If and when we in the United States do get hit again by terrorists, I will of course blame those who perpetrated the act of terrorism. However, I might save a little venom for some government officals:
The federal government doesn’t mind if the Force is with you, but it does have a problem if you have a copy of the newest “Star Wars” movie.
Agents shut down a popular Web site that allegedly had been distributing copyrighted music and movies, including versions of “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.” Homeland Security agents from several divisions served search warrants on 10 people around the country suspected of being involved with the Elite Torrents site, and took over the group’s main server.
Forget the idiotic and wasteful war on porn our government is waging that the Instapundit has chronicled. Forget the idiotic and unconscionable war on pain relief that Radley Balko has been documenting. As far as misguided government priorities go, this takes the cake, and I don’t care if it only wasted ten minuted of five DHS agent’s time and it is the result of interagency reorganization and cooperation.
I have scoured the organizational chart and here is the Department’s mission statement:
We will lead the unified national effort to secure America. We will prevent and deter terrorist attacks and protect against and respond to threats and hazards to the nation. We will ensure safe and secure borders, welcome lawful immigrants and visitors, and promote the free-flow of commerce.
Downloading pirated software and movies is a crime, but it is not terrorism, and only the broadest and most misguided and deranged reading of their mission statement would lead someone to conclude that downloading pirated movies would be a concern of theirs. Sadly, deranged and misguided is what I have come to expect. You want to protect commerce- how about working on the shipping containers issues.
So, remember. Don’t download movies, or the terrorists win. Un-friggin-believable. Or is it?
And before you ask, yes, I am shrill. Just seeing the Department of Homeland Security even MENTIONED in that story send my blood pressure through the damned roof.
*** Update ***
I probably didn’t make this clear enough. I don’t care if the DHS agents were merely doing their job as outlined. This should not be part of their job descrption. Period.
We were told this massive bureacracy was necessary to fight terrorism. We gave them lots of money and damn near everyuthing that had been on the law enforcement communities wish list since Oklahoma city, and now, after the fool’s trade-off of protections of liberty for security of terrorism, they are using those tools and that money and their authority for issues that fall decidedly out of the realm of war on terror. Just like all those whacky bastards at the ACLU said. Just like all the the crazy Big L libertarians said they would.
They don’t seem so whacky and crazy anymore, do they?
Homeland Security should be fighting terroism, not consolidating resources and powers into one, giant catch all law enforcement agency. If that is what they are trying to do, we need to kill the damned agency dead, right now. They should be fighting terrorism, and that is all they should be doing. Not worrying about pirated movies.
Ed
Why is this a big deal? DHS picked up a bunch of computer crime investigators from the Secret Service when it was formed, and those investigators are just doing their job. DHS is a massive agency, and not every thing it does is terrorism related.
John Cole
Because this has nothing to do with Homeland Security… That is all the Department should be focussing on.
Ridge
Not the first time the anti-terrorist resources have been used for strictly domestic law enforcement. The “Patriot” Act statutes, which we were all assured were needed to secure the US from foriegn enemies, has been used against US citizens violating criminal law.
Some of us feared the “Patriot” Act, the new “Patriot” Act II, Homeland Security, etc… were all too attractive tools to use just against Islamic bomb throwers. Mission creeep is real and no doubt many domestic criminal actions may soon be redefined as terrorism to allow the use of those tools.
ppgaz
Gotta go with John on this.
First DHS gives us the ludicrous, ineffective, clumsy, confusing and insulting color coded terror threat thing. It was immediately the butt of jokes, and deservedly so. But of course, they stuck with it … even though it was an insult to the intelligence of every citizen.
Now this. While there may be some economy of scale thing here in terms of law enforcement, it’s a lousy decision. It just fosters the image of DHS as a bunch of damned fools. It gives the impression of dilution of effort and lack of focus. It further erodes the tiny amount of confidence citizens have in this department.
You gotta wonder, what the hell are they thinking?
BadTux
Ok come on, ppgaz. We gotta protect America from the Torrent Downloads Of Mass Destruction, y’know? If the Department of Homeland Security didn’t shut down Torrent servers for sharing DVD movies, why, the terrorists would KILL US ALL!
— Badtux the Snarky Penguin
P.S. Welcome to the non-Koolaid-drinking side with the rest of us real conservatives, John!
ppgaz
You’re right, of course.
The War on Terra(bytes)?
Compuglobalhypermeganet
But think of the poor movie producers and record-company weasels who are being hurt by bit torrent downloading! Why, the quality of hookers off of whose breasts they snort their coke has fallen precipitously in the last two years!
Won’t SOMEBODY think of the chil… errrrr, the slimeballs?
Brian J.
I read somewhere that the DHS tagged along because of immigration questions of some of the targets.
Of course, the message would be that the DHS is serious about securing the borders only when the unnationalized citizens violate copyrights. Violent gang activity is still okay, though.
Brian C.B.
I remember three years ago, I think, when the original Patriot Act was being ginned up, that the RIAA kept trying to insert itself into the legislative mix. They were quite obviously trying to take advantage of real fear and hysteria to protect their commercial interests. At the time, they overplayed their hand and some formerly friendly congressmen shut them out. But, the RIAA never gives up, and has been quietly lobbying, getting Federal agencies to use the new tools and powers they do have to stop the scourage of the MP3. In fact, one day I expect to learn we ultimately invaded Baghdad because Saddam had a bootleg CD factory.
demimondian
Hmm. John, you’ve been good about separating the reporting from the facts in the recent “Newsweek riots” case. You need to be better here.
