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  • THE WATCHERS by Shane Harris
    I've set up another Facebook page to share stories that aren't strictly about my book. I'm also going to start posting the work of others covering national security. Hopefully this will be a way to broaden the discussion on intelligence, security, civil liberties, et al, which you're probably interested in if you've liked this page! I hope you'll join me.
    Shane Harris
    The Nightingale's Song; The Devil in the White City; The One Percent Doctrine; Franny and Zooey; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn;
    Page: 34 like this
    · Comment · May 23, 2011 at 8:57am ·
    • THE WATCHERS by Shane Harris
      Good news! The Economist picked The Watchers as one of its best books of 2010.
      Page turners
      www.economist.com
      Politics and current affairs Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime. By John Heilemann and Mark Halperin.
      · Comment · December 2, 2010 at 12:51pm ·
    • RECENT ACTIVITY
    • THE WATCHERS by Shane Harris
      LA Times reviews The Watchers (towards the end).
      Caught in a paranoid conspiracy grip - Los Angeles Times
      articles.latimes.com
      Along the stretch of U.S. highway where I live, there is a small sign announcing that the road has been "adopted" by the John Birch Society. This fringe group of yesteryear -- whose Dallas members
      · Comment · March 23, 2010 at 1:54pm ·
      • Jay Hopkins likes this.
        • Bonnie Calcagno
          WE NOW HAVE AN AMERICAN STASI.

          BACKROUND OF COVERT SURVEILLANCE POLICIES
          Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller, Deputy Attorney General James Comey threatened to resign over a surveillance program of the U.S. between ...Sept. 11, 2001 and March 2004. No further information about this surveillance program implemented by the executive branch was ever revealed.

          In July, 2009, a report compiled by 5 inspector generals revealed that President Bush signed off on a massive surveillance program after Sept. 11 whose primary architect was Former CIA Director Michael Hayden. John Yoo, Michael Hayden, and the Office of the Vice President were running the program “around the laws that Congress passed.”

          WHO ARE THE AMERICAN STASI?
          Police
          Firemen
          Ambulance Drivers
          Nationwide Citizen Stalkers
          Just like the Stasi in East Germany the American Stasi now make up a percentage of our population who use Red Cars, Red Trucks, who wear or carry red in conspicuous surveillance and organized gang stalking of targets.

          HOW DO THEY TARGET PEOPLE?
          It could start by being “reported” by a neighbor or fireman (firemen are part of fusion centers) to a fusion center. No due process. You are not informed of what has been said against you. That information reported to a fusion center – even when “reported” in mobbing (group of people banding together to “get” a target in a personal vendetta) can be databased and disseminated all over the U.S. and trigger surveillance.

          WHAT DO THEY DO?

          The tactic the American Stasi use is called Organized Gang Stalking.

          1. Police use GPS to track your car and ascertain your daily patterns. Stasi Citizen Stalkers (Neighborhood Watch Groups? Citizen Corp?) in red cars, red trucks, wearing or carrying red engage in conspicuous surveillance of the target . There is organized gang stalking of the target wherever she goes by Stasi Citizen Stalkers, police, firemen, and ambulance drivers.

          2. It starts from the minute the target leaves her/his home . Same Time Exit/Entry is the standard gang stalking tactic – you go out of your home - they are there. You return - they are there. You exit a store – a gang stalker is there. You come out of a store – a red truck passes by. You go to your park car – a Stasi gang stalker wearing red passes by.

          3. Red cars are parked at the end of parking lots for best visibility. They are at intersections. They drive in front of you more often than in back of you. They pull up alongside you.

          4. They use BEEPING - when you take the dog out - go in your yard - at other times

          5. You try to take a walk - they set off car alarms or have Citizen Stalkers use power equipment (leaf blowers etc.) in their yards, hammer or make other noise as you go by.

          6. They have dogs jump out of car windows - let dogs off their leashes, run up at you - use dogs to intimidate

          7. They use NOISE to disturb sleep

          8. A gang stalker might be talking on a phone as they pass you by and say your name to the person they are speaking to

          9. They use children in gang stalking - even preschoolers, teenagers, old people, handicap people (the Stasi in East Germany also used children)

          10. They get neighbors involved in the gang stalking to socially isolate the target and to gang stalk the target when they enter or leave their home, try to take out the garbage, pick up mail, in all their daily activities.

