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Fraudonomics
Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:30 EST

This is a slick little piece of propaganda. How does it work? First, show images of the world trade center collapsing and inform the audience that full body scanners will be installed at "Boston’s Logan Airport where two of the flights hijacked on 911 originated." Second, state that the scanners will better detect devices such as the one that was found in the underpants of the Christmas Day bomber. Next, ask whether the scanners are really necessary and then show footage of a high ranking TSA official testifying before Congress with the answer!
Good news! 150 machines are coming SOON to an airport near you! You will get to choose between a patdown/groping search or being irradiated in a full body scanner! And, it won’t take any extra time. AWESOME. By the end of the year, 500 new machines will be installed and operating. "Their deployment expanded and accelerated after the Christmas Day airline bombing attack." Your government cares about you and so does CNN!
Finally, show images of the plane that carried the Christmas Day underpantie stooge again.
An objective report may have disclosed that the full body scanners were not needed to prevent the underpants bomber from potentially harming anyone in the United States. Why? Simple. Because the government knew about him and could have prevented him from boarding the plane and entering the country. However, the government intentionally ALLOWED HIM ENTRY.

"Washington – The State Department didn’t revoke the visa of foiled terrorism suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab because federal counterterrorism officials had begged off revocation, a top State Department official revealed Wednesday.
Patrick F. Kennedy, an undersecretary for management at the State Department, said Abdulmutallab’s visa wasn’t taken away because intelligence officials asked his agency not to deny a visa to the suspected terrorist over concerns that a denial would’ve foiled a larger investigation into al-Qaida threats against the United States.
"Revocation action would’ve disclosed what they were doing," Kennedy said in testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security. Allowing Adbulmutallab to keep the visa increased chances federal investigators would be able to get closer to apprehending the terror network he is accused of working with, "rather than simply knocking out one solider in that effort."

"Washington – An official briefed on the attack on a Detroit airliner said Saturday the U.S. has known for at least two years that the suspect in the attack could have terrorist ties.
The official told The Associated Press that the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, has been on a list that includes people with known or suspected contact or ties to a terrorist or terrorist organization. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing."

In summary, the REAL STORY is that the government knowingly allowed Mr. underpants to enter the "homeland." Because of their INCOMPETENCE, every citizen of the country will be inconvenienced FOREVER when travelling by airplane. Also, the taxpayer will get to pay for all of these unnecessary machines, as well as the associated manpower and maintenance to operate them, FOREVER. On the bright side, at least Michael Chertoff, former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, will profit handsomely from this little fiasco because he represents the company that manufactures the full body scanners. Good for you Michael Chertoff and good for your friends! Nicely played.

"Washington - Since the attempted bombing of a US airliner on Christmas Day, former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff has given dozens of media interviews touting the need for the federal government to buy more full-body scanners for airports.
What he has made little mention of is that the Chertoff Group, his security consulting agency, includes a client that manufactures the machines. Chertoff disclosed the relationship on a CNN program Wednesday, in response to a question.
An airport passengers’ rights group on Thursday criticized Chertoff’s use of his former government credentials to advocate for a product that benefits his clients."

WAKE UP FOLKS. Nobody in the government gives a damn about your safety. It’s all about the money.

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Congressional Research Service »

U.S. Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons

[9 Mar 2010 | No Comment | ]

During the Cold War, the United States and Soviet Union both deployed thousands of “nonstrategic” nuclear weapons that were intended to be used in support of troops in the field during a conflict. These included nuclear mines; artillery; short, medium, and long-range ballistic missiles; cruise missiles; and gravity bombs. In contrast with the longer-range “strategic” nuclear weapons, these weapons had a lower profile in policy debates and arms control negotiations. At the end of the 1980s, before the demise of the Soviet Union, each nation still had thousands of these weapons deployed with their troops in the field, aboard naval vessels, and on aircraft. In 1991, both the United States and Soviet Union announced that they would withdraw most and eliminate many of their nonstrategic nuclear weapons.

Congressional Research Service »

Climate Change and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS): Looking to 2020

[9 Mar 2010 | No Comment | ]

The European Union’s (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is a cornerstone of the EU’s efforts to meet its obligation under the Kyoto Protocol. It covers more than 10,000 energy intensive facilities across the 27 EU Member countries; covered entities emit about 45% of the EU’s carbon dioxide emissions. A “Phase 1” trading period began January 1, 2005. A second, Phase 2, trading period began in 2008, covering the period of the Kyoto Protocol. A Phase 3 will begin in 2013 designed to reduce emissions by 21% from 2005 levels.

Corporate, New York »

World Trade Center Insurance Property Risk Report

[9 Mar 2010 | No Comment | ]

The World Trade Center is one of the most prominent commercial real estate c0mplexes in the world and a hallmark of the Manhattan skyline. This document discusses many of the physical characteristics of the complex. various protection and risk control aspects and some of the potentially catastrophic incidents that might occur.

