Galt

The very things that make it possible for LEO's to invade our privacy and imprison large portions of our population can be successfully used to help mitigate our government's ability to discover what we are up to. The issues of who you tell and why are dealt with elsewhere in these forums but I was interested in sharing and hearing about other means that people have employed to help keep them from falling prey to the storm troopers at war with a bit of botany (sounds just as stupid as it really is huh?).

Here are some things that people need to be aware of, and should IMO consider adjusting their attitude and behavior accordingly.

First and foremost, credit cards and banking transactions all leave a paper trail that LEO can and will access easily. They use something called forensic accounting to back trace every dime that you deposit, withdrawal, transfer or charge. Once indicted this is all added to a pile called evidence and the more they have the more the lawyers charge to defend.

In that same vein, and again, it's only my opinion, but why would anyone other than a hydroponic tomato grower ever darken the door of a grow shop. I have followed someone leaving a shop before just to see if they were paying attention...and they weren't. Had I been the man they'd still be in jail right now.

Consider this. For about $150 even Andy of Mayberry can buy a totally self contained GPS vehicle tracker that's smaller than a pack of cigarettes. Let's say Barny sits down the street from the Grow Shop...maybe blocks away, and Goober is watching from the opposite direction. A couple of pairs of binoculars or a DSLR with a long lens and after a day of surveillance they've got all of the leads that they need for a month. All that they needed is a tag number.

So they go back to Aunt Bea's and over a slice of huckleberry pie log on to the DMV, NCIC, public records, insurance, military service and utility company databases. Before their coffee's cold they have names, addresses, blood type, religious affiliation, education, neighbors, relatives, insurance and workers comp claim histories, employment and utility consumption history. If that's not enough they can pull the same on your friends and family while they're at it.

Now Barney takes the list and cruises past each house that night, I.D.s the vehicles again and slips the cigarette pack sized tracker under the bumper of each car. A few days later he comes by again in the middle of the night and picks them up. The unit plugs into a USB port and downloads a log of GPS data points for the last 48 hrs. to a week showing where this car has been every couple of minutes of that time. Paths and way points are plotted on a screen, common intersections with other units are logged, previous tracks are collated and without leaving the kitchen again they can pretty much narrow down a list of reasonably investigatable potential grow sites, 'cuz they already know you're growing, why else would you have been at the shop in the first place?

Let's say you follow the rule and grow somewhere other than home. O.K., once John Law sees that you frequent a given travel path into an area that's maybe all industrial, and he knows that you don't work anywhere near there, and you don't have any friends or family there...why else would you be visiting a commercial business park every day or so? Why did a building's energy consumption change? Why are the windows covered? Try to think like you are them and you want to catch you. A lot of paranoia can be a very good thing.

Now we also have thermal imaging to deal with. Nearly every utility company in America employs hand held imaging devices that can take a digital image of a transformer on a pole or heat leaking through an eave or a vent. Some locales have arranged for the utility company to work with the coppers. Even without this anybody can buy a state of the art imaging gun complete with a telephoto capable sensor lens that a single operator can use to document heat signatures on literally hundreds of structures in a single day. The better funded DEA, Homeland Security and some State agencies now have these puppies airborne so that they can just fly and indiscriminately scan at will, marking GPS data points by the thousand to pass along to their earth bound brothers.

Those signatures by themselves might represent a huge amount of sources that are not logistically possible to investigate, were it not for two elements that normal citizens are quick to forget or ignore. These guys have all of the time in the world...and money...our money. They don't have to actually make anything or produce, they have no deadlines or quality control inspections. They have only to generate the occasional bust to put'em on page one and ensure that they have provided the rulers with adequate press to keep giving them more money.

The other thing that works in their favor and against us is their ability to use this time to continue compiling data. Eventually, without breaking a sweat, they can cross reference enough unrelated esoteric shit that patterns and intersections begin to reveal themselves. And that's all before they zero in on you and start pulling your credit card receipts...without you even knowing it.

