In San Francisco the story goes something like this. Apple has lost a iphone 5 prototype and tracks it to a house in Bernal Heights. Apple agents, initially reportedly accompanied by the police, flashed badges and searched a private person's residence. The three person Apple team intimidate the hispanic family and inquire as to their immigration status. They search the home, car and computer files but ultimately find nothing and leave.
The occupant and suspect, Sergio Calderón said he was under the impression that the intruders were all police, since they were part of the group outside that identified themselves as SFPD officials. The two who entered the house did not disclose that they were private security officers, according to Calderón.
"When they came to my house, they said they were SFPD," Calderón said. "I thought they were SFPD. That's why I let them in." He said he would not have permitted the search if he had been aware the two people conducting it were not actually police officers.
Police play mum and say that they have no record of the search or incident, at least until the fur starts to fly and they cop to their complicity.
Now if I read the law correctly it would seem that there are numerous questions that arise from this case of the purloined iphone. One, isn't it illegal to impersonate a police officer, even if you work for a huge monolith like Apple? Two, what are the San Francisco Police doing aiding and abetting the search, standing idly by while the Apple snoops get down and dirty?
Now I know that the Supreme Court has decided that corporations are people too. Apple, with more money than the United States Treasury, is big and bad enough to do its own dirty work without the SFPD carrying water for them.
***
The second item that piqued my curiosity was the expose in yesterday's WAPO by William Arkin and Dana Priest regarding the Joint Special Operations Command. Illegal for the CIA to conduct assassinations, illegal renditions and otherwise similarly illegal covert operations?
Problem solved. Create a new shadow killing force answerable to no one. A force that is estimated to get at least half of their intended targets wrong and waste lots of innocent people. Collateral damage, merely the cost of doing business and a further indication that we learned nothing from Iran Contra, Church Commission or Watergate and that the government and spy apparatus will do whatever the hell it wants, regardless of either legal authority or constitutional sanction. A very interesting read.
Problem solved. Create a new shadow killing force answerable to no one. A force that is estimated to get at least half of their intended targets wrong and waste lots of innocent people. Collateral damage, merely the cost of doing business and a further indication that we learned nothing from Iran Contra, Church Commission or Watergate and that the government and spy apparatus will do whatever the hell it wants, regardless of either legal authority or constitutional sanction. A very interesting read.
Great recipe for a dictatorship. Create a never ending war and a gnawing fear of terrorism and use it to form a new nation where citizens lose all rights to privacy, private communications, unreasonable search and any other personal rights deemed inconvenient by the authorities.
“We’re the dark matter. We’re the force that orders the universe but can’t be seen."
Anonymous Navy Seal - JSOC team member
