.

Authorities would not say what happened to it from there, but there are several paths a suspicious activity report can take:

At the fusion center, an officer would decide to either dismiss the suspicious activity as harmless or forward the report to the nearest FBI terrorism unit for further investigation.

At that unit, it would immediately be entered into the Guardian database, at which point one of three things could happen:

The FBI could collect more information, find no connection to terrorism and mark the file closed, though leaving it in the database.

It could find a possible connection and turn it into a full-fledged case.

Or, as most often happens, it could make no specific determination, which would mean that Suspicious Activity Report N03821 would sit in limbo for as long as five years, during which time many other pieces of information about the man photographing a boat on a Sunday morning could be added to his file: employment, financial and residential histories; multiple phone numbers; audio files; video from the dashboard-mounted camera in the police cruiser at the harbor where he took pictures; and anything else in government or commercial databases "that adds value," as the FBI agent in charge of the database described it.

That could soon include biometric data, if it existed; the FBI is working on a way to attach such information to files. Meanwhile, the bureau will also soon have software that allows local agencies to map all suspicious incidents in their jurisdiction.

The Defense Department is also interested in the database. It recently transferred 100 reports of suspicious behavior into the Guardian system, and over time it expects to add thousands more as it connects 8,000 military law enforcement personnel to an FBI portal that will allow them to send and review reports about people suspected of casing U.S. bases or targeting American personnel.

And the DHS has created a separate way for state and local authorities, private citizens, and businesses to submit suspicious activity reports to the FBI and to the department for analysis.
.....

J Edgar Hoover must be Dancing in his grave. Back to the bad old days of keeping a file on anybody and everybody "SUSPICIOUS".

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k256/life-exe/zapp.gifhttp://www.thenakedgeneral.com/IMAGES/HomerSuspicious.gifhttp://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p100/FDO7/th_Suspicious.gif

[revelarts]

Anybody remember the East German Stasi the oppressive evil Communist military soviet satellite state secret service?

Time magazine April

When the Berlin Wall began to crumble in 1989, East Germany's Ministry for State Security, the Stasi, decided to destroy all the evidence of 40 years of spying on fellow countrymen. But, like something out of a Cold War comedy, the Stasi's cheap shredders broke soon after they started, leaving agents to use their hands to tear the records into 600 million pieces, some as small as a fingernail. The pieces were supposed to be destroyed, but the Stasi never got around to incinerating them. To this day, they fill around 16,000 garbage bags stored in the basement of the former state security headquarters in Berlin, their secrets lost in a pile of millions of tiny shreds of paper.

But that was before the e-Puzzler. Using a machine that runs software that they developed, scientists in Berlin plan to use the world's most sophisticated pattern-recognition technology to put the shredded Stasi files back together, and help piece together a part of the past that was long considered lost forever.
....

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1983287,00.html#ixzz19w0qpteC


I thought it was going to say something like
When the Berlin Wall began to crumble in 1989, East Germany's Ministry for State Security, the Stasi, decided to destroy all the evidence of 40 years of spying on fellow countrymen. But, like something out of a Cold War comedy, ...the US Government started spying on it's people but with a better propaganda machine so people didn't says squat against it. But instead ridiculed and poo pooed those who protested the spying...

warentless Spying
TSA
terror watch list
http://www.debatepolicy.com/showthread.php?27308-Terrorist-watch-list-are-you-on-it
etc etc
America, land of the free

[Gaffer]

Anybody remember the East German Stasi the oppressive evil Communist military soviet satellite state secret service?

Time magazine April



I thought it was going to say something like
When the Berlin Wall began to crumble in 1989, East Germany's Ministry for State Security, the Stasi, decided to destroy all the evidence of 40 years of spying on fellow countrymen. But, like something out of a Cold War comedy, ...the US Government started spying on it's people but with a better propaganda machine so people didn't says squat against it. But instead ridiculed and poo pooed those who protested the spying...

warentless Spying
TSA
terror watch list
http://www.debatepolicy.com/showthread.php?27308-Terrorist-watch-list-are-you-on-it
etc etc
America, land of the free

Exactly what was poopooed? It's an article about the e-puzzler and putting shredded paperwork from stasi together. Interesting article, but nothing to do with conspiracies.

