Police Want Access to Information From Tolling on Narrows Bridge

According to the Tacoma News Tribune (November 9, 2018) Gig Harbor Police Chief Kelly Busey says state law should be changed so that law enforcement investigators can get information from the toll system about people crossing the eastbound Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

“If there is a homicide, and we think the suspect went through the toll bridge at 5:21 a.m., we can’t get that information,” Busey said in a recent interview. “That’s ridiculous.”

Because of privacy concerns, current law states that “no photograph, digital photograph, microphotograph, videotape, other recording image, or other record identifying a specific instance of travel may be used for any purpose other than toll collection or enforcement of civil penalties.”

The toll system obtains a photo of the license plates of all vehicles traveling eastbound on the bridge, as well as the time of which they crossed.

The bridge cameras were installed only for tolling purposes, and the law limiting use of the photos and other information was enacted to protect all citizens’ privacy, said Shanktar Narayan, the Technology and Liberty Project director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington.
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Some might ask, why shouldn't police be able to get this information? Simply put, because the information can be abused. What is used to support a major case criminal investigation today, can be used in an illegal investigation tomorrow. Allowing information obtained for one specific purpose to then be used for other purposes is a slippery slope that can lead to nothing but harm of our privacy rights and civil liberties.

We need to ensure that some out of control government employee in a basement office somewhere isn't keeping secret files about us hidden on a government computer network. We need to ensure that information collected about citizens in Washington is only being used for narrowly defined purposes.

 

 

WA State Pastor and Teacher Arrested on Charges of Voyeurism

According to the Christian Post (November 1, 2018) a pastor and teacher at a Christian school in Washington state was arrested earlier this week and charged with filming hundreds of voyeurism videos of female staff and students.

KIRO 7 reported that the videos of unsuspecting women and girls at Arlington Christian School were short cellphone clips that zoomed in on breasts, buttocks and crotches of the victims.

Stephen Clark Brown, a 61-year-old pastor at 7 Lakes Baptist Church, has been fired from the school, Q13 Fox added. He was booked on suspicion of voyeurism, with bond set at $100,000.
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Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

 

114 Gun Seizures in Maryland Since October 1st

Since Maryland's "red flag law" went into effect on October 1st, at least 114 people have had their guns seized by the police.

These people were not convicted of any crime, or even charged with a crime, but a family member or other person was able to convince a judge that the person posed some type of danger and thus should not be in possession of firearms.

The firearms are seized prior to the accused person being able to appear in court and defend their rights.

Spying on Your Cell-Phone

KOMO 4 News (November 8, 2018) reported that you may be connecting with a device that can trick your phone into thinking it's a cell tower, so it can spy on you.  A cell site simulator or Stingray can intercept your phone signal, and essentially trick it into connecting to it and 'potentially suck up all your data' like conversations and text messages.

"Just for going about your daily business you are subjected to the kind of surveillance that might be downloading information from your personal phone." "There is no way that an individual would ever know that their phone had been hooked to a Stingray," said Steve Gibson host of 'Security Now,' a weekly internet security podcast.

"The technology is very powerful," said Gibson, "They are catching everyone in the neighborhood and weed out that one particular bad guy they are looking for."

Tacoma PD got a cell site simulator in 2008.

One way to get an extra layer of encryption for your calls and messages is by using a third party app that provides instant messaging services. (Such as Signal Private Messenger)
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Government employees in Washington state have admitted to engaging in a pattern of false arrests and detentions, attacks on homes and friendships, and attempting to impede members of political groups from peacefully assembling and demonstrating anywhere, at any time. They engaged in a pattern of harassment that was systematic and pervasive, and that continues to this very day.

My book, Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments: A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way provides additional information on dealing with the surveillance threat.

California Bar Shooter Was A Marine

According to KOMO 4 (November 8, 2018) the gunman who shot and killed 12 people at a country music bar in a Los Angeles suburb was a former U.S. Marine. Ian David Long, 28, served in the Marines for nearly five years, including a seven-month tour in Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon. He left with the rank of corporal in March 2013.

