Get ready for another one of those threads that takes a lot of time and several separate posts. I got some inquiries about what was meant by Security Protocols in your personal life. Some people have a vague idea about what this entails; some of you know it - seldom practice; the majority never heard of this stuff before.
The word protocol has many different meanings. For purposes of this thread, a protocol is the code of correct conduct. So, a Security Protocol is the way you conduct yourself and your family conducts themselves with regard to their personal security and the security of the family.
A Citizen - Soldier readies their family before all else. If you and your family are truly prepared for every exigency that you can fathom and you PRACTICE, your odds at survival go up exponetially with your continued commitment to that PRACTICE. Survival from what? You could be the victim of a natural disaster: hurricane, tornado, hailstorm, snowstorm, wild fires, or floods. In today's political climate your neighborhood could face a possible terrorist attack, a temporary takeover like Martial Law, or even a sudden insurrection from within. And I can't even begin to fathom all the other possibilites... one might be the residual effect of a war - even nuclear war fought on foreign soil that impacts us here.
Ideally, we dream of joining up with a militia unit and preparing but, most of us know that we won't see any serious effort by large numbers of people until we're in a real SHTF scenario. So, if we prepare our family and practice we accomplish two important objectives:
1) We protect and prepare our families which was the primary reason we got involved in the militia in the first place
2) We get a first hand look at the possible pitfalls we'll encounter once we organize and begin training a militia unit or training WITH one.
What you will learn in this thread will do a couple of things for you:
It will give you ways to train and prepare NOW and it will save your hind quarters some day - maybe in ways you would never expect. The basics are ALWAYS overlooked and never emphasized enough. And it's always the little things that hang your rear end. Case in point:
A few years ago, the founder of a group called Tyranny Response Team, perished in a home fire. Imagine the irony: a survival and preparedness leader perishes in a home fire instead of the coming invasion he had worried about all his life. And one more example:
My brother, who lived next door to me had been my best insurance policy for years. He moved and less than a year later, my home was burglarized at a time when I had let my defenses down and put my guns in the house, anticipating going on a shooting FTX a few days later. My sloppiness caused me to lose most of the possessions I owned. In our next post, we begin that long journey into the world of Security Protocols and I would like to hear from you once in a while as we progress with this thread.
Let's face it. The modern battlefield of today is preceded by intelligence, information, psychological operations / disinformation techniques and propaganda.
By securing your own life, you will get on the job training that will be invaluable to you in a Citizen - Soldier context.
Security Protocols include but, are not limited to: personal home security, family communications, privacy concerns, financial privacy / security, and personal defense preparations within the home.
Applied to the Citizen - Soldier, we will be discussing ways that people can collect intelligence on you, wage economic and psychological warfare against you, and size you up for defeat. In your personal lives, you will face enemies who are just as dangerous as the AK wielding terrorist. And most times they will not be representatives of a foreign country (unless you consider the de facto government in the U.S. to be a foreign entity - which is no stretch of the imagination.)
Every day, thousands of people are taking your picture, collecting mountains of data about you (tax collectors, banking institutions, marketers, pollsters, non-profit organizations, LEOs, credit card companies, etc., etc. ad infinitum.) And much of that information can and will be used against you at some point.
Several years ago a movie called Red Dawn came out. It was about communists infiltrating America, coming in disguised as commercial air traffic. Once the communists took over, they confiscated all the form 4473s from gun and sporting stores. As most of you know, the form 4473 is the form you fill out when you purchase a firearm. Anyway, armed with that information, the soldiers proceeded to confiscate all the privately held firearms. I first saw that movie in 1985. Ever since then I became cognizant of what it would take for Citizen - Soldiers to survive when so much information could be had by virtually anyone wanting to wage war against us.
Protecting your privacy is the first area we will look at in this thread. And the first concern starts with the Socialist Surveillance Number... ooops, I mean "Social Security Number." You've had the doctor, dentist, school registration official, banker, car dealer, and even local retailer ask you, "what's your social?"
You probably know this number right off the top of your head. And it is tied to your medical records, financial records, private information, taxes, and virtually every other aspect of your life. You may get a post office box, have an unlisted phone number, and register your cars under a family member's name. But, the moment you give out that ssn, it gives people ALL the information they will ever need to defeat ANYTHING you do to create a degree of financial privacy.
