Celeste Solum
DHS Declares New Age of Terrorism
by Celeste B. January 31, 2018
Chilling testimony has been released with details on an iron-clad phalanx of security measures which Homeland Security is implementing for our ‘safety and security’.
In the agencies own words:
“We are rethinking homeland security for a new age. We sometimes speak of the “home game” and “away game” in protecting our country, with DHS especially focused on the former. But the line is now blurred. The dangers we face are becoming more dispersed, and threat networks are proliferating across borders. The shifting landscape is challenging our security, so we need to move past traditional defense and non-defense thinking. This is why DHS is overhauling its approach to homeland security. We are bringing together intelligence, operations, interagency engagement, and international action in new ways and changing how we respond to threats to our country”.
“We are “raising the baseline” of our security posture—across the board. DHS is looking at everything from traveler screening to information sharing, and we are setting new standards to close security vulnerabilities.”
Homeland Security and its partners have enormous budgets for years and yet the Acting Director says, “The magnitude of the threat we face from terrorism is equal to, and in many ways exceeds, the 9/11 period.”
You might wonder what significant acts of terror have brought America to a standstill. The answer is shocking, “simple, “do-it-yourself” terrorist tactics”. DIY items such as using pressure canners, hide tanning chemicals, guns, knives, vehicles, and other common items” all contribute to terrorism. These terrorists are experimenting with other tools—including drones, chemical weapons, and artfully concealed improvised explosive devices.” The absurdity of adding vast numbers of DIY’ers as terrorists is fantastical. If, for instance, you make your own fireworks to celebrate the 4th of July, tan hides, make soap, even engage in photography with chemicals, your actions are now suspect. Of course, the siren sings sonnets that these terrorists are affiliated with ISIS and al-Qa’ida.
“We are seeing an uptick in terrorist activity because the fundamentals of terrorism have evolved.” This uptick is global in nature and yet the asymmetrical force will bear down against the average American citizen whose liberties and freedom to live the American Dream was terminated after the events of 9/11. The yoke of command and control is not enough for the New Age and so they are greedily seek more control.
Who are these terrorists? In almost biblical, Revelation 13 language, demographics shows that terrorists can be: “young or old, male or female, wealthy or indigent, immigrant or U.S.-born, and living almost anywhere.” If you are living you have the potential to be the terrorist.
Monumental terrorist events have morphed into “all-of-the-above” strategies with a proclivity for so-called soft targets.
People are not only a targets but also locations, venues, or events associated with public gatherings. You are going to feel a crushing government presence in public because a criminal might have access to a venue and could “potentially inflict physical, psychological, and economic damage.” How much money is being made by agencies, people, companies, and actors to the mirage of security?
Your mind is also a target held in the bosom of DHS, “ideologically-motivated violent extremists are here in the United States. Ideologies like violent racial supremacy and violent anarchist extremism are a danger to our communities, and they must be condemned and countered.” But in the New Age of semantic perversion freedom can be labeled an ideological extreme. Although portrayed as violent, not all anarchists are brutal. Who defines who is a terrorist and will that label change as swiftly as the wind blows?
The Department is concerned about violent extremists using the battlefield as a test-bed from which they can export terror and yet our country leaders promised 50-100 years of continual war a brooding ground for endless terror.
The Department says that it is “not going allow pervasive terrorism to become the new normal.” They are closely monitoring changes in enemies tactics and ensure their “security posture is dynamic, multi-layered, and difficult to predict.”
DHS is working to “break the pattern of reluctance of reporting suspicious activity”. They also are seeking Congressional funding for robust funding to provide departments and agencies expanded legal authority to mitigate emerging dangers.
XL
The Department’s forward-leaning counter-terrorism program this past summer announced new “seen” and “unseen” security measures, representing the most significant security enhancements in many years. The “seen” is troubling enough, but what does the “unseen” bode for Americans? The military is already integrating invisible cloaking technology to make men, tanks, and aircraft invisible to detect. How does one protect oneself when our government goes invisible?
Much of the Department briefing centered on entry requirements for foreigners coming into the United States. But we have discovered through the years that these requirements eventually end up being inflicted upon all of us.
CBRN
Intelligence professionals have alerted DHS that there is concern about weapons of mass destruction (WMD) specifically chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats. The answer to these threats is to establish yet another bureaucratic office, Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD) to reorganize achieving “unity of command” and make our country “safer” than ever before.
Even though the focus of our government is continually upon the elusive terrorist we are continually informed that the terrorist is always ahead of the game and requiring more freedoms to be sacrifice to slay this dark demon.