Corporate, New York »

Underwriters Laboratories Fire Endurance Testing of World Trade Center Floor Truss Assemblies

[9 Mar 2010 | No Comment | ]

Underwriters Laboratory Fire Endurance Testing of World Trade Center Floor Truss Assemblies, September 21, 2005.

New York »

World Trade Center North Tower Blueprints

[8 Mar 2010 | No Comment | ]

World Trade Center North Tower (Tower A) complete blueprints, dates ranging from July 1967 – February 1984.

U.S. Army »

U.S. Army Improvised Explosive Device (IED) Awareness Guide Iraq and Afghanistan

[8 Mar 2010 | No Comment | ]

The purpose of this guide is to give Commanders, Leaders and Soldiers a training tool representing some of the Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) used in both the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters of operation. The intent of this guide is to support readiness, unit training, operational planning, and awareness as well as provide information in relation to Reacting to a Possible Improvised Explosive Device (IED) common task 093-401 -5050. Both training and awareness are a proven and effective force protection tool as well as a combat multiplier.

Scholarly »

ELF/VLF Wave-injection and Magnetospheric Probing with HAARP

[8 Mar 2010 | No Comment | ]

A three year research program is proposed to establish an array of wideband ELF/VLF receivers and to conduct continuous measurements of the magnetospheric response to the injection of ELF/VLF waves using the HAARP HF heater. The primary objective of the proposed program is to detect the so-called ‘one-hop’ direct and the ‘two-hop’ whistler-mode echo of a HAARP-injected ELF/VLF signal, and to study the characteristics of these signals to determine the degree to which injected ELF/VLF signals are amplified by the magnetospheric plasma, leading to the triggering of new emissions and enhanced precipitation of energetic electrons from the radiation belts. The scientific opportunities, background and justification for ELF/VLF wave-injection and magnetospheric probing experiments with HAARP are provided in Attachment A, which is a copy of a detailed report prepared earlier (April 2001) by Stanford for preliminary ELF/VLF wave-injection campaigns conducted under the auspices of the Polar Aeronomy and Radio Science (PARS) program.

U.S. Secret Service »

U.S. Secret Service: Best Practices For Seizing Electronic Evidence

[7 Mar 2010 | No Comment | ]

U.S. Secret Service manual on best practices For seizing electronic evidence, October 9, 2006.

Intelligence Fusion Centers, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Washington D.C. »

Fusion Centers Warn of White Powder Letter Incidents 2008-2010

[7 Mar 2010 | No Comment | ]

FOUO/LES Fusion Center intelligence briefs from the New Jersey Regional Operations Intelligence Center, Boston Regional Intelligence Center, Washington Regional Threat and Analysis Center, and Washington D.C. FireWatch warning of white powder letter incidents from 2008-2010.

Chile, European Union »

EU Chile Earthquake Preliminary Damage Assessment Maps

[6 Mar 2010 | No Comment | ]

EU G-MOSAIC Chile Earthquake Preliminary Damage Assessment Maps, March 3, 2010.

Department of Homeland Security, New Hampshire »

New Hampshire 2004 State Homeland Security Strategy

[6 Mar 2010 | No Comment | ]

This document will serve as the first State Homeland Security Strategy (SHSS) for New Hampshire. The purpose of this strategy is to identify a strategic direction for enhancing statewide capability and capacity to prevent and reduce the vulnerability of New Hampshire from weapons of mass destruction (WMD)/terrorism incidents. This is an exceedingly complex mission that requires coordination, cooperation and focused effort from the entire state-citizens, local, state, and federal government, as well as the private and non-profit sectors.

Missouri »

Missouri 2008 Homeland Security Strategy

[6 Mar 2010 | No Comment | ]

This State Homeland Security Strategy (Strategy) was developed to provide overarching guidance to the State’s Homeland Security programs and initiatives, to include guidance in support of the homeland security governance provided through the Governor’s Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC) and nine Regional Homeland Security Oversight Committees (RHSOC). This Strategy will help prepare our State for the work ahead in several ways. It provides direction to state government agencies, departments, and offices on activities Missouri plans to undertake in order to sustain existing capabilities in four U.S. Department of Homeland Security mission areas (prevention, protection, response, and recovery) and enhance the emergency preparedness posture statewide between 2009 and 2011. Missouri’s Department of Public Safety (DPS), specifically the Office of Homeland Security (OHS) and State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), will use the Strategy as a mechanism to track progress in implementing and completing security-related projects.

Department of Homeland Security, Nebraska »

Nebraska 2006 State Homeland Security Strategy

[6 Mar 2010 | No Comment | ]

The purpose of the Nebraska State Homeland Security Strategy (NSHSS) is to identify a strategic direction for enhancing the State of Nebraska?s capability and capacity to detect, prevent against, protect against, respond to, and recover from threats or incidents of terrorism, natural disasters, major emergencies, and incidents of national significance. This is an exceedingly complex mission that requires coordination, cooperation and focused effort from the entire State’s citizens, local, tribal, state, and federal government, as well as the private and non-profit sectors.

