"Imagine a World Full of Drones"

Recommended Reading

February 20, 2011 "Do cameras stop crime?"
February 22, 2012 "Despite Being The Most Watched City In The World, London Is No Safer For All Its CCTV"
March 15, 2012 "President Obama Signs 'Anti-Protest' Bill H.R. 347"
May 14, 2012 "Bomb Plot Raises Questions About Airport Security"
May 17, 2012 "London's Amazingly Explicit Surveillance State Mascot For The 2012 Olympics Has a Huge Camera Eye That 'Records Everything'"
June 24, 2012 "A Cruel and Unusual Record"
June 29, 2012 "A New Standard for Oxymoronic Newspeak"
July 2, 2012 "Striking Back at Drone Attacks"
July 5, 2012 "The Military Solution: The Lessons Washington Can't Draw From the Failure of the Military Option"
July 8, 2012 "Wireless Firms Are Flooded by Requests to Aid Surveillance"
July 9, 2012 "The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama"
July 10, 2012 "White House order on emergency communications riles privacy group"
July 11, 2012 "Making Obama's Kill List"
July 16, 2012 "Obama's 'Global Jail' in Afghanistan"
July 16, 2012 "TSA Fails to Comply With Year-Old 'Nude' Body-Scanner Court Order"
July 18, 2012 "Senator questions Facebook exec about facial-recognition feature"
July 18, 2012 "Personal info tapped with an app"
July 19, 2012 "That Makes No Sense!: Your Security's a Joke (and You're the Butt of It)"
July 23, 2012 "The Public Is Left in the Dark When Courts Allow Electronic Surveillance"
July 24, 2012 "Millions of Americans now fall within government's digital dragnet"
July 25, 2012 "NYPD 'consistently violated basic rights' during Occupy protests - study"
July 27, 2012 "Don't believe the Skype: it may not be as private as you might think"
July 29, 2012 "Former NSA Official Disputes Claims by NSA Chief"
July 29, 2012 "Police Shootings Echo Nationwide: Aurora Gets the Attention, But Guns Are Going Off Everywhere"
July 31, 2012 "Congress Wants to See Obama's 'License to Kill'"
August 1, 2012 "F-15s scrambled as United flight diverts on unclaimed camera"
August 9, 2012 "US Attorneys Refuse to Assure Judge That They Are Not Already Detaining Citizens Under NDAA"
August 14, 2012 "Nobel Laureates Protest NBC's Warmongering Reality Show"
August 22, 2012 "The National Security Agency's Domestic Spying Program"
August 22, 2012 "Giving In to the Surveillance State"
August 23, 2012 "NYPD: Muslims' Conversations About Anti-Muslim Bias Justify Spying on Muslims"
August 29, 2012 "All the Pentagon's Lawyers"
September 4, 2012 "Democrats Retreat on Civil Liberties in 2012 Platform"
September 6, 2012 "Obama Finally Talks Drone War, But It's Almost Impossible to Believe Him"
September 6, 2012 "Dumb and Dumber: Obama's 'Smart Power' Foreign Policy Not Smart at All"
September 7, 2012 "Big Brother In Your Car"
September 10, 2012 "9/11 at 11: the lost United States of 10 September 2001"
September 11, 2012 "The Persecution of John Kiriakou: Torture and the Myth of Never Again"
September 11, 2012 "Another Guantanamo prisoner death highlights Democrats' hypocrisy"
September 13, 2012 "Monopolizing War?: What America Knows How to Do Best"
September 13, 2012 "How the Gov't Talks About a Drone Program it Won't Acknowledge Exists"
September 17, 2012 "The Bush Administration's Oft-Repeated (and Now Challenged) Waterboarding Claims"
September 19, 2012 "Drone warfare's deadly civilian toll: a very personal view"
September 21-23, 2012 "Medical Professionals Who Torture"
September 25, 2012 "New Standford/NYU study documents the civilian terror from Obama's drones"
September 26, 2012 "Our Bipartisan Apathy Toward Civilian Drone Deaths"
September 27, 2012 "New Justice Department Documents Show Huge Increase in Warrantless Electronic Surveillance"
September 30, 2012 "Obama risks handing 'loaded gun' drone programme to Romney"
October 1, 2012 "Supreme Court Dismisses Airport Scanners Challenge"
October 3, 2012 "Inside Pakistan's drone country"
October 4, 2012 "Gitmo Detainee's Body Being Held in Secure, Undisclosed Location"
October 7, 2012 "Overwrought Empire: The Discrediting of U.S. Military Power"
October 10, 2012 "Still Classified: Terror Suspects' Own Accounts of Their Abuse"
October 18, 2012 "Groups Fault Boston Police For Surveillance"

Mission Statement

If any article sums up the philosophy of this blog and my feelings about the War on Terror, it's this excellent one by Spencer Ackerman, published on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. It's called "How to Beat Terrorism: Refuse to Be Terrorized."

