'Electronic Police State' report cites U.S.
Ultimate Big Brother 'basics are in place'
Posted: May 10, 2009
By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
In what may be the first assessment of its kind, a private company that offers a range of privacy products for computers and other technology is ranking the United States No. 6 in the world for having the most aggressive procedures for monitoring residents electronically.
The report, called The Electronic Police State, assesses the status of governmental surveillance in 52 nations around the globe for 2008.
The document was released Cryptohippie, Inc., which was set up in 2007 through the acquisition of several little-known but highly regarded providers of privacy technologies.
Not surprisingly, China and North Korea ranked No. 1 and No. 2, with Belarus and Russia following up. But the United Kingdom (England and Wales) ranked fifth followed by the United States.
Most of us are aware that our governments monitor nearly every form of electronic communication. We are also aware of private companies doing the same. This strikes most of us as slightly troubling, but very few of us say or do much about it. There are two primary reasons for this," the report said.
"We really don't see how it is going to hurt us. Mass surveillance is certainly a new, odd, and perhaps an ominous thing, but we just don't see a complete picture or a smoking gun," the report continued. Also, "We are constantly surrounded with messages that say, 'Only crazy people complain about the government.'"
The report mapped the world, showing the most advanced electronic police states in red, orange reflecting strongly developing electronic police states and yellow showing nations that are developing, but lagging:
 Red nations have the most advanced electronic police state capabilites |
Company spokesman Paul Rosenberg told WND the biggest obstacle, however, is that the image of a "police state" dredges up visions of Nazi Germany's thugs breaking down doors in the middle of the night and hauling people off to blacked-out trains or Stalin's USSR rounding up "offenders" for imprisonment.
"That's how things worked during your grandfather's war – that is not how things work now," the report said. "An electronic police state is quiet, even unseen. All of its legal actions are supported by abundant evidence. It looks pristine," the report said.
To create the rankings, which also included Singapore, Israel, France and Germany in the top 10, his organization searched its worldwide sources for information, checked against a number of other published reports, and assigned a value of 1 to 5 to 17 different factors:
- Daily documents: How much is required day-to-day for residents to present state-issued identity documents or registration.
- Border issues: What is demanded for a border entry.
- Financial tracking: The state's ability to search and record financial transactions.
- Gag orders: The penalties for revealing to someone else the state is searching their records.
- Anti-crypto laws: Bans on cryptography.
- Constitutional protections: Either a lack of protections or someone overriding them.
- Data storage: The state's ability to record and keep what it uncovers.
- Data search: The processes to search through data.
- ISP data retention: The demand for ISPs to save customers' records.
- Telephone data retention: States' requirements for communications companies to record and save records.
- Cell phone records: The saving and using of cell phone users' records.
- Medical records: Demands from states that medical records retain information.
- Enforcement: The state's ability to use force (SWAT teams) to seize someone.
- Habeus corpus: Either an absence of such rights or someone overriding them.
- Police-Intel barrier: the absence of a barrier between police and intelligence organizations.
- Covert hacking: State operatives meddling in data on private computers covertly.
- Loose warrants: Warrants that are being issued without careful review of police claims by a truly independent judge.
The listings of China, North Korea, Belarus and Russia, all known for their repression of freedom, weren't surprising. Nor was the listing of the United Kingdom with its recent programs to copy and store virtually every telephone call, e-mail and text message within its borders.
But Rosenberg said there's more going on in the United States than many believe want to believe. (Note from Norm: See who has been checking on Storm'n Norm'n below.)
The nation's "basic system of gathering evidence and sorting it later is really dangerous," he said. "It's permanent. It's not going to go away."
It goes so far that a person's alcohol consumption actually could be tracked by government agents, if they chose, through credit card documentation, he told WND.
"In an Electronic Police State, every surveillance camera recording, every e-mail you send, every Internet site you surf, every post you make, every check you write, every credit card swipe, every cell phone ping… are all criminal evidence, and they are held in searchable databases, for a long, long time," the report said.
"Whoever holds this evidence can make you look very, very bad whenever they care enough to do so. You can be prosecuted whenever they feel like it – the evidence is already in their database," the report continued. "Perhaps you trust that your ruler will only use his evidence archives to hurt bad people. Will you also trust his successor? Do you also trust all of his subordinates, every government worker and every policeman?
"If some leader behaves badly, will you really stand up to oppose him or her? Would you still do it if he had all the e-mails you sent when you were depressed? Or if she has records of every porn site you've ever surfed? Or if he knows every phone call you've ever made? Or if she knows everyone you've ever sent money to?" the report asks.
