As the Defense Budget Soars, Billions of Dollars are Channelled Offshore to Avoid Paying Taxes
By Tom Burghardt
Global Research | The Obama administration is seeking to increase the obscenely bloated U.S. Defense Department budget to a whopping $708 billion for fiscal year 2011, 3.4% above 2010's record level, The Wall Street Journal reported.
While the overall budget deficit will balloon to a staggering $1.6 trillion in 2011, the result of massive tax cuts for the rich, declining revenues, a by-product of capitalism's economic meltdown, imperial adventures abroad and general corporate malfeasance (the old tax-dodge grift), the administration plans to cut $250 billion over three years from non-military "discretionary spending" on domestic social programs.
However, as the World Socialist Web Site points out: "President Barack Obama has done nothing to reverse decades of wage stagnation, mounting poverty, and attacks on the social welfare system. On the contrary, following George W. Bush, he has seized on the crisis to redistribute wealth to a tiny financial elite through the ongoing bailout of the finance industry."
It is no small irony that despite stark budget figures and an even bleaker future for the American working class, Washington Technology reported January 28 that the "29 largest publicly traded defense contractors increased their use of offshore subsidiaries by 26 percent from 2003 to 2008."
Citing reports by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), journalist Alice Lipowicz disclosed that the "subsidiaries helped the contractors reduce taxes, in part by avoiding Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes for U.S. workers hired at the foreign subsidiaries."
Considering that the Pentagon hands out some $396 billion annually to contractors, outsourcing everything from "in theatre" construction in places like Afghanistan and Iraq to pricey "intelligence analysts" at secret state agencies, cash not spent on payroll taxes by dodgy firms slices another hole into the already-shredded social safety net.
Amongst the largest firms cited in GAO's 2008 report, updated in January 2010, Oracle Corp., operates in 77 tax havens; Boeing Co., 38; Dell Inc., 29; BearingPoint Inc., 28; Computer Sciences Corp., 21; Fluor Corp., 34; General Dynamics, 5; Harris Corp., 13; Hewlett-Packard, 14; Honeywell International, 7; ITT Corp., 18; L-3 Communications, 15; Sprint Nextel, 7.
Many of the firms are heavily-leveraged in the lucrative "homeland security" market and provide technology and "cleared" intelligence analysts, many of whom jumped ship from government service for richer, if more dubious employment, to a host of secret state agencies including the CIA, DIA, NSA as well as ultra-secretive outfits engaged in global satellite surveillance such as the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).
You would think these firms, flush with record profits since the U.S. embarked on its "War on Terror" in 2001, would do something as pedestrian as paying their fair share of taxes or providing benefits to workers, given severe budgetary pressures on domestic programs, dizzying housing foreclosure rates and skyrocketing unemployment.
PC Mag | A handset may be valuable, but it's easily replaced. The data on it, however, is often much more important. Banking passwords, corporate documents and VPN access are better off kept secure.
All of the major smartphone platforms have some kind of remote erase capability. Here's a rundown of what's out there for each platform.
Apple iPhone
Apple's $99-per-year MobileMe lets users perform a remote wipe on a lost or stolen iPhone. It's found under Account -> Find My iPhone -> Remote Wipe. It can also display a message on the phone's screen.
Palm Pre
All Palm Pre owners set up a Palm Profile when first activating their new devices. The Palm Profile lets users remotely erase a lost or stolen handset. To begin, head to palm.com/palmprofile, enter your profile e-mail address and password, and click Erase Device.
BlackBerry OS
Any BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) handset can be erased remotely via the Erase Data and Disable Handheld IT administration command over the wireless network. IT admins can also specify if the handset should revert to factory default settings or retain the IT policy it had before.
Android OS
SMobile Anti-Theft for Android is a $19.95 app that features GPS locate and remote wipe functions for the T-Mobile G1, T-Mobile myTouch 3G, or any other Android-powered smartphone.
Windows Mobile
Microsoft's new My Phone Windows Mobile service, currently in beta, lets users locate lost handhelds via GPS and erase their data remotely. Microsoft Exchange Server can handle the same task for enterprise devices, along with Absolute Software's Computrace Mobile, which can manage enterprise devices running Windows Mobile or BlackBerry and issue remote wipe commands.
