Slowly, the adults retake control

"...Brown instructed his ministers that the phrase "war on terror" was no longer to be used..."

"...the Brown approach would be the approach of serious crime fighters around the world these days - community policing in which mutual trust is the cornerstone of crime prevention."
(Article)

Theater of the absurd

Continuing from Nothing Oils the Gears Like "Sex Offender"

Actually, what it is is an erosion of the Fourth Amendment.

MySpace Reportedly Labels Innocent Woman as Sex Offender (Threat Level)

I don't have a particular desire to protect sex offenders. It's a creepy and usually cowardly crime on the surface. It's a crime of power. However, technically speaking, in some states if you get caught in something other than missionary position, it's a sex crime. No, it's that some states want databases available to them without a crime necessarily being committed. This is what they call a lack of probable cause.
Sex crimes are also some of our own doing, as a society, with the tolerance for the sexualization of children, the infantilization of women, and the promotion of sex as power throughout the commercial world.
I've also heard the argument from parents to the effect that in this case it's ok to be irrational because it has to do with kids. Particularly their kids. No it's not ok! We are a society that teaches our kids to do the right thing, not the knee jerk emotional thing. We teach children that we are a nation of laws, not a nation of reactionary behavior. People who tolerate reactionary behavior implicitly condone others who use terror as a weapon and people who use sex as a weapon.
Part two of this absurdity is that because some AG's want to grandstand and make a name for themselves at the expense of hard won Liberty and centuries of tradition, names of folks are being purged from a database based on some other database which may or may not be accurate. A large enough database and the accuracy drops. A little inconvenience for some, but just one more accepted violation of the Bill of Rights.
Technically not a violation because the government only leaned on a private entity.
The third bit of theater, from two folks swept up the purge:

• "Davis told ABC News that she supports MySpace's efforts, but is worried that the database it built with Sentinel Tech Holding Corp. will start circulating with her information in it."
• "In a sense I can understand why they do that ... But why not (also) do it for identity theft convictions, drug dealing conviction, murder convictions? Because criminals use MySpace for these things as well." (article)
  

Because we are a nation of "innocent until proven guilty" and that the state does the punishing. Does nobody stand up for anything higher than their instant sense of gratification? Scarlet letter anyone?
Lastly, most of these services only require a valid email address, which one can get from Yahoo or Goggle without actually being verified as to who you are. So what happens. Criminals hide their identity, even the stupid ones. At least if you let them operate above ground, the idiot criminals will surface.
Every time some do-gooder wants to prove to the world how great s/he is by chest thumping and sloganeering, investigations get a little harder by driving the bad guys a little deeper into the shadows.
Any half decent investigator knows this, so why does it keep happening when only the regular citizen is impacted in the long run? Aside from the grandstanding, why is their such a promotion of bad detective practices, when only innocent people will end up being investigated...

Oh!

At the end of the day the colors of the flag are a little more faded

.

"CIVPOL"

I've long argued for an American equivalent of GSG9 rather than disastrous, irrelevant war expeditions in our quest for dealing with political actors that use the illegal tactic of terror in an effort to forward their cause.
Philip Carter mentions that a colleague who is "a leading theorist in the field where crime and warfare converge", Lt. John Sullivan agrees...

Constabulary operations, such as these, are the "missing mission" in the United States security structure. The U.S. has no national police service (the FBI is a non-uniformed investigative agency) and state and local police address these functions internally. Few if any local U.S. Forces could field or contribute to an on-going expeditionary capability without straining their ability to perform their home mission. The U.S. also has no standing constabulary or EXPOL force and relies upon scarce or ill-fitted military units (and ad hoc civilian police units) to fill expeditionary needs. The same is true for NATO and the U.N.

(More at Intel Dump)
I've actually met one of Lt. Sullivan's people at an law enforcement intel seminar. Probably one of the most informative speakers at the conference.

I don't get paid enough...

Nothing oils the gears like "Sex Offender"

So you want unfettered access to those databases, but you don't want to be bothered with a pesky warrant. The owners of the Db don't buy the "terrorist threat" line because it's been beat to death and they're getting wise. What to do?
Trot out the "sexual predators online" angle. Nothing gets people moving like the idea of some sicko hassling their little Jean Bonet Ramseys.

MySpace Says Come Back With a Warrant
Doormat The Electronic Communications Privacy Act forbids MySpace from handing over the names of sex offenders on its site to the attorneys general, unless someone comes up with a subpoena, the company says. (Threat Level)

Why wouldn't THEY get a warrant in the first place?!?