          11. They try from the INTENSITY (30, 40, 50 Stasi Gang Stalkers a day) and DURATION (the organized gang stalking goes on for years) of the organize gang stalking to NEUTRALIZE the target.

          www.theintrovertspeaks.com
          See More
          May 23, 2010 at 2:42am
    • THE WATCHERS by Shane Harris
      My interview with Time about the rise of America's surveillance state. http://bit.ly/aWBmV0
      · Comment · March 19, 2010 at 8:22am via mobile
      • Patrick Radden Keefe likes this.
      • THE WATCHERS by Shane Harris
        Q&A about The Watchers in US News & World Report. http://bit.ly/9QdpFP
        · Comment · March 12, 2010 at 4:20am via mobile
          • Bonnie Calcagno
            It could start with being "reported" by a neighbor or firemen who are part of fusion centers. No due process. No chance to be informed of what has been said against you. The U.S. government has legitimized "personal vendettas."

            1. The targ...et is put under conspicuous surveillance - by police, firemen, and Stasi-like gang stalkers using red cars, red trucks, or who wear or carry red

            2. It starts from the minute the target leaves her/his home - Same Time Exit/Entry is the standard gang stalking tactic - you go out - they are going out

            3. They use BEEPING - when you take the dog out - go in your yard - at other times

            4. They set off car alarms if you try to take a walk

            5. They have dogs jump out of car windows - let dogs off their leashes, run up at you - use dogs to intimidate

            6. They use NOISE to disturb sleep

            7. They use GPS to track you

            8. Red cars are at intersections - more often in front of you than in back of you

            9. They like to park red cars at the end of parking lots where they are noticed

            10. A gang stalker in red might be there when you exit a store or a red car or truck will pass just as you exit

            11. A gang stalker might be talking on a phone as they pass you by and say your name to the person they are speaking to

            12. They use children in gang stalking - even preschoolers, teenagers, old people, handicap people (the Stasi in East Germany also used children)

            13. They get neighbors involved in the gang stalking to socially isolate the target and to gang stalk the target when they enter or leave their home, try to take out the garbage, pick up mail.

            www.theintrovertspeaks.com
            See More
            March 17, 2010 at 11:59am
          • Bonnie Calcagno
            Why won’t Obama adopt the recommendations of the American Civil Liberties Union and Stop Spying On Innocent Americans:

            From America Unrestored available for download at: www.aclu.org/america-unrestored

            National Security and Privacy
            ...
            Spying on Americans

            1. “Issue an executive order recognizing the president’s obligation to comply with FISA and other statutes, requiring the executive branch to do so, and prohibiting the NSA from collecting the communications, domestic or international, of U.S. citizens and residents.”

            2. “Issue an executive order prohibiting new FISA powers from being used to conduct suspicionless bulk collection”.

            3. “Re-examine the recent amendments to Executive Order 12333 and revise the order to limit and regulate all intelligence community activities and to fully protect the privacy and civil liberties of U.S. citizens and residents. In particular, the new Executive Order should:

            a. Limit the ODNI, CIA and NSA to collecting and evaluating foreign intelligence information.

            b. Prohibit the National Security Agency from intercepting international communications of U.S. persons, absent a warrant based on probably cause.

            c. Prohibit the military from playing any role in civilian surveillance within the United States, or in surveillance of U.S. persons aboard.

            d. Establish minimization procedures that prevent the collection of information regarding U.S. persons not reasonably suspected of involvement in espionage, terrorism or other criminal activity, and require the prompt destruction of U.S. person information inadvertently collected.

            e. Restrict the FBI to investigating criminal activities, including espionage and terrorism, and eliminate foreign and domestic intelligence investigations of groups or individuals unrelated to criminal offenses.

            f. Prohibit the exchange of personally identifiable information between agencies except for evidence of espionage or other criminal activity, which may be transmitted to agencies responsible for investigating or prosecuting such violations.

            g. Make publicly available any and all internal policies, procedures or memoranda produced by or for the intelligence and law enforcement agencies regulated under E.O. 12333, which interpret or qualify provisions of that order.

            h. Make all minimization procedures designed to protect the privacy and civil liberties of U.S. persons public, as well and any internal policies or memoranda that interpret these procedures.

            i. Order the attorney general to launch an investigation to determine if any laws were broken or to appoint a special counsel to do the same.”

            Monitoring of Activists

            1. “Direct the attorney general and other relevant agency heads (e.g., Defense and Homeland Security) to end government monitoring of political activists”.

            2. “Issue an executive order directing the relevant agencies to refrain from monitoring political activists unless there is reasonable suspicion that they have committed a criminal act or are taking preparatory actions to do so.”

            3. “Direct the attorney general to repeal the new Attorney General Guidelines regarding FBI investigations, and replace them with new guidelines that protect the rights and privacy of innocent persons. The new guidelines should:

            a. Prohibit the use of intrusive investigative techniques absent specific and articulable facts that give a reasonable indication that the subject of the investigation is engaging in a violation of federal law.

            b. Specifically prohibit the use of race, religion, national origin, or the exercise of First Amendment-protected activity as factors in making decisions to investigate persons or organizations.

            c. Specifically prohibit the reporting of and keeping files on persons engaging in peaceful political activities.”

