The information contained within the new edition of “Law Enforcement Intelligence” is critical for the traditional farmer and rancher as well as average American citizen to understand. I will attempt to Summarize and highlight some of the implications for us all. Phase 3 of the National Animal Identification System known as NAIS is Tracking & Surveillance.  When the NAIS program was created Phase 3 was a shadowy and vague potion of the program that had not been defined and refined.  The people who signed or unknowingly were signed up for NAIS had no idea as to what they were signing..  The following document begins to bring some clarity to Phase 3 of NAIS.  Lest we forget our recent history, at the time of 911 and shortly after we had a much less intrusive regulatory government.  Products were far safer than they are today.  Private property and traditional agricultural practices were upheld.  Glance down at the mammoth list of agencies created for the purpose of intelligence, surveillance, tracking and enforcement.  As Carter clearly states, “Intelligence-led policing was in its infancy”.  In a progressive march farmers and ranchers will increasingly bump into this newly hatched industry. Of note: facts, information, or data become classifiable as intelligence only after analysis of the collected material has taken place.  Currently the Department of Ecology is attempting to access the private property of a farm in Washington State under the guise that a stream might be a “fish” stream.  This farmer is being asked to allow a biologist and possibly other hydrological experts onto the land as a demand for reclassification of the stream.  This information can be secured via satellite and other intelligence but physical access is being sought.  As private property owners are always under investigation one might pause and think twice about allowing access to your property.  All information secured will be used against your absolute right in property.

You will also notice that, the synonym for law enforcement intelligence has now become criminal intelligence. Hence the one under investigation is considered a criminal though he may have done nothing wrong.  This is against our current Constitutional form of government.

These days you will find that Homeland Security intelligence is “the collection and analysis of information concerned with non-criminal domestic threats to critical infrastructure (agriculture), community health, and public safety for the purpose of preventing the threat or mitigating the effects of the threat.” (This phrasing inserts the Emergency Clause that suspends Constitutional protections.)  A synonym of homeland security intelligence is all-hazards intelligence.  When you see the Term all-hazards you can know that it is government -driven program or agency.

National security intelligence is “the collection and analysis of information concerned with the relationship and homeostasis of the United States with foreign powers, organizations, and persons with regard to political and economic factors as well as the maintenance of the United States’ sovereign principles.  Given the global marketplace and the United States numerous treaties it can be concluded that agriculture is included within the agricultural scope of national security.

“There is a strong likelihood that the methods of collecting the national security intelligence would not meet constitutional muster in a criminal trial.”

“The Intelligence Process, therefore, is not a series of independent steps that are mechanically processed in an unbending sequential order; rather, they represent a recipe for intelligence and information sharing that will frequently change according to the availability of “ingredients” and the “nutritional needs” of the consumer.”  Hence, we see Living Document Policy where one never knows the concrete rule of law.  What will be the next “ingredient” or “nutritional need”?  Who will be the next “consumer”?  These are questions to think about as we engage agriculture in the 21st century.

Under Phase 3 of NAIS you will be undergoing a threat assessment process which seeks to make a distinction on whether an intelligence target is “making a threat” or “posing a threat.”

An important thing remember next time you encounter a check-point is that a law enforcement officer must have reliable, fact-based information that reasonably infers that a particularly described intelligence subject has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime.

The USDA offers money (financial incentive) to those  providing data collection and spying on ones friends and neighbors, all going into to the intelligence community data potluck.

From the trenches…..

New Edition of “Law Enforcement Intelligence” is Information Packed Continue reading →