It's one thing to put a few things together and determine there is a conspiracy going on. It's another to see conspiracy in everything. Your credibility was first hurt with your truther garbage. You repeatedly post conspiracies about everything imaginable, then wonder why people don't take you seriously. One truth among a hundred speculations will be ignored, much like the boy who cried wolf.

[jimnyc]

I don't care if I make any list on the FBI, so long as it's not their "most wanted".

Everyone cried over the patriot act too.

Where are the non-stop people being abuse/arrested/harassed who are innocent?

If you aren't a terrorist or a criminal, then you have nothing to worry about.

I know, I know "But, Jim, you don't mind these people invading your rights and the constitution, and big brother doing these evil things..."

Save it. I don't care. If you aren't a terrorist or a criminal, then you have nothing to worry about.

[Noir]

Save it. I don't care. If you aren't a terrorist or a criminal, then you have nothing to worry about.

While I somewhat agree, the problem then becomes who defines the terms 'criminal' and 'terrorist'.

[revelarts]

I didn't say any thing about a conspiracy.

I posted an article that plainly states that the gov't police agencies are creating a database on people who are not criminals.
It's not conspiracy, it's an very open act of benign (so far) police state activity.
But that's OK with you guys. Fiiine.
I just thought I'd point it out. And my assessment of the reaction I'd get seems about right.

I wanted to make the comparison to the Stasi to make the point clear that it's very similar to the old communist police state system. Well the Chinese still do it I guess, Secret files, on innocent folks.

But it will never be abused here I guess. I'm crazy for bringing it up. I'm just wild eyed to think that something that's never been done before in the U.S. by the police ( except for cointellpro (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO)) and we use to think was bad is somehow now good for us.
I'm the one that's not credible here. Fine.


Gaffer it's funny when I post on items you agree with like, global warming , some how I'm credible. but I post an article about this and somehow magically I hardly every make sense.

Look at the facts for themselves and take it from there please don't try to dismiss everything I say becuase you disagree with 1 or 2 items. I think your smarter than that. Kathianne you too.

Noir
your point is a good one about who is a "terrorist" or a criminal for that matter. But you must be a conspiracy theorist if you think the gov't might misuse a program like that. It'll never happen in the US and it never has before cough-cointelpro-cough.


Jim, I don't want to point out Patriot act abuses again i've done that that before. But i will let you know that I've almost been arrested myself for taking pictures outside in a public place in the city I work for. The only thing that saved me from being taken downtown for questioning was a call to my boss at City Hall. Nothing to worry about? Sure if you know people in City Hall. Or the FBI i guess. Not my idea of freedom I'll tell you that. No probably cause. No crime, go downtown. But maybe Photography is a crime now. If they make it one will you support that too?

[jimnyc]

Jim, I don't want to point out Patriot act abuses again i've done that that before. But i will let you know that I've almost been arrested myself for taking pictures outside in a public place in the city I work for. The only thing that saved me from being taken downtown for questioning was a call to my boss at City Hall. Nothing to worry about? Sure if you know people in City Hall. Or the FBI i guess. Not my idea of freedom I'll tell you that. No probably cause. No crime, go downtown. But maybe Photography is a crime now. If they make it one will you support that too?

You mean you were shortly detained for partaking in suspicious activity? And they let you leave after a simple phone call, and if not for call they would have questioned you as to why you were taking pictures? Oh no, the horror of it all!!

[revelarts]

I don't think it's extreme to say that we are become a more closed surveilled, policed and regulated society in general. That's just the facts.
I'd like to think that most conservatives don't think you have to be a conspiracy theorist to see that. And still want Liberty and freedom to mean something close to what it meant for some in the earlier days of the country. if the constitution means to do anything it means to limit the gov'ts reach into our lives.

To the point, if you don't do anything wrong you have nothing to worry about Here are couple of interesting books as far as what's considered criminal these days.

Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1594032556/ref=nosim/cryptogoncom-20


The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes that day. Why? The answer lies in the very nature of modern federal criminal laws, which have exploded in number but also become impossibly broad and vague. In Three Felonies a Day, Harvey A. Silverglate reveals how federal criminal laws have become dangerously disconnected from the English common law tradition and how prosecutors can pin arguable federal crimes on any one of us, for even the most seemingly innocuous behavior. The volume of federal crimes in recent decades has increased well beyond the statute books and into the morass of the Code of Federal Regulations, handing federal prosecutors an additional trove of vague and exceedingly complex and technical prohibitions to stick on their hapless targets. The dangers spelled out in Three Felonies a Day do not apply solely to “white collar criminals,” state and local politicians, and professionals. No social class or profession is safe from this troubling form of social control by the executive branch, and nothing less than the integrity of our constitutional democracy hangs in the balance.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Go Directly to Jail: The Criminalization of Almost Everything
http://www.amazon.com/Go-Directly-Jail-Criminalization-Everything/dp/1930865635/ref=pd_sim_b_1
a commentor



5.0 out of 5 stars Every Honest Person Should Read this Book, January 4, 2005
By
Crime & Federalism "Crime & Federalism" (California) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Go Directly to Jail: The Criminalization of Almost Everything (Hardcover)
You're an honest businessperson with a strong moral compass. You don't cheat on your taxes, or your spouse. You regularly consult with your attorney to ensure that you're complying with the myriad regulations governing your business. You even go the extra mile, talking with children at "Junior Achievement" programs about how to achieve success. The possibility of a criminal prosecution is the last thing on your mind. "The government only goes after real criminals," you think to yourself.

The latest offering from the Cato Institute says: Think again.

In Go Directly to Jail: The Criminalization of Almost Everything, six essays catalog decent people caught in the indecent web of over 4,000 federal criminal laws.

In "Overextending the Criminal Law," Professor Eric Luna introduces us to the expanding federal criminal code, which now includes, to the extent that scholars can even count them, over 4,000 crimes. Worse, these crimes have come loose from the common law moorings that punished the evil, and acquitted the good. By eliminating the traditional requirement that a person is guilty only of he commits a guilty act motivated guilty mind, "legislators" are turning traditional "criminal sanctions" into "another tool in their regulatory toolkit." As the book jacket explains, "an unholy alliance of tough-on-crime conservatives and anti-big-business liberals has utterly transformed the criminal law" into a trap for the unwary.

In "The New 'Criminal' Classes: Legal Sanctions and Business Managers" James DeLong discusses the general principles of criminal law that affect all cases, especially the lack of a "guilty mind" requirement in most modern criminal laws. Thus, someone who acts in good faith (even consulting with a lawyer before acting) can end up in prison. Which is what happened to David McNab.

McNab was a seafood importer who shipped undersized lobsters and lobster tails in opaque plastic bags instead of paper bags. These were trivial violations of a Honduran regulation - equivalent to a civil infraction, or at most, a misdemeanor. However, using creative lawyering, a government prosecutor used this misdemeanor offense as the basis for the violation of the Lacey Act, which is a felony. The prosecutor then used the Lacey Act charge as a basis to stack on smuggling and money laundering counts. You got that?

McNab was guilty of smuggling since he shipped lobster tails in bags that you can see through, instead of shipping them through bags that would frustrate visual inspection. He was guilty of money laundering since he paid a crew on his ship to "smuggle the tails." Although it turned out that the Honduran regulation was improperly enacted and thus unenforceable, the government did not relent. A honest businessman lost his property and his freedom: McNab is serving 8-years in prison.

You might be thinking that my summary of the McNab case is fishy. Surely I'm keeping something from you, since no judge would really sentence an honest businessperson so severely. But as Professor Luna details in "Misguided Guidelines: A Critique of Federal Sentencing," prosecutors, not judges, set the terms of sentencing. A judge's hands are tied by the Guidelines. The judge in the McNab case could not weigh McNab's success as a businessperson, his age and family ties and responsibilities, or his lack of any criminal intent. Although McNab was a criminal by accident, not design, the Guidelines required the judge to treat him as a member of La Costra Nostra. Professor Luna ably demonstrates that the Guidelines are not only unconstitutional as a matter of separation of powers, but also as a matter of due process, and more generally, the Guidelines violate any sense of decency.