So here we see that you spent $200-$300 at XYZ trading last month. Well XYZ Trading is slick and they don't actually show up on your credit card bill under the name on their building, Bongwater Hydro, 'cuz they're too slick for that. O.K., none of that really matters 'cuz Barney Fife has you leavin' the scene at 1500 hours on May the 5th and by coincidence the data collation shows that you made a $300 Visa debit card transaction within 5 minutes of that sighting. Not only that but here's one almost every 4 weeks for the last 6 months.

Then there's the on-line purchases, the Fed-Ex, UPS and USPS parcel delivery records. The on-line vendors that so discretely bill under a name other than Dope Seeds 'R' We, still bill you, and there's still a record of it. If the Feds can pry offshore accout information out of the hands of the Swiss bankers, do you really think that a little coffe shop seed seller in Amsterdam is going to thwart them? Look at the feedback that people leave on Feebay. You can see who bought what from whom for the last year. Maybe you bought some grow lights there. You had to pay using their PayPal scam...so there's all kinds of toilet paper stuck to that ass.

Again, by itself it isn't all that damning, but when somebody with the patience of water dripping on a rock is compiling data on you, it's only a matter of time before your file gets thick enough to graduate you to person of interest status.

Lifestyle
So your last grow went well...very well, better than ever well and you are flush with coin. Let's celebrate. And maybe the gig is an on-going bonanza that's like hittin' the lottery every couple of weeks. Yeah, time for the spinners and the mega watt sound system ('cuz I gotta have peeples lookin' at me when I drive by 'cuz I'm the shit). Hell maybe you're tired of polishin' that old turdly Toyota Corolla and you're ready for somethin' that you don't have to fold yourself in half to drive. Maybe an Escalade or a Lexus is in order.

Great...so just where do you work? Part time needle sterilizer at the tat shop or the midnight shift at the 7-11? Barney's public record database tells him that you dropped out of school when you were in the tenth grade. Nuthin' unusual about a borderline moron drivin' a $50,000 car. Especially when his employment record show that he's up for promotion to head dish washer at the Olive Garden.

Look at how normal mother fuckers live and learn by their example. Being home all day and all night doesn't solve the problem. Sure you keep a low profile and your shit is under the radar but what happens when the man starts askin' questions around the neighborhood about you? You neighbor is workin' three jobs to pay his mortgage and you never seem to be up before noon. There's a steady stream of sketchy lookin' folks with gauged ears and freaky tats always comin' and goin', or worse yet...hippies from the bygone age. Total and complete assimilation is where it's at. If you aren't gainfully employed to some reasonable degree, you'd better be livin' like it.

Wanna party? Leave the house with no more than what you can swallow in one bight. Take a cab. Have your ID and just enough cash to have a good time and get home. Do everything in moderation. That means staying in control at all times. Be aware. If club Big Penis has a rep for trouble maybe think about drinks at TGI Fridays. Gotta gun? Just leave the fucker at home and keep tellin' yourself...what would Plexico Burris do? ...and then do the opposite. Thinkin' about headin' down town and down town is where the heat is, maybe catch a movie out in the 'burbs.

This is one of my all time faves. Dress the part. Nothing says fuck with me like a NORML bumper sticker and the Grateful Dead bears dancin' across your back window.

Oh yeah, most importantly...check your vehicle daily for safety equipment failures. This has got to be the all time simplest and most avoidable reason for a traffic stop that there is...and the cops love it. If all of your lights work, your bumpers are in place and your glass isn't cracked they've got no reason to even give you a second look.

Now maybe you look like Ward Cleaver comin' home from a hard day at the widget factory and your tail light's out. Chances are you won't get stopped at all, and if you are you might get a warning or a repair order, but you won't have your car emptied out on the side of the road for the dogs to sniff through.

