Official List Of Words Feds Monitor On Social Networking Sites

The Feds have been forced to release their social network monitoring manual, which contains the list of words the government watches on social media and news sites.

Homeland Security Manual Lists Government Key Words For Monitoring Social Media, News

Ever complain on Facebook that you were feeling “sick?” Told your friends to “watch” a certain TV show? Left a comment on a media website about government “pork?”

If you did any of those things, or tweeted about your recent vacation in “Mexico” or a shopping trip to “Target,” the Department of Homeland Security may have noticed.

In the latest revelation of how the federal government is monitoring social media and online news outlets, the Electronic Privacy Information Center has posted online a 2011 Department of Homeland Security manual that includes hundreds of key words (such as those above) and search terms used to detect possible terrorism, unfolding natural disasters and public health threats. The center, a privacy watchdog group, filed a Freedom of Information Act request and then sued to obtain the release of the documents.

The 39-page “Analyst’s Desktop Binder” used by the department’s National Operations Center includes no-brainer words like “”attack,” “epidemic” and “Al Qaeda” (with various spellings). But the list also includes words that can be interpreted as either menacing or innocent depending on the context, such as “exercise,” “drill,” “wave,” “initiative,” “relief” and “organization.”

These terms and others are “broad, vague and ambiguous” and include “vast amounts of First Amendment protected speech that is entirely unrelated to the Department of Homeland Security mission to protect the public against terrorism and disasters,” stated the Electronic Privacy Information Center in letter to the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence.

The manual was released by the center a week after Homeland Security officials were grilled at a House hearing over other documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that revealed analysts were scrutinizing online comments that “reflect adversely” on the federal government. Mary Ellen Callahan, the chief privacy officer for the Department of Homeland Security, and Richard Chavez, director for the National Operations Center, testified that the released documents were outdated and that social media was monitored strictly to provide situational awareness and not to police disparaging opinions about the federal government. On Friday, Homeland Security officials stuck by that testimony.

A senior Homeland Security official who spoke to The Huffington Post on Friday on condition of anonymity said the testimony of agency officials last week remains “accurate” and the manual “is a starting point, not the endgame” in maintaining situational awareness of natural and man-made threats. The official denied Electronic Privacy Information Center’s charge that the government is monitoring dissent. The manual’s instruction that analysts should identify “media reports that reflect adversely on DHS and response activities” was not aimed at silencing criticism but at spotting and addressing problems, she added.

[...]

Source: The Huffington Post

The Official List – Using these words online will put you in the crosshairs of Big Brother’s multi-billion dollar spy machine

