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ACLU Unveils Disturbing New Revelations About MATRIX Surveillance Program May 20, 2004 Investigation Sought into DHS Role as Funder, Manager of "State Run" Program FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MIAMI--The American Civil Liberties Union today released documents containing disturbing new revelations about the MATRIX database surveillance program, including the fact that it was under the direct managerial control of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and that Florida Governor Jeb Bush gave a personal briefing on the program to Vice President Dick Cheney. The group also announced that it has written to Nuala O’Connor Kelly, Chief Privacy Officer of DHS, asking...

Before helping to launch the criminal information project known as Matrix, a database contractor gave U.S. and Florida authorities the names of 120,000 people who showed a statistical likelihood of being terrorists - sparking some investigations and arrests. The "high terrorism factor" scoring system also became a key selling point for the involvement of the database company, Seisint Inc., in the Matrix project. Public records obtained by The Associated Press from several states show that Justice Department officials cited the scoring technology in appointing Seisint sole contractor on the federally funded, $12 million project. Seisint and the law enforcement officials...

AP Exclusive: Precursor of Database Project Gave Feds 120,000 SuspectsBy Brian Bergstein The Associated Press Published: May 20, 2004 NEW YORK (AP) - Before helping to launch the criminal information project known as Matrix, a database contractor gave U.S. and Florida authorities the names of 120,000 people who showed a statistical likelihood of being terrorists - sparking some investigations and arrests. The "high terrorism factor" scoring system also became a key selling point for the involvement of the database company, Seisint Inc., in the Matrix project. Public records obtained by The Associated Press from several states show that Justice Department...

"We must not suppose that if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved their souls. A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world." (C.S. Lewis) A reader recently responded to the above quote by Lewis with the following remark: "True, but at least there would be less hatred!" His answer is really how most of us naturally think. But helping to make people nice and moral is like putting a Band-Aid on cancer. Although many...

Sounds as though Larry Wachowski -- one half of the Chicago-born, super-successful brother team (along with Andy Wachowski) that created the "Matrix'' films -- is about to make a life-altering move. According to those close to the extremely reclusive duo, Larry is about to finally become "Linda.'' Wachowski, who has been living and dressing as a woman for some time, reportedly is preparing to take the final step and have sex-change surgery. As always, it was impossible to get any comment from the press-shy Wachowskis, but several longtime friends of the Rogers Park native confirm Wachowski is planning to complete...

Immediately after 9/11, politicians and pundits slammed the Bush administration for failing to “connect the dots” foreshadowing the attack. What a difference a little amnesia makes. For two years now, left- and right-wing advocates have shot down nearly every proposal to use intelligence more effectively--to connect the dots--as an assault on “privacy.” Though their facts are often wrong and their arguments specious, they have come to dominate the national security debate virtually without challenge. The consequence has been devastating: just when the country should be unleashing its technological ingenuity to defend against future attacks, scientists stand irresolute, cowed into inaction.

<p>LANSING -- Michigan might withdraw from a database aimed at fighting crime and terrorism because other states have pulled out, leaving it unlikely to get the federal dollars needed to fully get up and running, the state’s top homeland security adviser says.</p>

<p>Even as states retreat from participating in a controversial interstate antiterrorism database that holds billions of records of ordinary Americans' activities, Wisconsin has decided to join the program.</p> <p>The head of Wisconsin's division of criminal investigation, James R. Warren, signed on to join the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, or Matrix, on Feb. 11, said Tom Berlinger, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which runs the program.</p>

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Connecticut's top police official told lawmakers Tuesday that a multistate crime database represents the future of law enforcement, despite the heavy criticism privacy activists are heaping on the system. Without the database, known as Matrix, Col. Timothy Barry said, "It's kind of like fighting with one hand behind your back." Privacy advocates criticize Matrix as an encroachment on civil liberties because it combines state-held criminal and vehicle files with billions of public records maintained by a private database company. Six states are members, but at least seven others have backed out of the program because of...

