The following is direct quote from the first page of FDIC document (6174-01)
(12 CFR Part 326) Notice of proposed rulemaking.
-
- "SUMMARY: The FDIC is proposing
to issue a regulation requiring insured nonmember banks to adopt and maintain
"Know Your Customer" programs. As proposed, the regulation would
require each nonmember bank to develop a program designed to determine
the identity of its customers; determine its customers' sources of funds;
determine the normal and expected transactions of its customers; monitor
account activity for transactions that are inconsistent with those normal
and expected transactions; and report any transactions of its customers
that are determined to be suspicious, in accordance with the FDIC's existing
suspicious activity reporting regulation. ---"
-
-
- The things to be very concerned about
in this case are the PROFILE PARAMETERS that in turn define the various
limits that when exceed, qualify as an exception to the norm and thus must
be reported to another federal agency, as a suspicious transaction. There
is virtually no limit to the number or type of profile parameters that
can be established. For example, is the customer an 8 foot tall white male
weighing in excess of 400 pounds or is the customer a four foot tall black
female weighing less than 90 pounds. The question or questions (and there
are many questions) then becomes, who will be responsible for establishing,
defining and controlling the limitless number of possible profile parameters?
Who will be responsible for adding, changing and deleting established profile
parameters? Who will be responsible for insuring that this awesome and
massive capability will not be misused and abused by the various departments
of the Federal Government. In other words, is the 8 foot tall white male
an exception to the norm or is the 4 foot tall black female the exception
or, are both the upper limit and the lower limit considered as an exception
to the norm. How about all those in between?
-
- As noted in the quoted SUMMARY of the
document identified above, the "key operative statements" are
as follows;
-
- 1. Identify its customers. 2. Determine
its customers' source of funds. 3. Determine the normal and expected transactions
of its customers. 4. Monitor account activity for transactions that are
inconsistent with those normal and expected transactions. 5. Report any
transactions of its customers that are determined to be suspicious ---.
-
- Before we briefly examine the five individual
requirements noted above, and so that you will understand where"I"
am coming from, please be aware of the fact that, in addition to being
a Baptist Preacher, I have been a Data Processing Systems Analyst for some
48+ years. At least half of that time was spent working for the Federal
Government, designing and installing total Data Processing Facilities,
from the Presidents Battle Staff, to the Congress, to the Department of
defense, to the local Church name and address data base. I have written
and taught several college courses: (a) Management of Data Processing Facilities
and (b) Systems Analysis. One of the first things that I always tell the
new students in my Systems Analysis class is "In the field of electronic
data processing, your only limitation is you own imagination. If you can
rationalize it in your mind, 'electronic' data processing can do it."
-
- Now, given that background and qualifications
let me tell you, in no uncertain terms, -- I know exactly what the Federal
Government is up to. I know exactly what information they are looking for;
I know exactly how to get that information and I know exactly how they
plan to eventually use that information.
-
- Requirement # 1: Identify its customers.
I have no problem with this requirement so long as that identifying information
is limited to name, mailing address and an account number generated by
the "local" financial institution and assigned to a particular
account to provide unique identification, but absolutely nothing more.
-
- Requirement # 2: Determine its customers'
source of funds. This I have a BIG problem with. Even though the government
would like for you to believe that this requirement is related to identifying
"possible" illegal money laundering by drug traffickers, that
is not the only reason they want to know the source of your finances. Remember
now, the ultimate objective of the vast majority of government regulations
and programs are directed at controlling the "individual." This
item required that you advise the bank of all the sources that you will
be receiving money from that you will be depositing in this particular
account. We will expand this item in more detail below.
-
- Requirement # 3. Determine the normal
and expected transactions of its customers. For purposed of this discussion
we will consider only four primary parameters related to deposits and withdrawals
against this particular account.
-
- First: When you established a new checking
account you will be required to identify the number of deposits you expect
to make each month and the average amount of each deposit. For example
(a) military retirement pay = $2,000.00, (b) Social Security Income = $400.00,
(c) Rent from income property = $750.00, (d) Interest from stocks &
bonds = $ 300.00, and so on.
-
- Second: You will be required to identify
the number of withdrawals you expect to make each month from this account
and the estimated amount of each withdrawal. For example; (a) Mortgage
payment=$ 800.00, (b) Car Payment = $250.00, (c) College tuition = $ 1,000.00).