Domestic Security
Assassination Attack Domestic security Drill Exercise Cops Law enforcement Authorities Disaster assistance Disaster management DNDO (Domestic Nuclear Detection Office) National preparedness Mitigation Prevention Response Recovery Dirty bomb Domestic nuclear detection	Emergency management Emergency response First responder Homeland security Maritime domain awareness (MDA) National preparedness initiative Militia Shooting Shots fired Evacuation Deaths Hostage Explosion (explosive) Police Disaster medical assistance team (DMAT) Organized crime	Gangs National security State of emergency Security Breach Threat Standoff SWAT Screening Lockdown Bomb (squad or threat) Crash Looting Riot Emergency Landing Pipe bomb Incident Facility
HAZMAT & Nuclear
Hazmat Nuclear Chemical spill Suspicious package/device Toxic National laboratory Nuclear facility Nuclear threat Cloud Plume Radiation Radioactive	Leak Biological infection (or event) Chemical Chemical burn Biological Epidemic Hazardous Hazardous material incident Industrial spill Infection Powder (white)	Gas Spillover Anthrax Blister agent Chemical agent Exposure Burn Nerve agent Ricin Sarin North Korea
Health Concern + H1N1
Outbreak Contamination Exposure Virus Evacuation Bacteria Recall Ebola Food Poisoning Foot and Mouth (FMD) H5N1 Avian Flu Strain Quarantine H1N1 Vaccine	Salmonella Small Pox Plague Human to human Human to Animal Influenza Center for Disease Control (CDC) Drug Administration (FDA) Public Health Toxic Agro Terror Tuberculosis (TB) Tamiflu Norvo Virus Epidemic	Agriculture Listeria Symptoms Mutation Resistant Antiviral Wave Pandemic Infection Water/air borne Sick Swine Pork World Health Organization (WHO) (and components) Viral Hemorrhagic Fever E. Coli
Infrastructure Security
Infrastructure security Airport CIKR (Critical Infrastructure & Key Resources) AMTRAK Collapse Computer infrastructure Communications infrastructure Telecommunications Critical infrastructure National infrastructure Metro WMATA	Airplane (and derivatives) Chemical fire Subway BART MARTA Port Authority NBIC (National Biosurveillance Integration Center) Transportation security Grid Power Smart Body scanner	Electric Failure or outage Black out Brown out Port Dock Bridge Cancelled Delays Service disruption Power lines
Southwest Border Violence
Drug cartel Violence Gang Drug Narcotics Cocaine Marijuana Heroin Border Mexico Cartel Southwest Juarez Sinaloa Tijuana Torreon Yuma Tucson Decapitated U.S. Consulate Consular El Paso	Fort Hancock San Diego Ciudad Juarez Nogales Sonora Colombia Mara salvatrucha MS13 or MS-13 Drug war Mexican army Methamphetamine Cartel de Golfo Gulf Cartel La Familia Reynosa Nuevo Leon Narcos Narco banners (Spanish equivalents) Los Zetas Shootout Execution	Gunfight Trafficking Kidnap Calderon Reyosa Bust Tamaulipas Meth Lab Drug trade Illegal immigrants Smuggling (smugglers) Matamoros Michoacana Guzman Arellano-Felix Beltran-Leyva Barrio Azteca Artistic Assassins Mexicles New Federation
Terrorism
Terrorism Al Qaeda (all spellings) Terror Attack Iraq Afghanistan Iran Pakistan Agro Environmental terrorist Eco terrorism Conventional weapon Target Weapons grade Dirty bomb Enriched Nuclear Chemical weapon Biological weapon Ammonium nitrate Improvised explosive device	IED (Improvised Explosive Device) Abu Sayyaf Hamas FARC (Armed Revolutionary Forces Colombia) IRA (Irish Republican Army) ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna) Basque Separatists Hezbollah Tamil Tigers PLF (Palestine Liberation Front) PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization Car bomb Jihad Taliban Weapons cache Suicide bomber Suicide attack	Suspicious substance AQAP (AL Qaeda Arabian Peninsula) AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan) Yemen Pirates Extremism Somalia Nigeria Radicals Al-Shabaab Home grown Plot Nationalist Recruitment Fundamentalism Islamist
Weather/Disaster/Emergency
Emergency Hurricane Tornado Twister Tsunami Earthquake Tremor Flood Storm Crest Temblor Extreme weather Forest fire Brush fire	Ice Stranded/Stuck Help Hail Wildfire Tsunami Warning Center Magnitude Avalanche Typhoon Shelter-in-place Disaster Snow Blizzard Sleet	Mud slide or Mudslide Erosion Power outage Brown out Warning Watch Lightening Aid Relief Closure Interstate Burst Emergency Broadcast System
Cyber Security
Cyber security Botnet DDOS (dedicated denial of service) Denial of service Malware Virus Trojan Keylogger Cyber Command	2600 Spammer Phishing Rootkit Phreaking Cain and abel Brute forcing Mysql injection Cyber attack Cyber terror	Hacker China Conficker Worm Scammers Social media

Read the Deparment of Homeland Security Media Monitoring Desktop Reference

Analyst Desktop Binder_REDACTED

Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications Subcommittee to Hold FEMA Budget Hearing – TOMORROW

Washington, D.C. – The House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications, chaired by Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), will hold a hearing entitled “The President's FY 2013 Budget Request for the Federal Emergency Management Agency” tomorrow at 10 a.m. in Room 311 Cannon House Office Building. 

At tomorrow’s hearing, the Subcommittee will examine the Obama Administration’s $10.17 billion Fiscal Year 2013 budget request for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), including the President’s proposal to create a new, consolidated grant program to replace a number of homeland security grant programs including the State Homeland Security Grant Program (SHSGP), the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI), the Transit Security Grant Program (TSGP), the Port Security Grant Program (PSGP), the Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS), the Citizen Corps Program, and the Buffer Zone Protection Program.