In "Polluting Our Principles: Environment Prosecutions and the Bill of Rights," Timothy Lynch (Director of the Cato Institute's Criminal Justice Project) talks about the world of environmental enforcement that even Joseph Heller could not have constructed. Lynch shows the irrational world facing a manager whose employee violates an environmental regulation. If an employee violates a law, the manager is liable, his ability to have prevented the illegal act notwithstanding. Yet if the manager does not report the employee (thus subjecting himself to criminal liability), the manager is guilty of a crime. Heads you lose. Tails you lose.

The manager also may not rely on governmental interpretations of the laws as a defense. An environmental enforcement official told one citizen that he could build him home on undeveloped land. One year into the project, the citizen was told that he was breaking the law. You can't rely on those enforcing the law to know the law.

Worst of all is that coming on the wrong side of the flip of an environmental enforcer's whim does not mean you lose a wager. It means you lose your freedom, and your dignity. Environmental laws put people who will be unlikely to defend themselves into prison with the hawks. And even doctors are not immune.

In "HIPAA and the Criminalization of American Medicine," Grace-Marie Turner reports how doctors may find themselves guilty of fraud when their secretaries do nothing more than enter in the wrong billing code out of the tens of thousands of codes to enter. The hundreds of thousands of pages or regulations are literally unknowable, thus subjecting doctors to potential prison sentences. Patients are also hurt, as small-town doctors join larger conglomerates for the additional legal and financial protection. If HIPAA's criminal penalties go unabated, there will be no more Doc. Bakers.

And federal power is growing, as Gene Healy details in "There Goes the Neighborhood: The Bush-Ashcroft Plan to 'Help' Localities Fight Gun Crime." Ignoring principles of federalism and enumerated powers, federal prosecutors, spurned by welcome guests at the Federalist Society Annual Convention, are turning even trivial violations of local gun laws into a federal case.

Go Directly to Jail is a must-read for anyone interested in criminal law, as well as doctors and other small business owners, who until recently were more likely to be crime victims rather than criminals. And you don't have to take my word for it. Miguel Estrada (who was filibustered for being too "conservative") endorses the book, writing that "ordinary businesspeople risk being jailed for run-of-the-mill commercial dealings that traditionally have been handled by contract and tort law." Mr. Estrada should know: He represented David McNab.

[revelarts]

here's another book
Published by the Heritage fondation on the same subject

One Nation Under Arrest: How Crazy Laws, Rogue Prosecutors, and Activist Judges Threaten Your Liberty

http://www.amazon.com/One-Nation-Under-Arrest-Prosecutors/dp/0891951342/ref=pd_sim_b_2


Product Description
America is in the throes of overcriminalization: We are making and enforcing far too many criminal laws that create traps for the innocent but unwary and threaten to make criminals out of those who are doing their best to be respectable, law-abiding citizens. Key developments in criminal law and practice over the past few decades have raised troubling questions about the fairness of our criminal justice system as it affects the average American. It is time to confront these questions, analyze them, and subject them to serious, vigorous debate. <P> One Nation Under Arrest highlights a major effort to return the criminal law to its traditional and proper role in society: to ensure public safety and protect the innocent. With first-hand stories from victims of overcriminalization, One Nation Under Arrest sheds light on an insidious problem that few recognize or care about but which is vital to the fundamental values of the Republic and our concept of justice. Overcriminalization should concern everyone in America, both as citizens and as potential accused. Much is at stake for our freedoms and the freedoms of future generations. Taking the steps necessary to ensure that American criminal law once again routinely exemplifies the right principles and purposes will require much work, but the alternative is to squander the great treasure that is the American criminal justice system.