Here are a couple of essays on the Matrix Sequels. The Matrix: Reloaded Explained Version 2.11 http://wylfing.net/essays/matrix_reloaded.html The Matrix: Revolutions Explained Verison 1.6 http://wylfing.net/essays/matrix_revolutions.html

<p>Several federal agencies are using the personal data of U.S. citizens to pinpoint terrorist activity, a practice that a secretive Pentagon program was pursuing before Congress axed its funding amid fears it would be used to spy on Americans.</p> <p>Congress killed the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness (TIA) project to create a supercomputer and sift through the private information of U.S. citizens, calling it a vast violation of privacy.</p>

<p>ATLANTA — In a crisply worded statement last October, Gov. Sonny Perdue said he was ending Georgia's participation in a multi-state crime database that tracks the personal details even of law-abiding citizens. Yet several months later, the state still was pumping information into the database. Top Georgia law enforcement officials even attended a meeting of its members — two weeks after Perdue's announcement.</p>

Georgia Kept Adding to Crime Database ............ DICK PETTYS The Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) _ In a crisply worded statement last October, Gov. Sonny Perdue said he was ending Georgia's participation in a multi-state crime database that tracks the personal details even of law-abiding citizens. Yet several months later, the state still was pumping information into the database. Top Georgia law enforcement officials even attended a meeting of its members _ two weeks after Perdue's announcement. State participation appeared to come to an end _ again _ on Friday when the administration, confronted with documents obtained by The Associated Press,...

It sounds like a sci-fi thriller: a super computer program that gathers dossiers on every single man, woman and child — everything from birth and marriage and divorce history to hunting licenses and car license plates. Even every address you have lived at down to the color of your hair. It sounds surreal, but former Gov. Mike Leavitt signed Utah's 2.4 million residents up for a pilot program — ironically called MATRIX — that does just that. And he never bothered to reveal details of the program to Utah citizens or to state lawmakers who, upon learning of the program...

Jan 22, 2:09 PM EST Seven-state info store a potent repository of personal data By BRIAN BERGSTEIN AP Technology Writer NEW YORK (AP) -- A federally funded crime database run by seven states, including Connecticut, is looking increasingly to privacy advocates like a potent substitute for the data mining program the Pentagon scrapped after public rebuke. Law enforcement officials and the private company that manages the database, known as Matrix, say it merely streamlines police access to information about suspects that authorities have long been able to get from disparate sources. But newly emerging facts about the program, including documents...

<p>ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Long after The Matrix Revolutions morphs itself off the big screen, the eternal battle of reality versus illusion, fate versus free will and good versus evil will rage on in philosophy classrooms everywhere.</p> <p>The third and final installment of the trilogy opened November 5 on more than 10,000 screens at the exact same time, and, in spite of mixed reviews, soared quickly to No. 1.</p>

Spoilers for Reloaded ahead, you have been warned. I had a flash of understanding on the Matrix movies last night and though I'de share. Mind you, I have not seen the 3rd movie yet, so if something in there blows this appart, or clearly confirms it, I don't know about it so cut me some slack, OK? (and I don't want to know about it until I see the movie) The Matrix is NOT the virtual world, that is only a component of the Matrix. Zion, Neo, and the machines are other parts of the Matrix. What the Matrix is,...

Too many of us (accept) the argument that the concept of personal privacy in the Internet era is as outdated as the Model T. Americans can get pretty upset about the ways in which modern technology drives us nuts — such as telemarketers who disrupt our dinner and spam e-mailers who make pornographic sales pitches. But a more insidious invasion of Americans' privacy quietly has taken root in Florida. It has received little attention from the media except in Florida and a handful of other states being recruited to join the enterprise (news - web sites). The project underscores how...

A s the weeks go by and the Democrats focus in on their nomination battle, the candidates are becoming more and more desperate for issues and ways to put themselves out in front of their opponents. Senator Edwards is trying to vault himself to the head of the pack by criticizing Howard Dean for being insensitive towards rednecks, while the Reverend Al Sharpton is showing his gravitas by hosting an episode of Saturday Night Live. But it seems to me that the whole lot of Democrat hopefuls is missing a prime campaign issue: The Matrix. The Matrix III (a.k.a. The...

Walker Percy was fond of describing the south as Christ forgetting and Christ haunted. The much-anticipated final entry in the Matrix trilogy, Matrix Revolutions, a disappointing film roundly and justifiably lambasted by critics, provides evidence that the story of Christ continues to haunt the most unlikely of communities — Hollywood. The problem: Well, the problem is the film, whose narrative is tedious indeed. Neo — identified repeatedly as a Christ figure who must take upon himself the burdens of humanity — comes closest to speaking for all of us long-suffering viewers, when he asks the Oracle, "Where is this going?...