Bilirakis said: "This hearing will continue the Subcommittee's oversight of the Federal Emergency Management Agency by providing Members with an opportunity to examine the President's Fiscal Year 2013 budget request and explore ways we can continue to enhance our emergency preparedness and response capabilities through the efficient and effective use of taxpayer dollars."

What:                   Subcommittee Hearing on “The President's FY 2013 Budget Request for the Federal Emergency Management Agency”

When:                  10 a.m., Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Where:                 311 Cannon House Office Building

                            **Live video feed will be available HERE

Opening statements, witness testimony, and the live video feed will be available online HERE.

Witness List:
The Honorable Richard Serino, Deputy Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security

Backdoor Amnesty Data Just the Beginning

Washington, D.C. – According to a report by the Syracuse University Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, the number of deportation proceedings initiated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the last quarter fell sharply by 33 percent, from nearly 59,000 filings to a little over 39,000.  This substantial drop follows the Obama administration’s implementation of its new deportation guidelines that amount to backdoor amnesty.  House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) issued the statement below in response to this drop. 

Chairman Smith:  “Last quarter’s data confirms what we knew all along: President Obama is recklessly determined to grant backdoor amnesty to thousands of illegal immigrants.  And President Obama certainly doesn’t keep his ambition to grant amnesty to even more illegal immigrants a secret.  This week, President Obama boasted that he has five more years to get an amnesty bill through Congress.  If President Obama gets his way, the drop in deportation proceedings last quarter is just the beginning.

“President Obama’s goal of reelection is a slap in the face to unemployed American workers.  With 13 million unemployed Americans competing with seven million illegal immigrants for scarce jobs, the President shouldn’t brag about having another term in office.  The President is supposed to act in the interest of the American people, not illegal immigrants.  But President Obama has failed to live up to this responsibility.”

Background:  In November, the Obama administration issued new deportation guidance instructing ICE attorneys to review all incoming and most pending cases before an immigration court.  These changes could potentially allow millions of illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S. without a vote of Congress.

In reviewing the cases, Department of Homeland Security political appointees have made clear that many illegal immigrants are not considered “priorities” for removal, including potential DREAM Act beneficiaries, an illegal immigrant who has had a long-term presence in the U.S., has an immediate family member who is a U.S. citizen, and/or has compelling ties to the U.S.  The new deportation guidance also states that ICE may administratively close asylum cases where the immigrants makes a joint request to close.  Although it is estimated that a large percentage of asylum applications are fraudulent, these individuals are eligible for work authorization. 


House Judiciary Committee

Terrorists Continue to Exploit Immigration Loopholes

Smith: Terrorists Continue to Exploit Immigration Loopholes

For Immediate Release February 17, 2012 Contact: Kim Hicks or Jessica Baker, 202-225-3951

Smith: Terrorists Continue to Exploit Immigration Loopholes

Washington, D.C. – The FBI and the U.S. Capitol Police today arrested a Moroccan man in Washington, D.C. after an investigation into an alleged plot to carry out a suicide attack on the Capitol.  Amine el-Khalifi was born in Morocco and entered the United States in June 1999 on a B2 tourism visa.  His visa expired in 1999 and he has been living in the U.S. illegally ever since. 

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) issued the statement below.

Chairman Smith:  “Today’s thwarted terror plot is a reminder that foreign terrorists will continue to exploit our nation’s immigration laws as long as they remain loosely enforced by the Administration. According to the criminal complaint, Amine El Khalifi came to the U.S. in 1999 on a tourist visa and remained illegally after his visa expired.

“This is not the first time a foreign terrorist has used loopholes in our immigration laws to come to the U.S. and plot against innocent Americans. The 9-11 hijackers entered the U.S. after obtaining visas.  The Christmas Day bomber was able to board a plane en route to Detroit because he too had a visa.  And just last year, a Saudi national in the U.S. on a student visa was charged with the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and is alleged to have listed the home of former President George W. Bush as a target.

“Today’s arrest is a victory for our law enforcement community, but a failure of our immigration system.  We have not learned the lessons of 9-11.  Until we crack down on our immigration laws that allow terrorists to enter and stay in the U.S., history will continue to repeat itself.”

