My opinion: DHS is a disgusting bunch of totalitarian nutjobs who are completely above law and constitution, and are run by an out-of-control demagogue/bureaucrat who will stop at nothing to keep her job. I'm referring to the director, being Janet Napolitano, but that statement also applies to John Pistole, head of TSA. Between the two of them, you really have absolutely no rights whatsoever the second you step out of your house, and thanks to things like the contract mentioned above, probably not even then.
The DHS isn't responsible for maintaining security within the US, that's just their tag line. Their primary purpose is to maintain their own jobs. Evidently a secondary purpose is to burn taxpayer money by throwing it at the same bunch of contractors that sucked on the taxpayer tit during the cold war.
So. Keep on inspiring fear in everyone so you can keep sponging money. Throw some of that money at utterly useless hand-waving "security theatre", piss away millions of dollars on worthless cancer machines, make sure and tell everyone it doesn't do the bad things that it does, and when you get caught with your pants down, do some more hand waving to make people think it REALLY DOESN'T DO ALL THOSE THINGS YOU ALREADY CLAIMED THE LAST ONE DIDN'T DO. Make sure to keep any independent evaluations from actual scientists away, you can always wave the magic "it's for security reasons" wand for that. You can't have ordinary citizens knowing whether the crap you're forcing them into is safe. Start sending those VIPR teams out to stop ordinary citizens anywhere you feel like it. It's already been made clear that the protections of the bill of rights doesn't apply to DHS or TSA. And now that the US government has authorized indefinite detention of US citizens, all the government now needs to do is label dissidents terrorists and disappear them forever. You can even do it to ordinary political opponents. Isn't being on the power-side of totalitarianism (man that is a tough word to type) fun? And DHS claims to be "preserving our freedoms" (I guess the kicker is which group of people does "our" apply to?).
Okay, steam released, here's some details. The contract EPIC obtained using an FOIA request (several years ago, mind you, the government is never particularly speedy in responding to these requests, surprise) has the following in section 4.1 item d:
Identifying media reports that reflect adversely on the U.S. Government, DHS (e.g. a coast guard ship collides with another or impacting DHS from accomplishing its mission) and the National planning scenarios.As far as what the contractor (apparently General Dynamics) has been directed to monitor:
The document goes on and on. That was just one little bit from the first 24 pages of a 285 page document.
- Monitor major broadcast news networks
- Monitor and review all Associated Press (AP) stories generated within the U.S. by each state's AP bureau
- Monitor and receive alerts on other wire service stories via categorized/focused Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds.
- Monitor and receive alerts on local and regional broadcast news via categorized/focused text/video feeds
- Monitor appropriate Internet web sites on breaking situational events
- Monitor and receive full motion video (FMV) or other streaming media
I'd suggest having a bit of fun at their expense. There's little doubt they're monitoring the big places like facebook and twitter. Myself, I deleted (yes) my facebook account over a year ago and never signed up for twitter, but if anyone reading this should have accounts, I'd suggest throwing out the occasional comment like "John Pistole is a thug". Link phrases like "anal cavity" to dhs.gov and vice versa. These guys are assholes and deserve an epic smack-down.