In April 2018, a neighbor called authorities to report loud noises coming from Long's house. Deputies found Long "was somewhat irate, acting a little irrationally" and called in a mental health specialist. They also were concerned that Long might be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, "basing that (on) the fact that he was a veteran and had been in the Corps." The mental health specialist assessed Long but concluded he couldn't be involuntarily committed for psychiatric observation.

Authorities haven't identified what motivated Long to open fire during college night at Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, a city of about 130,000 people about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from downtown Los Angeles.
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Did Long's military service have anything to do with his actions 5+ years after his separation from the USMC? Maybe, maybe not... it seems unlikely, but we cannot know for sure.

What is known is that military personnel, government employees, and veterans do not have an easy path to obtaining mental health counseling and assistance. Too often they are ignored, belittled, or seen as weak and told "just let it go" when asking for help. Some agencies have even retaliated against employees who reported problems and asked for help! This is unacceptable, and may have led to Long's actions in a bar in California years later. ???

Even in crisis, should you attempt to contact the Suicide Prevention Lifeline Chat, you may find that many people are in line and that you have to wait hours to be connected to a counselor. 

Approximately 34 percent of the 83 shootings committed by men between the ages of 18 and 59 were veterans, per an analysis by World Beyond War.  Veterans also have higher rates of mental health problems than civilians; one study reports that veterans kill themselves at a 50 percent higher rate than civilians, per The Los Angeles Times.

As Hugh Gusterson, professor of international affairs at George Washington University notes to The New York Times, veterans account for 13 percent of the population, “but more than a third of the adult perpetrators of the 43 worst mass killings since 1984 had been in the United States military.” (Heavy.Com, November 8, 2018)

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

 

Police Kill Man Resisting Gun Confiscation in His Home

On Monday morning, police officers in Anne Arundel County, Maryland showed up confiscate 60-year-old Gary J Willis’ guns. A family member had called police and asked them to suspend Gary Willis’ gun rights, and the local police department was more than happy to oblige.

When the pounding on the door began at 5:17 am, Gary showed up to his door holding a firearm. When he saw it was police, he put the gun down to talk to them. But then, the officers informed him they were there to confiscate all of his weapons.

Gary Willis refused to comply with the confiscation order. That is when the fight broke out. During the struggle, one of the weapons discharged. Police, fearing for their lives, opened fire on Gary Willis, killing the 60-year-old man in his own home.

Gary Willis was not charged or even accused of committing a crime. All of this happened because one extended family member told police she was worried that he was dangerous. No evidence, no proof… just one person’s word. And now, an innocent man is dead. (Conservative Daily, November 6, 2018)
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So, when the police show up to confiscate your guns, how will you respond?

For those who say that the 2nd Amendment was written to allow citizens the ability to resist an oppressive and tyrannical government, remember that the government agents showing up at your door will very likely be officers from your local police department.

Your Right of Defense Against Unlawful Arrest

Police officers, are you willing to enforce unconstitutional laws? Some Sheriffs have refused to do so.

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

 

Military personnel deployed to a combat area, their supporting contractors overseas, government civilian employees overseas, non-government organizations (NGOs), journalists working on international stories, businesses attempting to establish a foothold in developing countries, and individual travelers to remote areas of the world can all find themselves in hostile and non-permissive environments. This guide covers a broad range of subjects that are intended to aid individuals, living and working in dangerous areas, in being safer in their daily lives and in being better able to protect themselves and survive in case of an emergency, disaster, or hostile action.

Has WA State Created the Perfect Storm to Increase Violent Crime?

During the mid-term elections (November 6, 2018) voters in Washington state passed two initiatives: I-940 and I-1639 which together create the perfect storm to increase violent crime in the state.

