BFP Report: Meet the Department of Homeland Security’s ‘Distinguished’ Privacy Advisory Committee Members

Wednesday, 30. November 2011

Let’s See Who is Watching DHS Mega Fusion Center

Yesterday I came across an article on DHS plans to create its own internal fusion center so that its many agencies can aggregate the data they have and make it searchable from a central location. Let’s read a few excerpts from this typical half-hearted MSM attempt to provide a semi-complete picture of the state of ‘things’ when it comes to our government:

Information sharing (or lack thereof) between intelligence agencies has been a sensitive topic in the U.S. After 9/11, there was a push to create fusion centers so that local, state, and federal agencies could share intelligence, allowing the FBI, for example, to see if the local police have anything in their files on a particular individual. Now the Department of Homeland Security wants to create its own internal fusion center so that its many agencies can aggregate the data they have and make it searchable from a central location…

Of course this is another troubling development in an extremely troubling state of ‘things.’ However, this wasn’t the focus my attention. Here comes the not-really-reported angle in this half-covered story [All emphasis mine]:

The DHS is calling it a “Federated Information Sharing System” and asked its privacy advisory committee to weigh in on the repercussions at a public meeting in D.C. last month…

So what is this ‘privacy advisory committee’ and who are its members? This is what the article provides on that front:

The committee, consisting of an unpaid group of people from the world of corporate privacy as well as the civil liberty community, were asked last December to review the plan and provide feedback on which privacy protections need to be put in place when info from DHS components (which include the TSA, the Secret Service, and Immigration Services, to name a few) are consolidated. The committee raised concerns about who would get access to the data given the potentially comprehensive profile this would provide of American citizens…

It sounds good. Doesn’t it? It hits all the rights adjectives and catch phrases: Unpaid, Civil Liberties Community, Corporate Privacy Activists-Experts …Let’s read one more relevant excerpt and then I’ll tell you the ‘real’ significance of this half-covered report:

The committee’s recommendations are available in draft form below. DHS would not provide the original document — a “tasking letter” — that it issued to the committee describing its plans. But DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement division did announce this month that it had awarded a contract to Raytheon for a “new system [that] will enhance how agencies manage, investigate, and report on law enforcement and intelligence activities by improving data sharing between multiple law-enforcement agencies,” reported Information Week. Raytheon’s work started on September 27, a week before the privacy committee got back to DHS with its draft privacy policy recommendations (available below). The committee noted that it had been given an “aggressive timeline” by DHS on coming up with its recommendations…

What got my mind wondering, what should have gotten the wheels turning in MSM reporters’ head, was this question:

Who are the members of this ‘selected’ aka government hand-picked, privacy-integrity advisory committee?

An important and very logical question, no? And I tell you what, not a difficult one to find an answer to. The article even had a link to the DHS website where the members of this ‘select’ committee are listed by name with their background. Check for yourself here. Because the information contained in this page is at least as significant and revealing as the point half-covered in this quasi exposé. Let me show you a few examples of what I am talking about here:

Chairman: Richard V. Purcell, Chief Executive Officer, Corporate Privacy Group, Nordland, Wash. Mr. Purcell runs an independent privacy consulting group, focusing on policies, practices, and education. He is currently Chairman of TRUSTe and was formally the Chief Privacy Officer for the Microsoft Corporation.

Well, Mr. Purcell had served Microsoft Corporations for many years, and only recently left MS to start his ‘vague’ consulting business.

In 2003 Microsoft was chosen as exclusive Department of Homeland Security contractor.

DHS has chosen Microsoft Corp. as its preferred supplier of desktop computer and server software, according to a statement issued late Tuesday…The contract “establishes a key partnership relationship” between the government and Microsoft, the world’s biggest software maker, the statement said…The deal is worth $90 million.