Corporate »

eBay/PayPal Law Enforcement Guide

[5 Mar 2010 | 3 Comments | ]

eBay, Inc., has established a Fraud Investigations Team (FIT) to promote safe use of our platforms and encourage prosecution of those responsible for misconduct on them. Law enforcement agencies in North America seeking assistance and records for investigations that relate to either the eBay or PayPal should use the Frequently Asked Questions below as guidance in how FIT can assist in these investigations.

Corporate »

MySpace Law Enforcement Information Handout

[5 Mar 2010 | One Comment | ]

MySpace Law Enforcement Information Handout from September 2, 2005.

Congressional Research Service »

High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and High Power Microwave (HPM) Devices: Threat Assessments

[5 Mar 2010 | One Comment | ]

Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) is an instantaneous, intense energy field that can overload or disrupt at a distance numerous electrical systems and high technology microcircuits, which are especially sensitive to power surges. A large scale EMP effect can be produced by a single nuclear explosion detonated high in the atmosphere. This method is referred to as High-Altitude EMP (HEMP). A similar, smaller-scale EMP effect can be created using non-nuclear devices with powerful batteries or reactive chemicals. This method is called High Power Microwave (HPM). Several nations, including reported sponsors of terrorism, may currently have a capability to use EMP as a weapon for cyber warfare or cyber terrorism to disrupt communications and other parts of the U.S. critical infrastructure. Also, some equipment and weapons used by the U.S. military may be vulnerable to the effects of EMP.

Scholarly »

Ionospheric modification and ELF/VLF wave generation by HAARP

[4 Mar 2010 | No Comment | ]

Stanford University brief on Ionospheric modification and ELF/VLF wave generation by HAARP, January 7, 2006.

Department of Homeland Security, Louisiana »

Louisiana 2006 State Homeland Security Strategy

[4 Mar 2010 | No Comment | ]

The purpose of this strategy is to identify a strategic direction for enhancing our State, Region and Parish response capabilities and capacity to prevent and reduce the State’s vulnerability to all-hazard disaster events, to include Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear or Explosive (CBRNE) incidents. This is an exceedingly complex mission that requires coordination, cooperation, and focused effort from the entire State (citizens, local, state, and federal partners) as well as private industry and non-profit voluntary agencies. To that end, each of the sixty four (64) parishes will update or will develop Memorandums of
Understanding (MOU) over the next year agreeing to assist each other in event of major CBRNE incidents.

Department of Homeland Security, Nevada »

Nevada State Homeland Security Strategy (2007)

[3 Mar 2010 | No Comment | ]

The purpose of the Nevada State Homeland Security Strategy (SHSS) is to identify and address statewide priorities to achieve and sustain a strengthened ability to prevent, detect, deter, mitigate against, prepare for, respond to and recover from any natural, manmade and/or technological emergency or disaster up to and including any act of terrorism. The State, through implementation of this strategy, is seeking outcomes that will ensure a safe and secure Nevada through enhanced capabilities in intelligence, surveillance, rapid first response and recovery, the protection of critical infrastructure, and to promote public education and awareness.

Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command »

SPAWAR/USCYBERCOM Cyber Warfare, Exploitation & Information Dominance (CWEID) Lab Overview

[3 Mar 2010 | No Comment | ]

Opening Statements
▼Never before has it been possible for one person to potentially affect an entire Nation‟s security.
▼In 1999 (10 years ago), two Chinese Colonels published a book called “Unrestricted Warfare” that advocated “not fighting” the U.S. directly, but “understanding and employing the principle of asymmetry correctly to allow us [the Chinese] always to find and exploit an enemy’s soft spots.”
▼The idea that a less-capable foe can take on a militarily superior opponent also aligns with the views of the ancient Chinese general, Sun Tzu. In his book “The Art of War,” the strategist advocates stealth, deceptionand indirect attackto overcome a stronger opponent in battle.

Public Intelligence

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Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who said that Einstein 3 could only be discussed in a classified setting, speaks at the RSA conference on Wednesday.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

SAN FRANCISCO–Homeland Security and the National Security Agency may be taking a closer look at Internet communications in the future.

The Department of Homeland Security’s top cybersecurity official told CNET on Wednesday that the department may eventually extend its Einstein technology, which is designed to detect and prevent electronic attacks, to networks operated by the private sector. The technology was created for federal networks.

Greg Schaffer, assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications, said in an interview that the department is evaluating whether Einstein "makes sense for expansion to critical infrastructure spaces" over time.

Not much is known about how Einstein works, and the House Intelligence Committee once charged that descriptions were overly "vague" because of "excessive classification." The White House did confirm this week that the latest version, called Einstein 3, involves attempting to thwart in-progress cyberattacks by sharing information with the National Security Agency.

Greater federal involvement in privately operated networks may spark privacy or surveillance concerns, not least because of the NSA’s central involvement in the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping scandal. Earlier reports have said that Einstein 3 has the ability to read the content of emails and other messages, and that AT&T has been asked to test the system. (The Obama administration says the "contents" of communications are not shared with the NSA.)

