[Vision2020] Paranoid Progressives, Paranoid Libertarians Also

[Tbertruss at aol.com]

All:

Now for some real paranoia!

http://www.randomhouse.com/bantamdell/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=0553803662

Fortress America    
    
Written by Matthew Brzezinski   
    
Current Affairs - American; Current Affairs - Government; Current Affairs - 
Political | Bantam
Hardcover | August 2004
25.00 | 0-553-80366-2   
    
    
    
    
Heavily armed guards at the entrances to malls and restaurants. Citizens 
deemed “suspicious” taken away without formal charges or legal counsel. Would a “
safe” America even look like America anymore?

One of the few journalists to penetrate the new counter terror initiative, 
Matthew Brzezinski offers an insider’s look at the new technology, laws, 
tactics, and persistent vulnerabilities of the post-9/11 era. The result is this 
startling, sometimes controversial look at what it will take to achieve genuine 
homeland security and what it may be like to live inside Fortress America

Is this what a safe America will look like?

• Cameras at airport ticket counters that can tell if you are stressed 

• Satellites and surveillance equipment that can see through the walls of 
your home

• Computer programs capable of spotting abnormal behavior 

• National ID “smart” cards encoding your personal, financial, and medical 
information required for electronic police spot checks

In the aftermath of September 11, a massive effort has been launched to 
protect us from another terrorist attack. But the costs of safeguarding our country 
will require not only unprecedented amounts of funding, but dramatic changes 
in the way Americans lead their everyday lives. 

Is this the new price of freedom?

• Mandatory chips installed in all cell phones and automobiles that can 
locate you instantly within a dozen yards

• Patriot II legislation that can arbitrarily revoke citizenship and allow 
terrorist sympathizers to vanish without a trace

• Transponder implants that could be injected into the bodies of prisoners, 
foreign nationals, and perhaps one day all US citizens…

Such high-tech measures are not the stuff of science fiction but in many 
cases are already being implemented. As Brzezinski discovers, similar measures 
have been in use for years in security states like Israel. But will Americans 
trade liberty for security? Will they have a choice? And can even the most 
radical measures insure that a 9/11 style attack won’t happen again?

>From an unheeded warning six years before the WTC disaster to dramatic 
war-game scenarios secretly conducted at Andrews Air Force Base and chilling on-site 
simulations of actual attacks, Fortress America paints a sobering picture of 
the future of freedom…and what life may be like in a maximum security state. 

"An alarming, wholly provocative work."
-- Kirkus Reviews

"Good reporting and grounded extrapolation."
--Publishers Weekly


 
    
    

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