U.S. Using Fake Cell Towers On Planes To Gather Cell Phone Data

[David Howard]

Hi miso, You are mostly correct, in that Android WiGLE freeware appears to mostly be for wardriving WiFI SSIDs, but, it also lists the cellular towers it sees.

The advantage is that the cellular tower information nearly exactly matches the

maps you pointed us to, so, you can tell if the tower your phone is connected to is at least a known tower (and not one of the unnamed rogue towers).

The disadvantage of WiGLE is, as you said, that it clutters up the output with WiFi SSIDs (which is its primary purpose), so, we need *better* software specifically for cell tower connection information.

It seems, to me, that it "should" be *easy* to be warned when our cellphones connect to a rogue tower, either from the overhead Boeing DRT (aka dirtbag), or the mobile Harris Stingray, or the pedestrian Harris Gossamer devices. a. The rogue cell sites all appear to be unnamed (to date), b. While they "can" connect the call, they generally disconnect you, c. They appear to drop your connection down from 4G to 3G to 2G, d. They all seem to try to put your phone in maximum output mode, e. They tell your phone they have higher signal strength than they actually do, f. If it's on an airplane, then it will exist for short periods only, g. The rogue sites are not on the existing FCC databases, etc.

Given that these general characteristics seem to be consistent, how hard do you think it would be for someone to code up an app which automatically WARNS the user (sort of like how AV programs use heuristics to warn users) that a rogue site is suspected nearby?

What would be useful is, when they fly these airplanes overhead, that the tens of thousands of people being spied upon by these bad guys all get a notification on their phone of the illegal activity by law enforcement overhead.

Each flight would make the news.

[nestork]

Oren:

Putting blinders and ear plugs on your government serves the people that want to attack you and your government. To hobble your government with restrictions on it's ability to find, investigate and stop home grown terrorists will only result in more successful terrorist attacks.

I think it's a mistake to look for answers to modern problems in a 2000 year old book like the Bible or a 1200 year old book like the Koran. I also think it's a mistake to look for guidance in dealing with modern day problems in your 200 year old Constitution.

The way I look at it, my government is not out to get ME, they're out to get the people that want to attack me. When where and how did you guys get the impression that your government wants to get YOU?

[Stormin Mormon]

It was on the radio again today, there is another scandal surfacing. O using the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to harass conservative groups.

One of several to many examples in the US.

- . Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

.

[Stormin Mormon]

As president, Barack Obama has made a habit of bypassing or ignoring constitutional limitations on his power, a panel of experts told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

Obama?s claiming of executive privilege during the Fast and Furious debacle has already faded from the headlines, and it may be hard to remember the weight of the outrage expressed at the beginning of the year, when Obama made a handful of unilateral ?recess? appointments, opting to bypass a Senate that wasn?t actually in recess.

(abuse of power makes me nervous)

[Stormin Mormon]

In 2013, the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) revealed that it had selected political groups applying for tax-exempt status for intensive scrutiny based on their names or political themes. This led to wide condemnation of the agency and triggered several investigations, including a Federal Bureau of Investigation criminal probe ordered by United States Attorney General Eric Holder.[1][2] Initial reports described the selections as nearly exclusively of conservative groups with terms such as "Tea Party" in their names. Further investigation by media outlets appeared to confirm this, revealing that some liberal-leaning groups and the Occupy movement had also triggered additional scrutiny, but not at nearly the same rate as conservative groups.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] The Republican majority on the House Oversight Committee issued a report which concluded that no liberal groups were targeted; however, the report was criticized by the committee's Democratic minority, who concluded that the report ignored evidence that liberal groups were targeted.[10][11] The use of target lists continued through May 2013.[12]

[Stormin Mormon]

REPORT: IRS Auditing Conservatives Dramatically More Than Liberals

It?s been a terrible week for the IRS, and any time it?s a bad day for the taxman, it?s usually a cause for celebration for the American public.

On Wednesday we reported on how Congress voted to hold Lois Lerner in contempt, which is another step forward in exposing the corruption of the Obama administration and their attempt to silence those voices of dissent who refuse to go along with the President?s socialistic agenda.

Click here to get a FREE subscription to the Conservative Tribune.

As if that wasn?t enough to ruffle the feathers of liberal progressives, House Republicans were joined by two dozen Democrats in a vote asking the Justice Department to appoint a special prosecutor to take over the investigation into IRS targeting.

Things were already not looking good for the Obama administration or the IRS, but a new report by House Republicans is the bearer of even more evidence to demonstrate deliberate targeting.

The report contains clear evidence that conservative groups were audited by the IRS at a dramatically higher rate than anyone else. Unbelievable.