Think long and hard about your fashion choices. A polo shirt with khakis and a pair of boat shoes doesn't exactly scream cool, but it also doesn't scream "Hey I smoke weed!" Dave Chappelle does a hilarious bit about his white buddy that would get stoned and ask a cop for directions, and it's true. Attitude is everything. If and when I have an encounter with a LEO I always make certain that I am polite without sounding subservient and I always try to engage them in some sort of empathetic conversation that makes them feel like I actually give a fuck about his shitty life and career path. "Yeah that really sucks what the city's doin' to you guys with the pension bullshit..." That always buys a little good will. And another thing, you may like the song, and you may think you are just too sexy for your own good but sunglasses at night is just jerky boy dumbass. Stow the fucking glasses and try to act like a regular square ass citizen. They rarely go to jail.

If you do drive a bit, and they aren't illegal in your area, buy a radar detector. Even if they aren't legal they have stealth models that can't be detected now. Sometimes it's easy to speed without even realizing it, and the new radars and lasers are damn good at catchin' folks. Escort makes some of the finest radar and laser detection equipment money can buy. I bought their top of the line model a few years back and it saved me the cost of the unit just in tickets and insurance premiums within the first two years. Even their cheapest units are good, but if you want to cut the chances of being nabbed for a traffic violation and having it evolve into something else, I highly recommend them.

PASSPORT 9500ci - Escort Inc.

I've actually been hit with lasers several times and would have been caught dead to rights, but the unit actually fucks with their laser signal somehow and leaves them just sitting there with a confused look on their face about why the obviously speeding vehicle didn't register on their latest toy.

Defense
Sometimes the best defense is a good offense. I carry a little key fob video recorder that I bought on-line from Hong Kong for $14. It uses an 8gb micro SD card and is smaller than a quarter. With a piece of Velcro on one side and a little fucking with I now have two that I keep charged and in my car at all times. One is aimed at the driver's window and the other looks forward from the dome light. The first week that I had them I had set them to record as I went shopping and low and behold I recorded a copper sleeping on duty without even meaning to. Just to be a prick I burned it onto a disc and dropped copies with his precinct commander and their HQ. The sooner they learn that we are watching them the sooner they'll learn to be less aggressive public servants rather than a public menace. BTW, in the States LEO's have no expectation of privacy when on duty so whether it be surreptitiously or right out in the open, they have no right to stop you from recording your encounters with them. I would still suggest stealth but out in the open with a mate in the car as a witness it does help remind them to be on their best behavior.

Make a copy of the NORML Freedom Card, put your lawyer's name and number on it, program him in your cell phone speed dial, and draw both like a gun (figuratively that is) any time you are stopped. Be polite, but don't hesitate to nix their inquisitive little efforts before they even get a good start. Nothing makes them shut up and go away faster than a law abiding citizen who knows and exercises his or her rights. Some of them get annoyed, but ultimately they are more worried about their pensions than they are catching bad guys, so as long as you haven't been observed doing anything wrong don't put up with any shit. They also get a little put off if you keep repeating everything that they say into the phone as you tell them that you are speaking with your solicitor.

Home Defense
Now this can be for those that keep a little grow at home, or on their property, or that don't grow anywhere near home and just want to make sure that they don't get ripped off. I'm not going to address weaponry here 'cuz this is already too fucking long, and because there are some people that are just too dumb or imbalanced to safely handle the responsibility of a fire arm. That's fact not just opinion. Nonetheless, being able to keep your shit secure and keep an eye on it will ratchet down the anxiety quotient immensely.

Surveillance is now easier than it's ever been, so make an investment. Low to no light hi-rez Sony cameras can be had that are weather proof and can be operated wirelessly, although I would stick with the hardwired as much as possible. Most of the camera software is motion activated so that when you go to review a recording it takes only minutes rather than all day. Most of the commercial gear is meant to be connected to an interface that routes the camera inputs right to a computer so that the PC hard drive can be used as a DVR. The size of the hard drive and number of cameras will determine the number of days that can be stored before the system runs out of room and starts dumping the oldest. I usually try for at least a months worth of history and then I burn a disc, assuming there's nothing recorded that I don't want being seen. You never know when a car that drove by a month before will start to look a little too familiar and it's nice to be able to go back and check.