I-940 allows law enforcement officers to be held criminally liable for the use of force if it is determined that their actions were not "reasonable". I-940 removed the standard of "malice" that had previously protected police from prosecution except in the most extreme and egregious circumstances.

I-1639 restricts the self-defense rights of Washington citizens, and holds the individual gun-owner criminally liable for the actions of a criminal who steals a firearm and uses it in a crime.

Police officers in Washington are making comments on social media that under I-940 they will no longer be proactive or risk their lives to defend others knowing that they can face criminal charges for doing so. And can you blame them? Washington voters basically just said F*ck the Police.

Citizens in Washington if they choose to comply with I-1639 will find their ability to protect themselves from violent criminals severely restricted. Many citizens may choose not to comply with these draconian laws. Have we created a new class of criminal, the citizen who believes personal protection is more important than oppressive laws?

So, now police are less willing to respond and put themselves at risk. Citizens are limited in their ability to effectively defend themselves against violent attacks in their homes. Have we created the perfect storm allowing violent criminals to do as they please with out fear of the police or an armed citizen?

 

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

 

US Postal Service Informed Delivery

According to information obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request by The New York Times the United States Postal Service (USPS) approved nearly 50,000 requests in 2013, both internally and from state or federal law enforcement agencies at all levels, to monitor Americans’ mail. The USPS uses a program called Mail Imaging, which takes a photograph of the outside of every piece of mail sent in the U.S. While the primary purpose of taking the pictures is to process the mail, law enforcement agencies are able to request images of mail sent and received by a target they are investigating.

Now the USPS is letting customers access copies of the photographs of their own mail. Through a program called "Informed Delivery", users receive images of the outside of their household’s letter-sized mailpieces that will arrive in their physical mailboxes soon. Users can receive these images via email or by accessing their online dashboard at informeddelivery.usps.com.

While the USPS first started testing the free service more than a year ago, it’s finally rolling out (almost) nationwide for residential addresses. Now it’s available in almost every major metropolitan area, and soon Informed Delivery will be available in most of the remaining ZIP Codes covering the U.S.

While you still won’t be able to see the inside of your mail until it arrives, it should be helpful to know if an important letter is being delivered today or not. From a personal privacy viewpoint it is also important to be aware that a photograph of the outside of all envelopes (likely 1st Class Mail) delivered to your address is contained in the records of the scanning machines at the mail processing center that services your address, and now in the e-mail and web-site records used by "Informed Delivery".

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

Military personnel deployed to a combat area, their supporting contractors overseas, government civilian employees overseas, non-government organizations (NGOs), journalists working on international stories, businesses attempting to establish a foothold in developing countries, and individual travelers to remote areas of the world can all find themselves in hostile and non-permissive environments. This guide covers a broad range of subjects that are intended to aid individuals, living and working in dangerous areas, in being safer in their daily lives and in being better able to protect themselves and survive in case of an emergency, disaster, or hostile action.



Google’s Cyber Unit Jigsaw Introduces Intra - Secure DNS Access

Jigsaw, the division owned by Google  parent Alphabet, has revealed Intra, a new app aimed at protecting users from state-sponsored censorship.

Intra is a new app that aims to prevent DNS manipulation attacks. Whenever you visit a website, the easy-to-remember web address is converted to a less-than-memorable IP address — often over an unsecured connection. That makes it easy for oppressive governments — like Turkey, which has used this technique before — to intercept web addresses requests and either kill them in their tracks to stop sites from loading, or redirect to a fake site.

By passing all your browsing queries and app traffic through an encrypted connection to a trusted Domain Name Server, Intra says it ensures you can use your app without meddling or get to the right site without interference. The app uses Google’s own trusted DNS server by default, but users can also funnel their browsing requests through Cloudflare,  which also hosts its own publicly accessible secure DNS server, or any other secure DNS server.

