Chicago Cops Use Stingray to Intercept Protester’s Conversations, Leaked Audio Reveals

Chicago Cops Use Stingray to Intercept Protester’s Conversations, Leaked Audio Reveals (Infowars, Dec 6, 2014):

Anonymous leaks government communication detailing real-time cell phone surveillance

An audio recording leaked by the hacktivist group Anonymous appears to prove that Chicago police used an IMSI catcher, commonly referred to as a Stingray, to intercept phone calls during an Eric Garner protest Thursday evening.

IMSI catchers, small devices that mimic cell phone towers, give police and government agencies the ability to capture people’s cellular data in real-time. The audio, posted to the official Anonymous Twitter account Friday, reveals a conversation between the CPIC, Chicago’s Homeland Security-run Fusion Center, and a police officer spying on an alleged protest leader.


Chicago police and CPIC discuss cell phone surveillance at 01:05

“Yeah, just uhh, the one of the girls is kind of an organizer here, um, she’s been on her phone a lot,” an unknown government employee told CPIC. “Are you guys picking up any, uh, any, uh, information, uh, where they’re going, possibly?”

“Yea, we’re keeping an eye on it.” a CPIC employee answers. “We’ll let you know if we hear anything.”

The leaked audio comes only one day after protesters began tweeting out pictures of a mysterious government vehicle equipped with an unknown device on its hood.

Cellular surveillance experts have thus far debated over the vehicle’s capabilities, with some noting not only an antenna, used alongside IMSI catchers, but two cameras, LED lighting and license plate scanners as well.

Regardless, the leaked audio serves to once again shatter claims by police departments that Stingrays are only used to stop the most heinous of crimes.

Just last August, documents acquired through a public records request revealed that a Washington state police department used a Stingray to hunt down a missing city laptop, not to investigate a homicide, rape or kidnapping as the department previously claimed.

Speaking with Infowars last month, Kirk Wiebe, a highly decorated 36 year NSA veteran turned whistleblower, condemned the domestic use of Stingrays by police and federal agents.

“These devices feed the mentality of the Police State, not unlike that experienced under the Nazis (Germany) and Stasi (East Germany),” Wiebe said. “Law enforcement is using this information to investigate and prosecute people without warrants – that is unconstitutional.  At the national level, the same thing is happening.”

Given the fact that federal agencies have been caught teaching law enforcement groups to deceive judges in order to spy on Americans illegally, the act is likely going on much more often than the average citizen realizes.

With leaked Department of Defense documents labeling First Amendment-protected protest as “low-level terrorism” in 2009,  it is hardly a surprise that the government would deploy technology originally developed for use overseas against innocent American at home.

3 thoughts on “Chicago Cops Use Stingray to Intercept Protester’s Conversations, Leaked Audio Reveals”

  1. I started carrying a cell phone in 1995. It was the year the flip phone came into being, and one didn’t have to carry a big box around with the phone. The GTE cell phone was one you kept on the charger at night, and carried during the day. If you wished to make a call, you flipped it open, an operator came on, you told them who you wished to call, they did it all for you. Close friends were #1, #2, etc…….
    I was driving to central CA to visit a good friend and asked a car going 50 in the fast lane to move over, it was a 70mph zone. I clicked my lights, and finally the idiot pulled over. I passed him, and they jumped on my bumper trying to terrorize me…….rich bitch with a fast car….I picked up my phone, flipped it open, and pulled up the antenna. As soon as they saw the phone, they vanished. Carrying a phone that is visible to idiots has helped me more than once.
    They were expensive, but they were analog, and very difficult to listen in on.

    Recently, I got the latest phone, with Internet access, and all the rest. I would read the news on my phone, make calls……..and I realized I was carrying an electronic leash. I got rid of it, went back to a plain cell phone I only use when traveling. I keep a land line at home. It costs more, but it is less likely to be supervised.

    People need to dump the smart phones. There are other ways to get the word out. Twitter is great, and any texting can be surveyed, but keep it really simple. People put their lives on their phones, and this is why the police can do this. Stop buying into electronic slavery, and that is what the smart phone gives you…….

    I was horrified when the first iPhone sent text records to the users with the bill. That is when I started wondering, but now, everything is done on a phone. Photos, emails, letters………it is insane to do it. Stop putting your life on line!

    Otherwise, this will continue and get worse. Believe it or not, people can survive without all the electronic junk. Use a digital camera for photos, I do. Use a phone for calls. Use the Internet for reading, Twitter is great in emergencies. When we had that earthquake a few months back at 3:25AM, there was no TV news coverage until 5AM, no radio coverage (thank media consolidation), so I went on Twitter, and was able to find out if people were okay…..by 5AM, I had all the information I needed.

    People have to grow up and look around. Use these tools as necessary or needed. Too much surveillance for my taste. I will have a problem getting my next car……I don’t want anything more than what I can get on an electronic key opener. I don’t want my car driving me, or my government monitoring where I am going.

    It is going to be difficult.

    Reply

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