High mount cameras in a way that they can not be reached from the ground, and best case are not at all visible. Motion activated security lights with a manual override are nice and reasonable cheap, but not necessary with the new low light cameras. Aim your exterior cameras so that they cover all approaches by road as well as through neighbors yards and over fences. Make sure that you've got a view around out buildings and an overview of any car parks. Lastly make sure that the doors and windows are covered if possible. The door cams in particular are nice because they new systems also allow you to link to your television giving you a visual ID of anyone that might come knocking at your door.

Should you have a long drive a beam sensor or separate motion activated cam can be mounted to alert when someone enters your lane or driveway.

One of my favorites is called a pin hole camera and they can literally see through an opening about that small. Sony makes a color version that is the size of a ping pong ball, sells for about $50-$60 and can be stuck in a piece of drywall, in a bit of trim, built into a safe or even a light fixture.

There are also peephole cameras that replace the usual entry door peep hole with a camera, cameras that are already built into tissue boxes, candy boxes, books, just about anything that you can imagine. The point is that they are all quite affordable now and very accessible.

Should you decide to go with the PC platform as a controller there are expansion boards that you can plug in just as you might a new video graphics card. Even if you're terrified of cracking your PC case any shop will likely do the deed for just a few dollars. An 8 camera system using an existing PC and monitor can be put together for as little as $800-$1,000. How much is your shit worth and how much would you pay to know who ripped you off if it did happen. 16 camera stand alone systems can be had starting around $2,000 and you can go as crazy as you want. Zoom and pan controls, wireless streaming internet feeds and cell phone communicators, power outage back-ups, it's all available to anyone with the scratch and it's simple to install and operate. Simpler all in one systems can be had at the big box club stores for $300-$400 that are usually limited to 4-6 B&W cameras, but they can work just as well in some instances.

Now lets's take a look at the dwelling itself. The sad truth is that most homes in America can be entered in a matter of seconds with nothing more than a screw driver or a utility knife. Stop by a construction site and take a look at the way the houses are put together. Some big builders just cover the framing studs with a sheathing that's nothing more than 3-4mm cardboard with a layer of aluminium foil attached to its face. Over this they attach vinyl siding and on the inner most face covering the fiberglass batting in the walls is a 1/2" layer of gypsum board. The siding is plastic, not much thicker than a pair of Chinese Nike's. A utility knife can score it allowing it to be snapped off in big chunks very quickly. the cardboard behind it is thin enough that the knife will go straight through with no effort. From there a couple of quick kicks or a few more quiet scores with the knife and the baddies are walking through their own self made doorway. If you live in a house built thusly my only suggestion is to either move or buy several large dogs and revisit the gun premise.

Another weak point are the doors and obviously the windows. Patio sliding doors are the worst. A cheap screw driver will lift most right up out of their track and the whole panel can be set aside even with one of those silly burglar bars installed. My only suggestion for people living in apartments with these abominations is to screw the fuckers to the track from the inside at several point around the perimeter. The next step would be to attach plywood to the door panels themselves, possibly covering the outside with a tinted window film to hide the ply and just paint the inside face before hiding it with drapes.

Even supposedly solid insulated metal doors are woefully under performing when subjected to the kicks of a large and determined intruder. Even if the door is top notch, the typical weak point is the door lockset and the frame that the latch and hinges are attached to. This can be helped minimally by replacing the standard screws with much longer and thicker ones, but take a look at the amount of the doors bolt that actually engages the strike plate. Very often there's less than half of an inch and this can easily be disengaged with a large screw driver or a small pry bar.