The TSA Web site section on imaging technology states that passengers can refuse to go through the full-body scanner, which sees through clothing.
“These technologies are optional for all passengers,” the Web site states. “Passengers who do not wish to utilize this screening receive an equal level of screening and undergo a pat-down procedure.”
Some experts say that scanning technology is not necessarily the “silver bullet” for keeping terrorists armed with explosives from boarding planes.
By Penny Starr
CNS News | The four international airports in Nigeria are equipped with full-body scanners -- the same technology that the United States and other countries are now scrambling to put into place following the attempted bombing of an American airliner on Christmas Day by a Nigerian terrorist.
The scanners were paid for by the United States and installed in 2007, according to the State Department’s 2008 Country Reports on Terrorism.
“The Nigerian government approved the installation of U.S.-funded body scanners in all four international airports to detect explosives and drugs on passengers,” said the report, which is required by U.S. law to be provided to Congress annually. “The scanners were installed in March, May and June. The Nigerian and U.S. governments also co-sponsored a conference on aviation security in Abuja from November 17-18.”
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian national accused of the attack, traveled from Ghana in West Africa, through Lagos, Nigeria, to Amsterdam, Holland, where he boarded a Northwest plane bound for Detroit.
Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport has had the scanning technology in place since 2007, although some reports say Dutch officials will be beefing up security at the airport because of the attempted terrorist attack.
A scanner which produces "naked" images of passengers has started a trial at Manchester Airport.
BBC | The authorities say it will speed up security checks by quickly revealing any concealed weapons or explosives.
But the full body scans will also show up breast enlargements, body piercings and a clear black-and-white outline of passengers' genitals.
The airport has stressed that the images are not pornographic and will be destroyed straight away.
Sarah Barrett, head of customer experience at the airport, said most passengers did not like the traditional "pat down" search.
At Manchester Airport's Terminal 2, where the machine has been introduced, passengers will no longer have to remove their coats, shoes and belts as they go through security checks.
Ms Barrett said: "This scanner completely takes away the hassle of needing to undress."
Ms Barrett said the black-and-white image would only be seen by one officer in a remote location before it was deleted.
"The images are not erotic or pornographic and they cannot be stored or captured in any way," she said.
Passengers could refuse to be scanned, she added.
"Maybe if I was 18, slim and lovely, I'd take it"
The scanners cost £80,000 each. They work by beaming electromagnetic waves on to passengers while they stand in a booth. A virtual three-dimensional image is then created from the reflected energy.
Ms Barrett said the radiation levels were "super safe".
She said: "Passengers can go through this machine 5,000 times a year each without worrying. The amount of radiation transmitted is tiny."
The Department for Transport will decide whether to install them permanently in about a year's time.
The scanners, made by RapiScan Systems, have already been tried at Heathrow Airport from 2004 to 2008.
A BAA Heathrow spokeswoman said the technology had been "very effective" and the airport operator was considering possible wider use of it in the future.
The scanners are being gradually rolled out at airports across the US, after use in Los Angeles and New York.
Researchers say they have created a special kind of paint which can block out wireless signals.
BBC | It means security-conscious wireless users could block their neighbours from being able to access their home network - without having to set up encryption.
The paint contains an aluminium-iron oxide which resonates at the same frequency as wi-fi - or other radio waves - meaning the airborne data is absorbed and blocked.
By coating an entire room, signals can't get in and, crucially, can't get out.
Developed at the University of Tokyo, the paint could cost as little as £10 per kilogram, researchers say.
Cost-effective security
The makers say that for businesses it's a quick and cheap way of preventing access to sensitive data from unauthorised users. Presently, most companies have to invest in complicated encryption software to deter hackers.
Speaking on the BBC World Service's Digital Planet programme, Shin-ichi Ohkoshi, who is leading the project, explained how the paint could have many uses beyond security.
"In a medical setting, you could transmit large volumes of data from a medical device, such as an endoscope, to a computer.