In reality, when THEY're not threatening us, THEY're threatening the kids.

Semantics of terror

Still no fucking definition.

Abortion clinics have been bombed with people in them...not terrorism.
Labs conducting animal research burned...terrorism.
Lite-brites garner 140 hours and apologies.
Real fake bombs get...two weeks suspension.

Feds push terrorist label on arsonists
A federal judge was to hear arguments Tuesday on a motion by the government to add a so-called terrorism enhancement to their sentences. (Article)

Create a bogeyman and you can lock up anyone.

Terrorism is designed through the use of violence to intimidate non-combatants into complying with ideological and/or political goals. It's not that I advocate the destruction of labs necessarily. It is that by confusing the two types of attackers is to not be prepared to defend against different types of attacks.

If we start thinking of a group like ALF as being a terrorist organization, we put ourselves at risk by misunderstanding actual terrorists. We also dilute the nastiness that is real terrorism. It also makes for bad analysis. Knowing that ALF does not want to commit acts of violence against people necessarily and is more interested in destroying apparatus instead, we can then assume that they would attack at night or on the weekend. A terrorist on the other hand, is interested in horrific carnage (not necessarily massive) therefore would be more inclined to attack during the week and during the day.
I'm not saying elements of radical groups might not eventually commit an act of terrorism. I'm not saying they're innocent; they've committed illegal guerrilla attacks against the corporate research community. I'm saying that they haven't yet comitted a terrorist act and it is to the detriment of the intelligence community, law enforcement, the courts, and most importantly our civil liberties if we allow this sloppy, opportunist use of the word terror for corporate/political agendas.
Hold everyone accountable for the proper use of the word.

Incoming!

Another salvo against Americans.

Spy Chief Seeks More Surveillance Power
National Intelligence Director Is Pushing To Expand Government's Eavesdropping Authority
WASHINGTON, April 11, 2007

The changes McConnell is seeking mostly affect a cloak-and-dagger category of warrants used to investigate suspected spies, terrorists and other national security threats. The court-approved surveillance could include planting listening devices and hidden cameras, searching luggage and breaking into homes to make copies of computer hard drives.

The argument has been presented that lacking these authorities, they can't go after the bad guys. I say if you've got such good evidence that you would like to completely fuck the 4th Amendment, then as an investigator you should have the balls to do it illegally and if you're right and you save the fucking world...I'm sure all will be forgiven.
I would also like to see a legal definition of terrorist and "other national security threats" before I give any more authorization.

Private Police Forces

Private Police Forces

In Raleigh, N.C., employees of Capitol Special Police patrol apartment buildings, a bowling alley and nightclubs, stopping suspicious people, searching their cars and making arrests.

Sounds like a good thing, but Capitol Special Police isn't a police force at all -- it's a for-profit security company hired by private property owners.

This isn't unique. Private security guards outnumber real police more than 5-1, and increasingly act like them. (Schneier on Security)

I don't have to read you Your Rights, for starters...

Minority Report

Tapping Brains for Future Crimes
A team of neuroscientists announced a scientific breakthrough last week in the use of brain scans to discover what's on someone's mind. (more at Wired magazine...)

Tipped by Disinformation

As the author points out, often results are over dramatized by breathless reporters, but there will come a day...

BTW...

...a big fuck you to all the fuckers who blamed the failure to find WMD's on the Intel community.

Pentagon office produced `alternative' intelligence on Iraq
By Jonathan S. Landay 2.8.07
McClatchy Newspapers(MCT)

A special unit run by former Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's top policy aide inappropriately produced "alternative" intelligence reports that wrongly concluded that Saddam Hussein's regime had cooperated with al-Qaida, a Pentagon investigation has determined. (More...)

Warning!!!

They say that computer whizzes and such can track people fairly easily on the net. While I'm more comfortable than most, I'm not an expert. So I was surprised by how much information I could gather on visitors to Complex 39.
Now I feel obligated to warn everyone...the vanity counter below, at the bottom of the page will put a cookie on your machine (most sites do). The very act of clinking to a webpage anywhere can log your visit.
This is the information I have for the week (I won't post anything particularly sensitive). As you can see I can go deeper and view by city and by IP. Those details I'll keep private, but that doesn't mean blogger itself isn't keeping track, or google, or your ISP, or that sex tracking cookie, or....