Gun Walking To Mexico Known Outside Of ATF

An ex-federal law enforcement agent says other agencies stopped gun shipments linked to Operation Fast & Furious. When they questioned it, they were told Arizona's U.S. Attorney was aware of it.

By Michel Marizco

 

TUCSON — Newly released documents show that allowing guns to walk into Mexico was widely known outside of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), the agency accused of allowing the weapons to head south across the border. And now a retired federal law enforcement official says some of those outside government agencies interfered with ATF’s plans by stopping some of the shipments.

The issue came to the forefront again when Attorney General Eric Holder testified before Congress for the sixth time in a year late last week. He once again said that he did not know that ATF was allowing guns to be smuggled into Mexico.

Holder told the House Oversight Committee on Thursday that Department of Justice investigators are still trying to find out whom in the agency made the decision to allow guns to cross into Mexico.

“Not only did I not authorize those tactics, when I found out about them, I told the field and everybody in the United States Department of Justice that those tactics had to stop,” Holder said in response to questions. “That they were not acceptable and that gun walking was to stop."

The plan was known as Operation Fast and Furious. Cartel gun buyers were being tracked by the ATF as they purchased the weapons in Phoenix and smuggled them across the border. Guns were found in Ciudád Juárez, Tijuana, even the border beach town of Puerto Peñasco (Rocky Point), federal records show.

Photo courtesy U.S. Border Patrol.

Slain Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

Congressional lawmakers critical of the Justice Department released documents on Feb. 2 that revealed the ATF had enough evidence as early as 2009 to arrest the gun buyers. The memos show that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Phoenix had wiretaps on the straw buyers and shared that with the ATF. But no arrests were made at that time; the Congressional report concludes that the ATF wanted to build their own case instead of sharing the arrests with the DEA.

Ultimately, guns from those straw buyers were found a year later in Southern Arizona where U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was shot and killed in December 2010.

Tony Coulson was the DEA official in charge of Tucson at the time. He says the problems ran even deeper than that.

"In 2009, 2010, I became aware that ATF was walking guns into Mexico,” Coulson said. “I also learned that Homeland Security Investigations, then ICE, actually interceded on more than one occasion where they seized weapons at the ports of entry when they were heading southbound contrary to ATF’s plans."

There was serious friction, Coulson claims, between ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and the ATF in Phoenix. When Coulson took the gun walking to his bosses in Phoenix, he was told the lead law enforcement official in Arizona – U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke – was already aware of it.

Burke has since resigned, as a result of the public scandal resulting from Operation Fast and Furious.
Coulson also claims politics played a role in how Fast and Furious unfolded. The ATF officials who supervised the gun walking out of Phoenix were telling the news media as early as 2008 that 90 percent of the guns seized in Mexico came from the U.S. In other words, the same agency that was waging a public battle against gun smuggling was facilitating gun walking at the same time.

Document

Main Justice: Extensive Involvement in Operation Fast and Furious

Download .PDF

"Among federal law enforcement, that became somewhat of a joke,” Coulson said. “We all knew that was whatever weapons the Mexican government decided to follow or trace back to the U.S. And never took into account the weapons that come in from Central America, from other countries around the world.”

That 90 percent statistic was widely reported, but it was inflated. ATF officials quietly refuted those numbers. Later, they told auditors they were based on only a small portion of the guns seized in Mexico.

Fronteras

Smith Presses for Interviews with Senior DOJ Staff re: Fast and Furious

 

Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today pressed the Justice Department to make senior officials available for interviews with the Committee regarding the Department’s knowledge of ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious following the shooting death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010. Specifically, Chairman Smith requested to interview Monty Wilkinson, former Deputy Chief of Staff to the Attorney General, and Lanny Breuer, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division.

Documents released by the Department on Friday indicate that the Attorney General’s former Deputy Chief of Staff may have been aware of the connection between Agent Terry’s death and Operation Fast and Furious within days of the shooting. The emails also show inconsistencies between statements by Assistant Attorney General Breuer regarding his reaction to the initial discovery that ATF had engaged in gunwalking.
 