"By painting a solution containing our magnetic particles on the walls, you would quickly, and effectively, shield the room from stray electromagnetic radiation from outside."
While paints blocking lower frequencies have been available for some time, Mr Ohkoshi's technology is the first to absorb frequencies transmitting at 100GHz (gigahertz). Signals carrying a larger amount of data - such as wireless internet - travel at a higher frequency than, for example, FM radio.
"I'm working on a material that can absorb a larger range of frequencies. We are capable of making a paint that can absorb over 200 gigahertz."
He hopes that soon the technology could be woven into clothing.
"We're not sure about the true effects of electromagnetic waves, in this range, on the human body.
"We're assuming that excessive exposure could be bad for us. Therefore we're trying to make protective clothes for young children or pregnant women to help protect their bodies from such waves."
At the movies
The paint could also provide some much-needed relief during nights out at the cinema.
"Our current mobile phones work at much lower frequencies, around 1.5 gigahertz. But, our material can also absorb frequencies that low, so you could block phone signals from outside and stop people's phones ringing during the movie," he said.
As well as helping to keep the cinema quiet, the paint may also pave the way for higher quality screens.
"Movie pictures are beamed on the screen by the projector at the back of the cinema. But in the future, you could use a data link that works with millimetre waves.
"You would have problems with interference, unless you painted the wall and ceiling of the theatre with an absorbent material like ours.
"In fact, we've had an order from an American company keen to use our ink in its movie theatre - we've just sent them a sample."
'Nothing new'
Some security experts remain unconvinced by the paint.
"The use of electromagnetic shielding techniques are nothing new," said Mark Jackson, security engineer at Cisco UK. "They have been utilised by highly sensitive environments for many years."
Mr Jackson notes that while the paint may block eavesdroppers, it would not prevent other types of hackers or intruders.
"Paint that blocks RF based Wi-Fi transmissions does not in any way remove the need to ensure a robust security model is deployed," he added.
"Surely the thought of having to redecorate a building in order to provide Wi-Fi security is more costly & complex than security functionality available in even the cheapest of Wi-Fi access points?" he said.
Raw Story | A Department of Homeland Security program that tries to detect air passengers who are "up to no good" is raising privacy concerns, says a CNN report which aired Tuesday.
CNN's Jeanne Meserve described DHS's Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST) as "marrying a lot of existing technology, some of it medical," to measure breathing, heart rate, blinking, fidgeting, and other bodily functions of passengers at airports.
The idea is essentially to create a remote lie detector, where sensors placed at airport security screening areas would be able to monitor a passenger's physical reaction to questions being asked by screeners.
Critics have likened the concept to the "Department of Pre-Crime" in the 2001 film Minority Report, which describes a future where persons are caught and convicted of crimes before they occur.
Originally entitled Project Hostile Intent, the program was revealed by the science magazine NewScientist in 2007. According to a report at the time in the UK's Guardian, "the new devices are expected to be trialled at a handful of airports, borders and ports of entry by 2012."
As of last year, the program was "running at about 78 percent accuracy on mal-intent detection, and 80 percent on deception," according to DHS science spokesman John Verrico.
The Guardian reported in 2007:
The plans describe how systems based on video cameras, laserlight, infra-red, audio recordings and eye tracking technology are expected to scour crowds looking for unusual behaviour, with the aim of identifying people who should be approached and quizzed by security staff, New Scientist magazine reports.
The project hopes to advance a security system already employed by the US transportation security administration that monitors people for unintentional facial twitches, called "micro-expressions", that can suggest someone is lying or trying to conceal information.
"Questions remain, however, as to how secure the system is. The machines could reveal health conditions like heart murmurs and breathing problems as well as stress levels - which would be an invasion of privacy," NewScientist reported last year.
"It is an invasion of privacy," Jay Stanley, director of public education for the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Program, told CNN. "Nobody has the right to look at my intimate bodily functions, my heart rate, my breathing, from afar."
And, as Meserve noted, "some experts are doubtful the system can distinguish between potential terrorists and people stressed for other reasons, like a late flight."
