The definition of what is suspicious activity--"observed behavior reasonably indicative of pre-operational planning related to terrorism or other criminal activity"--is so broad as to cover virtually any activity that arouses police interest, no matter how innocent.
The Post gave an example of how an SAR file would be generated by a local cop seeing "a suspicious subject" taking a photograph of an Orange County, California ferry boat with his cell phone camera, even though the individual was later joined by two other adults and two small children, and all of them boarded the ferry for what was obviously a pleasure trip.
This report would be uploaded to the Los Angeles fusion center, one of 60 or so regional facilities established with funds from the DHS to collect and integrate information. From there, it could be forwarded to the FBI for further investigation, or for storage for a period as long as five years, the Post noted, "during which time many other pieces of information about the man photographing a boat on a Sunday morning could be added to his file: employment, financial and residential histories; multiple phone numbers; audio files; video from the dashboard-mounted camera in the police cruiser at the harbor where he took pictures; and anything else in government or commercial databases "that adds value,' as the FBI agent in charge of the database described it."
The Pentagon has access to this classified database, known as the Guardian system, which had 161,948 suspicious activity files as of this month. There is also an unclassified section of the database, to which state and local police contribute data and have access.
The entire structure detailed by the Post account has the most ominous political implications, since it is quite clear, although the newspaper is careful not to say so, that information on political opposition to US government policies, particularly from the left, is being incorporated into these databases. While a handful of individual "infractions" have been exposed, as recently in Pennsylvania , this can only be considered the tip of the iceberg.
In addition to the vast increase in data collection and integration, there is the rightwing and antidemocratic character of the personnel charged with running the entire system. The Post account treats this as an aberration, or perhaps an excess, describing the vitriolic anti-Muslim racism of many of those engaged in providing "training" in terrorism for local and state government agencies.
Former military operatives now engaged in training routinely describe all Muslims in the United States as potential enemies who want to impose sharia law on the United States and forcibly convert the entire population to Islam. They advise infiltration of mosques and Muslim student groups and systemic phone tapping in the Muslim community.
Perhaps most important from a political standpoint is the leading role played by Obama administration officials like Janet Napolitano, former governor of Arizona, now secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Napolitano has publicly enlisted Wal-Mart, Amtrak, the major sports leagues and hotel chains in a campaign to promote reporting "suspicious activity" and generating "terror tips."
The Post notes, "In her speeches she compares the undertaking to the Cold War fight against communists." Precisely: the Obama administration is embracing a form of McCarthyism, with "terrorism" supplanting the "Red menace" as the object of demonization.
The virtue of this approach, from the standpoint of the American ruling class, is that any form of domestic social upheaval--strikes, sit-ins, mass demonstrations against war, struggles against eviction, foreclosure and utility shutoff--can be branded "terrorism" and those engaged in it targeted for police repression.
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