wow, marc,
interesting that you would connect knowlege about government surveillence with being crazy and "anti-alient big spray". i hope that hasn't hept you from studying at least the history of Cointelpro, in which people who went against the status quo were undermined. Yes, ATM machines are noted, but also postings on online groups, websurfing, etc. I would recommend you check out DARPA, Carnivore, Eschelon, TIA Programs to get a sense of what is being done, if you haven't already educated yourself on this subject. Especially since 911, you may be surprised what interest groups have been labeled terrorists.
As this thread has been proposed as a place for discussion about this subject, I'd like to put in a few quotes, and some links that aren't necessarily the best out there, but good ones. for example, you may think that echelon is used only to spy on other countries, and may not know that the information is traded. or that the tia wasn't truly defeated, but only moved elsewhere. some people might be interested in furthering their knowlege.




www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANC....html nasa

Designed and coordinated by NSA, the ECHELON system is used to
intercept ordinary e-mail, fax, telex, and telephone communications
carried over the world's telecommunications networks. Unlike many of
the electronic spy systems developed during the Cold War, ECHELON is
designed primarily for non-military targets: governments,
organizations, businesses, and individuals in virtually every country.
It potentially affects every person communicating between (and
sometimes within) countries anywhere in the world.
The ECHELON system is not designed to eavesdrop on a particular
individual's e-mail or fax link. Rather, the system works by
indiscriminately intercepting very large quantities of communications
and using computers to identify and extract messages of interest from
the mass of unwanted ones. A chain of secret interception facilities
has been established around the world to tap into all the major
components of the international telecommunications networks. Some
monitor communications satellites, others land-based communications
networks, and others radio communications. ECHELON links together all
these facilities, providing the US and its allies with the ability to
intercept a large proportion of the communications on the planet.

The computers at each station in the ECHELON network automatically
search through the millions of messages intercepted for ones containing
pre-programmed keywords. Keywords include all the names, localities,
subjects, and so on that might be mentioned. Every word of every
message intercepted at each station gets automatically searched
whether or not a specific telephone number or e-mail address is on the
list.






intelligence agencies simply don't get rid of ideas like TIA, especially after money and work has been poured into them. Instead, they transfer the research and money elsewhere and continue to develop the programs.

In essence, this is what happened to TIA. "Congress eliminated a Pentagon office that had been developing this terrorist-tracking technology because of fears it might ensnare innocent Americans. Still, some projects from retired Adm. John Poindexter's Total Information Awareness effort were transferred to U.S. intelligence offices, congressional, federal and research officials told The Associated Press. In addition, Congress left undisturbed a separate but similar $64 million research program run by a little-known office called the Advanced Research and Development Activity, or ARDA, that has used some of the same researchers as Poindexter's program."

"The whole congressional action looks like a shell game," said Steve Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, which tracks work by U.S. intelligence agencies. "There may be enough of a difference for them to claim TIA was terminated while for all practical purposes the identical work is continuing."
kurtnimmo.com/archives/00000024.html



Former Iran-Contra mastermind John Poindexter runs the Total Information Awareness program, developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), with and for the Department of Justice, FBI, CIA, DIA, and NSA. It is a plan to put every electronic trace you leave into a huge “virtual information repository.” (It’s too grandiose to be called a mere “database”.) The repository would be compared with patterns of terrorist conduct to predict and prevent terrorism. Yes — the groceries or magazines you buy, videotapes you rent, alcohol you consume, trips you take, hotels you stay in, checks you write, speeding tickets you receive . . . all are to be included in this database. As I discussed in my article “Totalitarian Information Awareness” (March), serious technical issues exist which call into question whether this new Defense Department system could ever work as intended. Even if it could, it would be at an enormous social cost: a level of constant and pervasive electronic surveillance that would radically change America for the worse. I have not been alone in decrying this program.



www.forests.com/cointel.html
COINTELPRO
During the 1960¹s and 70¹s, under J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI conducted a domestic counter intelligence program (Cointelpro) designed to identify, disrupt, and destroy progressive community organizations formed by American citizens within the United States.


Political and social change groups deemed "undesirable" by the FBI were subjected to government spying and harassment. Targets included Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference, organic food co-ops, community health Free Clinics, women's groups, community cooperative newspapers, and arts organizations such as the Watts Writers' Workshop.