"I don’t think you have to be Big Brother in order to provide a level of protection either for federal government systems or otherwise," Schaffer said. "As a practical matter, you’re looking at data that’s relevant to malicious activity, and that’s the data that you’re focused on. It’s not necessary to go into a space where someone will say you’re acting like Big Brother. It can be done without crossing over into a space that’s problematic from a privacy perspective."

If Einstein 3 does perform as well as Homeland Security hopes, it could help less-prepared companies fend off cyberattacks, including worms sent through e-mail, phishing attempts, and even denial of service attacks.

On the other hand, civil libertarians are sure to raise questions about privacy, access, and how Einstein could be used in the future. If it can perform deep packet inspection to prevent botnets from accessing certain Web pages, for instance, could it also be used to prevent a human from accessing illegal pornography, copyright-infringing music, or offshore gambling sites?

"It’s one thing for the government to monitor its own systems for malicious code and intrusions," said Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology. "It’s quite another for the government to monitor private networks for those intrusions. We’d be concerned about any notion that a governmental monitoring system like Einstein would be extended to private networks."

AT&T did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Cooperation, or a loss of control?
At the RSA Conference here on Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano stressed the need for more cooperation between the government and the private sector on cybersecurity, saying that "we need to have a system that works together."

During a House appropriations hearing on February 26, Napolitano refused to discuss Einstein 3 unless the hearing were closed to the public. "I don’t want to comment publicly on Einstein 3, per se, here in an unclassified setting," she said. "What I would suggest, perhaps, is a classified briefing for members of the subcommittee who are interested."

Some privacy concerns about Einstein have popped up before. An American Bar Association panel said this about Einstein 3 in a September 2009 report: "Because government communications are commingled with the private communications of non-governmental actors who use the same system, great caution will be necessary to insure that privacy and civil liberties concerns are adequately considered."

Jacob Appelbaum, a security researcher and programmer for the Tor anonymity project, said that expanding Einstein 3 to the private sector would amount to a partial outsourcing of security. "It’s clearly a win for people without the security know-how to protect their own networks," Appelbaum said. "It’s also a clear loss of control. And anyone with access to that monitoring system, legitimate or otherwise, would be able to monitor amazing amounts of traffic."

Einstein grew out of a still-classified executive order, called National Security Presidential Directive 54, that President Bush signed in 2008.

While little information is available, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff once likened it to a new "Manhattan Project," and the Washington Post reported that the accompanying cybersecurity initiative represented the "single largest request for funds" in last year’s classified intelligence budget. The Electronic Privacy Information Center has filed a lawsuit (PDF) to obtain the text of the order.

Homeland Security has published (PDF) a privacy impact assessment for a less capable system called Einstein 2–which aimed to do intrusion detection and not prevention–but has not done so for Einstein 3.

The department did, however, prepare a general set of guidelines (PDF) for privacy and civil liberties in June 2009. In addition, the Bush Justice Department wrote a memo (PDF) saying Einstein 2 "complies with" the U.S. Constitution and federal wiretap laws.

That justification for Einstein 2 "turned on the consent of employees in the government that are being communicated with, and on the notion that a person who communicates with the government can’t then complain that the government read the communication," said CDT’s Nojeim. "How does that legal justification work should Einstein be extended to the private sector?"

Declan McCullagh is a contributor to CNET News and a correspondent for CBSNews.com who has covered the intersection of politics and technology for over a decade. Declan writes a regular feature called Taking Liberties, focused on individual and economic rights; you can bookmark his CBS News Taking Liberties site, or subscribe to the RSS feed. You can e-mail Declan at declan@cbsnews.com.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10463665-38.html

