THE PEACOCK REPORT (TPR)

TSA Seeks to Take 'Intelligent' Surveillance Technology to Next Level

The creation of next-generation "intelligent" surveillance systems capable of sensing group- and individual-behavioral changes could be deployed across U.S. airports and other transportation centers -- if the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) can indeed achieve such a capability. The agency's wish-list of new surveillance capabilities includes "micro-behavior detection," an outcome which TSA seeks to accomplish, for instance, via automated recognition of changes in facial expressions "that indicate stress and other anomalies," according to a procurement document that The Peacock Report has located. TSA's Office of Security Technology seeks to create additional micro-behavior detection capabilities such as the "detection and identification of nervous related actions" such as sweating and pacing, the document says.

The first step that TSA's "Intelligent Closed-Circuit Television" (ICCTV) project will take toward achieving this capacity is an assessment of commercially available "automated and semi-automated technology," according to a TSA Request for Information (RFI) dated Feb. 24.  Assessing and cataloging these technologies could be followed by subsequent contracting actions necessary to bring about "an easily-integrated 'system of systems,'" the RFI says:

It is envisioned that such a video system… could be part of an integrated approach to enhancing the security of the national transportation system in the United States by means of remote surveillance… The objective of this RFI is to solicit input from industry related to technologies with operational capabilities that enhance and automate or are capable of automating some of the remote surveillance processes and tools available to meet the TSA’s requirements.

The ICCTV system that TSA envisions likewise would be capable of "macro-behavior detection." Such capabilities would include "individual-level anomaly detection," enabling the agency to spot people "walking in the wrong direction" or simply loitering. That surveillance function would unfold concomitant with the automated or human "tracking or following of individuals within a facility" using multiple cameras, it said. Similarly, it hopes to deploy remote surveillance tools to agents in the field who could tap into this system.

TSA points out that it is carrying out its post-9/11 congressional mandate to deploy advanced technologies that modify and enhance the agency's airport-screening checkpoint capabilities and infrastructure. Such enhancements later could be employed in settings other than airports, according to the RFI:

Finding solutions that secure the aviation transportation mission is the primary focus for this RFI in the near term, but the TSA is interested in the eventual application of operationally effective and suitable security screening technologies for other transportation modes as well.

AP: N.J. State Police to Review Arrests of Protesters

The Associated Press today reported that the New Jersey State Police intend to "review circumstances" of the arrests of protesters outside of a public meeting attended by Gov. Jon Corzine (Asbury Park Press, 01/24). Police last week charged radio personality Seth Grossman and former mayor of Bogota Township Steve Lonegan with defiant trespass after holding up signs and distributing protest literature, respectively, outside the meeting in Middle Township.

A video clip of the arrests is avaialable via the MoreMonmouthMusings blog.

Chauncey Bailey, Career Journalist, R.I.P.

What more can be said about the highly publicized assassination of Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey? Simply put, Bailey had the guts to investigate and seek to expose the alleged criminality of a Black Muslim group in Oakland. A suspect now is in custody. May justice be served.

With Libby, Injustice for All

Various neoconservative pundits and politicians are praising President Bush's commutation of the jail sentence for convicted felon Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief adviser to Vice-President Dick Cheney; others, however, such as former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega, are denouncing the president's involvement in this situation as "an egregious abuse of power."

While most news outlets are focusing their post-commutation coverage on the responses of Bush apologists such as former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.), the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) is making available the following folks for additional viewpoints on the matter:

'Rev. Billy' Arrested for Reciting First Amendment in Public

Free speech gets clubbed over the head, from the Associated Press via Yahoo! News.

'Traitor Psychology' Getting Expanded Role in DoD 'Deception-Detection' Training

Assessing the "psychology of traitors" is among the numerous areas of expertise that the Pentagon's Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA) unit hopes to instill in its investigators and polygraph examiners. CIFA is soliciting private-sector help in jointly developing advanced training in this and other areas in the so-called "science of the psycho physiological detection of deception (PDD)," according to a planning document that The Peacock Report (TPR) recently located.

CIFA's Defense Academy of Credibility Assessment (DACA) claims that it seeks to raise the bar on its graduate-level, "human screening" training because:

The post 9/11 situation and environments have brought change to our mission. Issues associated with the Global War on Terrorism now mandate that federal polygraph examiners possess a broad knowledge that enables them to conduct all facets of investigations using credibility assessment tools. The topics encompassed by this course will prepare the federal examiner for these missions.

The Psychology of Traitors segment of the training specifically will examine "the motivation and psychological makeup of traitors." In relation to this proposed area of study, the document poses the question, "Can these personality types by predicted and isolated?"

The document, it should be noted, does not define the word "traitor."

In another recent deception-detection front, TPR on April 21 had reported that CIFA/DACA also planned to outsource an overall assessment of existing "rapid human-screening" methods. This contracting action was slated to be a two-phase project involving "a review of existing literature on techniques and technologies, as well as testing of such methods on 'human participants.'"