Ten years ago today, 2,996 people were murdered, unleashing a pair of destructive, mutually reinforcing trends. To prove their relevance, terrorists keep trying to attack the United States at home. And the media and politicians react to it with hysteria, running in fear of getting blamed for a successful attack and perpetuating the gigantic, expensive, counterproductive National Security State. As awful as the snuffing of so many souls on 9/11 was, the second trend has often proved more dangerous than the first.

In case you haven't noticed, hysteria is what the terrorists want. In fact, it's the only win a decapitated, weakened al-Qaida can get these days. The only hope that these eschatological conspiracy theorists possess for success lies in compelling the U.S. to spend its way into oblivion and pursue ill-conceived wars. That's how Osama bin Laden transforms from a cave-dwelling psycho into a world-historical figure--not because of what he was, but because of how we reacted to him.

And that points to the only way out of a trap that's lasted a decade. It has nothing to do with national security and everything to do with politics. The U.S. has to embrace the reality that terrorism is not anything remotely like the existential threat we make it out to be. We can honor those 2,996 without being permanently haunted by them.

Another great article, written by David Shipler and published just a few days before Ackerman's, includes a lot of specific details and historical context.

"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree," James Madison told the Constitutional Convention. We should depend not on officials' goodwill, he was saying, but on a system of restraints. This is what the Patriot Act has damaged, alarming those who believe with Madison that government will do whatever it is allowed to do....

The erosions of constitutional rights have to be clear and obvious enough to mobilize the public. Violations committed in secret are hard to get mad about, especially when you're scanned, frisked, and searched whenever you get on a plane. We mutter complaints, then go along because we are persuaded that we have to relinquish privacy and dignity for security. This sets us up to accept other intimate intrusions. Once people let their bodies be probed and patted and rendered naked by the TSA, they have trouble generating outrage when their bank accounts, e-mails, and phone records are examined by the NSA--especially since they don't know it's happening.

I especially like this: "Having an open society entails some risk. Perfect security, after all, is an aspiration of the police state."

Big Brother Comes to Boston

August 31, 2012

Paul MacMillan
Chief of Police
MBTA Transit Police Department

Dear Police Chief MacMillan:

I'm writing to complain about the new surveillance cameras on the MBTA and to protest against their extension to commuter rail cars, subway cars, and buses. These cameras are an unnecessary and offensive invasion of the privacy of law-abiding passengers.

I have used the MBTA to commute to work five days a week for the last nine years and have had to contend with daily delays, broken-down trains, overstuffed cars, fare increases, rude employees, and every other imaginable frustration. The situation has only gotten worse each year. If the T truly cared about its customers, it would work to improve these basic operations. Instead, it wastes our money on random bag searches, Big Brother surveillance cameras, and "See Something, Say Something" campaigns--little more than security theater designed to address problems that don't actually exist. The empirical data does not support the need for or the effectiveness of these measures. (I will discuss the data in a moment.)

Until last month, I was still willing to cut the MBTA some slack. It is a frustrating but nevertheless convenient way to get to work every day. However, the new cameras are the final push I needed. I will be buying a bicycle and will not give any more money to the T until the cameras are removed.

Why does the MBTA feel these cameras are necessary? The Boston subway has been operating for 115 years without them, a full 11 of those years after 9/11. Are we supposed to believe that now the subway has become so dangerous as to require the constant surveillance of one million innocent people every day? It's telling, I think, that the cameras were installed so surreptitiously, without input from the public. Maybe the T knew the move would be unpopular.

Actually, I don't doubt that I'm in the minority and that most of your customers consent to being monitored and recorded. That's because they've been convinced that 1) they are in imminent danger, and 2) surveillance cameras will keep them safe. But neither of these things is true.