"There's not much science here," said Stephen Fienberg, professor of statistics and social science at Carnegie Mellon University. "In fact, there may be no science here. And I'm really worried that we're going to carried away by the hype, and there's just nothing here. The emperor may have no clothes."
This video is from CNN's American Morning, broadcast Oct. 6, 2009.
Gothamist | The city will expand the downtown surveillance network commonly referred to as the "Ring of Steel" to midtown, using $24 million in Homeland Security grants. Mayor Bloomberg and NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly announced yesterday that the new "monitoring network" would cover the areas between 30th and 60th Streets, from the Hudson to the East River. Like the system downtown (formally called the "Lower Manhattan Security Initiative"), the expanded surveillance network would feed streams of data for analysis to a coordination center at 55 Broadway.
Bloomberg boasted yesterday that midtown would soon be as safe from terror as the area below Canal Street, which he described as "the best-protected financial center in the world." The midtown security initiative, expected to be in place by 2011, will tap into existing cameras operated by private companies, as well as additional security cameras. The area will also be equipped with license-plate readers and chemical-weapons detectors.
Unsurprisingly, civil liberties advocates are concerned. NYCLU director Donna Lieberman said, "There's no information with regard to who has access to the information, exactly what's being collected, how long it's being kept and whether it's been digitized into a massive database on the innocent and lawful comings and goings of millions of New Yorkers and visitors." New Yorkers on the street also expressed reservations; midtown pedicab driver Yavuz Alemdar told the Daily News, "I'm not going to be able to kiss my girlfriend now. I don't like the idea of being watched all of the time."
Raw Story | A mysterious, reportedly unregistered and almost entirely unknown private security firm by the name "American Police Force" is causing a stir in a small Montana town for apparently impersonating local police.
According to a local media report, APF representatives were recently seen in the tiny town of Hardin, Montana, driving black SUV's with a peculiar logo and, inexplicably, "City of Hardin Police Department" stamped on the door.
However, Hardin does not have a police force.
The town instead contracts with the Big Horn County Sheriff's Department for patrols, according to KULR 8 in Billings, Montana.
According to the news agency, APF was never given permission to assume policing duties. Instead, the firm -- which the Associated Press reported to be unregistered in government databases -- gained its contract with the town on the promise of bringing inmates to an unpopulated prison complex.
An image on KULR's Web site shows the insignia on the APF vehicles, which has caused some concern on the Internet as being of conspiratorial origin.
APF's coat of arms, a clearer version of which appeared on the group's Web site (which had been taken down at time of this writing but is viewable here), shows a double-headed eagle with a red shield and white cross borne on its breast.
The coat appears very similar to the insignia attributed to one Prince Aleksandar Karageorgevich, based on RAW STORY's analysis of images hosted by Burke's Peerage & Gentry International Register of Arms. The site notes the coat as hailing from the Royal crown of Serbia.
However, the significance or implied nationality of the insignia's crown could not immediately be identified.
Hardin, home to about 3,400 people, is in the state’s poorest county. Its unoccupied, 460-bed prison cost $27 million to construct. The town made national headlines earlier this year when local officials pleaded to have Guantanamo Bay inmates sent to the jail.
Montana Democratic Senator Max Baucus and other Republican lawmakers have stood in the way of moving Guantanamo inmates stateside, claiming they would present an increased security risk. The political calculation has led the White House to caution that its promise to close the controversial facility in January may not materialize on schedule.
An Associated Press report on American Police Force, published Sept. 12, 2009, follows.
Montana jail deal raises questions
Questions emerge about company promising to bring inmates to small Montana town
By Matthew Brown
Michael Hilton with American Police Force, a private California security company seeking to take over a $27 million jail in Hardin, stands outside the city offices after meeting with Hardin officials on Friday. Associated Press photo.
AP | The Two Rivers Detention Center was promoted as the largest economic development project in decades in the small town of Hardin when the jail was built two years ago. But it has been vacant ever since.
City officials have searched from Vermont to Alaska for inmate contracts to fill the jail, only to be turned down at every turn and see the bonds that financed its construction fall into default. They even floated the idea of housing prisoners from Guantanamo Bay at the jail.
