Friday, February 8, 2008

Nightwatch Is Alive and Well in the U.S.A.

In continuing on with the Babylon 5 theme, if you watched the show, you may recall an organization called "Nightwatch." It was basically a group of domestic spies, recruited to spy on their neighbors and also to be a paramilitary organization to be used by the government.

It seems that the FBI has its own version of Nightwatch. Except they call it InfraGuard. They are a network of snoops who spy on their neighbors and report "suspicious acts" to the FBI. There are over 23,000 of them. According the article here, to join Nightwatch IfraGuard, you have to be "sponsored" by someone who has already been initiated into the secret society and the prospective member then gets "vetted" by the FBI.

Note the statement by at least four members of InfraGuard that in the event that the Baboon King declares martial law, InfraGuard members will be permitted to use deadly force whenever they see fit. Without fear of consequences.

We are morphing into a surveillance society like East Germany, without any discussion. This is some scary shit and it needs to be dragged out into the sunlight for some disinfection.

(CORRECTION: It is InfraGard, like some shitty-ass deodorant or automotive wax. )

(H/T to the Agonist)
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5 comments:

  1. BobG2/08/2008 9:12 PM

    Nothing new there; they had the same sort of thing under Woodrow Wilson.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Comrade Misfit2/08/2008 9:30 PM

    Under Wilson, it was made a crime to merely utter any comments about whacking the president. Wilson's administration also threw people into prison for long periods of time for dissent. It was a black time for American liberty.

    To be fair, the shame for the current iteration of Nightwatch is in large measure laid at the feet of Bill Clinton.

    ReplyDelete
  3. BobG2/09/2008 6:19 PM

    I think just about every administration has had it's secret police types.
    The wire tapping and such right now under the "Patriot" Act is just a step up from the Carnivore program.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ghost2/09/2008 9:52 PM

    You actually give them too much credit for spelling. They spell guard as gard because, in the same vein as crappy products advertised during daytime TV, purposely misspelling raises its hip and coolness level!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Comrade Misfit2/09/2008 10:04 PM

    You actually give them too much credit for spelling.

    What can I say, I went to decent public schools.

    ReplyDelete

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