U.S. Backs Florida's New Counterterrorism Database (Bad News)

[kskiska]

'Matrix' Offers Law Agencies Faster Access to Americans' Personal Records

Wednesday, August 6, 2003; Page A01

Police in Florida are creating a counterterrorism database designed to give law enforcement agencies around the country a powerful new tool to analyze billions of records about both criminals and ordinary Americans.

Organizers said the system, dubbed Matrix, enables investigators to find patterns and links among people and events faster than ever before, combining police records with commercially available collections of personal information about most American adults. It would let authorities, for instance, instantly find the name and address of every brown-haired owner of a red Ford pickup truck in a 20-mile radius of a suspicious event.

The state-level program, aided by federal funding, is poised to expand across the nation at a time when Congress has been sharply critical of similar data-driven systems on the federal level, such as a Pentagon plan for global surveillance and an air-passenger-screening system.

The Florida system is another example of the ongoing post-Sept. 11 debate about the proper balance between national security and individual privacy. Yesterday the District and the Department of Homeland Security announced plans to launch a pilot law enforcement data-sharing network that will include Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21872-2003Aug5.html

[Rose Siding]

1. Thank God Florida is in charge of this!

Because no where else on God's green planet can you find more ethical, efficient bureaucrats all bunched up in one place.

They have a variety of agencies running like clockwork from which to model a new program like this: Dept of Children and Families! Florida Dept of State, Division of Elections!

[sandnsea]

5. It's a relief or a tragedy, depending on your view

Relief if you're worried about your privacy and Florida being able to put together a system that functions. A tragedy if you're worried about terrorists... and Florida being able to put together a system that functions.

nothing personal, Floridans, just kind of a distant observation.

[dArKeR]

2. Can it find 'Psychotic murder males with last name Bush'?

Can it find 'Men who assassinated other men'? JFK, RFK, MLK, Wellstone, Baxter, Kelly, Carnahan?

http://darker0darker.tripod.com/

[grasswire]

3. when dissent is criminalized....

.....the evil of all this will be revealed. Mark my words.

[no_arbusto]

4. This is called GIS

Geographic Information Systems. Nothing new. It's been around for over 20 years. They act like they have some great new software here. Research the company ESRI for GIS information. The majority of GIS users are the "good guys", environmentalists, planners, firefighters, and the like. This was started as an environmental and mapping tool years ago but has only recently been discovered by the "big brother" types. I use it everyday.

[bemildred]

6. Yeh.

It is also much less trouble to manage and implement than
genuine leg work and investigation, and it will do exactly
diddly squat to stop terrorism.

[soup]

7. Hank Asher

MUST READ ARTICLE

TALLAHASSEE - In an attempt to identify potential terrorists, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is using the services of a former drug smuggler turned millionaire.

Hank Asher, 48, a computer technology expert who lives in a $3-million Boca Raton house, has founded several companies that retrieve huge amounts of electronic information about individuals.

>snip<

Asher's initial company, DBT Online Inc., bought Asher out for $147-million in 1999 after the FBI and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration ended contracts with the company because of Asher's past drug smuggling ties.

Is DBT Online connected to that DBT?

[soup]

9. Answering my own question.

Yes, it's That DBT. WTF is going on here?

Jumping to conclusions-
The new, improved TIA is Choicepoint? Have a really, really bad feeling about this. Need to do some more investigating.

[salin]

10. I thought: TIA as well

get it out of the Pentagon - but give fed $ to a state to do about the same thing. Wonder if they will hire Poindexter when he is "free".

Is ChoicePoint the group that did the abysmal job (or good if you are Jeb!) of database purge of voters in the name of updating voter rolls? Or is ChoicePoint the new name for KBGM? Can't keep these straight.

[Pale Blue Dot]

8. Possible primary connection here:

"A Justice Department document from early this year describes Matrix as an effort "to increase and enhance the exchange of sensitive terrorism and other criminal activity information between local, state and federal law enforcement agencies." Matrix organizers met several times with Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), while he was head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, to discuss the system's development."

No other mention is made in the article of Graham or his opinion of the system.

[soup]

11. Yep. Graham connection.

Someone help me here, please.

I'm having some trouble putting this together. Think I'm making it either too simple, or too complicated. (or maybe I'm just overreacting and overreaching?) The thing that stays consistent though, is my hackles are raised and I feel the need to look over my shoulder as I look into all the connections and the theme music to Twilight Zone plays as the acronyms and names add themselves to the list of players.

So many alarms going off, my mind is just reeling. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to staple my tin foil hat on my head this morning.

Hank Asher = DBT
DBT = ChoicePoint
ChoicePoint + BBV + FDOE = BFEE selection
MATRIX = TIA morphed = FDLE +/or BFEE payback to Hank Asher/DBT?

How weird that the bigger the circle gets, the smaller it is. The MUST READ article above also mentions Accenture accounting firm connections. Seisint's president, Paul Cameron, used to be an officer of the company. Accenture is setting off alarms, too- but I can't remember why right now.

and yes, Finnfan- Bob Graham is in the article as well. Hank Asher contributed "$65,000 to U.S. Sen. Bob Graham's 2002 initiative campaign to re-establish the state Board of Regents".

[donsu]

12. Accenture rang a bell with me too

Jeb or Neil's pc education package thing they push and sell here and in other countries?

or is Accenture with their Africa water adventure?

[Q]

13. This is 'Total Information Awareness'...

...by another name.

[sandnsea]

14. Accenture - Arthur Anderson

Supposedly he doesn't have anything to do with the company anymore, but after Arthur Anderson was booted, the company morphed into Accenture. Sorry, I just don't buy that a company becomes 'clean' because one man is removed. The method of doing business has to be engrained within the corporate structure and I bet they just got better at doing what they do. That's usually the way crooks operate.