Jigsaw has already seen some successes in parts of the world where internet access is restricted or monitored. The government in Venezuela reportedly used DNS manipulation to prevent citizens from accessing news sites and social networks.  (TechCrunch, October 3, 2018)

Motel 6 Agrees To Pay Millions After Giving Guest Lists To ICE

According to NPR (November 6, 2018) the hotel chain Motel 6 has agreed to pay $7.6 million to settle a class-action lawsuit after multiple Motel 6 locations gave guest lists to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.  Sharing those lists led to arrests and deportations of an as-yet-unknown number of hotel guests.

Officials in Washington state said that six Motel 6 locations in the Puget Sound region admitted to the guest-list sharing practice, which violates consumer protection laws. "The hotel turned over the guest list of everybody staying at the hotel. So thousands of individuals had their names turned over to ICE," Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson told NPR in January.

"And according to our interviews with employees at Motel 6, ICE agents would circle the names that looked Latino-sounding and ran those names through a database and then would detain individuals based on those random checks."

Washington state filed a lawsuit against Motel 6 that is still pending.
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So, if you stayed at a Motel 6 your registration information was provided to Federal Agents, and if your name sounded Hispanic you were subjected to an investigation by ICE to determine your status. Should law enforcement be able to run checks on a person just because of the possible origin of their name? 

 

  

 

 

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

Military personnel deployed to a combat area, their supporting contractors overseas, government civilian employees overseas, non-government organizations (NGOs), journalists working on international stories, businesses attempting to establish a foothold in developing countries, and individual travelers to remote areas of the world can all find themselves in hostile and non-permissive environments. This guide covers a broad range of subjects that are intended to aid individuals, living and working in dangerous areas, in being safer in their daily lives and in being better able to protect themselves and survive in case of an emergency, disaster, or hostile action.

 

Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting Suspect - Robert Bowers

Both CNN and the New York Times (along with other media sources) have published profiles of Robert Bowers, the man who killed at least 11 people in and around the Tree of Life synagogue, in Pittsburgh, PA.

What is being reported is that Mr. Bowers had a commercial driver's license (CDL), had no criminal history and was not known to law enforcement, owned a few guns and had a concealed carry permit.

Mr. Bowers posted frequently on-line, expressing a dislike / hatred for Jews and a dislike for President Trump and polices of the current administration.

There can be no sympathy, no possible justification, for Mr. Bowers' actions. But we must recognize that there is a growing schism of hate in the United States. People do not just snap, but have events in their lives over time that lead them to commit these atrocities.

What events, real or imagined, led Mr. Bowers to become a mass-murderer? We don't yet know, and perhaps we will never know. But we can be almost certain that there are others who feel hate towards others and are moving ever closer to the next atrocity in our communities.

Another Soldier Death on JBLM

According to the Tacoma News Tribune (November 5, 2018) a Soldier assigned to the 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 7th Infantry Division was killed in training incident on Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

“There was an incident that occurred out in a training area, where a soldier did indeed unfortunately lose his life,” 7th Infantry Division spokesman Lt. Col. Roger Cabiness told The News Tribune.

Spc. Drew Watters, 23, of Evansville, Indiana, died on Sunday, but no other details about his death have been given.. The incident is under investigation.
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There seems to have been a large number of JBLM Soldier deaths over the past few months. Our thoughts and prayers for the family of Spc. Watters and the other JBLM Soldiers who have recently died.

3 Children Killed at School Bus Stop

Alyssa Shepherd, 24, has been charged with three counts of reckless homicide and one count of passing a school bus causing injury. Three children died last week after a Shepherd hit them while they crossed a highway to their school bus. She says she didn't recognize it was a school bus until it was too late. (KOMO 4 News, November 5, 2018)
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Passing stopped school buses is all too common, and tragically results in the death or injury of children getting to or from their bus.

There can be no excuse for passing a stopped school bus, but it does happen. In another example, just a few days ago, a 7-year-old boy was killed at school bus stop in Pennsylvania by hit-and-run driver.

