U.S. suggests drones, underground sensors to beef up surveillance along Canadian border
Here is the interesting bit:
The Canada Border Services Agency said it was in both countries’ interest for the border to remain “open, efficient and secure.”
“From our huge trade relationship to our common security concerns, we will continue to work together to keep the border open to legitimate trade and travel but closed to terrorists, criminals and other threats,” it said in a statement.
I wonder what other threats might be. From the American perspective, it could only mean the threat of expat tax evaders trying to go to and fro on the border without settling with the IRS. My house is a few kilometres from the border. I wonder what the range of the missiles on the drones is and what sort of destructive capacity they have.
*I’d say we station AA emplacements along the border and if one of their drones steps one inch across the border…we blast them out of the sky. Automatic rifle equipped guards…and a 5meter tall concrete fence topped with razor wire.
The stealth war on the muppets of the world by the US empire goes far beyond just drones. First we had Stuxnet, then Flame and now Gauss (here too). These viruses are targeted at specific hardware and software configurations and they would likely take down any Canadian AA effective against drones flying at 60,000 feet.
The US also has complete control of space, witness the new hypersonic jet and anti-satellite missiles .
And of course we have the new Domain Awareness System which, since it is written by Microsoft, will also be able to tap into microphones and video cameras on all computer devices running Microsoft software. Wikileaks also reports about another surveillance system. Plus the NSA leaker has informed us that the NSA has dossiers on nearly every US citizen.
Canada is America’s strongest ally, through thick and thin. You guys have nothing to worry about, Hope and Change will take care of you.
@confederationH
Is that ‘hope and change’ shot really necessary? Most Canadians are acutely aware of the David and Goliath nature of our relationship with the US. Yes, Canada has followed the path of least resistance in trade with the US, but Harper’s push to get Alberta oil to other world markets is telltale of another story that’s been emerging.
@Bubblebustin, “Hope and Change” of course was Obama’s campaign slogan. He promised change and I think he’s delivered on for expats. Things have really changed for expats. But what is new is how hopeless many of us feel. Now their new slogan campaign is “Forward”: the US is going forward with FATCA to make sure that no expat is safe in his foreign bank accounts.
@petros
I know where the slogan came from. His shot wasn’t directed at just expats, and perpetuates the myth that Canada is America lite.
Confederate, FWIW, I doubt you have much to worry about with computer spying or telephone eavesdropping. Pay close attention the next time they show the “people” who are doing the eavesdropping/spying on National Geographic and the like. A bunch of the “eavesdroppers” are young military that most likely speak the foreign language at an intermediate level. There may be a few civilians that are [almost] natives that understand small language and cultural details, but I doubt there are many. .
Add to that the sheer amount of traffic that they deal with. The US media likes to make it sound like the NSA knows everything about everyone everywhere in the world, but I seriously doubt that. I think the media does it to try to make everyone paranoid and have 2nd thoughts.
But in regards to real criminals, I’m very sure they are watched/tracked, etc.. for any signs of activity. Regarding computer spying – JUST USE LINUX.
@bubblebustin, I knew you knew. I took him to mean that America’s hope and change was coming here because of our cozy relationship with the US–is that what you mean by America lite?
ConfederationH has implied, imo, that Canada is in a ‘hope and change’ trance. Seeing that Americans, Democrats specifically, have left hope and change behind, he could at least (in his presumption that we are BFF’s with the US), progressed us to the more current ‘forward’!
@bubblebustin, we had to get going and my wife was telling me to get off the computer so I had to rush the last sentence.
My position on Canada is: where is your Ron Paul? Canadians don’t want one because in general they appear to be happy with their welfare state. Just take socialized healthcare as an example, Paul would strive to eliminate it.
Harper is going elsewhere to sell oil because Obama dissed him. My guess is that since Canada is mostly white and has that long tradition of supporting the British Empire that there is no love loss between the “great white north” and the fraudster that the US calls president.
@ Con-H
“Just take socialized healthcare as an example, Paul would strive to eliminate it.”
Thank you I have taken it and will continue to quite gladly, after having experienced the nightmare of privatized healthcare in the USA. I haven’t used it much (touch wood) but I’m grateful it’s there if needed and I don’t begrudge anyone here who does use it. I won’t argue this with you (that’s probably all you want anyway) but let’s just say you have your opinion and I have mine and leave it at that. Since you don’t live here, I will just add that your characterization of Harper is way off. He’s an Amerophile through and through and was even vetted by Bilderberg before he became our not so beloved (my opinion again) leader. He’d completely privatize our healthcare system in a heartbeat if he thought he could get away with it.
@Em, I really don’t know much about Harper, Europe is far more relevant to my fate than Canada.
Those few Canadians who want private healthcare ask nothing of you, yet you demand not only taxes to pay for your social insurance scheme but also deny those Canadians who want no part of your system their right to privatized care all the while depriving them of a myriad of freedoms and rights. And I haven’t even mentioned quality of care.
But Canada is but one tree in a forest of nations. The real issue is that all these welfare states are uniting together to extract tax revenue from the productive classes in order to buy off voters that have deliberately been made dependent on the state for healthcare and so much else. This conspiracy of welfare states is the real reason FATCA, HIRE, HEROES and all the other tax legislation has been passed. But most Canadians cannot see this because they have been told from childhood that the mother state will take care of them and keep them free. It is all a lie and Canadians have willingly become slaves to the welfare state. Either slave or piglet sucking at her tits.
Considering how well Obama’s previous campaign slogan promise of “Hope and Change” has worked out for America, if it can be any prediction, “Forward” may prove itself to have been a warning of worse things to come. Some of these campaign slogan ideas from the contenders themselves are perhaps more realistic:
http://teamcoco.com/content/new-campaign-slogans/photo-35097
A Canadian lawyer living in the US, works for ACLU:
‘Meet the Canadian challenging America’s drone war
Ontario native working on legal challenges to controversial program’
By Ian Munroe, CBC News
Posted: Apr 5, 2013 5:25 AM ET
Last Updated: Apr 5, 2013 5:22 AM ET
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/04/04/us-cia-drone-strikes-legal-challenge-jameel-jaffer.html
…”When a U.S. federal appeals court ruled last month that the CIA could no longer stay quiet about whether it has information on U.S. drone strikes, the decision made headlines around the world.
But for Jameel Jaffer, the Canadian-born lawyer who argued the case for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), it was the end of a three-year saga and the culmination of hundreds of hours of work for the small legal team that took on the suit….”
Ambassador Jacobson assures us that there will be no ‘open’ US / Canada border:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/04/04/david-jacobson-open-border_n_3018306.html#slide=more285700
“The U.S. ambassador to Canada says a European Union like arrangement where citizens can freely cross national borders is not in the cards on this side of the Atlantic.
David Jacobson says each European country has had to partially surrender sovereignty and he doesn’t think the U.S. or Canada would be willing to do that……….”
However, he neglected to point out that the US would continue to suck assets out of Canada using FATCA, and through the US extraterritorial tax system – defining ‘US taxable persons’ as broadly as possible, to encompass the Made in Canada, and wholly sited in Canada persons, assets, accounts, principal residence, estates, (and anything else they can think of).