The business (and the large dollars involved) between Microsoft and DHS has been growing and prospering ever since. Every year, including this year, 2011, Microsoft is listed as one of DHS’ major private business contractors. Are you with me so far? Now during all these lucrative Microsoft-DHS business marriage years, Mr. Purcell was working as the CPO at Microsoft. Not only that, he was royally exposed in his involvement in the Microsoft-NSA Key-Echelon case and its subsequent cover up. You can read more on this major 2000 exposé and related communications here at Cryptome. Here is the title of the exposé and some background on Microsoft’s and Purcell’s  ‘intimate’ involvement in the NSA Key controversy and the subsequent cover up:

Microsoft Offer to Resolve “Questions About NSA_Key”, then Put Up a Brick Wall

Background : Duncan Campbell gave a presentation on Global surveillance and the Echelon network at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy 2000 (CFP2000) conference held in Toronto, Canada from 4-7 April 2000. During the presentation, he instanced the NSA_KEY controversy as one of a number of outstanding issues related to security and surveillance.

Richard Purcell, Microsoft’s Director of Corporate Privacy, also attended the CFP2000 conference. After the presentation, Purcell approached Campbell. He said that he wished to resolved the doubts about NSA_KEY. He would see that this was done.

Campbell then put a number of key questions, politely but persistently. After three weeks, Microsoft backed off. They refused to answer outstanding questions. They declined even to explain why they were unwilling to continue contact. They stopped answering e-mail.
…

I encourage you to read the entire communication-correspondence between the investigator and Purcell’s unit at Microsoft here. Also check out this article on ‘How NSA Access was Built into Microsoft Windows.’

You see, our government, the Department of Homeland Security, could not have cherry-picked a better candidate as its Chairman of Privacy-Integrity Advisory Committee. With his long years in Microsoft as an executive until recently, with his stocks and shares tied to Microsoft, with his proven track record in covering up privacy and liberty-violating government-private business collusion and practices, Mr. Richard Purcell appears to be the best candidate to chair the Department of Homeland Security’s ‘Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee.’

Let’s check out another hand-selected colluder by DHS for its mockery of an advisory board on ‘privacy and integrity’:

Christopher Pierson, Chief Privacy Officer and Senior Vice President, Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (Royal Bank of Scotland- RBS). Dr. Pierson was President and Chairman of the Board of the Intraguard Phoenix Member’s Alliance, Inc., from 2003-2007 and served on the Arizona Office of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Coordinating Council from 2003-2006.

Well, right off the bat, this dude used to directly work for the Department of Homeland Security; 2003-2006. Now, what is this the Intraguard Phoenix Member’s Alliance, Inc.? Here are a few noteworthy excerpts from its website:

Arizona InfraGard is an alliance between the Arizona Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and individuals committed to protecting the nation’s infrastructure and its people. The members, who are representative of all infrastructure sectors, public and private, identify and mitigate physical and cyber threats through information sharing. Arizona InfraGard promotes best practices, security awareness and training, community outreach, and the exchange of information between law enforcement and infrastructure owners and operators.

So we have Mr. Christopher Pierson hand-picked by the DHS to watch over DHS practices and objectively advise on whether certain policies and practices violate the people’s privacy and integrity. The man used to work for them-the DHS, he worked with the FBI to help ‘share data,’ and now he will watch out for your privacy and mine!

Let’s check out other member:

David A. Hoffman, Director of Security Policy and Global Privacy Officer, Intel Corporation, Hillsboro, Ore. Mr. Hoffman has experience in privacy policy issues at the business and technical level, working on issues of interoperability, improved data quality, and data retention. He serves on the board of directors for the non-profit privacy compliance organization, TRUSTe.

Where do I begin? Let’s begin with Intel Corporation’s business and services to the federal government as a contractor. They had so much that they had to form a wholly owned subsidiary ‘Intel Federal LLC.’ Of course Intel has major contracts and advisory positions with DHS. Oh, interestingly he is closely connected to Richard Purcell, the Chairman of this DHS mockery privacy advisory committee. Purcell is the chairman of this TRUSTe, and Hoffman serves on its board of directors. And here is another blurb on Hoffman from a release only 3 months ago:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ – The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), a nonprofit public-private partnership focused on cybersecurity awareness and education for all digital citizens, today announced that David Hoffman, director of security policy and global privacy officer at Intel Corporation, has joined the organization’s board of directors.