To improve the safety of children at school bus stops, we need to re-think these school bus stop locations. Rather than have school buses stop at every driveway along a road, school bus stops should be consolidated in areas where the bus can pull safely off the road, protecting the children as they load and unload the bus.

It simply is not safe for children to cross the street at every driveway to board school buses. Yes, drivers are supposed to stop for school buses, but they don't always do so.

 

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

 

Military personnel deployed to a combat area, their supporting contractors overseas, government civilian employees overseas, non-government organizations (NGOs), journalists working on international stories, businesses attempting to establish a foothold in developing countries, and individual travelers to remote areas of the world can all find themselves in hostile and non-permissive environments. This guide covers a broad range of subjects that are intended to aid individuals, living and working in dangerous areas, in being safer in their daily lives and in being better able to protect themselves and survive in case of an emergency, disaster, or hostile action.

 

 

 

Counterintelligence (CI) Awareness

The Counterintelligence (CI) Awareness Program's purpose is to make DoD and Industry Security personnel aware of their responsibility to report unusual activities or behaviors and various threats from foreign intelligence entities, other illicit collectors of US defense information, and/or terrorists.
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Defeating the Bulletproof Vest

An article in The National Interest (May 5, 2018) 5 Ways to Get a Bullet through a 'Bulletproof' Vest discussed ways of defeating body armor. Modern concealable body armor ("bulletproof vests") are very effective at stopping bullets fired from handguns from penetrating them, but this does not mean that an adversary wearing concealable body armor can't be defeated.

One recommendation is to shoot for the pelvic region. While I do agree that the pelvis is a viable target, it must be understood that there are no organs or structures inside the area commonly known as the pelvic region that are responsible for Central Nervous System function. To medically stop a threat, we need to incapacitate them.  Incapacitation of the human body occurs in one of two ways, destructive trauma to the central nervous system which results in life function/consciousness failure or significant blood loss that leads to life function/consciousness failure.

To immobilize a threat we have to sever or collapse a load bearing structure, shatter bone and injure supporting muscle groups to the point that the threat is unable to stand and/or move. Can a bullet shatter bone?  Absolutely if bone is struck it can break and shatter bone, but this is far from guaranteed (it’s also likely the bullet will punch through the pelvic bone without shattering it). Can a bullet destroy a muscle's ability to operate?  Absolutely, in fact this is more likely than bone destruction, though of the two, bone destruction is more likely to cause immobilization.

Heavier bullets, .45ACP, 10mm, .44 Magnum will be more effective than 9mm, .38 Spcl, when making pelvic region shots.

The Mozambique Drill has a shooter fire two shots center of mass on a target and follow up with a shot to the head. This is an excellent drill to practice. Make it a habit to follow up each of your shooting strings with a head shot.

Note too that while concealable body armor protects the front and back of the wearer, the sides may be unarmored, and there is no ballistic armor in the armpit area.

Ballistic armor can often be defeated with non-firearm weapons such as crossbows. Although, heavier soft armor and hard plates can defeat bolts and arrows as well.

So, if you find yourself in a gunfight against someone wearing concealable body armor, your handgun bullets are unlikely to penetrate the armor, but you can defeat the armor by focusing your shots on the head and the pelvis.

 

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

 



Military personnel deployed to a combat area, their supporting contractors overseas, government civilian employees overseas, non-government organizations (NGOs), journalists working on international stories, businesses attempting to establish a foothold in developing countries, and individual travelers to remote areas of the world can all find themselves in hostile and non-permissive environments. This guide covers a broad range of subjects that are intended to aid individuals, living and working in dangerous areas, in being safer in their daily lives and in being better able to protect themselves and survive in case of an emergency, disaster, or hostile action.

Law Enforcement Failed to See the Threat of White Nationalism

New York Times Magazine (November 3, 2018) has published a new article on White Nationalism in the United States.

