MNP and US Authorities - Enemy of the States

Seest though a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men

Proverbs 22 vs 29, King James Version

Senator Dwight Nelson, Minister of National Security, has realized the untapped potential of MRSI (Mandatory Registration of Subscriber Information) as stated in the article “CLARO Backs Cell Phone Tracking Plan; Digicel, LIME in Wait-And-See Mode”, published Sunday May 16, 2010 by Mark Titus, Business Reporter, the Sunday Gleaner, having made his intention clear some months ago to pursue the same Crime strategy as Mexico as there is an obvious link to criminals or “badmen” as laid out in my blog posting entitled “Mexico and MNP: A Solution to crime in Mexico” who use Unregistered Mobile Phones, Phone Instruments (mobile, fixed line mobile, landline or wired /wireless modems) IMEI and SIM Cards (mobile, fixed line mobile, landline or wired /wireless modems) IMSI to organize crime as suggested in the Reuters report that as mentioned in the news report by CNET Loaded aired April 12 2010 by Natalie Del Conte, CNET News (CBS) (www.cnet.com) and confirmed by the article “Mexico may shut down 25.9 Million Cell Phones which haven't joined registry”, published April 11, 2010 - 11:45pm by MacRonin, (http://www.privacydigest.com).

The legality is easily argued in the United States of America jurisdiction as it is legal and unlike a wiretap does not require a warrant as is currently the case in the United States of America where the Obama Administration has argued that warrantless tracking is permitted because Americans enjoy no “reasonable expectation of privacy” in their cell phones' [mobile devices] whereabouts and the U.S. Department of Justice lawyers argue that “a customer's Fourth Amendment rights are not violated when the phone company reveals to the Government of the United States of America State Department its own records” i.e. mobile device placed and received calls as stated in the article "Feds push for tracking cell phones", published February 11, 2010 4:00 AM PST by Declan McCullagh, CNET News - Politics and Law, (http://www.cnet.com). Thus it is not surprising that the Government of the United States of America has now caught on to this idea of MRSI and has realized after the failed bombing plot in New York Time Square by alleged bomb plotter, Faisal Shahzad as stated in the article “US lawmakers target pre-paid cell phone anonymity”, published Wednesday 26-05-2010, Yahoo News!, AFP, (http://news.yahoo.com). As in Jamaica, it is felt that the registration of Pre-Paid mobile phones, a more flexible equivalent to our PostPaid phones in Jamaica, were too easily purchased, requiring no identification and no credit card checks and thus legislation on the Pre-Paid Mobile Phone industry was long overdue, as Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer was quoted as saying “this proposal is overdue because for years terrorists, drug kingpins and gang members have stayed one step ahead of the law by using prepaid phones that are hard to trace”.

Well, folks, it seems they have gotten their wish for legal backing, as a three (3) judge panel of the Federal Appeals Court in Philadelphia passed a ruling that effectively gives power to the Justice Department on behalf of the police and Federal Law Enforcement Agencies to track persons using their phone records as well as information relating to which mobile cell tower a suspect’s phone used to connect to the Network i.e. location records without a warrant, provided that the police and other Federal Agencies requesting the information have probable cause as stated by the article “Court allows warrantless cell location tracking”, published September 7, 2010 1:44 PM PDT by Declan McCullagh, CNET News - Privacy Inc., (http://www.cnet.com). U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Lenihan’s ruling flied in the face of the Justice Department’s argument that “a customer's Fourth Amendment rights are not violated when the phone company reveals to the Government of the United States of America State Department its own records”, as probable cause is a check to ensure that the system is not abused. Despite this setback, the probable cause request at least gives some buffer to individual privacy rights and comfort to the Orwellian not to mention Rothschild Conspiracy thinking among us who believed what actor Gene Hackman said about the National Security Agency in the 1998 movie Enemy of the State “been in bed with the entire telecommunications industry since the '40s; they've infected everything”.