            Watchlists

            1. “The President should issue an executive order requiring watchlists to be completely reviewed within 3 months, with names limited to only those for whom there is credible evidence of terrorists ties or activities.”

            2. “Repeal Executive Order 13224, which creates mechanisms for designating individuals and groups as terrorist suspects and preventing US persons and companies from doing business with them – a power of such breadth that, the record shows, it inevitably leads to the designation of many innocent people and does more harm than good.”

            Civil Liberties Oversight Board

            1. “Appoint all members to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board and strong urge the Senate to hold prompt confirmation hearings for the candidates.”

            2. “The president’s first budget proposal should contain sufficient funds to actually bring the board back into existence as an effective entity.” – Fiscal Year 2010 budget includes $2 million for the PCLOB

            3. “ The U.S. attorney general should create a mechanism for issuing subpoenas at the request of the Board. For example, this can be done through the creation of a Memorandum of Understanding between the board and the attorney general in which the attorney general promises to enforce subpoenas issued by the board’s request unless he or she certifies that such a subpoena would be unlawful.”

            Freedom of Speech

            Political protest

            1. “Issue an executive order directing the Secret Service to end the use of so called “free speech zones,” and repeal procedures in the Presidential Advance Manual for deterring political protest.”

            2. “The Advance Manual must be revised to afford full First Amendment protection to all demonstators or protestors and limit safeguards to only those individuals who engage in or have stated they will engage in activity unprotected under Bradenburg v. Ohio.”
            See More
            March 17, 2010 at 12:00pm
      • THE WATCHERS by Shane Harris
        Here's a video of my book talk at Book Passage in San Francisco.
        FORA.tv - Shane Harris: The Rise of America's Surveillance State
        fora.tv
        Shane Harris, a reporter for National Journal, talks about The Watchers: The Rise of America's Surveillance State.Harris charts the rise of America's surveillance state over the past 25 years and highlights ...
        · Comment · March 11, 2010 at 1:13pm ·
      • THE WATCHERS by Shane Harris
        Here's a Q&A in Government Executive magazine, with my former boss Tom Shoop. It was a lot of fun--and a unique experience, for sure--to be the subject of a story in a magazine where I used to work! GE was where my reporting for The Watchers began.
        :FEATURES: :Dot, Dot, Dot . . . (3/1/10) -- GovExec.com
        www.govexec.com
        In his new book The Watchers, (Penguin Press, 2010), Shane Harris chronicles what he calls "the rise of America's surveillance state," a process he's been following since he was a reporter and technology editor at Government Executive from 2001 to 2005.
        · Comment · March 9, 2010 at 8:22am ·
        • Bara Vaida likes this.
        • THE WATCHERS by Shane Harris
          On the Media tackles surveillance again this week. Here's my interview with Brooke Gladstone about re-upping the Partriot Act.

          http://bit.ly/bN4sYl
          · Comment · March 7, 2010 at 9:48am via mobile
          • August Jackson likes this.
            • Harold Tedford Shane is a sharp cookie!!!!
              March 7, 2010 at 10:35am
        • THE WATCHERS by Shane Harris
          Sitting at SFO waiting for the flight back to Dulles. And not pulled aside for secondary screening! Bonus. It was a great west coast tour. Thanks to the many bookstores, radio stations, and TV shows that hosted me this week and gave such welcome attention to the book. I'll post a wrap up here when I get home.
          · Comment · March 7, 2010 at 9:45am via mobile
          • THE WATCHERS by Shane Harris
            Great events this week at Powell's in Portland and Town Hall Seattle. Just landed in SFO and looking forward to Book Passage tonight at 6PM.
            · Comment · March 4, 2010 at 9:08am via mobile
              • Kevin Wilson when are you going to be at Powell's??, or did you already do portland?
                March 4, 2010 at 10:52am
          • THE WATCHERS by Shane Harris
            I was very pleased to be a guest on this week's episode of On the Media from NPR. Host Brooke Gladstone and I had a great discussion about John Poindexter, electronic privacy, and other stories from the book.
            On The Media: Transcript of "The Watchers" (February 26, 2010)
            www.onthemedia.org
            Do we want our government to have access to the many electronic records and footprints we leave scattered across computer systems every day? Reporter Shane Harris argues in his new book, The Watchers, ...
            · Comment · February 28, 2010 at 9:12am ·
              • Bonnie Calcagno
                Dear Mr. Harris, I look forward to reading your book. It boggles my mind how what is going on - www.theintrovertspeaks.com - can happen in America. What is wrong with this country that this can go on under everyone's noses - and nobody no...tices?

                It could start with being "reported" by a neighbor or firemen who are part of fusion centers. No due process. No chance to be informed of what has been said against you. The U.S. government has legitimized "personal vendettas."