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by Tom Burghardt

Global Research, March 1, 2010

Antifascist Calling… – 2010-02-28

Though production lines at the fear factory are still in overdrive, the Department of Homeland Security’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) are scrapping plans for a new generation of "high-tech detectors for screening vehicles and cargo, saying they cost too much and do not work as effectively as security officials once maintained," The Washington Post reported.
Nearly two years ago, Antifascist Calling revealed that when DNDO awarded contracts totaling some $1.2 billion over five years to defense and security giants Raytheon, Canberra Industries (a subsidiary of the French nuclear manufacturing titan, the Areva Group) and Thermo Scientific for Advanced Spectroscopic Portal (ASP) radiation monitors in 2006, it should have been "reality-check time."
For the moment at least, it apparently is.
As late as January 2010, despite revelations that the program widely missed the mark, DNDO officials claimed that the ASP "will enhance current detection capabilities by more clearly identifying the source of detected radiation through spectroscopic isotope identification."
Notwithstanding persistent flaws and cost overruns dogging the program, the Department of Homeland Security asked for $41M in its 2011 budget request "for the procurement and deployment of radiological and nuclear detection systems and equipment to support efforts across the Department."
Why would they do that? For answers, we’d better consult defense and security powerhouse Raytheon, the project’s prime contractor.
A Homeland "Security Blanket" for the Defense Industry
Clocking-in at No. 5 on Washington Technology’s 2009 "Top 100 List" of Federal Prime Contractors, the company pulled-down some $5,942,575,316 in defense and security-related contracts from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, NASA, the armed forces and Department of Homeland Security.
According to Raytheon, "ASP detectors address the threat of radiological dispersal devices, improvised nuclear devices or a nuclear weapon being used by terrorists inside the United States," therefore "a more discriminating primary screening system–the ASP–is needed."
Touted as a next-gen "homeland security tool" that would provide Customs and Border Protection inspectors with the capability to detect illicit nuclear or radiological materials inside containers entering American ports, "with low false alarm rates" to boot, despite hundreds of millions of dollars poured into the program, the ASP performs no better than devices in place today.
As with existent monitors, the ASP was unable to distinguish between components required to manufacture a radiological dirty bomb from natural radiation emitters such as–wait!– kitty litter, ceramics or bananas!
You would think the state would have considered another of the firm’s more dubious highlights before awarding them with a lucrative contract for something as critical as preventing nuclear terrorism. You’d be wrong however!
According to the Project on Government Oversight’s (POGO) Federal Contractor Misconduct Database, Raytheon has the distinction of another No. 5 listing, though I doubt the company will tout this on their web site.
Identified by the government watchdogs as a firm with a history of "misconduct such as contract fraud and environmental, ethics, and labor violations," since 1995, Raytheon has been cited for some $479.2M in 20 instances of what POGO has identified as "misconduct." These include: aircraft maintenance overcharges; contractor kickbacks; defective pricing; False Claims Act violations; improper classification of costs; the violation of SEC rules; TCE contamination at Kansas Airport; an EEOC racial discrimination lawsuit; contamination of Tucson, Arizona’s water supply with TCE and dioxane, "chemical solvents believed to be human carcinogens," on and on.
Come to think of it, why wouldn’t they be a perfect fit for DHS! As the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) has documented in a series of critical reports, the state’s massive reorganization of the security apparatus under the DHS brand "involved new money–stacks of it."
According to CIR, "systematic federal efforts to measure the effectiveness of various homeland security programs and grants have been less than a complete success." And likely to stay that way in this writer’s opinion, judging by DNDO’s busted ASP program.
Revolving Doors, Greased Wheels
Citing a pressing need for the new gizmos, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert Bonner testified before a Senate panel in 2005, and setting the stage for the ASP fiasco, that detection machines first installed in 2000 "had picked up over 10,000 radiation hits in vehicles or cargo shipments entering the country. All proved harmless."
As security analyst Bruce Schneier wrote at the time, "It amazes me that 10,000 false alarms–instances where the security system failed–are being touted as proof that the system is working."
But as a former airline executive famously told investigative journalist Daniel Hopsicker during his probe into the 9/11 attacks: "Sometimes when things don’t make business sense, its because they do make sense…just in some other way."
Since completing government "service," Bonner became a partner in the white shoe law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, specializing in "crisis management" for corporate clients.
Amongst the firm’s more dubious legal "accomplishments" was their representation of the soon-to-be-installed Bush regime during the 2000 Florida recount. On December 12, 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court staged a judicial coup d’état and stopped the Florida vote count, thus handing the presidency to the Bush crime family and setting the stage for the most corrupt, and lawless, period in the nation’s history.
