Shake Improv

“Loose Change” is probably the best documentary about the 9/11 mistery: watch it online (google video) or buy it from the makers.

Detailed evidence is provided at the website. In addition, I’m linking here some additional press articles cited by the movie (link).

I think I just read the scariest thing ever.

Soon after 9/11 The National Security Agency started building a database of telephone calls records, aimed at collecting data of every call ever made within the nation’s borders [gasp!]. The agency worked with Bellsouth, Verizon and AT&T (and SBC), under a payed contract, so for these corporation it was a profitable deal. Qwest refused to collaborate.

At the time the deal was made, the cited corporations were headed by:

AT&T, by C. Michael Armstrong;
SBC, by Ed Whitacre;
BellSouth, by F. Duane Ackerman;
Verizon, by Ivan Seidenberg.

Those corporations were asked to turn over a complete listing of the calling histories of their 200+ millions of customers. This includes phone numbers and conversation times. It does not include the actual conversations, nor the people names, although that can be easily gathered with non-classified databases. In addition, the NSA also wanted the carriers to provide updates… just to keep the DB in sync with the calling habits of the nation.

This made up what is today the largest database on Earth.

I for one will try to adopt counter-measures. Qwest only provides service to 14 States (not including California) and anyway even if they are “good” now I have no way to know if they’ll continue to be good. The plan, or “a” plan could be to avoid telephone altogether, and just use VOIP. All we need is a reliable internet connection (which I don’t have right now because Earthlink sucks), good encryption software (like Zfone and others), and a VOIP hard phone (I’ll have to investigate the best choice for the latter). A solution for the cell phone use case might be harder.

There’s work to do, but we can’t live like this. I’ll try to log ideas and solutions as I think them out.

Sources:
usatoday (may 11 ’06) –
usatoday (feb 5 ’06) –
slashdot (may 11 ’06) –
beppegrillo.it (may 14 ’06

Related:
Bruce Shneier on AT&T Trillion Call DB (mar 3 ’06)
NYT story on NSA shopping for technologies in the Valley, Feb. 25 ’06)

The Department of Homeland Security is requiring thousands of employees and contractors to sign nondisclosure agreements that prohibit them from sharing sensitive but unclassified information with the public. [...]
“Its likely consequence will be to chill even the most mundane interactions between department employees and reporters or the general public,” [...] “Employees will naturally fear that even the most trivial conversation could mean a violation of this draconian agreement, and so the result will be a new wall between the government and the public.” [...]
Violators risk administrative, disciplinary, criminal and civil penalties. One provision provides that signers consent to government inspections “at any time or place” to ensure compliance. [...]
Read the entire article by Spencer S. Hsu / Washington Post at the Washingtonpost website or at michaelmoore.com.

On November 10th, 2004, during a peaceful demonsration, two large U.S. military tanks drove past the protestors on Wilshire Boulevard two times. The second time, the tanks stopped directly in front of a group of about 50 protestors for nearly five minutes.
La visione di carri armati a Los Angeles durante una protesta civile è strana. Qui c’è un filmato:
http://la.indymedia.org/uploads/tanks-on-la-streets.mov. (If download fails, email me.)

US citizens: you can sign your name to the campaign to repeal part of the U.S.A. P.A.T. R.I.O.T. Act. This would make the police once again have to get search warrants before they can get information from bookstores or libraries about what you have read or borrowed. See: www.readerprivacy.org
This is a step in the right direction, but it does not go far enough. The PATRIOT act was extended in December 2003 to give the police equally easy access to many kinds of transaction records about you. The PAT RIOT act attacks your freedom in other ways, too, and not all of them will expire in 2005. See http://www.aclu.org/safeandfree/. Also, here is a direct link to contact your members of congress.