Preventing Terrorism in Our Communities
“In addition to counter-terrorism, the Department is rededicating itself to terrorism prevention. Americans do not want us to simply stop violent plots; they want us to keep them from materializing in the first place.” The DHS approach will be risk-based and intelligence-driven. DHS efforts to combat terrorist recruitment and radicalization are clarified:
First, DHS is prioritizing education and community awareness. “Before terrorists have a chance to reach into communities by training frontline defenders and civic leaders.” If the American public is not aware of terrorism by this time they do not live in reality. The problem with education is that the definition of a terrorist keeps changing and so does the hunt.
“Second, we are focused on counter-recruitment. We know that terrorists will continue to seek new followers through persuasion and propaganda, which is why we must support efforts to actively push back against such solicitations.” The Department intends to use its NGO partners and social media to flood the virtual environment with governmental messaging.
DHS in coordination with the Interior Ministers of the G7 “discussed the next steps the companies plan to take in the effort to prevent their platforms from being misused by terrorists, including better identifying online terrorist propaganda and shutting down terrorist accounts,” and, “The U.S. Government has already made progress by supporting the companies’ efforts—including the establishment of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism—to identify terrorist content so they can voluntarily remove content that violates their terms of service as soon as it is discovered”.
Do you think that you are immune to global governmental messaging and policies?
For 30 years I have been making handcrafted artisan soaps that use real ingredients that are part of an integrated functional health program. I was selling these products sand sharing with consumers the healthy benefits of product on the Etsy an internet farmers market. I was contacted by their legal department and under their Terms of Service I was told that I had 10 days to scrub my site of any “health” benefit. I could use a picture and a vague non-descript description. Furthermore, they considered my organic products akin to heroin and dead body remains! The internet went ablaze as the story went viral:
- CNN Money: Etsy blocks sales of drugs and human remains
- Set You Free News: Spirit of Etsy: Crush Healthy Products as Illegal Drugs
- Infowars: Spirit of Etsy: Crush Healthy Products as Illegal Drugs
- Natural News: Online farmers’ market Etsy accuses grandmother soap makers of selling ‘illegal drugs’ launches snitch program
In the end, I was forced to remove my business to a free internet venue, but that may now be coming to and end as the internet becomes more unified as a government partner. I am not alone. Gardeners and your neighbors are going to jail for growing food in their front yards or daring to have one laying hen on their own property.
This is how you, the average American, can fall prey to government messaging and policies. Government is using counter-messaging and “credible voices” those people whom you trust, to fight terrorism by “turning the crowd against them”. True, these steps will stifle terrorism, but it will also extinguish free trade and honest living as well. Risk-based policy requires to weigh the cost against the threat.
“Any ideologically-motivated violence which is designed to coerce people or their governments should be condemned, prevented, and countered…This means working with people of all races, religions, and creeds as partners in the fight against terrorism.” Our Founding Fathers would concur that we must be vigilant with our understanding of semantic trickery. Violence is subjective, such as if I hurt your feelings, to some that is violence.
Securing Soft Targets
DHS wants to demonstrate a reduction in successful attack on soft targets. With yet another bureaucratic department, National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) who will be the national leader on technology, standards, and best practices relating to soft target security. The intent of this effort is to provide increased visible support to show the people the government is in control, condense (center of gravity) resources into federal hands to secure critical infrastructure, and address “gaps”. To some degree these objectives are already in place and through real world events and exercises they have been hot washed out to learn lessons the for effectiveness. Must our businesses and communities always be terrorist-centered?
The “S&T SAFETY Act Program provides important legal liability protections of qualified anti-terrorism technologies in order to encourage the development,” while you and I are extended no carte banc legal liability protections in whatever profession we choose to engage in. We have witnessed how legal liability protection protects, through favoritism, certain sectors such as protecting dangerous drugs and vaccines from pharmaceutical industry with their National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
America’s Digital Frontier
“The past year marked a turning point in the cyber domain, putting it in the forefront of public consciousness. We have long faced a relentless assault against our digital networks from a variety of threat actors… They have deployed them to undermine critical infrastructure, target our livelihoods and innovation, steal our secrets, and threaten our democracy.”
Cybersecurity is redefining homeland security. DHS takes a broad risk management approach like a master painter considering his canvass and taking large strokes of his brush to add foundational colors. But a masterpiece is in the detail. It is the precise workmanship that distinguishes the final outcome. It is vital for Department survival to precisely define their control of the virtual landscape.
Cyber-crime is real and it is an invisible world to most. Persistent data breeches, ransomware, and malware exploit the government, business, and the people causing frustration and economic loss.
DHS already has the tools in place to defend from these attacks and it has many tools in its toolkit to mitigate ongoing incidents through the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) and Presidential Policy Directive 41. We need to ponder why then is it really necessary to mobilize seamless collaboration between federal networks, state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, and the private sector to defend against cyber threats?
DHS explains, “We are also endeavoring to enhance cyber-threat information sharing across the globe to stop attacks before they start—and to help Americans quickly recover.” While DHS is engaged in information sharing that does nothing to assist me with a hacked website, infinite spam, or my personal information being hung out to dry on the virtual global clothesline for the entire world to glean the workings of my most private affairs.