-
- Once the average number of deposits and
the average amount of each deposit has been determined and the average
number of withdrawals and the average amount of each withdrawal has been
established, it will be very easy to identify all transactions, in and
out, that exceed the established norms for this particular account. For
example should you find a paper bag on the side of the highway containing
10,000 well used one dollar bills, or Aunt Sue passed away and left you
10,000 well used one dollar bills and you deposited that windfall in your
checking or savings account, that would immediately be detected as exceeding
the established norms for your account.
-
- Requirement # 4. Monitor account activity
for transactions that are inconsistent with those normal and expected transactions.
This requirement establishes the requirement that each financial institution
establish a procedure to monitor your financial accounts on a regular basis
for any transactions that exceed the established norms as illustrated above.
-
- Requirement # 5. Report any transactions
of its customers that are determined to be suspicious ---. This requirement
requires that all financial institutions immediately report any and all
suspicious transactions detected as a result of deposits or withdrawals
that exceed the established norms for your account.
-
- As I was reviewing the aforementioned
FDIC document, as quoted above, I called a long time friend of mine who
is vice president of a local bank that I do business with. I ask my vice
president friend to identify the government agency(s) to which he would
report such a suspicious transaction. His response was, the IRS and the
FBI, at the national level.
-
- My friends, as a long time ADP/EDP Systems
Analyst I want you to pay particular attention to the following.
-
- Whenever a good and successful Information
(Data) Processing Systems Analyst designs a large scale information processing
system, such as what we have been talking about above, he will ALWAYS allow
for future expansion of "existing" applications and processing
capabilities and his design work will also allow for "additional"
applications and processing capabilities to be added with a minimum of
additional effort and cost.
-
- Based on my 48+ plus years in the business,
let me tell you what you can expect in the very near future if the proposed
"rulemaking" provisions as defined in the FDIC document identified
above are allowed to be implemented. Please, read the following very carefully
because it lays out the route our government is taking toward a cashless
society as required by the design of a one world government under the United
Nations.
-
- 1. PRESENTLY ALL recipients of military
retirement pay MUST have a bank account into which their monthly retirement
pay is electronically transferred. The government will no longer pay individual
retirees directly, or send their retirement pay to a home address. This
is part of an over all plan to extended more absolute control over the
individual. It has absolutely nothing to do with economy as the government
would have you to believe.
-
- 2. In the very near future look for legislation
that will "require" ALL government employees, federal, state
and local, to have a bank account into which their salary will also be
electronically transferred, just like the retired military. In as much
as most government employees already have the direct deposit option available,
it requires only vary simple legislation to complete this phase of the
plan.
-
- 3. Next you will see legislation that
will outlaw the direct payment of all wages or salaries to any individual,
by an employer. All employees who work for a wage or salary, will also
be required to have a bank account into which the employer will be required
to direct deposit their salary. And once again the legislation necessary
to accomplish phase of the plan is very simple and easy to implement, simply
because most business would welcome the reduced payroll cost. The governments
objective here is to eventually make the local financial institution the
only source of legal tender for the individual. At this point and for the
purpose of this paper, legal tender is defined as dollars, debit cards
or other credit cards. When objectives 2 & 3 above have been fully
accomplished, it will then be a very simple matter to implement the rest
of the plan.
-
- Let me explain it this way. The total
plan equates to $1.00 (One dollar) When steps 2 & 3 have been fully
implemented, as step 1 has already been accomplished, that will equate
to $ .95 cents of that $1.00. The rest of the plan equates to only 5 cents
out of that one dollar. And just what is the rest of the plan? It's very
simple.
-
- After steps 1, 2 and 3 as noted above
have been fully implemented, the only thing left to do then would be to
outlaw all cash transactions and require all transactions now involving
cash, be accomplished through the use of checks or smart cards followed
by the eventual elimination of the checks.
-
- At that point the federal government
can then trace, track AND CONTROL ALL TRANSACTIONS, simply because all
transactions will then be processed by massive computer systems controlled
by the federal government. Given the above accomplishments and current
electronic capabilities, the ability to exercise absolute control over
"individuals" provided by the additional five cents noted above
are absolutely mind boggling. There are many, many more reasons that all
Americans should and must oppose implementation of the five (5) requirements
identified above. There are TWO things that every American should do, immediately.