Let's look at the data. My objections to the cameras (aside from the creepy voyeurism) are twofold:

1. Riding the MBTA is, for the most part, perfectly safe, therefore the cameras are unnecessary.
2. Security cameras do nothing to reduce crime (not to mention terrorism), therefore the cameras are ineffective.

To address the first point, I consulted the statistics on your very own website. According to Transit Police reports, in 2010, there were 602 larcenies, 226 robberies, 121 aggravated assaults, 32 vehicle thefts, etc., with the worst crimes, murder and rape, at one each. Larcenies went up a little in 2011, but the other crime rates held steady. Across the entire MBTA transportation system! This does not constitute a crime wave, and to claim otherwise is fearmongering and alarmism. Other crimes, including trespassing, disorderly conduct, vandalism, etc., are also comparatively rare, no more frequent on T property than anywhere else in Boston. As for fare evasion--by far the most common offense, at 3,246 incidents in 2010 and 3,536 in 2011--there are simple and cost-effective solutions that do not involve spying on passengers: for example, better training for T staff and more employees stationed at turnstiles. Instead, the Transit Police, like the TSA, apparently believe that if they can just institute enough expensive and intrusive security measures, they can get those numbers down to zero. But perfect security is impossible, and we have to decide where to draw the line. Will the T be installing full-body scanners next?

I calculate that I've ridden the subway approximately 5,000 times in the nine years I've lived in Boston. In all that time, I've never been so much as robbed. And now, the T says, my commute just isn't safe enough and cameras will make it even safer--that is, in the very unlikely possibility that, say, sometime during the next 5,000 rides, I am the victim of a crime, and on the off chance that crime is caught on tape and the perpetrator is visible and identifiable. All I have to do is consent to being monitored and recorded each of the other 4,999 times. Unlike my fellow passengers, that's not a trade-off I'm willing to make.

As for my second objection, the Surveillance Studies Centre and many other groups have shown that surveillance cameras do nothing to deter crime. And the idea that these cameras and bag searches will deter terrorists--individuals by definition willing to murder numbers of innocent people, not to mention themselves--is too ludicrous to need refuting. Of course, the T has never, in all of its 115 years, been the target of a terrorist attack or even, as far as I know, a terrorist threat. But why let facts get in the way?

So, as long as the cameras were installed without public input, how about a little transparency now? What happens to the video footage? How long is it stored? Who will have access to it? Have any specific policies been put in place to protect the privacy of passengers? Will the MBTA be releasing more humiliating footage to the local news of disabled people falling down escalators, as it did last month? If I have no expectation of privacy on the subway, do I at least have an expectation that a video of me, taken against my will, won't end up going viral on YouTube?

The MBTA likes to pretend that commuters have a choice about riding the subway, but this argument is disingenuous. In fact, there are very few options for those of us who can't afford a car or an apartment downtown. And with ridership at record highs, the T certainly won't miss one passenger. But I felt compelled to write this letter and voice my concerns, even if it changes nothing. I'm just sorry the MBTA has decided to sell out our privacy for millions of dollars in federal grant money.

Thank you for your time.

Thank You, Cenk!