"This system hasn't yet reached its full shape, but all of the basics are in place and it is not far from complete in some places," the report said.
Rosenberg told WND the organization also sought input on the status of electronic surveillance around the world from organizations including the the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Reporters Without Borders, Freedom House, the Ludwig von Mises Institute and The Heritage Foundation.
Following the top 10 were: 11. Malaysia, 12. Ireland, 13. United Kingdom, Scotland, 14. Netherlands, 15. South Korea, 16. Ukraine, 17. Belgium, 18. Australia, 19. Japan, 20. New Zealand, 21. Austria, 22. Norway, 23. India, 24. Italy, 25. Taiwan, 26. Denmark, 27. Hungary, 28. Greece, 29. Canada, 30. Switzerland, 31. Slovenia, 32. Poland, 33. Finland, 34. Sweden, 35. Latvia, 36. Lithuania, 37. Cyprus, 38. Malta, 39. Estonia, 40. Czech Republic, 41. Iceland, 42. South Africa, 43. Spain, 44. Portugal, 45. Luxembourg, 46. Argentina, 47. Romania, 48. Thailand, 49. Bulgaria, 50. Brazil, 51. Mexico, 52. Philippines.
Recent visitors to this website. The list is arranged alphabetically with no added description (i.e., IP address, location, or function). Some of the names may be recognized due to their national prominence and or the titles are a dead give away (i.e. "Hospital" or "US State Dept" ). Others are law firms, private companies, NGO's and government agencies. A few commercial firms are large contractors for the National Security Agency (NSA). I should also remind you that this list is not complete. There's more! And thats what you should expect when you decide to have a website...(By the way...Have you read 1984? ...don't matter! whats going on now is worse!) - Norman E. Hooben
Adminstrative Office of the Courts Durham NC |
Altoona Hospital |
American Airlines Incorporated |
AMERICAN CITY BUSINESS JOURNAL |
Armed Forces Europe, Middle East, & Canada |
Barclays Bank Plc |
BlueCross BlueSheild of Illinois |
Boston Scientific electricpaper.ie ? (Ireland) |
Boulder Valley School District (BVSD |
Brigham Young University |
British Telecommunications |
California Department of Corrections |
California Public Employees Retirement System |
CallPlus Services Limited callplus.net.nz ? |
Canadian Department of Education |
CANTV Servicios, Venezuela Distrito Federal |
Case Western Reserve University |
CC Services |
Central Michigan University |
CESNET, z.s.p.o utb.cz ? (Czech Republic) |
Chello chello.nl ? (Netherlands) |
CHILITECH INTERNET SOLUTIONS |
China Network Information Center - Chongqing China |
CHINANET Hunan province network |
Ciba Speciialty Chemicals Basel-Stadt Switzerland |
Ciber, Inc. DBA City of New Orleans |
City of Boston |
City of Gainesville |
City of Los Angeles |
City of New York - New York City Council |
City of Palo Alto, Dept. of Information Resou |
City of Plano, Texas |
CNCGROUP Beijing Province Network |
Coldwater Board of Public Utilities |
College of duPage |
Colleges of the Fenway |
Computer Sciences Corporation District of Columbia |
Computer Sciences Corporation Falls Church Virginia |
Cornell University |
Croatian Academic and Research Network (CARNet |
cuny.edu ? (Educational) |
DANGER.com |
Dell Computer Corporation |
Department of Veterans Affairs va.gov ? |
Directorate of Automation Services army.mil ? |
DIRECTORATE OF LOGISTICS army.mil ? (Military) |
DOIM - army.mil ? (Military) |
DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company |
Durham University Local area network United Kingdom |
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co |
Elias Group |
Embarq Corporation |
Emory University |
Endless Journey ejourney.com ? (Commercial) |
Euronet Digital Communications |
Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Corp |
Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Corp |
Exxon Mobil Corporation |
FDC Servers.net, LLC |
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco |
FedEx |
Florida Information Resource Network |
FORT WORTH RESIDENCE INN |
FOUR RIVERS PROVISIONING LC |
Fujifilm Sverige AB tdcsong.se ? (Sweden) |
GCI Communications |
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY |
General Motors Corporation |
Georgia Institute of Technology |
Glendale CCD California State University Network |
GMAC Mortgage Corp |
Google google.com ? (Commercial) |