First: All Americans should send a letter to the FDIC expressing their
STRONG objection and opposition to the plan to PROFILE individual bank
accounts for what ever purpose. The FDIC will be accepting public comments
until December 27. Send your comments to:
-
- Robert E. Feldman, Executive Secretary
Attention: Comments/OES, FDIC 550 17th Street, NW Washington, DC 20429
-
- ---
-
- Spectre <temporal@earthlink.net
- 12-3-98
-
-
- Hi Jeff:
-
- Found this site about the new FDIC "Know
your Customer" regulations: http://www.bankinfo.com/compliance/newkyc.html
-
- Seems to me the laws and regulations
can be interpreted to mean a lot and I wouldn't completely discount the
article you posted on your web page as a complete hoax, if you read the
article.:
-
- PARTS from that page below:
-
- " By requiring banking organizations
to determine the true identity of their customers, as well as to obtain
knowledge regarding the legitimate activities of their customers, the proposed
regulations will reduce the likelihood that banking organizations will
become unwitting participants in illicit activities conducted or attempted
by their customers."
-
- "While it is impossible to identify
every transaction at a financial institution that is potentially illegal
or is being conducted to assist criminals in the movement of illegally
derived funds, it is fundamental for safe and sound operations that financial
institutions take every reasonable measure to identify their customers,
understand the legitimate transactions to be conducted by those customers
and, consequently, identify those transactions conducted by their customers
that are unusual or suspicious in nature. By identifying and, when appropriate,
reporting such transactions, in accordance with existing suspicious activity
reporting requirements, financial institutions are protecting their integrity
and are assisting the efforts of the bank regulatory agencies and law enforcement
authorities to thwart illicit activities at financial institutions."
-
- "The Board has long advocated that
one of the most effective means by which a financial institution can both
protect itself from engaging in transactions designed to facilitate illicit
activities and ensure compliance with applicable suspicious activity reporting
requirements is for the institution to have adequate "Know Your Customer"
policies and procedures"
-
- "In the Board's view, a financial
institution should take the necessary and reasonable steps to determine
the true identity of its customers, their sources of funds, and their normal
and expected transactions and to identify unusual or suspicious activities".
- ------
-
-
-
- Please excuse my distress, but often
times the best-intentioned people are quick to jump and call something
a "Hoax," which unfortunately misleads people, when just the
opposite is true. Being very familiar with legal research, it was simple
for me to determine if the the e-mail sent to you by Mr. Gene Ingram [gene@cup.hp.com]
declaring the post the "Feds and FDIC to Monitor All Your Personal
Financial Activities" a hoax; and to see if Mr. Ingram was presumptively
correct in his analysis.
-
- The most impmrtant point you should know
it was stated in the beginning of the article in re the "Feds and
FDIC" that this was a *proposed rule* being submitted by the FDIC
"...requiring insured nonmember banks to adopt and maintain "Know
Your Customer" programs." ALL proposed rules submitted by any
federal agency must first be sent to the Federal Register for publication
under the *notice* rules.
-
- From the wording of this "Sunshing
Act Meeting" chaired by the Board of Governors for the Federal Reserve
System, the FDIC is "only following orders." Please find below
a replica of the *notice*: ________________________________________________________________
- [Federal Register: September 28, 1998
(Volume 63, Number 187)]
- [Notices]
- [Page 51579]
- From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access
- [http://www.wais.access.gpo.gov]
- [DOCID:fr28se98-60]
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM
-
-
- Sunshine Act Meeting
-
- Agency Holding the Meeting: Board of
Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
-
- Time and Date: 10:00 a.m., Thursday,
October 1, 1998.
-
- Place: Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve
Board Building, C Street entrance between 20th and 2lst Streets, N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20553.
-
- Status: Open.
-
- Matters to be Considered: Summary Agenda:
Because of its routine nature, no discussion of the following item is anticipated.
This matter will be voted on without discussion unless a member of the
Board requests that the item be moved to the discussion agenda.
-
- 1. Publication for comment of proposed
amendments to Regulation H (Membership of State Banking Institutions in
the Federal Reserve Qystem), Regulation K (International Banking Operations),
and Regulation Y (Bank Holding Companies and Change in Bank Control) to
require domestic and foreign banking organizations to develop and maintain
``Know Your Customer'' programs. 2. Any items carried forward from a previously
announced meeting.