Data compiled by the University of Maryland’s Global Terrorism Database shows that the number of terror-related incidents has more than tripled in the United States since 2013, and the number of those killed has quadrupled. In 2017, there were 65 incidents totaling 95 deaths. In a recent analysis of the data by the news site Quartz, roughly 60 percent of those incidents were driven by racist, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic, antigovernment or other right-wing ideologies. Left-wing ideologies, like radical environmentalism, were responsible for 11 attacks. Muslim extremists committed just seven attacks.

 According to a recent report by the nonpartisan Stimson Center, between 2002 and 2017, the United States spent $2.8 trillion — 16 percent of the overall federal budget — on counterterrorism. Terrorist attacks by Muslim extremists killed 100 people in the United States during that time. Between 2008 and 2017, domestic extremists killed 387 in the United States, according to the 2018 Anti-Defamation League report.
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White Nationalism is a significant concern, but one that is too often ignored.

Groups like Atomwaffen are recruiting on our military installations and are active in our community.

White Nationalists hold conventions in our cities.

The challenge faced by law enforcement is how to identify and prevent criminal activity while at the same time protecting the rights of free speech and assembly. Mass surveillance is not the answer, but neither is turning a blind eye to White Nationalists recruiting members on our military installations.

That Sign Telling You How Fast You’re Driving May Be Spying On You

The next time you drive past one of those road signs with a digital readout showing how fast you’re going, don’t simply assume it’s there to remind you not to speed. It may actually be capturing your license plate data.

According to recently released US federal contracting data, the Drug Enforcement Administration will be expanding the footprint of its nationwide surveillance network with the purchase of “multiple” trailer-mounted speed displays “to be retrofitted as mobile LPR [License Plate Reader] platforms.”

The DEA launched its National License Plate Reader Program in 2008; it was publicly revealed for the first time during a congressional hearing four years after that. The DEA’s most recent budget describes the program as “a federation of independent federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement license plate readers linked into a cooperative system, designed to enhance the ability of law enforcement agencies to interdict drug traffickers, money launderers or other criminal activities on high drug and money trafficking corridors and other public roadways throughout the U.S.,” primarily along the southwest border region, and the country’s northeast and southeast corridors.

“License plate readers are inherently a form of mass surveillance,” investigative researcher Dave Maass of the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation told Quartz. “You look at something like a wiretap and most of the time it’s looking for a specific person and capturing specific conversations with that person. But here they are collecting information on everybody, not all of whom have been accused of a crime, in case they may one day commit a crime. This is un-American.”

The DEA does not release how much of the data it collects is connected to crimes. The nonprofit American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland found that only 47 out of every 1 million plates scanned by police in the state, or 0.005%, were linked to a serious crime. The Atlanta PD captured data from 128.5 million license plates last year; 786,580 of those—0.6%—were suspected of having a connection to a crime. Of 22 million license plates recorded in Austin, Texas during that same period, 3,200 of them—0.01%—were linked to alleged criminal activity.

Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, told Quartz he thinks it’s wrong for the government to arbitrarily collect such a broad swath of data in the first place. Holding onto it for future analysis only makes things worse, he said.

However, the law enforcement community at large argues that none of this data is being used to spy on everyday Americans.

“We don’t know when somebody’s going to commit a crime, we don’t know when somebody’s going to run over somebody and take off,” said Joe Giacalone. “So that data should be there forever. We never know when we’re going to need it.”

Kabrina Chang, a professor of law and ethics at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business told Quartz, “We as a society have to think long and hard about the consequences. I don’t think anyone would begrudge law enforcement help in doing their jobs; we all want them to do their jobs really, really well. But what are we willing to give up?”  (Quartz, October 1, 2018)
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This type of mass surveillance is extremely concerning. When only a small fraction of a percent of the data collected by the government (with LPR) is linked to a serious crime we have to ask whether the collection of such data should be continued.