You could be a criminal! Literally thousands of laws exist that most people don t know about and which penalize conduct that few would even imagine was criminal. This book tells the story of ordinary Americans who were prosecuted and even jailed for everyday activities that ran afoul of the multitude of statutes and regulations that can be used by governments to trap the unwary. <P> One Nation Under Arrest shines a spotlight on the problem of overcriminalization the skyrocketing trend at both the state and federal levels of criminalizing conduct that could be regulated through civil law or administrative action, or shouldn t even be regulated at all. It is a must-read for anyone concerned with modern attacks on our most basic liberties.
Mark Levin, host of The Mark Levin Show and author of Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto --Mark Levin

Does the local gov't spying you you for doing something "suspicious" and passing that info on to other police agencies make you more likely or less likely to be arrested for bs? Does keeping it on file give a prosecutor/cop/agent more or less to throw against the wall if your stopped for something else?

This is bureaucracy and policing coming off the chain to me and past the pale of "safety".

Is this conspiracy talk or just common sense?

[jimnyc]

Is this conspiracy talk or just common sense?

I don't personally know of a single law abiding citizen getting charged with felonies, harassed or having their "civil liberties" destroyed - whether a result of the patriot act or increased surveillance by law enforcement since 9/11.

And if there were a handful, I'm willing to bet it was straightened out.

I still stand by what I said. If you're not a criminal or terrorist, you have nothing to worry about.

I will guarantee you though that a ton of people bitching right now about such "surveillance" are the same nitwits who complained that Bush and co. didn't do enough to stop terrorism.

When they start nilly willy prosecuting and jailing innocent people, then we have an issue. But I don't think being vigilant is an issue.

I see it as the country beefing up it's surveillance and being proactive to the shit we have had to deal with in the past 10 years. You see it as an invasion by the government on our freedom. Fair enough, I can see your argument, but I'm still willing to bet that they are targeting criminals and/or terrorists and not the average citizen.

[fj1200]

To the point, if you don't do anything wrong you have nothing to worry about Here are couple of interesting books as far as what's considered criminal these days.

Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1594032556/ref=nosim/cryptogoncom-20

Go Directly to Jail: The Criminalization of Almost Everything
http://www.amazon.com/Go-Directly-Jail-Criminalization-Everything/dp/1930865635/ref=pd_sim_b_1
a commentor

Interesting, and some people, ;) ;) think any regulation coming out of DC is "smart oversight." :rolleyes:

[jimnyc]

Btw - I like to discuss actual events from credible sources rather than "entertain" people or entities that stand to profit from book sales. I'm not saying that nothing in a book can't be true - but when it comes to discussing government "misdeeds" - I tend to wonder why these people wait and sell books for profit instead of just "blowing the whistle".

[revelarts]

We've got the Highest incarceration rate in the WORLD.


...and probably the highest incarceration rate ever registered in any society in human history. Even more significantly, the Federal Criminal Code and its procedural rules and guidelines have almost eliminated criminal trials in many jurisdictions, because most defendants are unable to defend themselves effectively under the rules and simply plead guilty. ...
...Footnotes are found on virtually every page of the Federal Rules, tracing dates of amendments and the steady progression of punishments over time. In general, Congress has ratcheted up sentences, expanded the limitation periods in statutes of limitations, expanded rewards for those who cooperate with the government, and limited or eliminated avenues for people to challenge government accusations and court judgments. One is hard pressed to find crimes described in the book as misdemeanors, even if they were misdemeanors long ago. Today, most federal crimes are felonies, and conviction brings more or less automatic prison time.http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/roots5.1.1.html


...as economic analyst and attorney Michael Snyder grimly notes, we are already living under what could be called “soft totalitarianism.”

It seems as if “almost everything has become a crime in America now,” Snyder observes. “Americans are being arrested and charged with crimes for doing things like leaving dog poop on the ground, opening up Christmas presents early, not recycling properly … and having brown lawns.” This explains why America – the supposed land of the free – has the largest prison population in human history.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/almost-everything-is-a-crime-in-america-now-14-of-the-most-ridiculous-things-that-americans-are-being-arrested-for
http://www.prolibertate.us/


...The United States currently incarcerates a higher share of its population than any other country in the world. We calculate that a reduction in incarceration rates just to the level we had in 1993 (which was already high by historical standards) would lower correctional expenditures by $16.9 billion per year, with the large majority of these savings accruing to financially squeezed state and local governments. As a group, state governments could save $7.6 billion, while local governments could save $7.2 billion.