Recommended Reading

January 24, 2012 "TSA: Fail"
February 2012 "2013 Federal Budget Limits Body Scanners, But Expands Domestic Surveillance"
February 2, 2012 "U.S. Press Freedom Fell 27 Places Last Year to 47th in the World"
February 9, 2012 "Silent State: The Campaign Against Whistleblowers in Washington"
February 23, 2012 "Groups Protest CIA's Covert Attack on Public Access"
March 5, 2012 "A Broken Writ, a Kangaroo Court"
March 6, 2012 "How To Get Anything Through TSA Nude Body Scanners"
March 9, 2012 "Sealing Loose Lips: Charting Obama's Crackdown on Leaks"
March 23, 2012 "Documents Show NYPD Spied on Liberal Political Groups"
April 19, 2012 "FAA Releases Lists of Drone Certificates--Many Questions Left Unanswered"
April 26, 2012 "Is CISPA SOPA 2.0? We Explain the Cybersecurity Bill"
April 28, 2012 "You Are All Suspects Now. What Are You Going to Do About It?"
April 29, 2012 "The Obama Contradiction: Weakling at Home, Imperial President Abroad"
April 30, 2012 "What happens when government is no longer by the people"
April 30, 2012 "Imperialism didn't end. These days it's known as international law"
May 1, 2012 "Since bin Laden's death"
May 1, 2012 "Osama bin Laden's death has had zero impact on America's security"
May 2, 2012 "Police Warrant Squads Were Used to Monitor Wall Street Protestors, Suspects Say"
May 2, 2012 "Police Adapts Tactics, Use 'Snatch and Grab' Arrests During May Day"
May 2, 2012 "Violence, USA: The Warfare State and the Brutalizing of Everyday Life"
May 4, 2012 "The real threats the government ignores"
May 4, 2012 "TSA Reveals Passenger Complaints ... Four Years Later"
May 4, 2012 "FBI: We need wiretap-ready Web sites - now"
May 6, 2012 "Fareed's Take: U.S. has made war on terror a war without end"
May 7, 2012 "Media silent when administration targets sources"
May 8, 2012 "The Trouble with Profiling"
May 9, 2012 "An Enduring Condition: On War Time"
May 10, 2012 "Obama's predilection for military force"
May 10, 2012 "Timeline: How Obama Compares to Bush on Torture, Surveillance and Detention"
May 11, 2012 "Americans want to slash defense spending, but Washington isn't listening"
May 15, 2012 "The National Security State Wins (Again): Why the Real Victor in Campaign 2012 Won't Be Obama or Romney"
May 15, 2012 "How FBI Entrapment Is Inventing 'Terrorists' - and Letting Bad Guys Off the Hook"
May 16, 2012 "Ninth Circuit Presses Government Lawyer on Watch Lists: 'What Would You Do?'"
May 18, 2012 "Congressmen Seek To Lift Propaganda Ban"
May 20, 2012 "Welcome, Nato, to Chicago's police state"
May 22, 2012 "FBI quietly forms secretive Net-surveillance unit"
June 6, 2012 "Muslims sue to stop NYPD spying program"
June 8, 2012 "The War on Whistleblowers"
June 10, 2012 "Daniel Klaidman's love affair with drones"
June 11, 2012 "Obama's drone wars and the normalisation of extrajudicial murder"
June 13, 2012 "U.S. drones deeply unpopular around the world"
June 13, 2012 "U.S. expands secret intelligence operations in Africa"
June 18, 2012 "NSA: It Would Violate Your Privacy to Say if We Spied on You"
June 19, 2012 "House Committee Approves Sweeping, Warrantless Electronic Spy Powers"
June 21, 2012 "Poland shaken by case alleging an illicit CIA prison there"
June 21, 2012 "Obama Administration: It's Totally Possible a Yemeni Drone Killed Anwar al-Awlaki"
June 21, 2012 "Drone strikes threaten 50 years of international law, says UN rapporteur"
July 11, 2012 "How Many Millions of Cellphones Are Police Watching?"
June 13, 2012 "That's No Phone. That's My Tracker"
July 13, 2012 "White House gives Homeland Security control of all communications systems"
July 17, 2012 "MBTA adding thousands of security cameras, thanks to federal grants"

Recommended Reading: Drones Edition

March 1, 2012 "How Obama's drone war is backfiring"
April 16, 2012 "The Rise of the Killer Drones: How America Goes to War in Secret"
May 1, 2012 "'Targeted Killing' Policy Disregards Human Rights Law"
May 2, 2012 "Why the Obama Administration's Drone War May Soon Reach a Tipping Point"
May 11, 2012 "Why is the New York Times enabling a U.S. government smear campaign against reporters exposing the drone wars?"
May 13, 2012 "America as a Shining Drone Upon a Hill: On Staring Death in the Face and Not Noticing"
May 21, 2012 "Drones, missiles and gunships: Welcome to the 2012 London Olympics"
May 22, 2012 "Drones' new weapon: P.R."
May 29, 2012 "Under Obama, Men Killed by Drones Are Presumed to Be Terrorists"
May 29, 2012 "Obama set to arm Italy's drones in milestone move"
May 29, 2012 "America's murderous drone campaign is fuelling terror"
May 30, 2012 "How Obama is helping al Qaeda"
June 2, 2012 "Journalism in the service of killing"
June 2, 2012 "We are sleepwalking into the Drone Age, unaware of the consequences"
June 5, 2012 "Praying at the Church of St. Drone: The President and His Apostles"
June 6, 2012 "U.S. Attacks, Online and From the Air, Fuel Secrecy Debate"
June 8, 2012 "What We Misunderstand About Drones"