So when Hardin officials announced this week that they had signed a deal with a California company to fill the empty jail, it was naturally a cause for celebration. Town officials talked about throwing a party to mark the occasion, their dreams of economic salvation a step closer to being realized.
But questions are emerging over the legitimacy of the company, American Police Force.
Government contract databases show no record of the company. Security industry representatives and federal officials said they had never heard of it. On its Web site, the company lists as its headquarters a building in Washington near the White House that holds "virtual offices." A spokeswoman for the building said American Police Force never completed its application to use the address.
And it's unclear where the company will get the inmates for the jail. Montana says it's not sending inmates to the jail, and neither are federal officials in the state.
An attorney for American Police Force, Maziar Mafi, describes the Santa Ana, Calif., company as a fledgling spin-off of a major security firm founded in 1984. But Mafi declined to name the parent firm or provide details on how the company will finance its jail operations.
"It will gradually be more clear as things go along," said Mafi, a personal injury and medical malpractice lawyer in Santa Ana who was only hired by American Police Force a month ago. "The nature of this entity is private security and for security purposes, as well as for the interest of their clientele, that's why they prefer not to be upfront."
On its elaborate Web site and in interviews with company representatives, American Police Force claims to sell assault rifles and other weapons in Afghanistan on behalf of the U.S. military while providing security, investigative work and other services to clients "in all 50 states and most countries."
The company also boasts to have "rapid response units awaiting our orders worldwide" and that it can field a battalion-sized team of special forces soldiers "within 72 hours."
Representatives of American Police Force said the company presently employs at least 16 and as many as 28 people in the United States and 1,600 contractors worldwide.
"APF plays a critical role in helping the U.S. government meet vital homeland security and national defense needs," the company says on its Web site. "Within the last 5 years the United States has been far and away our" number 1 client.
However, an Associated Press search of two comprehensive federal government contractor databases turned up no record of American Police Force.
Representatives of security trade groups said they had never heard of American Police Force, although they added secrecy was prevalent in the industry and it was possible the company had avoided the public limelight.
"They're really invisible," said Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel for the Professional Services Council. The group's members include major security contractors Triple Canopy, DynCorp and Xe Services, formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide.
"Even a single unclassified contract in the last couple of years should show up" in the federal database, Chvotkin added.
Spokesmen for the State Department and Defense Department said they could not immediately find any records of contracts with the company. The city has not released a copy of its agreement with American Police Force. But the deal as announced would be a sweet one for Hardin, a depressed rural town of 3,500 about 45 miles east of Billings.
The company is pledging to fill the 464-bed facility by early next year.
Hardin officials say the first payment on the contract is due Feb. 1 — regardless of whether any prisoners are in place. The city's economic development authority would get enough money to pay off the bondholders and receive $5 per prison a day.
American Police Force also is promising to invest $30 million in new projects for the city, including a military and law enforcement training center with a 250-bed dormitory and an expansion of the jail to 2,000 beds. The company says it will build a homeless shelter, offer free health care for city residents and even deliver meals to the needy.
Where the prisoners would come from is unclear. City officials said California was the most likely possibility, but a spokesman for that state's corrections system said there was no truth to the claim.
Federal prisoners also were mentioned by both American Police Force and the city. U.S. Marshal Dwight MacKay in Billings said he would have been notified if such a plan was pending.
"There's skepticism over whether this is a real thing," MacKay said.
Hardin officials said they were approached by American Police Force about six months ago, soon after the city made international news in its quest to become "America's Gitmo." American Police Force incorporated around the same time.
Albert Peterson, the city's school superintendent and vice president of the authority that built the jail, said the city was "guaranteed" the contract would be upheld.
"There's never a question in my mind after I've done my homework. It's legit," Peterson said of American Police Force. "We believe in each other."
The contract was still being reviewed by the city attorney, he said.
Peterson refused to answer when asked if he knew the name of American Police Force's parent firm. He said news coverage of the city's political tussles with the administration of Gov. Brian Schweitzer had left him suspicious of the press. The administration brought a court challenge over whether Hardin could take out-of-state inmates at the jail.
"If you're looking for the source of the money, you're not going to find it from me," Peterson said.