Longer throw bolts, bolts that engage the floor and header above the door, New York style angled brace bars and hinge side locks can ultimately be installed in sufficient quantity that a decent metal door can be made fairly resistant to attack, but that still leaves the windows.

Unfortunately here you're fucked. There is no discrete way to fortify a window. Bars are the cheapest and near surest, assuming that the anchor points are solid and the anchoring bolts are tamper resistant heads and are set in epoxy cement. It's surprising how many times people will purchase these large steel bar sets and then simply screw them into the surrounding wall with a hex headed fastener, as though the bad guys are too stupid to figure out how to work a spanner. Chances are that if you do have barred windows and heavy duty doors the average nipper will pass you by, but there are those daring souls and the purpose driven types who figure you've really got some nice shit that you're trying to protect, and this jsut makes them all the more determined.

Next to the bars are riot gates and steels roll up shutters. Normally these adornments are only appropriate in the hood and more commonly in third world countries. Installation of these in the average Stateside 'burb will raise more than a few questioning eyebrows. The one possible dodge would be security shutters that are disguised to look ornamental but are in fact made of steel. These can also be made hollow and filled with rigid foam so that you can proudly proclaim to your neighbors that you are going green by installing insulated energy saving shutters on all of your windows. Good luck with that.

Steel security screens can be fitted to the inside face of the windows and a tinted film applied to the glass. This helps hide the steel screen and also helps to make the glass slightly more shatter resistant. The steel screen can be made very secure, but you'd better plan on keeping the drapes closed when your mum comes to visit.

Second story windows are also vulnerable. Ladders aren't that difficult to operate, and many times home owners unwittingly provide them, or something that will do in their stead. A lawn tractor flipped up on end, a stack of garbage bins, even something as simple as a few different length boards stood on end or a fence top. Try to imagine a circus acrobat or Jackie Chan trying to scale your house, because even the most mediocre burglars can be very creative when they suspect a big pay day.
That old roof antenna wire running down the side of the chimney can put somebody on your roof in less than a minute. Now as to the roof.

Roof top ventilators designed to draw stuffy overheated and moisture laden air out of the dwelling attic are very common place today. Also there are passive gable vents installed on the ends of many colonial style structures all over the country. The gable vents are usually very cheap and brittle plastic (especially if they've been weathering for several years) and the ventilators are usually installed with very few fasteners. The point being that with not much more than a screw driver the vent can be removed in a matter of minutes at most. Because they're unsightly they are normally installed on the side of the roof facing away from the street, perfect for the baddie looking to make a quiet evening entry while you're out at the club.

Once the vent is pried loose and the attic is accessed it's a simple matter to either find the access hatch into the upstairs or just drop onto the drywall ceiling between the rafters and lower into the living space.

Basement doors leading out are also a soft spot. The fact that they are often sunken and out of sight provides the intruders with a place to work out of sight, so they can take their time with these. If you have such a sunken entry way consider installing a Bilco door. These are simple but effective steel sloping shed like covers that attach to the concrete on either side of the cellar entry stairs. These are great because when anchored properly (again - tamper proof headed fasteners set with epoxy cement into concrete) and locked from the inside they are at once above ground and visible as well as being a ridiculously tough nut to crack with all but a torch or abrasive saw. Neither being a likely tool in the baddies night bag. Coppers on the other hand will have everything, but these measures will doubtless slow them down significantly.

Now let's say that they make it in, and again we're supposing for this exercise that no one is home. Where's your shit? Hide in plain site works, especially if you've got a hulking big gun safe in a coat closet that they find right away. They make great decoys, but a pro can bust'em with a couple cordless power tools and ten or fifteen minutes work. The really pricey fuckers might take'em a half hour, but if they're in and your not, they've probably cased you and established your patterns so they know pretty much how long they can work. So they bust ass to open your safe and...it's fuckin' empty. Just to add to their confusion and disappointment leave a bill counter and a stack of $1,000 bill wrappers. Generally speaking a safe is anything but. It'll keep your kids out'a your shit but the police and the pro's will get in. Better to have it be empty except for grandpas old flintlock and some bullshit paperwork.

