Officials Acknowledge MATRIX Users Can Monitor Innocent Citizens

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Changing Planet note: I think these paragraphs need to be highlighted...***Ramer and others say, however, that unscrupulous spying will be preventedthrough Florida police oversight of Matrix users, along with audits andbackground checks on people with access to the database."It's federally funded, it's guarded by state police but it's on privateproperty? That's very interesting," said Christopher Slobogin, a Universityof Florida law professor and expert in privacy issues. "If it's federallyfunded, the federal government obviously has a huge interest in it."Florida officials have acknowledged that users of Matrix, which stands forMultistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, can "monitor innocentcitizens."***Unscrupulous monitoring? Of who? The FEDs? Of the Private Business orindividual who owns it? Hahahahahaha! Yeah, right!"Officials acknowledge MATRIX users can monitor innocent citizens", shouldbe the headline here.USERS OF THE MATRIXThese people aren't even original and have become so full of themselvesbecause of lack of serious public outcry. They don't even have to hidetheir intentions! They call their computers systems by names like "TheMatrix" and "The Beast"?Florida is leading the way with this technology?Oh gosh...Daddy was the head of the CIA before being president and now is heading somecreepy investment firm full of former intelligence and government types thatstand to make billions in the "war on terror".Georgie 2 is currently instituting dishonesty, cover-up and obfuscation offacts as standard public policy while at the same time introducing andimplementing a draconian system of laws fit for a dictatorship undreamed ofin known human history onto a willing public and press.Jeb Bush, governor of Florida, the state that allowed Georgie 2 to steal anelection and now home to this?Here is the website for it. See if your state is part of the program.http://www.iir.com/matrix/They seem pretty careful not to mention what company is developing theMATRIX, but I found it with some research from a Washington Post article asSeisint Inc.http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A21872-2003Aug5http://www2.seisint.com/welcome.htmlI wonder...do you think the Carlyle Group has an investment in Seisint Inc.?Gimme a pair of them red ruby slippers. "There's no place like home,there's no place like home, there's no place like home!"-JohnChanging Planet***************Caught in the Matrix?States' data project ignites privacy fearshttp://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/0903/24matrix.htmlBy JIM KRANEAssociated PressNEW YORK -- While privacy worries are frustrating the Pentagon's plans for afar-reaching database to combat terrorism, a similar project is quietlytaking shape with the participation of more than a dozen states -- and $12million in federal funds.The database project, created so states and local authorities can trackwould-be terrorists as well as criminal fugitives, is being built and housedin the offices of a private company but will be open to some federal lawenforcers and perhaps even U.S. intelligence agencies.Dubbed Matrix, the database has been in use for a year and a half inFlorida, where police praise the crime-fighting tool as nimble andexhaustive. It cross-references the state's driving records and restrictedpolice files with billions of pieces of public and private data, includingcredit and property records.But privacy advocates, officials in two states and a competing data vendorhave branded Matrix as playing fast and loose with Americans' privatedetails.They complain that Matrix houses restricted police and government files on acolossal database that sits in the offices of Seisint, a Boca Raton, Fla.,company founded by millionaire Hank Asher, who police say flew planeloads ofdrugs into the country in the early 1980s."It's federally funded, it's guarded by state police but it's on privateproperty? That's very interesting," said Christopher Slobogin, a Universityof Florida law professor and expert in privacy issues. "If it's federallyfunded, the federal government obviously has a huge interest in it."Matrix was initially intended to track terrorists, as was the Pentagon'sTerrorism Information Awareness project, which sparked a congressionaluproar and got watered down.As a dozen more states pool their criminal and government files withFlorida's, the Matrix database is expanding in size and power. Organizershope to coax more states to join, touting its usefulness in everydaypolicing.Law enforcement officials in Georgia recently attended a presentation on theMatrix system, said Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead,but it's too early to tell how the system would be used here."It's a very quick way to obtain information that police can use," Bankheadsaid. "Based on what I've seen it'll be a valuable asset to Georgia lawenforcement."Bankhead said GBI officials haven't gone over the Matrix system insufficient detail to discuss its implementation locally. Atlanta policespokesman John Quigley said his department hadn't been advised about thesystem.But California and Texas dropped out, citing, among other things, worriesover housing sensitive files at Seisint. And a competing data vendor,Alpharetta-based ChoicePoint, decided not to bid on the project, saying itlacked adequate privacy safeguards.Aspects of the project appear designed to steer around laws that bar theU.S. government from collecting routine data on Americans.For instance, the project is billed as a tool for state and local police,but organizers are considering giving access to the Central IntelligenceAgency, said Phil Ramer, special agent in charge of the Florida Departmentof Law Enforcement's intelligence office.In the 1970s, Congress barred the CIA from scanning files on averageAmericans."The CIA doesn't have this now," Ramer said. "That's a major political issuewe'll have to cross."Florida officials have acknowledged that users of Matrix, which stands forMultistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, can "monitor innocentcitizens."Ramer and others say, however, that unscrupulous spying will be preventedthrough Florida police oversight of Matrix users, along with audits andbackground checks on people with access to the database.-- Staff writer Brenden Sager contributed to this article.********If this email is cut short, changingplanet/messagesYou can help us make a difference. Click here for details:http://changingplanet.supremalex.org/help.htmChanging Planet News - Where Ethics, Science and Spirituality BlendCOLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS PROJECT: If this email sparked emotions in you, positive or negative, please pray, meditate, visualize or concentrate on the best possible outcome for Humanity and Earth for AT LEAST 10 seconds.