CREEPING PRIVACY THREAT
By Geoff Metcalf
March 22, 2009
NewsWithViews.com
"Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them;" -- Frederick Douglas
The routine incremental invasion of privacy by the government continues. For years some of us have been warning about the catch-22 danger of various government ID plans. The big boogie man threat is a fear of eventual mandates for everyone to be issued sub dermal biochip implants. Not yet…it’s too early to try for that brass ring.
However, prior to ‘Big Brother’ being able to realize ubiquitous and omniscient control as the objective, we the people have to be conditioned to acceptance and various incremental steps must be introduced, mandated and accepted.
The common mantra of privacy usurpers is “If you don’t have anything to hide, what are you worried about?” The collorary being, if you DO have concerns about government’s all seeing eye targeting you for monitoring and tracking, you must be engaged in something nefarious. After all, they are from the government and they are here to help you. Right?
Introducing the Transportation Workers Identification Credential (TWIC). What the heck is that? According to the TSA, “TWIC is a common identification credential for all personnel requiring unescorted access to secure areas of MTSA-regulated facilities and vessels, and all mariners holding Coast Guard-issued credentials. Individuals who meet TWIC eligibility requirements will be issued a tamper-resistant credential containing the worker's biometric (fingerprint template) to allow for a positive link between the card and the individual.”
Congress apparently directed the government to issue this biometric security credential to folks with unescorted access to secure areas and all mariners holding Coast Guard issued credentials or qualification documents. The goal obviously is to improve port security.
I recently heard from a Charter Boat Captain with a Masters certificate from the Coast Guard who has been required to get this new ID. The deadline is near for any and all card carrying merchant marine types and charter boat captains to pay their $132.50, get fingerprinted and ‘activated’. Some 1.2 million individuals will apply for a TWIC.
TWIC is more than just another pretty ID card. Pictures and thumbprints are just the ante.
Sure it will be used for visual identity checks. Card holders will have to present their cards to authorized personnel, who will check the photo, inspect security features on the TWIC and look for signs of tampering. But it gets better (and more efficient)…the “Coast Guard will conduct vessel and facility inspections and use hand -held readers during spot checks to ensure credentials are valid and identity is verified. A second rulemaking will establish access control requirements, including the use of electronic readers by certain vessel and facility owners and operators.”
I’ve been complaining about sub dermal biochips since 1998. In addition to itching and moaning on the radio about the dangers of implanted biochips I have written tens of thousand words explaining the evisceration of the very concept of privacy. “Privacy—the very concept of privacy—becomes an anachronism.”
There is a long list of alleged ‘benefits’ of enhanced ID cards and biochip implants. And like the list of ‘benefits’ Freud touted for heroin and cocaine, they are wrong.
Implanted biochips can help locate downed pilots, kidnapped children and escaped prisoners. They can also track political adversaries and target location and movements, and function as a virtual ‘lojack’ for people.
The Incrementalism finesse starts by mandating biochips for specific publics. First they implant prisoners, then high value military assets, then the entire military, then government workers, then anyone receiving government money…
Eventually,
when more people have implants than don’t…they no longer
are ‘voluntary’ but mandatory. THEN, the unelected, unaccountable
bureaucrat class has total control.
Incrementalism, unintended (or intended) consequences, abuse of power
under the color of authority, metastasizes into a cancer that eats at
the very essence of freedom and liberty. That is a very bad thing!
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Scott McDonald of the Website Scan This News has warned: "All movement, transactions, and interactions can be recorded and monitored once everyone has their own unique identifier. Every detail of a person’s life will be finally accessible to authorities through the widespread use of implanted chips.”
The key goal and objective of the tyrant is to CONTROL. Whether it is gun control, smoker control, tax control, or control of the ability to freely move, control is the objective.
Previous columns on same topic:
1-
Big
Brother's Watching
2- The
end of privacy
3- Internet
privacy war
4- Under
your skin
5- How
much will you take?
6- Tag!
You're it!