Ironically, we now have FourSquare, who started this Geo-Location Social Network craze as stated in the article “Social Media's New Mantra: Location, Location, Location”, published May 6, 2010, 5:00PM EST, BusinessWeek - TECHNOLOGY, (http://www.businessweek.com)  with Gowalla, Loopt and now FaceBook Places joining the Geo-Location bandwagon in its attempt to rule the Social Networking space as stated in the article “Facebook Places: One Check-in to rule them all”, published August 18, 2010 7:48 PM PDT by Caroline McCarthy, CNET News - The Social, (http://www.cnet.com), thus the current generation, who are a lot less concerned about their privacy, may not even be concerned about friends knowing there whereabouts. Google no doubt is afraid of this, as it appear to take deliberate aim at Google Places and may in short order begin to threaten their Google Places successful Geo-Location and Geo-Tagging advertising service by offering a Social Dimension by the inclusion of the “Third Place” as suggested in the article “FaceBook Places takes aim at Google”, published August 19, 2010 1:18 PM PDT by Tom Krazit, CNET News - Relevant Results, (http://www.cnet.com). There is even a geo-location technology based on using Single Tower Triangulation, enableing even legacy handsets without GPS to become part of this latest geo-location craze, a potential boon for the making of a Mobile Social Network as suggested in the article “Global Positioning Without GPS”, published September 13, 2009, 11:30PM EST By Kevin Tofel, BusinessWeek - GIGAOM, (http://www.businessweek.com). This seems to all be a follow-on on the statements attributed to FaceBook CEO Mark Zuckerberg who stated that “People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people - and that social norm is just something that has evolved over time.” This all, by extension, bodes well for the acceptance of the Authorities being able to track your location via you contact with mobile towers each time the network “pings” your phone to update the Telecom Providers Switch as it relates to you location in terms of cell tower you are closest, sector, be it alpha, beta or gamma sector and your neighbour cell relation so as to facilitate hand-off of calls, should you decided to make a call. 

Jamaica’s problem is a bit more unique, as people are not only able to purchase phones from any Unregistered Third Party retailer of mobile phones, often cheap Chinese knock-offs, but also, shockingly, they can get functional SIM cards from off the street for Telecom Provider LIME and Telecom Provider Digicel, which is action that is in contravention to the Telecommunications Act of 2000, which states that ALL Mobile Phones, Phone Instruments (mobile, fixed line mobile, landline or wired /wireless modems) IMEI and SIM Cards (mobile, fixed line mobile, landline or wired /wireless modems) IMSI need to be registered. But, like Jamaica, the problems faced by law enforcement with criminals and drug kingpins, is that “while most Americans use Pre-Paid mobile devices lawfully, the anonymous nature of these devices gives too much cover to individuals looking to use them for deviant, dangerous means” as Republican Senator John Cornyn was quoted as saying.

It seems that despite all the squabbling over how to deal with the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill of the coast of Louisiana, which has at the time of writing this short commentary, BP (British Petroleum) was finally able to stop as stated in the article “Oil well plug 'going as planned'”, published Thursday 27 May 2010, BBC News (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news) and President Barak Obama recent announcement of a six (6) month moratorium on the granting of oil prospecting licenses, that this is an issue upon which the both sides of the House on Capitol Hill, Republicans and Democrats in the Government of the United States of America were able to find common ground, as crime, as in Mexico and Jamaica, is a problem which the three (3) countries have in common. BP has since successfully capped the oil well, as stated in the article “BP installs new cap on oil well”, published Wednesday July 14 2010, BBC World News (http://news.bbc.co.uk).That it took so long for politicians in all three (3) sovereign states to realize that Telecoms Providers were in effect aiding and abetting the activities of criminal networks, should strike an odd sounding chime in the minds of many, as politicians turned a blind eye to regulation of Public Sector companies in the Telecommunications and Oil Mining Sector and allowed the regulators and these multi-billion dollar companies to be “in cahoots” only now scrambling to regulate them after the baby and the bathwater had long been thrown out and milk had already been spilt and started to go stale, and the connection to the lack of proper regulation becomes glaringly obvious.

A lesson to us all as to the power of money and how it corrupts people in power, a fact self-evident also by the recent actions of lobbyist Jack Abramoff as parodied in the movie Casino Jack and the United States of Money.