The Manhattan Project: New York’s High Tech Panopticon

From http://www.infowars.com/?p=1793

The Manhattan Project: New York’s High Tech Panopticon
Kurt Nimmo

Infowars

April 28, 2008

“By 2015, New York’s financial district will be wrapped in a thick web of security. The aim: Make a potential terrorist attack as difficult as possible to execute,” writes Noah Shachtman for Wired.
It’s something we best pay attention to, as this “thick web of security” will eventually reach Everytown, U.S.A. New York, following London, is America’s beta test site for all kinds of police state technology, including:
Helicopters in the sky with high-powered cameras, “looking for unusual activity.” Noah Shachtman does not tell us what this “unusual activity” might be, but let us hazard a guess: al-Qaeda guys in turbans, mounted on donkeys, casing Manhattan for targets. Minus that, the NYPD can use their big cameras to ferret out pot smokers and prostitutes, or as in the case of Britain, people who litter or engaged in what is considered anti-social behavior — determined by the state, of course.

Armed SWAT Teams. These will be a “highly visible deterrent,” in other words, if you live or work on Manhattan, get used to Darth Vader storm troopers in black prowling around, looking for Osama. Get accustomed to heavily armed men in black ski masks. It’s for your safety.
Intel Units. Now these will most certainly let all know they live in East Germany, circa the 1980s, when the Stasi ruled the roost. “A team of 500 intelligence analysts under the direction of an ex-CIA official IDs and tracks suspects in the five boroughs and abroad,” writes Shachtman. “It is backed up by plainclothes undercover cops.” Get that “ex-CIA” part. Because once you join the agency you’re married for life. Not long ago, CIA anything in domestic affairs was not only frowned upon, it was illegal. But then the CIA has not followed its charter from day one.
License plate scanners, mounted in “roving vehicles and at stationary locations.” Capable of running every plate number that passes quite easily and sorting the captured information through massive databases, this technology will come in handy once martial law is declared. If you’re on the “no-drive” list, one of the above mentioned SWAT units will be dispatched pronto after you hit the road. In the meantime, it will be used to generate revenue from people who don’t like to pay parking tickets.
Networked Cameras. Has a real Orwellian telescreen feel about it. “A smart array of 3,000 public and private surveillance cameras will watch for suspicious activity and known suspects and will trigger alerts.” Note how public and private merge here. Once again, in lieu of martial law, this “smart array” will come in handy for revenue generation, as “suspicious” (or profitable) activity will be monitored and the above mentioned SWAT unit will be called into action against speeders, smokers in no-smoking zones (soon to be the entire country), people drinking alcoholic beverages in public, gun owners (possession of a handgun is illegal in New York City), prostitution, indecency, public drug use, etc. Anything and everything to get people in the system and into the prison industrial complex.

Street barriers, even “automatic blockades that can seal off additional streets and tunnels on command.” Imagine the lockdown possibilities. Sort of like Escape from New York.
The subways will be studded with “smart cameras, intelligent video, intrusion detectors, and perimeter sensors” that will diligently and tirelessly “monitor commuters,” especially those who may belong to the blond hair, blue eye wing of al-Qaeda.
Private Cell Network. “A custom, government-only wireless network will blanket the city, providing dedicated communications and data transfer.” Dedicated? No doubt a dedicated hacker or two will be able to crack this puppy wide open in a couple hours. Of course, anybody who tries will be with al-Qaeda and if caught sent to Gitmo or renditioned to an undisclosed location in the third world.
The NYPD will play with their new and grossly expensive “Manhattan Project” toys from a “state-of-the-art NYPD control hub at 55 Broadway (and a secret backup location)” and “police will be able to monitor and control security systems,” that is to say snoop on any car or person on the island. You can bet retired Stasi agents are envious, as they had to rely on thousands of informants to ferret out enemies of the state.

Finally, from here on out, every new building on Manhattan “will be vetted for safety by the NYPD,” that is to say they will get copies of the blueprints. “Surveillance cameras and even heating and AC controls will be accessible remotely on the police network.” In other words, in a few years, the cops will be able to watch you for “suspicious activity” no matter where you go, even in the toilet like they do in schools over in Britain. I wonder if this “electronic blueprint” plan applies to apartment and condo buildings.
Indeed, New York has launched an ambitious panopticon plan, one the rest of the country will soon enough follow, maybe on an accelerated schedule after the next “terrorist event” we keep hearing about, promised by our rulers and their complaisant media machine.