Daily Archives: May 24, 2008

Perilous Pitfalls of Secret Government

An article by Christopher Ketcham, originally published in Radar Magazine, details information about a database of 8 million Americans targeted for detention in case of a declared national emergency. Dubbed “Main Core,” the database began in the 1980s when the Reagan administration began its “Continuity of Government” planning — which was unconstitutionally perfected to suit the needs of the Bush administration by illicitly removing the system of checks and balances of the legislative and judicial branches of the U.S. government — conveniently implemented after the attacks of 9/11 and remaining in effect today. Several examples of the damage caused by the illicit shadow government of the Bush administration can be found below.

‘MAIN CORE’ caused mutiny in the Bush administration when then Attorney General John Ashcroft and his deputy James Comey objected to the program on Constitutional grounds which led to a dramatic confrontation between Ashcroft and Comey on one side and Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card on the other while Ashcroft laid ill in an intensive care unit.

A senior government official who served with high-level security clearances in five administrations says a database (Main Core) exists of Americans, who, often for the slightest and most trivial reason, are considered unfriendly, and who, in a time of panic, might be incarcerated. 8 million Americans are now listed in Main Core as potentially suspect. In the event of an emergency, these people could be subject to everything from heightened surveillance and tracking to direct questioning and detention.

The government uses software that makes predictive judgments of targets’ behavior and tracks their circle of associations with “social network analysis” and artificial intelligence modeling tools. Data used to make these ‘predictions’ include financial information from banks, credit card companies and credit agencies, illegal wiretapping and e-mail surveillance, and data gathered from ISPs and cell phone companies.

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