HAWKER BEECHCRAFT CORP |
Headquarters, USAAISC army.mil ? (Military) |
Hickory Ridge Corporation |
HOLIDAY INN FORT SMITH |
HOTCHKISS SCHOOL |
HQ US Army Medical Research and Development Comman |
HUGHES NETWORK SYSTEMS |
HYUNDAI COMMUNICATIONS & NETWORK |
IAC Search Media |
Indiana University |
Info Avenue Internet Services |
Information Systems, U.S. House of Representatives |
Institute for Women's Health - Admin Office |
Inter-American Development Bank |
Intermountain Health Care |
John Jay College of Criminal Justice |
JP Morgan Chase & Co |
Keesler Air Force Base |
Kentucky Department of Education |
Lake Erie Educational Computer Association |
LBiSat, LLC American Samoa |
Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico |
Lockheed Martin Corporation |
Louisiana Board of Pharmacy |
LSG Strategies |
Mackenzie Financial Corp - Canada |
Maine Libraries/Dept. of Education |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Massey University massey.ac.nz ? (New Zealand) |
Mediatti Communications,Inc |
Memorial Health University Medical Center |
MessageLabs |
Miami-Dade County Public Schools |
Michigan Legislative Council mi.gov ? |
Microsoft Corp microsoft.com ? (Commercial) |
MINDSHIFT TECHNOLOGIES |
Mississippi, Department of Information Technology |
Montgomery County Public Schools Maryland |
Multikabel quicknet.nl ? (Netherlands) |
Nantong University 163data.com.cn ? (China) |
NATIONAL COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT COALITION |
National Institutes of Health |
Naval Ocean Systems Center jfcom.mil ? (Military) |
Navy Network Information Center (NNIC |
NEW PLACES CONSULTING |
New York City Public Schools |
NEWS CORPORATION |
North Carolina Research and Education Network |
Northern Arizona University |
Norwich University |
Ocean State Higher Education and Administration Ne |
PANGAEA INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES |
Pembroke State University |
PHH Corporation |
Phoenix Newspapers |
Plano Independent School District |
PT. Telecomunikasi Indonesia |
Quick Technologies |
Qwest Communications |
R.R. Donnelley & Sons |
RAY ELLIOTT FORD LEASING |
Raytheon Company, Executive Office |
Research Machines plc United Kingdom |
Rice University |
ROBISON, CURPHY OCON |
Rockefeller Group Technology Solutions |
Russian Central Telegraph, Moscow |
Sacramento County Sheriff's Dept. |
SAVE THE CHILDREN |
SBC Internet Services |
SEMO TANK BAKER EQUIPMENT COMPA |
Seneca College senecac.on.ca ? (Canada) |
Service Provider Corporation |
SIA Lattelekom microlink.lv ? (Latvia) |
Southwest Ohio Computer Association |
Stargate Industries, LLC |
State of Connecticut Dept of InformationTechnology |
State of Colorado DOT |
STATE OF DELAWARE |
State of Georgia (DOAS-CSD) |
State of Missouri Office of Administration |
State of Ohio Network |
State of Tennessee |
STEPTOE & JOHNSON |
Stillman College Alabama Supercomputer Network |
Teale Data Center ca.gov ? (U.S. Government) |
Telecom Italia Net |
Telesector Resources Group |
TelstraClear Christchurch Cable Customers |
Texas A&M System Health Science Center |
Texas Legislative Council |
Texas Mutual Insurance Company |
The Home Depot |
THE BOEING COMPANY |
The Connecticut Hospital and Affiliates |
THE DAVID PROJECT |
The Pentagon af.mil ? (Military) |
THE SPECTRUM GROUP |
U.S. Department of State |
U.S. Government Printing Office |
U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms senate.gov ? (U.S. Government) |
UNITED PARCEL SERVICE |
Unity College |
University of California, Office of the President |
University College London |
University of Alaska |
University of Florida |
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA |
University of Missouri-St. Louis |
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA |
University of Southern Mississippi |
University of Texas at Dallas |
University of Virginia |
US Dept of Justice |
US DOI Bureau of Land Management |
US Office of Personnel Management |
USAMITC army.mil ? (Military) |
Utah Educational Network |
VISP Technologies |
WACHOVIA CORP |
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz |
Wharf T&T Limited Hong Kong Central District |
WV Department of Education |
York University yorku.ca ? (Canada) |
ZAO MTU-Intel mtu-net.ru ? (Russian Fed.)
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