I spent a lot of time concerned with keeping my identity private so I could happily continue in the intelligence or investigation field. Then I decided, if THEY don't like what I have to say about intelligence issues then fuck 'em, I don't really want to work where THEY are, humping the bosses leg, feeding them what THEY want to hear, lying to the "client" or "consumer" to keep the dollars rolling and not offending any of THEM. I don't want to work in Rah! Rah! fucking Law Enforcement if THEY want to keep doing the same old, tired bullshit that hasn't changed a damn thing since time immemorial. Crack a few fucking skulls, point fingers at the reprobates, and fucking call it a day. Hor-fucking-ray for the home team! God fucking bless you if you want to take that fucking barrel over the waterfall, but me...I've gotta get going on to a place where I can fucking live with myself. Fuck the oil kleptocrats, the product oligarchs, and the fucking theocracy cabal. I'm gonna find a nice non-profit or NGO and go help some people. Don't get me wrong, there are necessary services provided, but when the product is so manipulated and the manpower purged of anyone who might disagree...that's not intel, that's the manufacturing of (sur?)reality and consent.

Proposed IAO logo. It proved to be too creepy.

My former affiliation

Thank you. Thank you very much...
Now I've gotta take my meds for this fucking ulcer.

And by the way... a big "hello" and I'll try to keep my fucking country out of yours to all the foreign visitors (Is there really a foreign on the net?).

Additional resources
Bruce Schneier - Schneier on Security
CCleaner - freeware system optimization and privacy tool

Purpose

My muse is not with me today, so this is going to be a bit terse and matter of fact.
Complex 39 (look it up) is a place where I (Snag) can organize my dispatches regarding the state of the world. "Why the fuck would anyone want to read this, when there's so many other sources of information?" one might ask.
Well, I'm operating on a few principles I think might be unique:

• Complex 39 is an attempt to blend Art, Journalism, and Commentary in a multitude of media types.
• Complex 39 isn't an attempt for the absolute truth. As A. Korzybski has said "The map is not the territory." This is only a map. However, this map is an attempt to rip off the routine of daily existence that have dulled our senses and see the seething, froth of humanity as we apes interface with technology. Hopefully a closer look at the pornography of violence, the ever pervasive agents of social control, the transmogrification of civilization, the underground technological pirates...
• Complex 39's stylistically somewhere between Post-war America and cyberpunk.

So who the hell is Snag?
Hopefully that will be fleshed out overtime. Here's a quick run down to this point:
Born in the industrial north of the U.S. just before Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins made contact with another planet. Born shortly after the Kennedy assassination and cover-up. Born shortly before the Neo-Con's first major criminal enterprise known as the Nixon administration and subsequently Watergate.
I grew up nomadically, moving every couple of years across the U.S. My single mother was always searching for something unknown. Intellectual challenges I suppose. Spiritual quests maybe?
My brother is a drummer in a band and a pretty cool guy. He majored in Art History and works for a prestigious museum in Boston. He would like to move into curations.
I've done everything from roofing to working in an industrial laundry to managing a restaurant to salvaging demolition sites.
I spent 11 years in the U.S. Army. Most of it part-time. First as a medic, then administration, then intelligence/security management. For six years I was an intelligence sergeant with the military police. I was adept at the M16, M60, and grenades. While I served these things happened:

1. The Tanker War - "Operation Earnest Will"
2. U.S. Invasion of Panama
3. Second Persian Gulf War - "Operation Desert Storm"
4. "No-Fly Zone" War
5. U.S. Intervention in Somalia
6. NATO Intervention in Bosnia - "Operation Deliberate Force"
7. U.S. Occupation of Haiti
8. U.S. Embassy bombings and strikes on Afghanistan and Sudan (The bin Laden War)

I've built and raced a 1963 Fairlane 500 with a modified 315 cubic inch "Windsor" motor. I'm self-taught. I'm interested in grease cars. My good friend and the lead singer of the Kings of Nuthin', Torr, has been a big help in my automotive knowledge.
I was a punk rocker/bootboy in my adolescence. I was a fan of Fear, Black Flag, The Exploited, and Dead Kennedys. I drank beer with Colin of G.B.H. around a fire, in a corn field, at a show in Kansas. I spent many years hanging out in a place called the Outhouse.
Along with Schroedinger, Feynman, Heisenberg, et al, Joe Strummer and Johnny Cash are my spiritual advisers.
I'm currently a criminal investigator in the private sector. I'm good at understanding intention from behavior. I can beat people up. I'm good at investigating financial based crimes. I think it's odd and a little depressing that THEY (society...the law...the corporate powers...) allow me to hurt people if needed in the course of my job.
My gal Blank Maxine of twenty years is a brilliant photojournalist (that's her work in sidebar).

Out for now...