Off Our Campus Coalition

WHAT’S HAPPENING

The Department of Homeland Security is funding a $10 million project at the Rutgers University Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science and the Center for Dynamic Data Analysis (DyDAn) (both at Rutgers University) to develop software that can track the content of political speech in internet blogs and on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, with the stated intention of identifying "anti-American" sentiment. Rutgers University along with University of Illinois, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Southern California are also working with the Department of Homeland Security to effectively monitor and interpret massive amounts of data (such as financial & personal transactions, passports, and visas) to extract “suspicious” people and plans based on behavior patterns that they determine “Un-American”.

WHY IT MATTERS

This domestic spying technology is a jackbooted foot in the door to American civil liberties; it will help the government compile massive amounts of information on millions of innocent people. Ask yourself, what could they want with all this information? Wherever there is power, there is the temptation to abuse it. The abuses of power that this new technology would surely create would be disastrous to our liberty and safety. Furthermore, this program only serves to accelerate our pace toward a complete surveillance society in which people feel unsafe to voice dissent. Recent events like the National Security Agency’s domestic wiretapping program have proven that we cannot trust the government to uphold our safety and rights-we must do that for ourselves. Bruce Schneier, acclaimed security and technology expert with BT Counterpane (a leading provider of managed security services for data networks) has stated that, "these techniques will never find terrorists" and is nothing more than a breach of civil liberties. In his March 2005 essay, “Why Data Mining Won't Stop Terror” Schneier stated, “We're not going to find terrorist plots through systems like this, and we're going to waste valuable resources chasing down false alarms.” Not only is this program a waste of $10.2 million dollars that eventually comes out of our pockets, but being the subject of a “false alarm” could have disastrous consequences for a person’s life.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

If you think that the monitoring of our speech, actions and thoughts is an outrageous attack on our basic human rights then stand up and fight back. Contact President McCormick and tell him that Rutgers students are opposed to this project; his phone number is (732)-932-7454 or email him at president@rutgers.edu, his office is at 83 Somerset Street, Old Queens Building in Room 203, New Brunswick, NJ. We also suggest you pay Professor Fred Roberts, the chairperson of the Rutgers University Homeland Security Research Initiative and the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science, a visit: here is his information, use as you please:

Phone Number: (732) 445-4303
Email: froberts@dimacs.rutgers.edu
Office: Computing Research & Education Building, Rm. 0410, Busch Campus

One more way to get involved is to join the Off Our Campus Coalition. We are a newly formed group of Rutgers students and activists committed to stopping this invasion of our lives and communities. It’s time to take a stand and defend ourselves before we live in a society that outlaws both. It’s time to get mad, get active and get even. It’s time to start fighting back.

OUR DEMANDS

• We demand the immediate cessation of Homeland Security’s research initiative at Rutgers University and all other university affiliates, completely and fully.
• We demand that the Center for Dynamic Data Analysis (DyDAn) at Rutgers University be disbanded and closed and all ties with Homeland Security and the Department of Defense be severed immediately.
• We demand an end to Homeland Security’s attempt to dismantle and ravage our basic civil liberties under the guise of domestic security and surveillance.
  
  Signed,
  Off Our Campus Coalition – Rutgers

Facebook Group: Kick Homeland Security Off Our Campus!
Contact: offourcampus@hotmail.com