When the first "Social Security" Cards came out, it had been heavily debated that they would illegally be used for identification. Political and religious leaders worried that the ssn was the prelude to the biblical Mark of the Beast (and they were right.) But, people were issued an ssn and the first ones had the following printed in large letters across the face of them: NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION.
Today, despite all the political wrangling and debates of the past, the ssn is now your National ID Number. And the government can - and does use it to monitor everything you do from the womb to the tomb.
Moving along, let me say this to you with respect to the SSN. Never use it for identification if you can figure a way not to. Don't put it on your driver's license; don't use it as a password on the computer; above all NEVER carry your card on your person. Preferably the original should be in a safe deposit box in the bank. Ditto for every member of your family and especially the infants and ones too young to work and obtain credit.
While the SSN discussion is a thread in itself, I will move on and tell you to begin looking in your wallet, purse, and files in the home. All the paper and plastic are intelligence about you. It tells others how you spend your money, how much you make, what your interests are, and what your vulernabilities are. The paper trail is your worst enemy. And in defending yourself, you start to learn what kinds of intel you can get on your enemies AND where to find it.
Next, I admonish everyone to consider divorcing themselves from plastic. Credit cards, ATM cards, debit cards, and customer "loyalty" cards are your enemies. They are not your friends. They promise convenience, security, and ease. They cost freedom, privacy, and a loss of info that will be used by people who will do harm to you.
Starting today, you should sit down and have a plastic surgery session. For this session, you will need ALL of your credit cards, ATM cards, debit cards, customer "loyalty" cards, and anything else made of plastic which replaces Federal Reserve Notes (jokingly called cash.) And you'll need some scissors.
EVERYTHING you put onto plastic gives vital information out about you. In the case of customer "loyalty" cards, ALL of your purchases can be recorded, information sold to marketers, government, and LEOs... among many others. The firearm that Joe down the road inherited when his grandfather died and then sold to you for cash is easily registered, for the most part, when you go into Wallyworld and buy a gun cleaning kit and use your ATM card. I mean, let's follow the trail. The plastic ties you to a firearm. Why else would you buy a gun cleaning kit? For uncle Ron? Get real. If the LEOs question uncle Ron, will he lie for you? Unlikely.
So, if someone investigating you figures out you own a gun, what kind, the serial number, etc. are all unimportant for the most part. If / when gun confiscation comes to your neighborhood, they have you.
When you buy a gun from the store, it is registered. We can deny it, argue about it, or live in denial but, it is still registered. If you doubt it, I can repeat a point I've been making about this topic for the past decade. So, when the powers that be come knocking, you'll either have to surrender that gun, LIE about owning it, or use it. And you have to wonder about what kind of society we live in when we have to LIE to the government in order to exercise our constitutional rights.
But, back to the issue at hand. For a number of reasons, you should use cash if at all possible, use money orders if you need to send the money via the mail, and avoid plastic. Store big amounts of money in the family safe... and maybe you may want to look into a wall safe for added security. So, you don't want to be tied to the plastic any longer? Time for the surgery. Use the scissors. You can save ONE and only ONE credit card. But, you'll have to do something special with it:
Put that credit card into a bowl of water. Now put that bowl into your freezer. Sometimes you really "NEED" a credit card. Blockbuster asks me for one every so often in order to keep my membership current. Rental car companies and hotels ask for one as well... even when you have the money up front. Freezing your credit card means that if you decide to use it, you'll have to wait for it to thaw out. And while it's thawing, it gives you some time to think over how bad you want to use it for whatever purchase you're considering.
Security Protocols. They sound like something neat. And then... they start out so boring. But, the fact is, it's the basics that we need to learn. IF we did that, the rest would be easy.
And so, we move from the ssn and plastic to the papers you keep at home. Some years ago an attorney of whom I was acquainted with went to prison. It wasn't evidence that got him. And his crime was many years old. Only witness was damaging to him - and that was his own friend, a man on his side. But, the big thing that hung the lawyer was paperwork found in his own home.