Confirming suspicions that not much has changed since the Obama administration blew into town last year, the president’s Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, appointed Bonner to the Homeland Security Advisory Council’s Southwest Border Task Force.
Corroborating the notion that the top political echelons of the secret state are mere jump-off points for a lucrative "post-government" career, and that "homeland security" is a highly-profitable game the whole family can play, CBP’s former head honcho is now a principal partner with The Sentinel HS Group, LLC, a Washington lobby shop.
According to a blurb on Sentinel’s web site, the firm is "committed to assisting government entities in organizing effectively to carry out their homeland security responsibilities, and in designing and implementing effective homeland security strategies, policies, and programs."
The firm served as the "principal advisor" to the "Boeing Team" that speared the SBInet contract from DHS. Federal Computer Week reported in January however, that Napolitano "has ordered a reassessment of the $8 billion SBInet virtual border fence program in Arizona after another round of delays in the program, an official confirmed today."
The only thing that has changed in the years since the ASP boondoggle was launched, is that millions in taxpayer dollars have greased the palms of well-connected defense contractors. In turn, defense behemoth Raytheon has repaid the favor, showering some $2.2 million dollars on federal candidates in 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, with 55% of the lucre going to "progressive" Democrats.
And 2010 promises to be a banner year for the "best democracy money can buy." OpenSecrets.org reveals that as of January 31, the firm has already raised some $1.5 million, spending 59% of PAC dollars on congressional Democrats.
"I Cheated on the Test? Whaddaya Mean, the Government Gave Me the Answers!"
When DNDO announced the initiative back in 2006, it was trumpeted as one of the cornerstones of the Bush regime’s corporate-friendly homeland security apparatus, to wit, it was sold to Congress as a front-line weapon that would prevent the smuggling of illicit nuclear materials into the heimat.
When the $1.2 billion contract was awarded, officials claimed each device would cost "only" $377,000 and would "dramatically" improve vehicle and cargo container screening.
Since those initial cost estimates, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) discovered that securocrats had deceived Congress and that each contraption would probably cost upwards of $822,000 each, with no demonstrable improvement over machines in use today.
Dialing-down the program, DNDO’s acting chief William K. Hagan wrote neocon Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, that the Office will "possibly use the machines only for secondary screening, at no more than about a third of the cost originally planned," Post journalist Robert O’Harrow disclosed.
Hagan wrote that DNDO’s decision makes "sense, given the available performance and cost data." In other words, although the ASP has proven to be a colossal failure, let’s fund a scaled-down version of the program. Is this a great country, or what!
As I previously reported, GAO investigators revealed in a September 2008 report, that DHS massaged test results and painted a rosy picture of what, for all practical purposes, was a lead balloon.
GAO watchdogs discovered that DNDO "used biased test methods that enhanced the apparent performance" of the machines. Congressional investigators found that dodgy methodology designed to manipulate the results, allowed contractors to adjust the devices after preliminary runs, giving the appearance that ASP’s performed better than they actually did. In other words, DNDO project managers handed out virtual Cliff Notes to the contractors during testing. Talk about a rigged game!
In 2009 testimony before the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, Committee on Science and Technology, House of Representatives, Gene Aloise, GAO Director of Natural Resources and Environment testified that "DNDO resumed the field testing of ASPs that it initiated in January 2009 but suspended because of serious performance problems. However, the July tests also revealed critical performance deficiencies."
Aloise disclosed that ASPs, like current monitors, "had a high number of false positive alarms for the detection of certain nuclear materials."
Auditors were told by Customs and Border Protection officials that "these false alarms are very disruptive in a port environment because any alarm for this type of nuclear material causes CBP to take enhanced security precautions."
However, despite earlier claims that the machines would "enhance" border security by weeding out nuclear or radiological materials that could be fashioned into IEDs, GAO revealed that DNDO planned "to address these false alarms" by modifying the devices "to make these monitors less sensitive to these nuclear materials and thereby diminishing the ASPs’ capability."
Aloise told The Washington Post that "DHS’s decision to abandon full-scale deployment of the ASP’s is a victory for the U.S taxpayer–a savings of at least $1.5 billion–and our national security."
"As recent testing has revealed" Aloise said, "the consequences of these machines being deployed nationwide in 2007, as DNDO intended, could have been disastrous."
Fear not dear readers, in Washington’s accountability-free zone failure is always generously rewarded.
Washington Technology reported on Friday, that Raytheon "has won an initial contract from the Air Force worth $886 million to develop a new element of the Global Positioning System that will improve the accuracy of information from GPS satellites."
If the firm’s work for DNDO is any indication of "improved accuracy" we can expect from next-gen GPS, better dust off your compass and learn to navigate by starlight!

