Fascism: U.S. Government & DHS Are Keeping A Record Of Journalists Welcome To The Death Of Free Press

The United States and Mexican governments are targeting more than 50 people including journalists, an  attorney, and immigration advocates, under  Operation Secure Line, NBC reported. 

According to documents obtained by NBC the secret database of activists, journalists, and social media influencers was tied to those involved or who reported on the migrant caravan.

NBC even reports that some people even had alerts placed on their pass ports which kept at least two photojournalists and an attorney from entering into Mexico to do their respective work. 

In total, the intelligence services targeted - ten journalists, seven of whom are U.S. citizens, a U.S. attorney, and  48 people from the U.S. and other countries, labeled as organizers,  instigators, or "role unknown."

The individual dossiers included a photo of a target usually a passport, however, in some  cases social media accounts, along with personal  information. The information  that was in the documents showed a person’s date of birth, their  “country of commencement,” and their role in the immigrant caravan.

This process is highly illegal and even someone at the DHS admitted this fact to NBC.

 “We are a criminal investigation agency, we’re not an intelligence  agency,” a Homeland Security source told NBC 7. “We can’t  create dossiers on people and they’re creating dossiers. This is an  abuse of the Border Search Authority.”  

It's interesting to note, last year it was revealed that the DHS is monitoring hundreds of thousands of news sources around the globe and compiling an extensive database on - journalists, editors, foreign correspondents, and bloggers to identify top “media influencers” who mention its name.

This came to light due to a job offer on a federal job website FedBizOpps.gov (Federal Business Opportunities.) The job ad showed that the DHS was looking for “Media Monitoring Services.”

The agency seeks to track more than 290,000 global news sources as well as social media in over 100 languages for instant translation into English. The successful contracting company will have “24/7 Access to a password protected, media influencer database, including journalists, editors, correspondents, social media influencers, bloggers etc.” in order to “identify any and all media coverage related to the Department of Homeland Security or a particular event.”“Any media coverage” as you might imagine is quite broad and includes “online, print, broadcast, cable, radio, trade and industry publications, local sources, national/international outlets, traditional news sources, and social media.” 

What’s extremely frightening and worrying is the database will be browseable by “location, beat and type of influencer,” and for each influencer, the chosen contractor should “present contact details and any other information that could be relevant, including publications this influencer writes for, and an overview of the previous coverage published by the media influencer.”

1.2 SCOPEThe contractor shall provide NPPD/OUS with traditional and social media monitoring and communications solutions.1.3 OBJECTIVEServices shall enable NPPD/OUS to monitor traditional news sources as well as social media, identify any and all media coverage related to the Department of Homeland Security or a particular event. Services shall provide media comparison tools, design and rebranding tools, communication tools, and the ability to identify top media influencers.

• Overview of search results in terms of online articles and social media conversations

They truly want the government birth name of every Facebook and Twitter user that mentions the words DHS. What’s more is they will also have the ability to target everyone discussing a mass shooting or terrorist attack.

• Ability to analyze the media coverage in terms of content, volume, sentiment, geographical spread, top publications, media channels, reach, AVE, top posters, influencers, languages, momentum, circulation.

 It seems that the Trump era DHS has forgotten the First Amendment not to step on the press and press-related freedoms, which it will by intimidating journalists, keeping dossiers on us all, and even compiling a list of bloggers. 

Historically, it has been the FBI who keeps files on journalists and dissidents, not the DHS. The FBI has files on famous journalist such as Hastings, Michael, Jennings, Peter, Cronkite, Walter. 

 Predictably, the FBI probably keeps a file on every alternative news journalist or anyone who really tells the “TRUTH” whatever that may be.Global press freedom declined to its lowest point in 13 years in 2016 amid unprecedented threats to journalists and media outlets in major democracies and new moves by authoritarian states to control the media, including beyond their borders, according to Freedom House.

In 2014, the ACLU reported that large-scale surveillance by the U.S. government was undermining the work of journalists and lawyers. One can only imagine what they think about the DHS, another agency spying on journalists.

As an example, the FBI probably has a file on Julian Assange and any other journalists working with the publication WikiLeaks because WikiLeaks opens governments and gives transparency to the public.

Now we can all just add the DHS to that ongoing list of agencies that are keeping tabs on us. But whatever happened to Echelon, because I thought there were admittedly Fusion Centers, stingrays and the NSA? Why do we need another agency spying on us all?More questions remain: Will the journalists on the list be notified they’ve been added? Do they have any control over what data is added about them?

The job offer states, “present contact details and any other information that could be relevant,” seems to imply journalists will have profiles with a variety of information. Does that open the door to connect this info with any other data DHS can get its hands on: job histories, criminal histories, etc.? 

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