Chairman Smith: “The House Judiciary Committee and the American people have a right to know the whole truth, not just bits and pieces released here and there over several months.  As Attorney General, you have an obligation to ensure that the statements given to Congress are both accurate and complete. Unfortunately, the documents released by the Department continue to raise serious questions about the validity of statements made by senior Department officials.”  

Last Friday, the Justice Department released 486 new documents to the House Judiciary and House Oversight Committees as part of compliance with a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee.  The emails show an exchange between Mr. Wilkinson and former U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke regarding the death of Agent Terry. Mr. Wilkinson claimed to have notified the Attorney General about the death of Agent Terry and then pressed U.S. Attorney Burke for additional details regarding the shooting. U.S. Attorney Burke later notified Mr. Wilkinson that guns found at the scene of the shooting connected back to “the investigation we were going to talk about.”  The investigation in question turned out to be Operation Fast and Furious. Mr. Wilkinson replied, “I’ll call tomorrow.”  It is not known if that call ever took place.
 
Chairman Smith requested that the Department contact the House Judiciary Committee by February 10 to arrange for the interviews of Mr. Wilkinson and Assistant Attorney General Breuer.
A copy of the full letter can be found here.

Smith: Dangerous Criminal Immigrants Deserve No Favors from U.S.

 

Washington, D.C. – According to a press report, an immigrant from Haiti who was ordered deported by an immigration judge in 2007 for two convicted felonies was released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in October 2010 and went on to kill three Americans in Miami, Florida two months later.  This criminal immigrant was released because the Obama administration halted deportations to Haiti in January 2010 and the federal government was not able to deport him back to Haiti due to two Supreme Court decisions that require the release of dangerous illegal and criminal immigrants back into American communities when they cannot be removed to their native country in the “reasonably foreseeable future.”

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) released the statement below following the press report.

Chairman Smith:  “It is a tragedy that three Americans lost their lives because a dangerous criminal immigrant could not be deported to his home country.  This is a failure of both the Obama administration and our immigration system.

“Kesler Dufrene, an immigrant from Haiti, was convicted of two felonies and ordered removed by an immigration judge in 2007.   But because the Obama administration suspended all deportations to Haiti in January 2010, Dufrene couldn’t be deported to his home country.  Dangerous criminal immigrants deserve no favors from the federal government.  The Obama administration should not grant blanket reprieve to illegal and criminal immigrants no matter what the circumstances are.

“Since Dufrene couldn’t be deported to Haiti, he was released into our communities because of two Supreme Court rulings that have inadvertently created a safe haven for dangerous illegal and criminal immigrants.  Just because a criminal immigrant cannot be returned to their home country does not mean they should be freed into our communities.  Dangerous criminal immigrants need to be detained.

“Last year the House Judiciary Committee approved a bill to remedy this problem, the Keep Our Communities Safe Act.  This bill is desperately needed.  We cannot continue to let dangerous criminal immigrants slip through the cracks of our legal justice system.  While we are too late to prevent some tragedies, we should act to prevent many more.”

Background:  In the 2001 decision of Zadvydas v. Davis, the Supreme Court ruled that under current law, immigrants who had entered the U.S. and then ordered removed could not be detained for more than six months where removal would not occur in the “reasonably foreseeable future”.   In the 2005 case of Clark v. Martinez, the Supreme Court expanded its decision in Zadvydas to apply to illegal immigrants.  The problem with both of these rulings is that not every criminal immigrant who is ordered removed can be because of the unwillingness of some countries to accept return of their nationals.  Issues with repatriation run the gamut of problems with providing travel documents necessary for repatriation to blanket refusal of a country to accept return of criminal immigrants. 

As a result, the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have had no choice but to release thousands of criminal immigrants into our neighborhoods.  In the last two years, close to 8,000 immigrants with orders of removal were released because their own countries refused to take them back.

Justice Department officials have stated that these criminal immigrants include rapists, child molesters, murderers, and other dangerous criminals. 

Last July, the House Judiciary Committee approved the Keep Our Communities Safe Act (H.R. 1932), a bill to stop the release of dangerous criminal immigrants into American communities.  The bill was reported favorably to the House floor by a vote of 17-14 and provides a statutory basis for DHS to detain as long as necessary specified dangerous criminal immigrants under orders of removal who cannot be removed. 

House Judiciary Committee