MTA (the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Interagency Counter Terrorism Task Force) investigators are keeping a secret database of people stopped and questioned for filming or photographing bridges and tunnels as part of the agency's efforts to thwart terror, the Daily News has learned.
... a source said those who were stopped let investigators review their film voluntarily. The source was not aware of anyone refusing.
"Most of the time they show us the images right there because they are tourists," the source said.
story via notifbutwhen
~I think since 9/11 my name has been added to more databases than mailing lists.
How many agencies like NY's MTA might be creating lists of potential suspects? Near my town you can't walk or bike near a river or canal without crossing under high-voltage power lines, over gas pipe-lines, close to locks, water and sewage treatment plants and oil and various chemical refineries.
>related:
"The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has spent close to $10 billion for anti-terrorism efforts since 9/11. Right now, Congress is considering the latest homeland-security appropriations bill of around $30 billion in discretionary funding. The DHS then appropriates funds to states, which in turn divide it among local governments.
As it stands, the formula is population-based, so Illinois gets more money than 45 other states.
(New York gets more money then 49 other states.~ed)
(In Illinois) the job of doling out federal homeland-security dollars belongs to the Illinois Terrorism Task Force...
According to the task-force chairman... 80 percent of the federal funds his department receives must go directly to municipal governments.
(New York might have a different arrangement with its Port Authority and other inter-borough bureaucracies~ed)
In the 2005 federal fiscal year, Illinois got $102 million, with almost half of that earmarked for Chicago and Cook County, according to their 2004 annual report.
~Should we assume part of the more than $102 million NY received from Homeland Security this year is funding a number of secret databases?
Posted by Cieciel at July 29, 2005 04:52 AM