Meanwhile the stash in the rear back of your projection TV is safe and sound. Maybe you've got an aquarium. Big ass canister filters like a Fluvall with hoses and shit running back and forth to a big Black Bellied Piranha tank. Put a fake treasure chest in the tank and the stash in the filter. False ceilings work better than false floors, especially in a bathroom closet filled with towels. Nothing could look more harmless. This also leaves room for ample drug sniffing dog nose irritants to be regularly maintained along the baseboards. Can't say where and when but I have been a big fan of dried habanero's from way back when. Just handle the powder like sweaty nitro and you'll be fine...the poor dogs on the other hand.

This is also a nice fuck off, powder your car door sills with the pixy dust and maybe a touch spread around in the carpet and trunk. Remember, their noses are a zillion times more sensitive than ours, so a little goes a real long way. Greasy steak subs and bacon sandwiches also tend to distract them terribly.

When all is said and done there are also an abundance of alarm companies out there that provide monitoring for everything from fire and flood to gas leaks and intrusion. The only problem with them of course is that most emergencies that occur will result in them calling one of the very groups that you wish to keep out. Intrusion alarm system components are still another great and even more affordable upgrade to the castle keep, even without the commercial monitoring.

Sensors that detect heat, movement, sound and even pressure between the floor boards and the floor joists
can be paired up with glass break detectors (vibration or noise activated). Control panels that interface with cell phones and back up power supplies are best, especially systems that allow an alert to be sent to you silently as a text and email immediately and then allow you the interactivity to disable or enable a high volume enunciator (something on the order of a fire engine). When these are installed hidden in the eave overhang or behind the roof peak gable vent they can alert your neighbors and anyone else for several miles. When installed in the living room and stash room, they can be down right debilitating. Nuthin' says get the fuck out like a fire truck in your face.

Of course you could also just leave the enunciators off and wait to greet the intruder as they leave...with maybe a ball peen and a sling blade...but I digress.

The problem with alarms, and particularly the commercially monitored variety, is that they can be disabled by a bad guy and you would never know. All of the big time companies install systems that rely on your phone line to communicate with them, the fire dept. , etc. On the outside of most homes in America you have a gray interface box where your phone line comes into the house. The connection is behind a cheesy door that opens with a screw driver and then the wire is simply unplugged. When done they can reconnect everything and you'd never know. This also creates an opportunity for them to prep the house by unplugging the alarm, entering and disabling several sensors in a way that doesn't relay to the control, leave and return another time. Better to have everything tied to your wireless and provided with back up battery power. The bad guy thinks that he's cool 'cuz he unplugged the interface box but your cell communicator up in the attic is dialing away, first you, then your brother, then that crazy Samoan fuck with the big scar on his neck...yeah, dat's da ticket.

Well that's more than enough to cover History of the World Part II. If anyone is crazy, bored or paranoid enough to have read this far more power to ya. Share some insights and suggestions so that we might all continue to grow free...and of course anonymously fuck with the man at every opportunity.

__________________
"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
_________________

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
- Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

Roach

are you a L.E.O. ?


http://www.jproc.ca/crypto/tempest.html

http://www.cryptome.org/

__________________

לזיין את הקופים

Galt

Yup...you got me.

Used to work for the government full time, then as a contractor. Now not at all. Never in L.E. but I did get to play with some great gear.

Young people in particular worry me, and seeing how many of them get tripped up and entangled in our fucked up W.O.D. bullshit just kills me. By the time they find out how truly fucked they are, for the rest of their life, it's a little too late to warn them what to avoid and how to better cover their ass.

No I'm not a LEO...but I look like one, can talk like one and shoot a lot better than one. That's a big part of why I continue to walk free. I try to think like one, only a lot smarter.

__________________
"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
_________________

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
- Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)