[nestork]

Stormin:

You musta missed the part that read:

"This led to wide condemnation of the agency and triggered several investigations, including a Federal Bureau of Investigation criminal probe ordered by United States Attorney General Eric Holder."

Abuse of power can happen anywhere under any government because it's people that run the government, and people often will try to over step their authority. What matters isn't that the IRS selectively targeted conservative groups, that's just personal political agendas coming to the surface, but what was done about it when that was made public. In this case there were investigations and the problem was dealt with. It'd have been a serious problem if nothing was done about it because then you'd have real corruption; that is, state sponsored corruption where the government condones or even rewards that abuse of authority.

Oren: "What document does Canada admire, most?

Canada probably has a constitution like you guys have, but it's not like the average Canadian really knows or cares what's in it.

What we do have, since about 1982 or so, is something called "The Charter of Rights and Freedoms" which guarantees basic human rights and much the same rights as your Constitution guarantees you guys, like the right to freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom of religion and all that stuff. "The Charter", as it's come to be called, supercedes all other laws in the country, so rights and freedoms guaranteed in The Charter trump any other civic, provincial or federal laws that affect Canadians. I think it's basically much the same thing as your US Constitution, except it doesn't say anything about a "well armed militia", so it's silent on that stuff.

And, it's been a pain the the butt since 1982. In one case, a Pakistani Canadian got hired by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and once he had completed his training and was on the job, refused to wear the standard hat issued by the RCMP because his religion required that he wear a turban instead. And, the case went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, and they said his right to practice his religion trumped the RCMP's requirement that constables wear the standard RCMP uniform. So, now there's a cop somewhere in British Columbia wearing a turban instead of the standard issue RCMP hat. The public reaction was pretty vocal against that decision. There were bumper stickers showing an RCMP officer wearing a turban with the caption "Doesn't this make you Sikh?" (The Sikh religion requires men to wear turbans to cover their hair, and I think it's the priciple religion of Pakistan.)

'Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia'

[Stormin Mormon]

CY: I'm pleased there are a few people in government who are concerned about abuse of power.

CY: I believe that some governments, and some parties are more prone to abuse. For example in the US, the liberal Democrats are more abusive.

What matters isn't that the IRS selectively targeted

CY: I'd disagree with your statement. I'd much prefer no abuse of power, compared to any response. Do you think that it doesn't matter if you get robbed, beaten, and left for dead, as long as there is proper RCMP response?

In

CY: I'd prefer no abuse of power, to begin with.

CY: So what are you guys going to do when your government abuses power? Slingshot a bunch of attorneys in their direction and hope for the best?

[CRNG]

On Mon, 17 Nov 2014 17:24:47 GMT, [e-mail] (Scott Lurndal) wrote in

Probably because cell phone monitoring can help stop terrorism but has no effect on traffic accidents.

[makolber]

well if they have all this equipment and capabilities, i say we should empower the NSA to put it to good use and stop the spam phone callers.

I bet they can find Linda from cardholder services.

Mark

[trader_4]

Just what Obama wants to hear. The Constitution is just an old, irrelevant document and it shouldn't be allowed to get in the way of a president doing whatever the hell he wants to do.

Did you see what the IRS did just the last couple of years? Holder had the DOJ search the home of reporter James Rosen. How about some of the stuff Nixon pulled? And if you let them get away with it, instead of objecting, then see where you are in another 10 years.

BTW, I'm not so disturbed by what DOJ is allegedly doing with using planes to track cell phones. As I understand it, they are only looking for specific phone numbers of wanted criminals, not blanket surveilance. But you appear to be green lighting the latter and anything else the govt wants to do, without regard to that pesky old constitution.

[Stormin Mormon]

They probably on first name basis with Ashley, who wants to lend my business some capital.

[trader_4]

Say what? It doesn't matter? And who says it was just personal political agendas? Hell, we don't even know who ordered it or what exactly went on. Kind of like the early days of Watergate. It could turn out that the "personal political agenda" was that of the White House.

What has been done about it? Other than the House trying to investigate and being stonewalled, Lois Lerner pleading the fifth, not much has happened. Any arrests? A special prosecutor appointed, independent of the administration? Hell no, you have the administration investigating itself.

In

It was? Other that Lerner resigning, what exactly else has been done? Who's been arrested? Anyone even fired? Good grief.

You do have real corruption. And the administration is investigating itself. How about the mysterious dissappearance of all those emails? You believe that's just an, awe shucks accident?

that is, state sponsored corruption

That is exactly what appears to have happened at IRS.

[Stormin Mormon]

IIRC, Nestork is Canadian. Grew up under socialism, and may not realize what it's like to have (a few) freedoms.

- . Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

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