-
- Discussion Agenda: None. No Discussion
Items Are Scheduled For This Meeting.
-
- Note: If an item is moved from the Summary
Agenda to the Discussion Agenda, discussion of the item will be recorded.
Cassettgs will then be available for listening in the Board's Freedom of
Information Office, and copies can be ordered for $6 per cassette by calling
202-452-3684 or by writing to: Freedom of Information Office, Board of
Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Washington, D.C. 20551.
-
- Contact Person for More Information:
Lynn S. Fox, Assistant to the Board; 202-452-3204.
-
- Supplementary Information: You may call
202-452-3006 for a recorded announcement of this meeting; or you may contact
the Board's Web site at http://www.federalreserve.gov for an electronic
announcement. (The Web site also includes procedural and other information
about the open meeting.)
-
- Dated: September 24, 1998. Robert deV.
Frierson, Associate Secretary of the Board. [FR Doc. 98-25960 Filed 9-24-98;
11:19 am] BILLING CODE 6210-01-P ___________________________________________________________
-
- The rule[s] will not be published in
the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) until the proposed rule[s] is finalized.
These rule changes will be to Regulations H, K and Y pertaining to Banking
administration procedures. The proposed changes *may* be all inclusive
within 12 CFR 326 - I wouldn't begin to guess until the final rules are
drafted. Perhaps this is the reason why Mr. Ingram was unable to find what
he was looking for. In the interim, I suggest caution, research and a thoroughly
checking your sources before labeling anything a *Hoax* or stating something
as fact if you don't know first hand or from personal experience.
-
- If anything, the obvious fact this determination
was dictated by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ...well,
I'll leave that to your readers to decide the relevancy or merit of the
Board's decree.
-
- If you would like additional information,
please feel free to contact me.
-
- Lynn Shaffer
- fadaar@psn.net
------
-
-
- "I Can Prove This Is
A Hoax"
- From Gene Ingram
- <gene@cup.hp.com
- 12-2-98
-
-
- The article on your SIGHTINGS website
"Feds And FDIC To Monitor All Your Personal Financial Activities"
(12-1-98) at the following address is a HOAX:
-
- I can prove this is a hoax:
-
- The quoted article from the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corp. (FDIC) doesn't exist; the Code Federal Regulations CFR)
supposedly quoted is 12CFR326. However, this CFR does not contain any text
quoted in the article! Check the FDIC's web site at this link, CFR Title
12, to see for yourself:
-
- http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx/12cfrv4.html
-
- Notice the link to Part 326, and compare
the text in that link to the article. There is nothing remotely similar.
-
- However, looking at Part 353 farther
down the listing, is a clue as to where the hoaxster got his idea for the
fabricated FDIC article. Part 353 "Suspicious activity reports"
outlines the standard banking report submitted to Federal agencies when
fraudulent activity such as money laundering is suspected. The hoaxster
used this CFR on the FDIC website to build his phony CFR published on SIGHTINGS:
-
- http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx/12cfr353.html
-
- There is nothing in Part 353 that hints
the outrageous claims or assumptions in the SIGHTINGS article about monitoring
of bank customers spending habits, etc. The author of the article totally
fabricated it, and even made-up the FDIC CFR reference!
-
- You should put the green "HOAX!"
icon in front of this story on your http://www.sightings.com/ website.
-
- Sincerely,
-
- Eugene Ingram, Jr.
- San Jose, California
-
-
- ----
-
-
- Comments To FDIC Opposing
Bank
Snooping Proposal Due By December 27
-
-
- To: ROBERT E. FELDMAN, Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
- Re: Bank Snooping Plans
-
- Sir: I am writing to you by your DEADLINE
of December 27th, and I EXPECT a reply. I have read the article by "The
Winds" below titled "FDIC to Force Banks to Spy on Customers".
Who the HELL do you SATANIC BLOOD SUCKING BASTARDS think you are? I want
you to know that I TOTALLY OPPOSE this tyranical move to force us into
a CASHLESS SOCIETY and to MONITOR our every move as if we were so many
CATTLE.
-
- The article below depicts a scenario
straight out of George Orwell's "1984", and I would like for
you to explain to me how you think this would in ANY WAY be a good idea?
I am forwarding word of this OUTRAGE to my large email distribution list,and
will include it in my website, because what you are proposing here is SATANIC.