…

NCSA board includes all our government partners and contributors to its surveillance program:

NCSA board members include: ADP, AT&T, Bank of America, Cisco Systems, EMC Corporation, ESET, Facebook, General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, Google, Intel, Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Services, McAfee, Microsoft, PayPal, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Symantec, Verizon and Visa…

Please check the list of this laughable privacy advisory board and continue this thread. Whether it is a member from other government contractor moguls like IBM, or academics from University departments generously and heavily funded by our governments, or lap-dog watch-dog organizations funded by the shadow government players such as Rockefellers, Soros, Carnegie, Ford…you’ll see a board of clowns juggling self-interest and profits while faking advisory roles on the 99% absent-privacy and long-gone integrity committee.

Please follow the links in the article to find out more.

Also check out this article on ‘How NSA Access was Built into Microsoft Windows.’

Source:  Boiling Frogs  - h/t to Jean Stoner

MARINE ONE FORCED TO LAND DUE TO ‘BAD WEATHER’ IN…GOOD WEATHER

 

In a bizarre maneuver, President Obama’s short flight on Marine One to Camp David Friday afternoon was reportedly diverted due to what White House press secretary Jay Carney tells ABC News was a “bad weather call.” (And crap… they are headed to Camp David after just retuning from the elaborate vacation at Martha’s Vineyard??)

The odd part is that, according to Accuweather.com, there was no precipitation across the entire region, including Camp David.

Light winds blew from the southeast at 10mph with mostly cloudy skies and temperatures in the mid-70′s.

ABC reports that the flight was diverted to an undisclosed landing near Frederick, Maryland and a motorcade drove Obama to nearby Camp David.

Carney claims the weather call was made before Obama and his younger daughter Sasha boarded the aircraft.

ABC adds:

Carney says they have now arrived safely at Camp David. It remains unexplained why the President would be allowed to board Marine One knowing that the landing site on the mountain was experiencing weather making a landing difficult.

The press first learned of the diversion when wire agency still photographers, who traditionally stand by at Camp David for news coverage in case of an emergency, were told by the military at the mountain top Marine base that the President would be motorcading.

The White House press office did not inform the daily travel pool which remains at the White House and does not make the helicopter trip to Camp David. The pool would normally accompany any bad weather motorcade to the retreat.

What then, could be the real reason behind the flight’s diversion?

This reminds me a bit of the time during the campaign where Obama vanished… remember?!? When he got the final nod from the power elites.  He went with Hillary and with a nod the momentum switched from her to him…

Don’t remember that?  Re-Cap Below:

Did they or didn't they?  -  Speculation about Obama, Clinton attending 2008 Bilderberger meeting

Westfields Marriott in Chantilly, Va., site of the Bilderberg conference this weekend

WASHINGTON – Sen. Barack Obama ditched his unsuspecting press entourage yesterday to attend a secretive meeting with Sen. Hillary Clinton.

But where did that meeting take place? Was it at the secretive Bilderberg conference in Chantilly, Va.? So far, neither campaign is talking.

The 56th Bilderberg meeting is still going on this weekend at the Westfields Marriott, according to various sources. But attendance is a well-guarded secret – along with the agenda, which tends toward the promotion of globalist ideas.

Obama's spokesman Robert Gibbs confirmed Clinton and Obama met but declined to inform the press of the location of the meeting. However, it was reportedly not held at Clinton's Washington home. Hillary's spokesman also declined to give the location of the rendezvous.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told Fox News the two candidates met at her house in Washington. Feinstein said she was working upstairs while Clinton and Obama sat by her fireplace.

Asked if Obama attended more than one meeting last night, Gibbs declined to "get into all the details."

Speculation about the pair meeting yesterday began when reporters traveling with Obama arrived at Dulles International Airport, in Northern Virginia, to find Obama was not aboard the plane, as was scheduled.

"Reporters traveling with Obama sensed something might be happening between the pair when they arrived at Dulles International Airport after an event in Northern Virginia and Obama was not aboard the airplane," the Associated Press reported.

Members of the press were outraged over the way Obama's campaign organizers covered up the meeting. Reporters were led to believe they would be getting on a plane back to Obama's campaign headquarters in Chicago with the senator. But while they were in the airport, the presidential candidate remained in the area for a secret meeting.

Dulles is just three miles from the Westfields Marriott Hotel in Chantilly, where Henry Kissinger and David Rockefeller, among other globalists, are gathered for the annual Bilderberg Group conference.

"Asked at the time about the Illinois senator's whereabouts, Gibbs smiled and declined to comment," the AP report continued.

