Concern for “privacy” an “indicator” of terrorism, says DOJ
Are you concerned about your privacy on the internet? Worried about ID theft, especially when in public places? Be careful: you may become the subject of a federal DOJ investigation. Antiwar.com reports,
A new flyer released by the Department of Justice and the FBI, emblazoned with the logos of each agency and being circulated to Internet cafes and other businesses, warns of “potential indicators of terrorist activities.”
In particular, the flyer cautions businesses to be on the lookout for “content of extreme/radical nature” as well as people who visit an Internet cafe even though there is evidence they have Internet access at home. It also urges people to watch for anyone using “anonymizers, portals, or other means to shield IP address,” or who seems “overly concerned about privacy.”
Using an age-old strategy, the flier mixes descriptions of some innocent behavior with others more potentially extreme in order to create as wide an umbrella as possible for their snooping and intimidation activities.
The flyer is essentially trying to turn owners of public internet portals into agents of the DOJ. Such businesses are being encouraged secretly to monitor the people using their service, and much more—essentially to become spies for the Federal law enforcement. It calls upon these businesses to “Gather information about individuals without drawing attention to yourself.”
While the flyer does instruct businesses not to collect the actual metadata or electronic communications of suspected individuals, it nevertheless directs them to watch out for people who “download content of extreme/radical nature” and much more. So whether they are encouraged actually to collect the data or not doesn’t matter, they are still instructed to watch and monitor you real time and to make judgments as to the nature of what you download.
And then, maybe, call the FBI on you.
And in the DOJ’s eyes, you’re a suspect until proven otherwise. According to the flyer, you “could be innocent,” but an examination will be needed to determine whether or not fully to investigate.
This is the same DOJ, mind you, currently under Congressional scrutiny for the Fast and Furious scandal, in which the DOJ and FBI were caught trying to use an illegal gun-walking operation as a pretext to undermine the Second Amendment. Sounds to me like the monitoring needs to start seriously within the DOJ and FBI first.