If you go through with this, and SHOVE THIS gross imposition on our liberties
DOWN OUR THROATS, I am hereby putting _YOU_ and all the other FASCIST BASTARDS
at FDIC ON NOTICE that you will have to answer to your CREATOR when you
die. I, for one, REFUSE to accept the MARK OF THE BEAST, and STRONGLY ENCOURAGE
civil disobediance in the FACE of this GROSS OUTRAGE. I hope you like PEANUT
BUTTER, jack, because you're about to be "JAMMED" with email.
-
- John Hammel <jham@iahf.com
-
-
- FDIC To Force Banks To Spy On Customers
Citizen Tracking Will Mark All Comers
-
-
- Moving with all the determination and
tact of a Third World dictatorship, the United States government has contrived
yet another measure to track and control the activities of all its citizens.
This time it is the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) that is
planning a "know your customer" rule which forces banks to spy
on their customers and will potentially restrict cash transactions. This
measure follows other police state proposals such as the <idcard6-97.htmlnational
ID card, medical enumeration, and the airline passenger profiling system
(CAPS) that went into operation January 1st of this year. As the Draconian
year 2000 approaches, privacy-destroying laws seem to be propagating like
rabbits.
-
- FDIC to Banks: Spy on Your Customers
-
- Recent reports describe a forthcoming
FDIC notice of proposed rule-making (NPRM)[1] entitled, "Minimum Security
Devices and Procedures and Bank Secrecy Act Compliance." The summary
on the first page reads in part:
-
- As proposed, the regulation would require
each nonmember bank to develop a program designed to determine the identity
of its customers; determine its customers' source of funds; determine the
normal and expected transactions of its customers; monitor account activity
for transactions that are inconsistent with those normal and expected transactions;
and report any transactions of its customers that are determined to be
suspicious, in accordance with the FDIC's existing suspicious activity
reporting regulation. By requiring insured nonmember banks to determine
the identity of their customers, as well as to obtain knowledge regarding
the legitimate activities of their customers, the proposed regulation will
reduce the likelihood that insured nonmember banks will become unwitting
participants in illicit activities conducted or attempted by their customers.
It will also level the playing field between institutions that already
have adopted formal "Know Your Customer" programs, and those
that have not.
-
- If enacted, this proposal will force
banks, at their own expense, to develop a customer "profiling"
mechanism that tracks the banking habits of all their customers. Banks
already report transactions over $10,000, but the new requirement would
apply to all "suspicious" activity as determined by the FDIC's
profiling parameters[2] . These parameters are mandated by the FDIC and
given to the bank to implement in their own system.
-
- According to the initial summary, the
FDIC will require banks to determine the identity of its customers. Judging
from the character of this proposed rule, this may well include biometric
identifiers. A photo ID, such as a driver's license, is already required
to open an account. The bank will have to determine where the customers'
funds came from. These new requirements open up broad possibilities for
interrogations like: "Where did you get this cash, Mr. Jones? This
is not a payroll check. Can you tell us why and where you received it?
I'm sorry, we had to report you to the DEA because you withdrew too much
cash last Friday." Cash will be treated with suspicion, further stigmatizing
it as something used only by drug dealers and criminals. Finally, banks
will act as agents of the government, monitoring their customers' transactions
and reporting them when they deviate from their established profile.
-
- Profiling is the rage in governance today.
A government bureaucrat arbitrarily decides what kinds of behavior indicate
"illicit activity" and creates a "profile" or pattern
from those factors. Huge volumes of data, bits and pieces of our everyday
lives, are fed into computers that scan the information and look for patterns
of activity that match those profiles. Once a person is "flagged"
by a profiling system, he/she essentially must prove that he/she is innocent
of wrongdoing. Profiling is practiced by some banks already, but "Know
Your Customer" will make it mandatory for all[3].
-
- The Christian Alert Network (TCAN), the
organization which broke the news of the FDIC "Know Your Customer"
proposal, also points to the trends in electronic deposits as something
that will become universal. Electronic deposits are already mandatory for
military retirees, requiring them to have a bank account to be paid. Soon
all government payments will be made electronically, whether to military
personnel, civilian employees, beneficiaries or vendors. TCAN is also predicting
that new laws will soon be passed requiring that all employers pay their
employees electronically[4].