Bilderberg is a highly-secretive meeting where the most influential men and women of North America and Western Europe meet ostensibly to discuss policy. But the group has spent years promoting a globalist agenda, according to reports from journalists who have penetrated the meeting.

The Bilderberg Group made a press release available explaining the agenda for the meeting.

"The conference will deal mainly with a nuclear free world, cyber terrorism, Africa, Russia, finance, protectionism, U.S.-European Union relations, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Islam and Iran. Approximately 140 participants will attend, of whom about two-thirds come from Europe and the balance from North America," the release stated. "About one-third is from government and politics, and two-thirds are from finance, industry, labor, education and communications. The meeting is private in order to encourage frank and open discussion."

Additionally, a list of the conference's attendees was released and included James A. Johnson, who was named this week to the three-person team vetting possible running mates for Obama. Rampant speculation in the blogosphere says the Obama-Clinton meeting last night was held to arrange the New York senator as Obama's vice-presidential candidate.

Attendees at the Bilderberg conference included Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle and Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the board of governors for the Federal Reserve.

Hillary Clinton is no stranger to Bilderberg. Bill Clinton attended the 1991 meeting in Germany shortly before he was elected president. According to reports, he attended again in 1999 when the meeting was held in Sintra, Portugal, and Hillary herself may have attended the 2006 meeting in Ottawa, Canada.

"Why were we not told about this meeting until we were on the plane, the doors were shut and the plane was about to taxi to take off?" one reporter asked Obama spokesman Gibbs in a heated exchange caught on camera by CNN.

"Senator Obama had a desire to do some meetings, others had a desire to meet with him tonight in a private way, and that is what we are doing." Gibbs replied.

"Is there more than one meeting, is there more than one person with whom he is meeting?" asked another reporter.

"I am not going to get into all the details of the meeting." Gibbs replied.

Obama's spokesman explained the Clinton meeting was not planned in advance, and it was a last minute decision to attend.

WND

~~~~

Hillary & Obama In Secret Bilderberg Rendezvous
Campaign spokespeople refuse to disclose location of meeting, but reports admit Democratic candidates convened at "an event in Northern Virginia"

Both Hillary and Obama have deep rooted connections to the Bilderberg elitists.

According to news reports, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton went out of their way to hold their long-awaited private meeting in a very specific location - not at Hillary's mansion in Washington - but in Northern Virginia, which also just happens to be the scene of the 2008 Bilderberg meeting.

Obama's spokesman Robert Gibbs told the media that Obama and Clinton held a private meeting last night but he refused to disclose where it taken place, except that it was not at Clinton's home in Washington, as had been widely reported. Hillary campaign managers also refused to disclose the location of the rendezvous.

"Reporters traveling with Obama sensed something might be happening between the pair when they arrived at Dulles International Airport after an event in Northern Virginiaand Obama was not aboard the airplane," reports the Associated Press.

Dulles just happens to be walking distance from the Westfields Marriott hotel in Chantilly where Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller and the rest of the Bilderberg globalists are convening.

"Asked at the time about the Illinois senator's whereabouts, Gibbs smiled and declined to comment," the reports adds.

What is the only political "event" taking place in Northern Virginia at the moment? The Bilderberg Group meeting of course. Rather than taking the easier option of meeting at Clinton's Washington mansion, Obama and Hillary went out of their way to grace the Bilderberg elitists with their presence.

The neo-liberal website Wonkette, which had previously ridiculed "conspiracy theorists" for ascribing power to Bilderberg, seemed to take a somewhat different tone when it made the connection between Obama and Hillary's meeting and the Bilderberg Group.

"Guess who had a very private talky-talk in (maybe) romantic Northern Virginia tonight, probably at the Bilderberg Group meeting in Chantilly? Your Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton!," states the blog. "They really met and talked, in private, Thursday night. And really, it sounds like they did this at that creepy Bilderberg Group meeting, which is happening now, and which is so secret that nobody will admit they’re going, even though everybody who is anybody goes to Bilderberg."

To have the potential future President and Vice-President of America attend a conference that debunkers have dismissed as a mere talking shop for old white men once again underscores the real influence that Bilderberg enjoys.

Not one U.S. corporate media outlet has made the connection between the location of the Bilderberg Group conference this year and Obama and Hillary's decision to venture out to Chantilly for their confidential "tet a tet".

Not one U.S. corporate media outlet has yet uttered one word about 125 of the world's most influential power brokers meeting behind closed doors to discuss the future of the planet on U.S. soil - while being met by the probable future President of the United States.

Both Hillary and Obama have deep rooted connections to the Bilderberg elitists.

Bill Clinton attended the 1991 meeting in Germany shortly before becoming President and he attended again in 1999 when the conference was held in Sintra, Portugal (despite Clinton's lie that he had not attended in 15 years).

Hillary herself was rumored to have attended the 2006 meeting in Ottawa, Canada.

As we reported last month, Bilderberg luminary and top corporate elitist James A. Johnson will select Democratic candidate Barack Obama's running mate for the 2008 election and in turn potentially act as kingmaker for America's future President.

Johnson also selected John Kerry's running mate John Edwards in 2004 after Edwards had impressed Bilderberg elitists Henry Kissinger and David Rockefeller with a speech he gave at the globalist confab in Italy that year.

Johnson, who attended last year's Bilderberg meeting in Turkey, is a representative for Friends of Bilderberg, an offshoot group that organizes Bilderberg's annual meeting.

Hillary and Obama's attendance of the 2008 Bilderberg meeting, and the complete failure of the mainstream media to report on the fact, once again betrays the super-secretive nature and influential reputation that the 54-year-old organization still maintains.

Prison Planet