The reporting is bizarre. The shutdown of a bunch of creeps running a Star Trek ROTS Bittorrent site has jack sh?? to do with the war on Terra or the core function of DHS. That said, the facts underlying its involvement are pure bureaucratic comedy.
The organization which enforces copyright violations is called the NIPLECC (THE NATIONAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW ENFORCEMENT COORDINATION COUNCIL, see, eg, http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/dcom/olia/niplecc2003/niplecc2003.pdf). Guess what department that organization is a part of? Yup, DHS. So, if a Federal Department steps in to block a warez site, which one is it going to be? Yup, DHS.
So it’s just stupid reporting componding stupid government organization, not stupid law enforcement.
Al Maviva
Customs was made part of Homeland Security by an act of Congress. So was Secret Service. Both have a role in policing piracy, wire fraud. So as much as I’d like to say it’s the result of some asswipe cowboys running wild over your civil liberties – with the corresponding all-knowing solution I would offer – I can’t.
Hey, wanna know something else scary? Homeland also inspects fruit coming into the country. They picked up a bit of the Department of Agriculture too, with the reorganization. They inherited a bunch of biology PhD’s with guns, who had always worked with customs. Now that should get you hyperventilating, knowing that those agronomists aren’t out fighting vegetable terror someplace else.
Point being, DHS wasn’t the result of some ad hoc slinging together, much though it may have appeared that way. Law enforcement think tanks, the American Bar Associations, and not a few congressional committees had postulated that it would lead to greater efficiencies, to put all the border integrity personnel (including INS, Customs, Coast Guard) in one place; and all those with a large scale protective mission (Secret Service, Federal Protective Service) and all those with an aviation security mission (TSA, Air Marshalls) in a single Department. That the old units of Secret Service and Customs, now integrated into DHS, continue to perform some of the same law enforcement missions, shouldn’t make you wet your pants. Additionally, from a law enforcement strategy standpoint, terrorists are relative loners and hard to detect, so going to a particular place and asking “are you are terrorist” is a pretty low value tactic. Thus law enforcement goes after the general activities they are likely to participate in, and once they have a wrongdoer in their hands, then as the “are you a terrorist” question. The idea is that shuffling laundered money into the U.S. is illegal, and among those you catch will be drug dealers, crooked corporate execs, and terrorists. Same thing with transnational wire fraud.
One other point. A credible argument can be made that the purpose of DHS is to (1) prevent specific attacks; (2) preserve the long term economic health of the U.S. Which hurts the economy more – a single major terror attack, or a flood of ongoing copyright and counterfitting operations? And for what it’s worth, the role of protecting the internet from criminal exploitation was recently assigned to DHS by Congress.
It’s like the Army continuing high intensity conflict training, military exchange programs, and the service academies while the war is on. Sure, you could put those West Point cadets on the front lines in the WOT, but they have other things to do that will pay off in the long run. This is a question of economics all around, if you think about it – it’s about getting the highest value return from your limited resources. Congress sets the priorities, the agencies just march to Congress’ tune. Seems to me if the thing with Homeland grinds you that bad (and for the record I was against its formation, but have since come around) then you should probably write your congresscritter.
skippyflipjack
The department of Homeland Security definitely has better things to be doing — like tracking the airplanes of Texas Democrats to make sure they participate in the reprehensible gerrymandering of that state’s voting districts.
skippyflipjack
The department of Homeland Security definitely has better things to be doing — like tracking the airplanes of Texas Democrats to make sure they participate in the reprehensible gerrymandering of that state’s voting districts.
BadTux
The point, Al, is that using government jackboots to settle what is essentially a civil matter is a misappropriation of resources that should be used instead to secure our borders and defend us from terrorism. From a Libertarian point of view, government exists in order to a) provide for the common defense, and b) provide those services that the people of a community deem necessary to tax themselves for because they are difficult to provide in an effective manner otherwise, generally fire, police, courts, and highways, and maybe schools and libraries if you’re a “left-wing” libertarian who points to the reality that every single effective library and national-scale school system on the planet is government-funded.
Nowhere in this charter for what government should do is included the use of government prosecutors and government law enforcement personnel in order to solve civil disputes between adults. I guess what John and I are buzzing about is not the fact that this government agency happens to be under the Department of Homeland Security, but, rather, that it exists at all. No American has ever been killed by a torrent download. No American has ever had his home or place of business invaded and violated by a torrent download. This is a civil affair, to be decided in a court of law based upon property rights and damages caused by violations thereof. This isn’t a criminal affair, where government intervention is needed in order to protect the lives of innocent civilians or to prevent them from being terrorized by having their homes or businesses invaded by criminals. Terrorists have killed Americans. Torrent downloads haven’t. Get the picture?
The MPAA is comprised of a number of the wealthiest corporations in the world. They are capable of pursuing civil action against those who cause damages to them without the involvement of some government agency. This is just symptomatic of how government today is no longer being used to defend the people, but, rather, is being used to defend special interests who are perfectly capable of defending themselves. *That* is why John and I make sarcastic quips about defending the nation from the Bittorrents of Mass Destruction.
— Badtux the Libertarian Penguin