-
- The End of Cash (and privacy)
-
- The trends are headed ominously toward
a cashless society where all transactions are controlled and monitored
by the government. Smart, debit and credit cards will become the new legal
tender. Opening a bank account, presenting federally approved identification
and biometric data, and submitting to monitoring and profiling will be
the only way to earn a living and purchase the necessities of life. This
was confirmed by an anonymous bank branch president in an interview with
WorldNet Daily[5]. This banker predicted that new laws would soon limit
cash transactions to $100 and that sometime in the near future all transactions
would be handled electronically. The opportunities that technology has
provided government and corporations for the micromanaging of every person
is astounding.
-
- At this point it should be noted that
since the 1930's Americans have depended on a fiat paper currency that
is not backed by gold or anything of value, except the faith people put
in it. The new cashless system will further reduce money to a series of
electronic impulses and computer ledger entries while completely removing
any tangible control of it from its rightful owner. Money will never leave
the bank -- accounts will merely be adjusted to reflect a transaction.
With this in mind, we should consider the words of Robert H. Hemphill,
former credit manager of the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta, Georgia,
whose warning about our worthless, debt-based paper currency is even more
applicable now. He said:
-
- This is a staggering thought. We are
completely dependent on the commercial Banks .... If the Banks create ample
synthetic money, we are prosperous; if not, we starve. We are absolutely
without a permanent money system. When one gets a complete grasp of the
picture, the tragic absurdity of our hopeless position is almost incredible,
but there it is. It is the most important subject intelligent persons can
investigate and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization
may collapse unless it becomes widely understood and the defects remedied
very soon[6].
-
- Airline Passenger Profiling, Internal
Passports and Travel Papers
-
- One month after the <flight_800_10-98.htmlTWA
flight 800 disaster, President Clinton signed Executive Order 13015 which
established the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security.
Never one to miss an opportunity to advance the police state, President
Clinton used the crash to launch a new "domestic security" initiative,
even though there was no evidence that TWA 800 was brought down because
of poor airport security. The public bought it and the job of "airline
safety czar" was assigned to Vice-President Al Gore.
-
- Gore's commission met and concluded,
amid the frenzy of the still unsolved TWA disaster, that there exists an
urgent need to track every single passenger who boards a commercial flight
in the United States. Gore called for immediate implementation of the 1990
Aviation Security Improvement Act which requires airlines to keep comprehensive
passenger manifests. Although the FAA doesn't specifically require airlines
to check ID before boarding, they took the hint and started checking it
anyway[7].
-
- As of October 1, 1998, airlines started
requesting passenger's next of kin and contact phone number on international
flights leaving or arriving at U.S. destinations. There are also plans
to request this on domestic flights in the near future. Even though at
present this information is voluntary, critics foresee that it will become
mandatory and will be included with social security numbers (SSNs)[8],
photographs, biometric identifiers[9] and the like. All this, of course,
is to notify your next of kin faster if you die in an air disaster and
to guarantee your safety.
-
- Family notification info and photo ID
at check-in are converging with the Computer Assisted Passenger Screening
System (CAPS), a centralized airline passenger database which is up and
running as of January 1, 1998[10]. Northwest Airlines tested this passenger
profiling system for the FAA in 1997, collecting over forty pieces of information
about each passenger such as credit card numbers, home address and phone
number, travel patterns, hotels, car rentals, expected length of stay at
destination, traveling companions, whether the ticket was purchased in
advance or shortly before departure, and if payment was made with cash
or credit card[11].
-
- The CAPS computer compares this personal
information with secret profiles the government deems to be security risks.
If you match one of those profiles -- perhaps you have an Arab surname
or pay your fare in cash at the ticket counter -- CAPS will flag your name
and the airline, acting in accordance with FAA directives but not burdened
by constitutional restrictions will subject you to increased security measures.
-
- Once you have been identified as a security
threat, you may be subjected to intrusive personal questioning and a thorough
search of your luggage in front of other passengers, being tagged with
bright orange tape, physically escorted from ticket counter to airport
gate by security personnel, or refused service -- all in full view of other
passengers. This may happen because you fit a secret profile which is based
on everyday, non-criminal activity[12].
-
- Al Gore's commission report also proposed
that the massive CAPS database be linked with law enforcement databases,
greatly expanding the volume of information available on each passenger.
