DARPA Developing 'Combat Zones That See'

t0rnt0pieces writes "DARPA is developing an urban surveillance system that would use computers and thousands of cameras to track, record and analyze the movement of every vehicle in a city. Officials claim that the project is designed to help the U.S. military protect troops and fight in cities overseas, but police, scientists and privacy experts say the technology could easily be adapted to spy on Americans. Combined with other technologies, such as software that scans databases of everyday transactions and personal records worldwide, the government would have a reasonably good idea of where everyone is most of the time. Read the news story and the contracting document."

Tracking vehicle movements

[pytheron]

We already have that in London [bbc.co.uk]

A network of cameras track our movements and trigger enevlopes demanding money on our doorsteps if we dare cross the red lines !

Re:The Real Question

[I Want GNU!]

The reason I ask is that owning weapons is a Liberty guaranteed by the law of the land, the Constitution... so if Howard Dean doesn't want people like me to be able to defend ourslves, then I find it highly ironic that you'd post a quote from Benjamin Franklin about conserving our Liberties when your favorite Presidential candidate opposes one of the most important ones.

I like how you incorrectly assume the position of my favorite candidate and then dislike him based on it. Basically be believes in "sensible" gun laws. He wants to enforce laws we already have (such as the assault weapons ban) rather than create new ones. He thinks gun laws should be at a state level. The NRA gave him an A rating. Liberals might not like all of this about him but Vermont has the lowest homicide rate in the country, and it's tough to argue with facts like that.

Re:The Real Question

[kolbeinn]

I'm sure that in 1937, all the German people thought their government was the greatest thing on the planet. I'm sure that even the Jews didn't really think they had anything to worry about, after all, they weren't breaking any laws.

This really is a common misconception. The Nazi party started cleaning up political dissidents and granting the police extensive powers quite soon after they got to power, Dachau was established in 1933 [about.com] and the Gestapo soon after [holocaustcommission.org], it all went downhill from there. Incidentally Hitler was chosen the person of the year by Time magazine in 1938 [time.com].

Re:spy r us

[missing000]

I can't agree more.

I just wanted to point out that the Bush administration is in fact attempting to cover up it's own appalling mistakes that caused September 11th with FUD like this because they are scared the public will take back the Whitehorse.

In May of 2001, the administration gave $43 million to the Taliban. [slashdot.org] It's not a liberal myth, its a fact reported by respected papers like the New York Times and the Boston Globe.

We have to stop Bush now, before the police state gets full control of our lives.

Re:The Real Question

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure that in 1937, all the German people thought their government was the greatest thing on the planet. I'm sure that even the Jews didn't really think they had anything to worry about,

The Nuremberg laws were introduced in 1934, but the Jews were worried *long* before that.

Screw those government goons

[zogger]

this government and it's employees are OUT OF CONTROL.

DIG THIS. I got RAIDED last night.

My big crime, I had THE LIGHTS TURNED ON. My girlfriend and I do caretaking/estate management. We got a new gig finally after looking for several months. We decided at this time we couldn't afford to buy our own land around here, so we answered a paper advertisement and got this new job, like 50 miles away. We've been moving for a week now, only partially finished, because our new house which is part of the pay was trashed out, we're having to do major fix up just to move in. So every day, we haul over a small load of our stuff, then spend all day fixing floors, hauling away garabage, cleaning the yard and mowing, paintinig, the whole deal. We've been there a week, last night we stayed over. About midnight the county's "finest" show up en masse, raid us, I got a gun to my face, screamed at, the whole bit. They got a "tip" on 911. A *tip" there was an EVIL LIGHT ON IN THE HOUSE. Didn't matter we are the same peoplle, been there for a week, everyday until late, same vehicle, same trailer, same everything, massive work done.

It didn't matter to them they could SEE painting, mowing going on, plants hanging on the porch, all the stuff anyone normal does when tey move in. Nope, to them morons it was evidence of ...I have no idea. 45 minutes of them threatening us before they left, I just finally told them that was it, arrest me if they thought I was doing something wrong, or go away. Oh wow, they didn't like being told what to do BY A FUCKING CIVVIE. Nope, a man can't stand in his own living room and do nothing to get accused and terrorised.

They do it overseas, then them skin heads(4 out of the 5 of them were punk skinheads) come back and they turn them into cops. People just won't believe this shit until it happens to them. I write about it too, because I've seen it before, and here I go again, how DARE I get a new job, move in, answer their questions at after midnight, then get further terrorised for an additional 1/2 hour. Threatened to get shot in the head, threatened to have the police dog turned on me if I didn't "shut up" me shutting up meant I couldn't answer their questions they kept yelling at me? Like what are you supposed to do? One skinhead screams a question at you with a gun to your head, you answer it, the next one tells you to shut up or else?

We'll, to the slashdot folks I'll say yes, this shit happens, and this DARPA big brother shit is going to be used on you, by similar low IQ MORONS with guns, and anyone here working on it, GOT TO HELL YOU TURNCOAT MERCENARY DEMON.

SCREW THE NWO POLICE AND OVERSEAS MERCENARIES, YOU GUYS SUCKASS. GO TO FUCKING HELL ANY OF YOU BIG BROTHER GOONS.