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Homeland Security Dept. Pays General Dynamics to Scour Internet for Criticism of its Policies
Monday, February 27, 2012

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been paying a defense contractor $11.4 million to monitor social media websites and other Internet communications to find criticisms of the department’s policies and actions.

A government watchdog organization, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), obtained hundreds of documents from DHS through the Freedom of Information Act and found details of the arrangement with General Dynamics. The company was contracted to monitor the Web for “reports that reflect adversely on DHS,” including sub-agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Citizenship and Immigration Services, Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In testimony submitted to the House Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, Ginger McCall, director of EPIC’s Open Government Project, stated that “the agency is monitoring constantly, under very broad search terms, and is not limiting that monitoring to events or activities related to natural disasters, acts of terrorism, or manmade disasters….The DHS has no legal authority to engage in this monitoring.”

McCall added: “This has a profound effect on free speech online if you feel like a government law enforcement agency—particularly the Department of Homeland Security, which is supposed to look for terrorists—is monitoring your criticism, your dissent, of the government.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

Secret Documents Reveal DHS Lied About Tracking Americans On Social Media (by Stephen Webster, Raw Story)

EPIC v. Department of Homeland Security: Media Monitoring

Congressional Testimony (Electronic Privacy Information Center) (pdf)

Documents Obtained through Freedom of Information Act (pdf)

Letter to Congress (Electronic Privacy Information Center) (pdf)

Napolitano’s Homeland Security Filtered Public Document Requests Through Political Aides (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

Comments

Rip - 2/29/2012 9:59:27 PM
i guess the govt doesn't realize that we built the drones and invented the tech to make them work, how many anti-theft devices have we invented ? and at the same time invented the work around for it?it's no wonder the iranians brought the surveillance drone down so easily, jamming devices do work. without u.s. slaves the govt. is nothing, starve the beast, what are they going to do, beat us to force us to work ? that would be a good way to ensure a booby trap in every thing we were forced to produce.

Sue - 2/29/2012 9:03:54 PM
first, janet, paranoid much? secondly, stop spending our money!!!!

jazz - 2/29/2012 9:02:14 AM
thank you carl darby. i loathe that thinking in people terry slade. clearly, he is unaware of history. "those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

david - 2/29/2012 3:28:46 AM
absolutely correct. the illusion of freedom is finally going away. we are starting to realize this government has no regard for its citizens. they view us as their enemy. people need to wake up and realize that by paying the income tax they are agreeing to be the slaves that feed the beast that will and is the demise of our human rights and our lives. people are waking up but now it's time for us to wipe the sleep from our eyes and get into action. realize your 16th amendment right. read the constitution and bill of rights and practice them in your daily lives!!

bjo - 2/28/2012 11:18:34 PM
the whole damn government is guilty of treason, but there is no one to try them. the jig is up. we need to stop paying our taxes en masse, but that is never going to happen. how soon are we going to start noticing drones hovering outside our kitchen windows?

Rusty Shakelford - 2/28/2012 8:17:21 PM
the dhs=ss, you are the ghestapo. you hate americans and will eventually become nothing but the internal stasi that oppressed the people of east germany. mr janet napolitano should be tried for treason, and crimes against humanity. general dynamics...just another shill for the gubment. they can all get bent. a concerned jew

MontgomeryScott - 2/28/2012 7:21:05 PM
here is the pdf of the foia report on 'media monitoring capability': https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/296596-analyst-desktop-binder-redacted.html besides the fact that the dhs is unconstitutional, my biggest complaint would be this: they do not need to pay general dynamics to hear my criticism of them. i will gladly provide it for free. while we're at it, can i offer criticism of general dynamics as well? no extra charge! thanks, wrh, for this link!

Carl Darby - 2/28/2012 5:31:39 PM
the problem with attitudes like those expressed by terry slade is that it is the broad path to tyranny with final destination places like auschwitz and buchenwald. it is never wise to give up privacy and freedom for the illusion of security. if it is security you want. end the war mongering policies of this country and we can live in peace.

dennis morrisseau - 2/28/2012 5:06:31 PM
here i am janet. come and get me. hardly no day goes by when i don't denounce you and your dept of homeland security so-called in public and in writing. i think your entire agency should be disbanded and all of you fired. you yourself i would try for treason, and i have very good reasons for saying all of this. dennis morrisseau w. pawlet, vt

Stephen M. St. John - 2/28/2012 3:51:21 PM
zionist michael chertoff wrote the patriot act that made possible the department of homeland security. the patriot act came right off the shelf right after 9/11, and most members of congress, polled informally by michael moore, didn't even bother to read it. it appears that chertoff put more than a little english on his brainchild. earlier, as head of the criminal division of the us department of justice, he oversaw the framing of arabs with a bogus 9/11 airport surveillance video tape which had prominent mention on page 3 of the 9/11 commission report. this purported 9/11 "dulles airport" video shows impossible shadows and lacks background features you'd expect to see were it really made at dulles. details are in my short article "dulles airport" shadow disproves us government's 9/11 conspiracy theory, which is published on my website at http://www.show-the-house.com/id107.html. i've brought this to the attention of janet napolitano and other dhs officials by email on several occasions but there has never been a response. this is not surprising. i've got the goods on them. what can they say? what should they say? i'm waiting.

Dave - 2/28/2012 3:27:22 PM
it's fine for people to give up their civil rights for the perception that they are safer but please don't give up my civil rights and oppress me because you want that warm comfy feeling. some people want privacy for the sake of privacy and for the principal of it, not because they are hiding anything. try to imagine the government going further than even you think is ok and installing cameras in your daughters school gym shower. then it is an invasion of privacy? if she doesn't have anything to hide then it should be fine. it's not like anyone is doing something wrong with the images. dave

Moe Badderman - 2/28/2012 3:18:22 PM
the bootlickers who "have nothing to hide" will be squealing a different song when their children are sent to a fema camp.

Terry slade - 2/28/2012 8:53:08 AM
if you have nothing to hide..why should you care? terrorists arent going to broadcast their intent openly for everyone to see. but they will attempt to recruit or at least seek out like minded people. a certain amount of privacy must be lost..and some "profiling" used...to ensure our safety and security. without these sort of programs we will be seeing our country suffer as many others do. bombs in subways..car bombs...suicide bombers in public places. uncle sam is welcome to put cameras on me 24/7, and listen in to everything i say..if that adds even a 1% chance of my children being safe. i have nothing to hide. apparently many people do....makes you wonder what they are worried about hiding...

Michael Rivero - 2/28/2012 8:28:21 AM
apparently janet doesn't know how to use a search engine.

jazz - 2/27/2012 9:17:05 AM
we all should have seen this coming. history always repeats itself. visit: "kick them all out" before it's too late. for the record, i can't stand jack napolitano!!!!

keithj - 2/27/2012 7:54:15 AM
isn't that nice, more snooping by the feds. how fast are those fema camps being built?