We are told that we must trust that federal agencies who are aggressively investigating, disrupting, and dismantling criminal actors and organizations using cyberspace to carry out their illicit activities and yet we visibly see no positive change. Are the network protectors who identify trends, practices, and potentially new victims shaping law enforcement investigations really just feeding a hungry beast?
Federal partners are promising to punish those who use cyberspace for illicit purposes. The American people are waking up to the realization that that what is legal today, may well be illicit tomorrow, so it is in the land of the “living document”.
DHS has defined the virtual world as a cyber ecosystem. In preparation for a post-human world it is taking the global lead to “exchange and advocate for best practices and promote the development and adoption of normative behavior to increase security and reliability.” It has been my experience that the Internet and Internet of Things is inconsistent and unreliable. As a country it is in our best interest not to have a consolidated global or federal entity or its partners doing what could easily be done in the private sector.
Historic 2017 with Catastrophe Anticipated
To say that 2017 has been historic is an understatement.
- Four hurricanes made landfall this season
- Prior to August 25, 2017, FEMA was supporting 28 presidentially-declared disasters
- Since Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas, the President has granted 14 Major Disaster declarations and 14 Emergency Declarations,
- FEMA has authorized 25 Fire Management Assistance Grant declarations.
This year will change emergency management as we know it. Although 2017 saw historic devastation the federal government has begun training and bracing itself for a catastrophic event. It is not necessary to know what type of event they are anticipating, but whatever it is, they are expecting significant amount of casualties and deaths. This catastrophe will be so great that response will be extremely limited if not non-existent.
Over the past decades it has become a requirement that volunteers be federally vetted, thus becoming part of the federal family. Gone are the days of the Good Samaritan and individual charitable assistance to others in need with the caveat that they do want your monetary contributions to be streamed through their their vetted NGO’s. As a result of this federalization burden, in a span of 25 days, DHS, FEMA, and federal partners deployed tens of thousands of personnel across 270,000 square miles in three different Regions.
Ponder the substantial impacts of these events:
- Roughly 25.8 million people were affected by these three storms – eight percent of the entire U.S. population and this number does not include those impacted by western wildfires.
- Four and a half million survivors registered for FEMA assistance.
- FEMA’s Individual and Households Program (IHP) have approved almost $2.5 billion in disaster assistance to respond to the three hurricanes.
- National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) policyholders filed approximately 121,000 claims, and the NFIP has paid over $5 billion to them.
With a billion here and a billion there DHS and FEMA have come to the conclusion (which they knew all along) that they alone cannot deliver assistance to vast number of survivors. “Unity of effort is required for disaster response and recovery on any scale, but especially during this historic season. When emergency managers call for unity of effort, means that all levels of government, non-profit organizations, private sector businesses, and survivors must work together – each drawing upon their unique skills and capabilities – to meet the needs of disaster survivors.”
This historic year provided the federal family the ability to exercise its “Surge Capacity Force.” Surge is scalable actions from initiating, building, to winding down, and mitigation.
FEMA employees are trained in disasters, know they can be deployed, live in austerity, and assist survivors. But the burgeoning federal family called upon to provide a Surge Capacity Force must leave their jobs and families and receive just-in-time training which does not equip them with the expertise to volunteer in unfamiliar and devastating conditions. An inexperienced force will add to the problem not help it.
Conclusion
Homeland Security is being overhauled to adapt with changes in threat landscape. Our legacy, historic bureaucratic barriers, are to be torn down. These barriers made our country unique, distinct, and a beacon of hope to the surrounding nations. DHS is asking us to embrace this New Age of “safety and security”.
When faced with this demand for blind trust entrust your mind to ponder America’s landscape and heritage:
- The inheritance of freedom given to us by Almighty God
- The Founding Fathers and Bill of Rights, the right tools for every season
- Pray for those unjustly imprisoned and exiled for the shred of freedom that you enjoy today
- Remember the sacrifice of lives and spilled blood that forged this country
- Educate yourself on fake trials being conducted in the USA where the truth is hidden instead of exposed
- Use your mind to question things that just don’t seem right
- If something appears dark, it is dark. Do what you can to oppose it.
Yesterday, I came home to a lovely prospect of newly fallen snow. I was tending my flock. I was shocked to discover fresh blood staining the pristine snow. As my eyes gazed upwards I saw a trail of blood leading into the forest. I followed the blood trail through heavy snow, when at long last; I came across a clearing beneath a tree, and underneath it laid the mutilated carcass of one of my beloved pets.
We must ask ourselves, when will we recognize that the federal government has overstepped its original purpose and that it is no longer the servant? How long will we follow the trail of blood? In the end, will we find that our country has sustained a serious injury or will we discover that it has been mutilated unto death right in front of our very eyes?
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