                1. The target is put under conspicuous surveillance - by police, firemen, and Stasi-like gang stalkers using red cars, red trucks, or who wear or carry red

                2. It starts from the minute the target leaves her/his home - Same Time Exit/Entry is the standard gang stalking tactic - you go out - they are going out

                3. They use BEEPING - when you take the dog out - go in your yard - at other times

                4. They set off car alarms if you try to take a walk

                5. They have dogs jump out of car windows - let dogs off their leashes, run up at you - use dogs to intimidate

                6. They use NOISE to disturb sleep

                7. They use GPS to track you

                8. Red cars are at intersections - more often in front of you than in back of you

                9. They like to park red cars at the end of parking lots where they are noticed

                10. A gang stalker in red might be there when you exit a store or a red car or truck will pass just as you exit

                11. A gang stalker might be talking on a phone as they pass you by and say your name to the person they are speaking to

                12. They use children in gang stalking - even preschoolers, teenagers, old people, handicap people (the Stasi in East Germany also used children)

                13. They get neighbors involved in the gang stalking to socially isolate the target and to gang stalk the target when they enter or leave their home, try to take out the garbage, pick up mail

                Read more at: www.theintrovertspeaks.com
                See More
                March 3, 2010 at 11:36pm
              • Bonnie Calcagno
                Campaign Declaration

                From the International Campaign Against Mass Surveillance
                www.i-cams.org
                Deutsch | Français | Español | Nederlands | Italiano | Suomi
                ...
                Global security and the “war on terror” now dominate the global political agenda. Driven largely by the United States, a growing web of anti-terrorism and security measures are being adopted by nations around the world. This new “security” paradigm is being used to roll back freedom and increase police powers in order to exercise increasing control over individuals and populations.
                Within this context, governments have begun to construct, through numerous initiatives, what amounts to a global registration and surveillance infrastructure. This infrastructure would ensure that populations around the world are registered, that travel is tracked globally, that electronic communications and transactions can be easily monitored, and that all the information that is collected in public and private databases about individuals is stored, linked, data-mined, and made available to state security agents.
                The object of the infrastructure is not ordinary police work, but mass surveillance of entire populations. In its technological capacity and global reach, it is an unprecedented project of social control. Already, the United States and other countries are aggressively using information gathered and shared through this infrastructure to crack down on dissent, close borders to refugees and activists, and seize and detain people without reasonable grounds.
                And, all of this is taking place at a time when the U.S. and its allies are maintaining a system of secret and extraterritorial prisons around the world, in which unknown numbers of prisoners are facing indefinite, arbitrary detention and torture.
                The current situation reaches beyond the issue of privacy as it is often encountered in everyday life. What we are confronting are intrusions that reach to the very nature of the relationship between the individual and the state. Basic justice and human rights are at stake, and this will affect us all.
                Governments around the world must abandon the intrusive and discriminatory measures inherent in the practice of mass registration and surveillance, and put the genuine protection and development of citizens – in the fullest sense, including the protection of our rights – at the centre of any approach to “security”:
                All data collection, storage, use, analysis, data mining and sharing practices that erode or are contrary to existing data protection, privacy and other human rights laws and standards must stop immediately. Governments must resist efforts by the United States and other countries to pressure them into weakening their existing privacy standards.
                Mechanisms must be put in place to allow individuals to correct personal data and challenge misuse (including placement on a “watch list”).
                International transfers of personal data between states should occur only within the context of formal agreements and under internationally recognized data-protection principles.
                Governments must stop the wholesale, indiscriminate collection and retention of information on citizens, including the acquisition of databanks from private companies.
                Governments must halt implementation of a universal biometric passport and the creation of “sharing standards” for passenger name record (PNR) information until the issue has been openly debated at the national level and privacy and other human rights protections are established.
                Inter-governmental bodies must commit to operating with greater openness and accountability. They must not become a means of circumventing civil liberties and democratic processes at the national level. Any initiatives must respect existing data protection, privacy and other human rights laws and standards.
                The United Nations – particularly the Office of the High Commission for Human Rights – must use all available mechanisms for the protection and promotion of human rights to urgently address the threat posed by the development of the global surveillance infrastructure.
                We invite individuals and organizations around the world to endorse this Declaration, and to circulate it as widely as possible. Your voice is needed to strengthen the International Campaign Against Mass Surveillance!
                Endorse ICAMS declaration >>
                Learn more about global registration and surveillance >>www.i-cans.org
                See More
                March 17, 2010 at 12:01pm
          • THE WATCHERS by Shane Harris
            Thanks to Democracy Now for having me on yesterday. Here's a transcript and the video from our interview.

            http://bit.ly/9uJa6c
            · Comment · February 26, 2010 at 2:15pm via mobile