Tom Burghardt is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Tom Burghardt

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17849

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Tom Engelhardt
TomDispatch
Sun, 14 Feb 2010 17:25 EST

Let me put American life in the Age of Terror into some kind of context, and then tell me you’re not ready to get on the nearest plane heading anywhere, even toward Yemen.
In 2008, 14,180 Americans were murdered, according to the FBI. In that year, there were 34,017 fatal vehicle crashes in the U.S. and, so the U.S. Fire Administration tells us, 3,320 deaths by fire. More than 11,000 Americans died of the swine flu between April and mid-December 2009, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; on average, a staggering 443,600 Americans die yearly of illnesses related to tobacco use, reports the American Cancer Society; 5,000 Americans die annually from food-borne diseases; an estimated 1,760 children died from abuse or neglect in 2007; and the next year, 560 Americans died of weather-related conditions, according to the National Weather Service, including 126 from tornadoes, 67 from rip tides, 58 from flash floods, 27 from lightning, 27 from avalanches, and 1 from a dust devil.
As for airplane fatalities, no American died in a crash of a U.S. carrier in either 2007 or 2008, despite 1.5 billion passengers transported. In 2009, planes certainly went down and people died. In June, for instance, a French flight on its way from Rio de Janeiro to Paris disappeared in bad weather over the Atlantic, killing 226. Continental Connection Flight 3407, a regional commuter flight, crashed into a house near Buffalo, New York, that February killing 50, the first fatal crash of a U.S. commercial flight since August 2006. And in January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549, assaulted by a flock of birds, managed a brilliant landing in New York’s Hudson River when disaster might have ensued. In none of these years did an airplane go down anywhere due to terrorism, though in 2007 two terrorists smashed a Jeep Cherokee loaded with propane tanks into the terminal of Glasgow International Airport. (No one was killed.)
The now-infamous Northwest Airlines Flight 253, carrying Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and his bomb-laden underwear toward Detroit on Christmas Day 2009, had 290 passengers and crew, all of whom survived. Had the inept Abdulmutallab actually succeeded, the death toll would not have equaled the 324 traffic fatalities in Nevada in 2008; while the destruction of four Flight 253s from terrorism would not have equaled New York State’s 2008 traffic death toll of 1,231, 341 of whom, or 51 more than those on Flight 253, were classified as "alcohol-impaired fatalities."
Had the 23-year-old Nigerian set off his bomb, it would have been a nightmare for the people on board, and a tragedy for those who knew them. It would certainly have represented a safety and security issue that needed to be dealt with. But it would not have been a national emergency, nor a national-security crisis. It would have been nothing more than a single plane knocked out of the sky, something that happens from time to time without the intervention of terrorists.
And yet here’s the strange thing: thanks to what didn’t happen on Flight 253, the media essentially went mad, 24/7. Newspaper coverage of the failed plot and its ramifications actually grew for two full weeks after the incident until it had achieved something like full-spectrum dominance, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. In the days after Christmas, more than half the news links in blogs related to Flight 253. At the same time, the Republican criticism machine (and the media universe that goes with it) ramped up on the subject of the Obama administration’s terror wimpiness; the global air transport system plunked down millions of dollars on new technology which will not find underwear bombs; the homeland security-industrial-complex had a field day; and fear, that adrenaline rush from hell, was further embedded in the American way of life.
Under the circumstances, you would never know that Americans living in the United States were in vanishingly little danger from terrorism, but in significant danger driving to the mall; or that alcohol, tobacco, E. coli bacteria, fire, domestic abuse, murder, and the weather present the sort of potentially fatal problems that might be worth worrying about, or even changing your behavior over, or perhaps investing some money in. Terrorism, not so much.
The few Americans who, since 2001, have died from anything that could be called a terror attack in the U.S. — whether the 13 killed at Fort Hood or the soldier murdered outside an army recruiting office in Little Rock, Arkansas — were far outnumbered by the 32 dead in a 2007 mass killing at Virginia Tech University, not to speak of the relatively regular moments when workers or former workers "go postal." Since September 11th, terror in the U.S. has rated above fatalities from shark attacks and not much else. Since the economic meltdown of 2008, it has, in fact, been left in the shade by violent deaths that stem from reactions to job loss, foreclosure, inability to pay the rent, and so on.
This is seldom highlighted in a country perversely convulsed by, and that can’t seem to get enough of, fantasies about being besieged by terrorists.
Institutionalizing Fear Inc.
The attacks of September 11, 2001, which had the look of the apocalyptic, brought the fear of terrorism into the American bedroom via the TV screen. That fear was used with remarkable effectiveness by the Bush administration, which color-coded terror for its own ends. A domestic version of shock-and-awe — Americans were indeed shocked and awed by 9/11 — helped drive the country into two disastrous wars and occupations, each still ongoing, and into George W. Bush’s Global War on Terror, a term now persona non grata in Washington, even if the "war " itself goes on and on.
Today, any possible or actual terror attack, any threat no matter how far-fetched, amateurish, poorly executed, or ineffective, raises a national alarm, always seeming to add to the power of the imperial presidency and threatening to open new "fronts" in the now-unnamed global war. The latest is, of course, in Yemen, thanks in part to that young Nigerian who was evidently armed with explosives by a home-grown organization of a few hundred men that goes by the name al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
The fear of terrorism has, by now, been institutionalized in our society — quite literally so — even if the thing we’re afraid of has, on the scale of human problems, something of the will o’ the wisp about it. For those who remember their Cold War fiction, it’s more specter than SPECTRE.
That fear has been embedded in what once was an un-American word, more easily associated with Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany: "homeland." It has replaced "country," "land," and "nation" in the language of the terror-mongers. "The homeland" is the place which terrorism, and nothing but terrorism, can violate. In 2002, that terror-embedded word got its own official government agency: the Department of Homeland Security, our second "defense" department, which has a 2010 budget of $39.4 billion (while overall "homeland security" spending in the 2010 budget reached $70.2 billion). Around it has grown up a little-attended-to homeland-security complex with its own interests, businesses, associations, and lobbyists (including jostling crowds of ex-politicians and ex-government bureaucrats).
