Police-type lights were flashing blue and red in the sky over downtown Albany Thursday. On a bike ride Thursday night, I saw them from blocks away. What was going on?
July 1 is an important date not only because Oregon now allows the “recreational” use of marijuana but because it also is a milestone on the road to total surveillance. So far this surveillance covers only volunteers. But in 10 or 20 years, I doubt escape will be possible for any of us still around.
For less than a hundred bucks you can put a bracelet on our wrist that “tracks everyday activity,” downloads readings to your computer and thus, presumably, makes it available to anyone with the right technology. It’s another slip down the increasingly steep slope toward the total surveillance society. And it’s not being forced on us […]
Revelations about the vast extent of surveillance by the National Security Agency drive home one point that’s been made many times but deserves to be made again. When we engage in electronic communication, we cannot count on privacy. In fact, if the communication is sensitive or could be embarrassing, we should expect that its confidentiality […]
Sometimes you wonder whether our top spy officials know what they are doing. Or if they know how bad they sound when they say some of the things they say. For example, take James Clapper, the director of national intelligence. The other day Clapper was testifying before Congress. According to the Associated Press, he as much as […]
It’s hard for me to see how our liberty is endangered by the National Security Agency’s collecting of telephone and Internet records. Much of the complaining about this, it seems to me, is overly theatrical and even hypocritical. The way the program has been explained, it does not sound like true surveillance to me. Nobody […]
Ahout this observation post, city has answers
I had some questions about the surveillance trailer set up at Broadalbin Street and Second Avenue downtown, the subject of last night’s story. The answers came today from Chuck Perino, the City of Albany emergency manager and safety officer. As I had guessed, the observation trailer was set up in advance of the downtown Albany […]
Tags: Albany emergency management, downtown bock party, events and festivals, Homeland Security, observation trailer, surveillance, terrorism