Paramilitary Police State & Private Prisons

Big Sis Set to Expand Spy Program to Sports Stadiums

December 9, 2010

Infowars.com - If you thought seeing Big Sis urging Americans to “report suspicious activity” at Wal-Mart checkouts was creepy enough, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Homeland Security announced yesterday that the program was set to be expanded to include 9,000 federal buildings, as well as sports stadiums, businesses and communities in general.

Despite the official Homeland Security You Tube channel being bombarded by almost 6,000 profanity-filled comments from Americans outraged that their country is sinking into a decrepit Soviet-style informant society, Janet Napolitano announced yesterday that the “If you see something, say something,” campaign will be extended to include around 9,000 federal buildings across the country.

“In the coming weeks, “If You See Something, Say Something” public awareness materials designed to help America’s businesses, communities and citizens remain vigilant and play an active role in keeping our homeland safe will be posted in approximately 9,000 federal buildings throughout the country,” states a DHS press release. “Signage will appear at FPS guard stations at each facility, and any calls reporting suspicious activity will be directed to the existing national network of FPS call centers, which operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

The memo also indicated that the campaign would be extended to sports stadiums, labeled “sports and general aviation industries” in the press release, as well as businesses and communities in general – so before too long expect to see and hear Big Sis reminding you that you live in a Sovietized police state wherever you happen to be.

“In the coming months, the Department will continue to expand the “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign nationally with public education materials and outreach tools designed to help America’s businesses, communities and citizens remain vigilant and play an active role in keeping the country safe,” states the release.

Invading public life with creepy posters and video messages encouraging Americans to report each other to the authorities represents a resurrection of the Bush-era Operation TIPS program (Terrorism Information and Prevention System), which at its inception hoped to recruit more tattle-tales than were even active at the height of the Stasi in Soviet-controlled East Germany.

The program encouraged people who had access to Americans’ homes, such as cable installers and telephone repair workers, to report back to the authorities if they saw anything deemed “suspicious”. Presumably, Napolitano’s plan to expand the current DHS informant program into ‘communities, businesses and citizens’ will mimic similar methods.

At the time, Operation TIPS was decried by liberals as an “end run” around the constitution and its figurehead, Attorney General John Ashcroft, was portrayed as a dangerous authoritarian, even Nazi-like, enforcer. TIPS was compared to the Hoover-era FBI wiretaps that were used to spy on and oppress anti-war activists.

Now that an almost identical program has been launched under the Obama administration, those same liberal groups are noticeably more subdued in their opposition. The ACLU carries absolutely nothing about it on their website, and leftist blogs like the Daily Kos and the Huffington Post have barely mentioned the story.

Ironically, Operation TIPS was officially cancelled when the Homeland Security Act was passed by Congress in November 2002, officially creating the DHS. Section 880 of the bill expressly prohibited the creation of Operation TIPS, and yet Napolitano has resurrected an almost identical program under the auspices of Homeland Security itself.

As a Sydney Morning Herald article about the TIPS program noted at the time,

“Historically, informant systems have been the tools of non-democratic states. According to a 1992 report by Harvard University’s Project on Justice, the accuracy of informant reports is problematic, with some informants having embellished the truth, and others suspected of having fabricated their reports.”

Indeed, as we have documented, every historical example of such informant programs illustrates that they never lead to a more secure society, but instead breed suspicion, distrust, fear and resentment amongst the population. The only “benefit” that such programs have ever achieved is allowing the state to more easily identify and persecute political dissidents while discouraging the wider population from engaging in any criticism against the government.

As Alex Jones points out, this isn’t just about Wal-Mart, it’s about the Department of Homeland Security and Big Sis launching a full-scale invasion of our entire society.