U.S. sensors could track any car, all passengers in foreign ciites

[leQ]

(dated july 30 so i know this story isn't stale. my apologies for prior gaffes)

The Defense Department project calls for a command and control system using thousands of sensors to track vehicles in any foreign city. Officials said the sensors being developed — termed Combat Zones That See — would be able to identify vehicles, drivers and passengers at any time and in any weather.

{snip}

Officials said the Combat Zones That See project would be introduced gradually. The first stage, they said, would deploy a range of cameras and other sensors linked to a command and control facility to monitor traffic around U.S. military bases abroad.

In the second phase of the project the system would be expanded to detect insurgency activities or suspicious behavior in a foreign city in which U.S. troops operate. The officials did not identify the city, but it is expected to be Baghdad or Kabul.

The project also envisions using existing video cameras in a city to form a huge surveillance system. The Pentagon seeks to develop software that can link thousands of cameras — whether in stores, tunnels, bridges, banks or government offices — to a command and control facility.

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/breaking_8.html

while i agree that this could very useful for getting first responders to the scene quicker, the level of dual purpose being used for non-terrorism/non-criminal related efforts is uncomfortably high. the numerous times the word "insurgents" is used just gave me chills.

[bif]

1. Big brother is coming

Who knew?

[bemildred]

2. More Hi-Tech Horseshit.

Someone will make a bundle "developing" this, and it will not
be worth shit in the real world because they will be too cheap
to hire and train the thousands of "analysts" needed to watch all
that crap going by. And if you think they can do it with computers,
I have some ocean-front property in Kingman, Arizona I can sell
you at a very reasonable price.

[grasswire]

3. the word for us is "urban hostiles"

That's the phrase used by DoD contractors who switched to civilian applications of technology after the Gulf War. I have the press package from the conference "Law Enforcement and Technology for the 21st Century" sponsord by DoJ and DoD.

We're urban hostiles.

[bemildred]

4. Yeah, they were talking about this sort of stuff

back when I was still working in the belly of the beast.
That and drug war stuff.

It's part boondoggle for the defense corporations and part
propaganda to intimidate the ruled, and all bullshit. If you
ever deploy such a system it becomes a target immediately, as
do the armies of technicians required to replace and maintain
it, and the armies of cops deployed to try and protect it. Did
I mention the armies of "analysts" that have to stand around and
watch the rivers of data going by?

I think its intended to be a sort of less people intensive or
less intrusive or less scary substitute for secret police,
but the level of technical cluelessness behind it just boggles
the mind.

Not unlike Rumdums revolution in military affairs. He's take the
old useless conventional forces and makes them into special forces
that function as sort of imperial cops, or at least that's the
idea, and the SF actually work pretty good at what they do, but they
still don't solve the problem that you just can't conquer anybody
and make a profit at it anymore, it just doesn't pay.