A member of the Texas consortium that developed the jail, Mike Harling, said he had "every reason to believe they'll be successful."
Mafi, the American Police Force attorney, said his company intends to reverse Hardin's recent problems with the jail and give the town an economic boost.
In Santa Ana, American Police Force occupies a single suite on the second floor of a two-story office building. During a visit to the location Thursday, a reporter for The Associated Press encountered a uniformed man behind a desk who would identify himself only as "Captain Michael."
The man declined to discuss basic details about the company and referred the reporter to the company's Web site. In a subsequent phone interview, he provided his surname but insisted it not be used because of security concerns. The man said he was a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Montenegro with decades of experience in military and law enforcement operations.
The man said his boss is a retired U.S. Army colonel named Richard Culver who is currently overseas. Culver's role with the company could not be immediately verified.
The company claim of a headquarters address is just up the street from the White House.
The K Street building houses "virtual offices," where clients pay to use the prestigious Pennsylvania Avenue address and gain access to onsite conference rooms but have no permanent presence.
"It lets small businesses get started up and have a professional front and not have a lot of a cash to do it," said Ashley Korner with Preferred Offices, which leases the location.
She said American Police Force's application to use the address was pending, but incomplete.
IndyBay | Think of it this way: Chris Paget just did you a service by hacking your passport and stealing your identity. Using a $250 Motorola RFID reader and antenna connected to his laptop, Chris recently drove around San Francisco reading RFID tags from passports, driver licenses, and other identity documents. In just 20 minutes, he found and cloned the passports of two very unaware US citizens. Fortunately, Chris wears a white hat; his video demonstration is meant to raise awareness to what he calls the unsuitability of RFID for tagging people. Specifically, he's hoping to help get the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative -- a homeland security project -- scrapped. Perhaps you'll feel the same after watching his video posted after the break.
Global Security Newswire | U.S. President-elect Barack Obama is expected to enter office in a Jan. 20 ceremony featuring more security than any presidential inauguration in history, the McClatchy News Service reported Friday (see GSN, Dec. 18, 2008; Greg Gordon, McClatchy News Service/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jan. 9).
Obama's new, armored presidential limousine includes an interior completely closed off from the outside environment to protect against a chemical strike, Agence France-Presse reported (Agence France-Presse/Google News, Jan. 8). The vehicle would be followed during the inaugural parade by black vans filled with SWAT teams and counterassault forces, advanced communication systems and electronic scramblers designed to prevent remote-controlled bombs from detonating, McClatchy reported.
Planners are concealing chemical and biological-weapon sensors around the National Mall, where between 2 million and 4 million spectators are expected to gather for the ceremony. Roughly 10,000 law enforcement personnel from more than 100 federal, state and local police agencies are participating in the inauguration's security effort.
There have already been a number of threats against the president-elect. Shortly before the November election, authorities foiled a suspected neo-Nazi plot to assassinate Obama. More recently, an al-Qaeda leader said in a video statement that Obama was responsible for Israel's recent military action in the Gaza Strip.
United States Passport Cards issued by the U.S. Department of State and EDLs (enhanced driver's licenses) from the state of Washington contain RFID tags that can be scanned at border crossings without being handed over to agents. Both were introduced earlier this year for border crossings by land and water only, and can't be used for air travel. New York is the only other U.S. state with an EDL, though others are in the works.
The information in these tags could be copied on to another, off-the-shelf tag, which might be used to impersonate the legitimate holder of the card if a U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents at the border didn't see the card itself, the researchers said. Another danger is that the tags can be read from as far as 150 feet away in some situations, so criminals could read them without being detected. Although the tags don't contain personal information, they could be used to track a person's movements through ongoing surveillance, they said.
Another danger is that hackers could cause EDLs to self-destruct by sending out a certain number, they said.
We just slashed our prices to bare minimum on winter and summer gear at our Cafepress storefront. Most of out T-shirts are $19.99, take advantage of these prices throughout the Spring and help us expand the reach of JustGetThere to your neck of the woods.
Support Us
Help us continue to be a source for illuminating information. Any amount is appreciated. Thanks!
Recent Comments