~~~

Bilderberg, Shadow Super-government

03.6.2008

The economic summit will take place this week near Washington

It was particularly difficult this year to find out when and where the annual conclave of world powerbrokers, the Bilderberg Group, would take place. Finally, it appears certain that the highly secret meeting of western political-military elites will take place from June 5 – 8 in Chantilly, Virginia, near Washington, in a luxury hotel immersed in nature, the Westfield’s Marriott.

What is Bilderberg? The Bilderberg group, which convened for the first time in 1954 in Holland, is considered the most powerful decision-making organization in the world. Semi-secret (without even a website), the group consists of elite political, financial, managerial, military, and media leaders from North America and Western Europe. In contrast with the Trilateral Commission, which was created out of the Bilderberg Group specifically to work with emerging Asian nations (Japan in the Seventies, China and India today), the Bilderberg Group is a genuine “shadow government” of the West that, some critics say, decides the fate of the world to suit the interests of the restricted oligarchy it represents.

On the Table. Two years ago, a press release sent out on the date of the opening session in 2006 (held in Ottawa, Canada), explained that the annual meeting would discuss the War on Terrorism, the situation in Iran and the Middle East, Oil, Russia, US-EU relations, and relations between the West and Asia, as well as Immigration. It is to be supposed that this year’s meeting will include discussion of current international emergencies, such as Afghanistan, the high cost of oil, and the world economic crisis. Concerning oil: after the Ottawa meeting, indiscreet leaks reported that a decision had been announced by oil producers to raise the cost of oil to over $100 a barrel over the course of two years.

The most recent list of Bilderberg members dates from the 2006 meeting, and includes high Bush administration officials, Henry Kissinger, the directors of the Federal Reserve Bank, Credit Suisse, Rothschild Europe (Vice President Franco Bernabè), representatives of Shell, BP, and ENI (Paolo Scaroni), Coca Cola, Phillips, Unilever, Time Warner, AOL, Tyssen-Krupp, and Fiat (Vice President John Elkann). Also present were representatives from Nato, the United Nations, the World Bank, the European Union, and economists (including Giulio Tremonti and Mario Monti) and many Western leaders (Italy’s representative was Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa). See below other Italian participants at past Bilderberg meetings.

Why all the privacy? Considering the grave importance to the public of the subjects discussed and the people present at the meetings, it would be logical – if for no other reason that to discourage paranoid theories – not to keep the meetings so private (or secret, if you prefer), and not to hold them behind closed doors in super-secure locations surrounded by armed guards, far from the prying eyes of journalists and the curious. If they have nothing to hide, why are they hiding?

Source: Dejan Lucic…

Was he with the global elites again? The Bilderbergers??

Was he meeting with Soros?

With Jeremiah Wright or Trumpka?

Will we eventually find out like we did last time?

Related Sources:

The Shadow Party

The Manchurian President