For such a system to profile passengers effectively, critics claim, the
government would have to create a file, or dossier, on every potential
passenger in the United States[13]. That includes everyone. The main component
for this dossier already exists with the SSN. When SSNs finally become
part of air travel (for our own safety, of course) it will dovetail conveniently
with another DOT requirement -- that all state drivers' licenses display
the bearer's SSN, biometric information, and a scannable bar code or magnetic
strip.
-
- Within a few months air travelers could
be offered faster check-in. Imagine -- just run your federally approved
driver's license through the scanner and put your palm on the reader. The
airline computer instantly queries the CAPS database, verifies your biometric
data and SSN, queries the FBI's NCIC computer for a background check, compares
your itinerary to previous flights you've taken, reports your hotel and
car reservation, enters your full name, date of birth, SSN and name and
phone number of next of kin into the passenger manifest and other data
fields. Within seconds (provided you are a normal person and haven't tripped
any flags) you have completed the FAA's security requirements for boarding.
-
- States Bribed to Gather Information for
Feds
-
- By dangling funds for welfare and child
support enforcement programs, the federal government has enticed many states
into requiring SSNs for all state-issued licenses including occupation,
hunting, fishing, and, of course, driver's licenses. States that take the
federal bait must also require employers to report the name, address, SSN
and wage information of new employees within a few days of hire. The states
funnel this information into the Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS)
at Health and Human Services in Washington, which maintains the National
Directory of New Hires. This is one of the largest databases ever kept
by a government on its people[14].
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- Following federal measures to catch so-called
<../family/a102896d.htmldeadbeat parents came another measure to ostensibly
deal with illegal immigration. Buried in the Illegal Immigration Reform
and Immigrant Responsibility Act (1996) is section 656(b) which requires
all states to issue driver's licenses that comply with federal standards
by October 1, 2000. Along with the bearer's SSN, the license must display
biometric identifiers such as fingerprints, retina scans and DNA prints.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has already published
the requirements for the "Driver's License/SSN/National Identification
Document" which sets out the rules for state issued identity documents.
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- Due to public outcry Congress delayed
funding for the new DOT driver's license requirements for one year. This
delay will in no way diminish the progress of information gathering done
at HHS, which is every bit as intrusive and Orwellian as the proposed national
ID card. No matter how you slice it, federal government computers are already
tracking where we live, work, how much we make and, before long, watching
and controlling what we buy and sell.
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- The Big Shift: Guilty until Proven Innocent
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- Assured that their government is taking
strong action against terrorists, deadbeats and drug dealers, most Americans
have failed to note their country's fundamental shift. There was a time
when your name entered police records in a limited number of instances,
e.g., if you were a suspect or a victim of a crime. Criminal records were
only kept on those persons that had been convicted in a court of law for
a specific crime.
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- The shift was almost imperceptible because
it was supported by advances in technology and leveraged by convenience
-- the highest good in our society today. State and federal records are
merging, as are the various classes of records -- occupational and driver's
licenses with child support records, criminal records with occupational,
selective service and income tax with child support, passenger profiling
with airline reservations and criminal records -- just to name a few examples.
The great task of making all these records available electronically requires
the standardization of forms, which is required by the GATT. It also requires
a unique identifier for every man, woman and child. This identifier is
the social security number which the GATT requires be assigned to every
child at birth.
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- It is becoming impossible to function
as a member of this society without surrendering information that should
be personal -- data that is fed into centralized government records and
used to monitor your behavior. It is not evidence of any criminal wrongdoing
that interests the government about you -- it is the fact that you exist.
Every man, woman and child must be subject to this gigantic electronic
fishing expedition. You are investigated, not after a crime has occurred
and you are somehow involved, but because a computer profile has pointed
the finger of suspicion at you and based its assessment of your non-criminal
habits. The burden now rests on you to prove your innocence and because
the punishment may mean being interrogated and searched at the airport,
harassed at the bank, or your cash or automobile being seized by a drug
task force, you may never have your day in court unless you go to the expense
of hiring a lawyer to sue. In short, all are searched and tracked and those
accused are guilty until proven innocent. This is what it means to live
in a police state.
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- police state: a political unit characterized
by repressive governmental control of political, economic, and social life
usually by an arbitrary exercise of power by police and especially secret
police in the place of regular operation of administrative and judicial
organs of the government according to publicly known legal procedures.
-- Merriam Webster's Dictionary
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- "The evils of tyranny are rarely
seen but by him who resists it." -- John Hay, 1872
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