What Can Carnivore/DCS1000 Do?



EPIC- The Electronic Privacy Information Center has aggressively sought out information about Carnivore via the Freedom of Information Act. Click here to see their extensive Carnivore focus area.

The following was written before much of EPIC's material was made available. Most of the conjecture and assumptions below have been borne out by the documentation released by the FBI to EPIC:

The FBI has been reluctant to disclose many details about the Carnivore/DCS1000 spy tool which has been in use since early 2000, but what is known is this:

Carnivore/DCS1000 is a combination of hardware and software, which can "sniff" (read or scan) all electronic packets that are sent to and from the ISP (Internet Service Provider) where it is installed.

With this info, Carnivore/DCS1000 can, theoretically:

Read all incoming and outgoing e-mails, including sender, recipient(s), message subject and body;

Monitor the web-surfing and downloading habits of all the ISP's customers, including web searches for information or people;

Monitor and/or read all other electronic activity for that ISP- including instant messages (such as with ICQ), person-to-person file transfers, web publishing, FTP, Telnet, newsgroups, online purchases, and anything else that is routed through that ISP;




stopcarnivore.org/what_can_...ore_do.htm

What Carnivore/DCS1000 Could Do:


That's what Carnivore/DCS1000 can do when installed at a single ISP.


But what happens if Carnivore/DCS1000 goes unchecked, and gets installed at most or all ISPs? All that would take is for the FBI to justify one Carnivore-based investigation at each ISP. This could happen within a year or two if left unchecked. Let's look at what it could mean if Carnivore/DCS1000, and the FBI, were installed at all ISPs in the US:


The biggest threat would be the FBI's new ability to mandate Internet law. One of the great powers of the Internet is the fact that it exists beyond the control of any one person or agency. Almost all efforts to introduce Internet legislation has either been defeated or postponed, usually because enforcement is found to be impractical. Also, any activity that the U.S. might try to prohibit can still be conducted in another country with different laws, and, through the Internet, can still be accessed by Americans.


The Communications Decency Act (basically a censorship law) provoked such a massive e-protest that it was largely abandoned. Internet gambling, online auctions, and music sharing have all largely avoided regulation, because lawmakers know that if you ban it in one place on the 'Net, it will just show up somewhere else.


Carnivore/DCS1000 could change all that. With Carnivore/DCS1000 installed at all U.S. ISPs, the FBI could  (for example):


Ban any language or content found to be objectionable, by interception, deletion, or alteration.

Monitor the country's communications, and target any person who was found or suspected to be a "problem." The judge of who or what is a "problem"?: the FBI.

Invoke mandatory standards for web sites, such as a rating system (like with movies), or lowering security standards (like prohibiting encrypted messages and secure private web sites).

Shut down or shut off the communications of any one person, website, company, or ISP. As columnist Robert Cringely put it, they could "Shut the Internet down."



Many people would like to believe the best about our Government, and assume that they wouldn't do such a thing. But most of the efforts by the U.S. Government to control the Internet have failed, not because they didn't want to make the law, but because the nature of the Internet (free and fluid) wouldn't allow it.


Carnivore/DCS1000 will change that, if we don't take action now.


The United States is home to the vast majority of Internet traffic. AOL alone has over 50 million users, and the number of e-mail accounts in the U.S. has been reported as over 300 million. Most of this country's residents use the Internet is some way, and moreso as time goes on.


What's more, communications technology is converging in such a way that traditional technologies, like phone, radio, cable TV, satellite, and wireless, are all becoming part of the Internet. More and more of our communications are sent over the Internet every single day, and the day will come when the Internet will be the transmission tool for virtually all communications (aside from "live," in-person talking). The U.S. is positioned to be the major provider of these services, for its own people, and the rest of the world.


A few years down the road, when your phone company, your cable TV provider, radio stations, and cell phone company are all part of your "ISP", and Carnivore/DCS1000 is installed there, the FBI will have exclusive control of what you can and can't watch, say, or do while using these technologies. And if you happen to say, or read, or watch something that raises their suspicion (like, say, shopping for hemp clothing, or saying you hate something, or advocating drug legalization), you could very well find yourself being served with a search warrant, by people very much like the ones that seized Elian Gonzales from his Miami relatives.