As a result, more than eight years after 9/11, an amorphous state of mind has manifested itself in the actual state as a kind of Fear Inc. A number of factors have clearly gone into the creation of Fear Inc. and now insure that fear is the drug constantly shot into the American body politic. These would include:
The imperial presidency:The Bush administration used fear not only to promote its wars and its Global War on Terror, but also to unchain the commander-in-chief of an already imperial presidency from a host of restraints. The dangers of terror and of al-Qaeda, which became the global bogeyman, and the various proposed responses to it, including kidnapping ("extraordinary rendition"), secret imprisonment, and torture, turned out to be the royal road to the American unconscious and so to a presidency determined, as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and others liked to say, to take the gloves off. It remains so and, as a result, under Barack Obama, the imperial presidency only seems to gain ground. Recently, for instance, we learned that, under the pressure of the Flight 253 incident, the Obama administration has adopted the Bush administration position that a president, under certain circumstances, has the authority to order the assassination of an American citizen abroad. (In this case, New Mexico-born Islamic cleric Anwar Aulaqi, who has been linked to the 9/11 plotters, the Fort Hood killer, and Abdulmutallab.) The Bush administration opened the door to this possibility and now, it seems, a Democratic president may be stepping through.
The 24/7 media moment: 24/7 blitz coverage was once reserved for the deaths of presidents (as in the assassination of John F. Kennedy) and public events of agreed-upon import. In 1994, however, it became the coin of the media realm for any event bizarre enough, sensational enough, celebrity-based enough to glue eyeballs. That June, O.J. Simpson engaged in his infamous "low-speed car "chase" through Orange County followed by more than 20 news helicopters while 95 million viewers tuned in and thousands more gathered at highway overpasses to watch. No one’s ever looked back. Of course, in a traditional media world that’s shedding foreign and domestic bureaus and axing hordes of reporters, radically downsizing news rooms and shrinking papers to next to nothing, the advantages of focusing reportorial energies on just one thing at a time are obvious. Those 24/7 energies are now regularly focused on the fear of terrorism and events which contribute to it, like the plot to down Flight 253.
The Republican criticism machine and the media that go with it: Once upon a time, even successful Republican administrations didn’t have their own megaphone. That’s why, in the Vietnam era, the Nixon administration battled the New York Times so fiercely (and — my own guess — that played a part in forcing the creation of the first "op-ed" page in 1970, which allowed administration figures like Vice President Spiro Agnew and ex-Nixon speechwriter William Safire to gain a voice at the paper). By the George W. Bush era, the struggle had abated. The Times and papers like it only had to be pacified or cut out of the loop, since from TV to talk radio, publishing to publicity, the Republicans had their own megaphone ready at hand. This is, by now, a machine chock-a-block full of politicians and ex-politicians, publishers, pundits, military "experts," journalists, shock-jocks, and the like (categories that have a tendency to blend into each other). It adds up to a seamless web of promotion, publicity, and din. It’s capable of gearing up on no notice and going on until a subject — none more popular than terrorism and Democratic spinelessness in the face of it — is temporarily flogged to death. It ensures that any failed terror attack, no matter how hopeless or pathetic, will be in the headlines and in public consciousness. It circulates constant fantasies about possible future apocalyptic terror attacks with atomic weaponry or other weapons of mass destruction. (And in all of the above, of course, it is helped by a host of tagalong pundits and experts, news shows and news reports from the more liberal side of the aisle.)
The Democrats who don’t dare: It’s remarkable that the sharpest president we’ve had in a while didn’t dare get up in front of the American people after Flight 253 landed and tell everyone to calm down. He didn’t, in fact, have a single intelligent thing to say about the event. He certainly didn’t remind Americans that, whatever happened to Flight 253, they stood in far more danger heading out of their driveways behind the wheel or pulling into a bar on the way home for a beer or two. Instead, the Obama administration essentially abjectly apologized, insisted it would focus yet more effort and money on making America safe from air terrorism, widened a new front in the Global War on Terror in Yemen (speeding extra money and U.S. advisors that way), and when the din from its critics didn’t end, "pushed back," as Peter Baker of the New York Times wrote, by claiming "that they were handling terror suspects much as the previous administration did." It’s striking when a Democratic administration finds safety in the claim that it’s acting like a Republican one, that it’s following the path to the imperial presidency already cleared by George W. Bush. Fear does that to you, and the fear of terror has been institutionalized at the top as well as the bottom of society.
9/11 Never Ends
Fear has a way of re-ordering human worlds. That only a relatively small number of determined fanatics with extraordinarily limited access to American soil keep Fear Inc. afloat should, by now, be obvious. What the fear machine produces is the dark underside of the charming Saul Steinberg New Yorker cover, "A View of the World from 9th Avenue," in which Manhattan looms vast as the rest of the planet fades into near nothingness.
When you see the world "from 9th Avenue," or from an all-al-Qaeda-all-the-time "news" channel, you see it phantasmagorically. It’s out of all realistic shape and proportion, which means you naturally make stupid decisions. You become incapable of sorting out what matters and what doesn’t, what’s primary and what’s secondary. You become, in short, manipulable.
This is our situation today.
People always wonder: What would the impact of a second 9/11-style attack be on this country? Seldom noticed, however, is that all the pin-prick terror events blown up to apocalyptic proportions add up to a second, third, fourth, fifth 9/11 when it comes to American consciousness.
So the next time a Flight 253 occurs and the Republicans go postal, the media morphs into its 24/7 national-security-disaster mode, the pundits register red on the terror-news scale, the president defends himself by reaffirming that he is doing just what the Bush administration would have done, the homeland security lobbyists begin calling for yet more funds for yet more machinery, and nothing much happens, remember those drunken drivers, arsonists, and tobacco merchants, even that single dust devil and say:
Hold onto your underpants, this is not a national emergency.
Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the American Empire Project, runs the Nation Institute’s TomDispatch.com. He is the author of The End of Victory Culture, a history of the Cold War and beyond, as well as of a novel, The Last Days of Publishing. He also edited The World According to TomDispatch: America in the New Age of Empire (Verso, 2008), an alternative history of the mad Bush years.
[Note: The figures on the 2010 Department of Homeland Security budget and "homeland security" spending in the 2010 budget were provided by the National Priorities Project.]

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