Searchable Database of CIA Abuses Now Available

The National Security Archive of George Washington University is now making available to the public "The CIA's Family Jewels" collection of declassified documents -- material that the privately run archive obtained after years of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and legal battles with the agency. Among its most astounding revelations is the now-verifiable fact that the CIA violated its own charter by spying on American citizens, including journalists and peace advocates.

For more information on how to obtain government documents -- requests that any concerned individual can make -- check out the archive's FOIA Basics page for a tutorial and other critical information.

Also, if you wish to support the work of this important organization, please consider making a pledge to the National Security Archive Fund.

DoD 'Colocation' of Military Investigative HQs to Cost Over Quarter Billion

The U.S. Dept. of Defense will spend an estimated $250-$350 million to build a new facility whose primary purpose is to bring together the headquarters of various military department (MILDEP) investigative agencies. According to a Feb. 5 "sources sought" notice that The Peacock Report located during a routine search of the FedBizOpps contractor database, the Naval Facilities Engineering Command is coordinating the 'Colocation MILDEP" project at Marine Corps Base, Quantico (Virginia), where the Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), Naval Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS), Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI), Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID), and Defense Security Service (DSS) will, within the next few years, work in close proximity to each other. This initiative is guided by BRAC (base realignment and closure) policy, a "process DoD has previously used to reorganize its installation infrastructure to more efficiently and effectively support its forces, increase operational readiness and facilitate new ways of doing business."

America: Freedom to Fascism

Get your hands on a copy of America: Freedom to Fascism and you will help support the sort of investigative reporting and commentary you've come to expect from The Peacock Report, which will receive a portion of the proceeds from such sales. Click on the image to your literal right, and ponder for a moment that: America: Freedom to Fascism is "a compelling and troubling account of how the wealth of our nation was silently passed from its citizens to a handful of powerful bankers in 1913. That's the year the Federal Reserve Act and the 16th Amendment were introduced, giving a privately held corporation the means to control our finances while ensuring its interest payments through the strong arms of the newly-formed Internal Revenue Service.

"Ever since then, Russo suggests, Americans have been gradually conditioned to accept fewer freedoms and a lower standard of living... all the while considering debt and servitude as distinctly American values. Russo's first and most cogent point is simple: Americans are not required to pay a federal income tax. That's a bold statement to make, as few people believe that such a fraud could be perpetrated for so long. My father, himself an accountant, insists that the income tax is a very real thing. Russo takes that same belief to IRS employees and simply asks them to cite where it says an unapportioned income tax is required of us all. Guess what? They can't.

"In a telling segment Sheldon Cohen, former commissioner of the IRS, goes so far as to reject Supreme Court rulings and the Constitution as benchmarks over what is legal with regards to taxation. Russo also interviews members of the tax honesty movement as well as disenfranchised IRS agents who agree that no law on the books conjures up a requirement to send the government part of one's hard-earned paycheck. Russo then showcases court cases where those accused of tax evasion have won precisely because the prosecution cannot provide evidence of a legal federal income tax law.

"It's shocking to have it hammered into your head over and over that you've thrown your money away for nothing, but repetition is good; it helps knock loose the deeply entrenched belief that we owe a portion of our livelihood to our government."

Hookers, Hoopla & Handshakes: "Pigsylvania Society" 2006

Got hookers?

The annual Pennsylvania Society gluttonfest and bribery-made-legal bash unfolded this past weekend at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City, just as it has for the past century-plus for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania lawmakers and their industry sugar-daddies.

Got hookers?

The now-defrocked Pa. Senate President Pro Tempore Robert C. Jubelirer last year shrugged off criticism of the event, characterizing the extravaganza simply as an opportunity to " let your hair down a bit." However, as a former plainclothes security officer working near the Waldorf, I can say with certainty that at least some of these hypocritical corporate and bureaucratic bigwigs will be asking the "Got hookers?" question as they "let their hair down."

I know, because one year, say between 1987 and 1993, I had such a post-midnight encounter with some Society participants while patrolling the Helmsley Palace -- right around the block from where these beacons of society decided to make a contribution to two, well, "girls" they had met on the corner.

The men, who ended up getting their money stolen from this pair of hookers, had just returned from the festivities at the Waldorf, literally a stone’s throw from the Palace. Not only were they employees of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, tragically they were law enforcement officials – one of them being an upper echelon official.

I have decided against naming these gentleman, and I am being intentionally vague about the year of occurrence, since so much time has passed since the incident. However, as someone who witnessed such high-level hypocrisy and indecency – and who would later write about governmental abuses as a Washington, D.C. journalist – I must at least shed some light on this annual celebration of the Corruption of Empire.

While last year I came under fire at Indymedia for portraying "sex workers" in a negative light, I remain compelled to encourage my fellow citizens to take a closer look at how their elected and appointed officials conduct business when no one appears to be looking.

Below you will find a related excerpt from Hotel Dick: Harlots, Starlets, Thieves & Sleaze, a memoir I’ve written and published about my five years inside the Helmsley Palace, Manhattan's former playground of the wealthy and powerful.