These cost savings could be realized through a reduction by one-half in the incarceration rate of exclusively non-violent offenders, who now make up over 60 percent of the prison and jail population.
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/the-high-budgetary-cost-of-incarceration/

[revelarts]

"
...The documents obtained (http://uncoverthetruth.org/wp-content/uploads/11-10-11-Released-Documents-Index.pdf) reveal that the FBI “views massive biometric information collection as a goal in itself” as a part of the Next Generation Identification (NGI) system.

The NGI system aims to collect fingerprints, palm prints, iris scans, identifying marks, scars, tattoos, facial characteristics and voice recognition.

These are not necessarily collected from arrested suspects but also from mobile biometric scanning devices and fingerprints left anywhere and everywhere.

This biometric information can then be used in conjunction with facial recognition technology and threat assessment algorithms (http://endthelie.com/2011/09/30/nowhere-to-run-drones-facial-recognition-soft-biometrics-and-threat-assessments/) that can be deployed in an airport or even on an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), better known as a drone.

These drones can then track you, record your movements, who you meet with, and just about anything else. Tie this in with the Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST) being tested by the Department of Homeland Security and you have a record of not only incredibly detailed biometric information but also social habits, daily schedules, etc.

All of this can be conducted without the subject’s knowledge or consent which makes this technology even more powerful as intelligence agencies can conduct surveillance on many individuals without any need to worry about being detected.

The most important aspect for anyone to grasp about these issues is that all of this technology can easily be tied together and collected in a centralized database in which astounding amounts of information from a variety of sources can be collated and analyzed.
The highly personal information stored in the NGI system is already accessible by the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, Department of Defense, U.S. Coast Guard, and through the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services division (CJIS) more than 75 potential foreign nations.

The CJIS has already carried out a test on latent finger and palm prints in which they collected more than one million palm prints from crime scenes or literally any other location in which palm prints could be recovered.
They have also scheduled a pilot program for iris scanning and developed plans for deployment of biometric collection equipment across the nation to collect scars, marks, tattoos and facial measurements for facial recognition.
The NGI program will utilize so-called “FBI Mobile,” a type of technology first deployed by the military in warzones that is used to collect biometric information in the field without even having to arrest the subject.
The precursor to the NGI program was called Secure Communities (S-Comm) which was launched in 2008.
S-Comm links the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) databases with the FBI’s criminal database.

With this system, any time a local, state, or tribal law enforcement officer carries out a routine criminal background check, the subject of the background check’s information is transferred to the DHS database.

S-Comm was implemented in a highly deceptive manner, at first offering an opt out policy which would allow local agencies to opt out of receiving information while still requiring to send all information. Later, the FBI decided that S-Comm participation was mandatory, while waiting to disclose this fact to states and the public.

Furthermore, the FBI and DHS have both prevented states and local agencies from imposing limits on how the FBI uses the data they gather.
In a somewhat disturbing statement, senior ICE official Gary Mead told local advocates at a New York debate (http://nyls.mediasite.com/mediasite/SilverlightPlayer/Default.aspx?peid=ad4d37be893e486399fde82b8ce4dbef 1d) that governors did not have the right to restrict information sharing because letting the FBI share the information is the “price of admission” for joining “the FBI club.”...


In a fact sheet (http://uncoverthetruth.org/wp-content/uploads/7-6-11-Scomm-NGI-Fact-Sheet.pdf) published on the NGI and S-Comm, the following disturbing fact is highlighted: “Many details about the scope, impact and process of the NGI and the legal basis for the FBI’s policies are still unknown and have not been scrutinized by the media or the public.”
It also reveals that one of the major driving forces, like most of the government’s actions, is profit. Specifically, a billion dollar contract with Lockheed Martin issued in 2008 to work on the NGI with the FBI....





http://www.blacklistednews.com/FOIA_lawsuit_reveals_FBI_collecting_biometric_info rmation_for_massive_interagency_database/16507/0/0/0/Y/M.html