A good paper shredder cost less than $30. And the flip side to that discussion is that once you place your trash on the side of the street, it becomes public property. People make a living dumpster diving in celebrities trash cans. And many cops would rather rummage in your trash can as they had to make love to their wife.
Since we are about to come upon a new year, it might be a good time to make the resolution that you will get rid of all the junk in your life, beginning with paperwork. Clutter serves no real purpose. So start your paper reduction program. Buy a shredder.
If a piece of paper serves no immediate use and no prospects for being necessary, shred it and toss it in the trash can. All those preapproved offers, old bills you paid like utility bills, etc. might be fair game.
The necessary papers should be put into one single file and put into your home safe OR a safe deposit box in the bank. Those papers include but, are not limited to: deeds, mortgage papers, plats, insurance papers, auto registration, medical insurance policies, receipts, vaccination records, original ssn, ownership papers, AND an inventory list of your belongings.
CAVEAT: While I advocate the above, there is something you need to know. IF the LEOs had a warrant to search your home and they found a list of your belongings, and you listed your firearms on the inventory list, those weapons could become the subject of confiscation later if that is not the initial reason the LEOs wanted a peek at your list to begin with.
Also know that the bank will allow the police to search your safe deposit box without a warrant. So, any item (s) you have that you want kept private may not be something you'd list on an inventory list of belongings. And finally, even if you know how much your firearms are worth, you keep receipts, etc. know this: Most home owner's insurance policies will only pay a maximum of one to $2,000 for the loss of your firearms. READ YOUR INSURANCE POLICY!!!
This may seem dull and boring right now but, rest assured: if you were the victim of something like Katrina which hit New Orleans - or a victim of any number of natural disasters and needed to document your losses so that the insurance companies would pay off, you'd be able to really fathom the importance of this security protocol.
Lastly, pictures are impossible to replace if destroyed in a fire or by water in a flood or hurricane. A copy of important pictures kept in a safe deposit box is a wise and sound investment. Fact is: a copy of your papers should be in your safe at home and the originals should be kept in a safe deposit box. Those important papers and copies of your pictures can be invaluable. All of this and we are just beginning... more later.
You got on this thread expecting to hear something really cool. And I messed it up with crap about managing paperwork. Today's battlefield will be more geared toward intelligence, information, and propaganda than anything else. I'll try to get past the paperwork and information parts of this thread in the next couple of posts so we can discuss other important things you will want to know.
It's amazing in today's society. For fifty bucks and the basic use of a computer we can find out so much about a person's life. And if Joe Blow can look you up on the internet and get your private info, just imagine what the government ... or any government or group could find out about you!
When I debate National ID with people, they always try that one liner, "Why should you care unless you have somethng to hide?" Seems to me that argument was used when a guy named Adolph Hitler came to power and used tattoos as a form of National ID. And then, a few short years ago, King George the Bush over here in Amerika said that "anyone not with us is with the terrorists." And I became a victim of those very words.
There's nothing like having your identity stolen OR the government pursuing you for purely political reasons to make you appreciate a thread like this one. And you see, while we may enjoy our privacy, we're usually sticking it to ourselves by freely giving out info we'd be insulted by if a friend or relative asked us for up front. And the simple fact is, a lot of the innocuous stuff we do is quite harmful to us.
A few years ago, some stores got this idiotic idea of having you sign up for a customer "loyalty" card in order to be able to purchase at the sales price. A decade or so ago, you showed up at the store, bought a minimum dollar amount, and you "qualified" for the sales price. Example: if you bought $10 minimum in groceries, you could have certain items for deep discounts.
When you get one of those customer "loyalty" cards, you are surrendering your right to privacy and giving out a lot of information about yourself. Now, the $64,000 question: Why do stores want you to sign an application for those customer "loyalty cards?" Simple: Your buying habits translate into information which can be sold to the government and to private organizations. Personality profiles can be built around what you buy. Weaknesses can be gleaned from looking over your shopping cart goodies. A person evaluating your grocery list could discover things about your health, the number of people in your household, and your personality (i.e. a tv guide each week would tell them you're a tv addict.)
You do have the power to stop this. First, you could simply give up the "customer loyalty card" and pay full price or shop in places that don't require those invasive pieces of junk. Walmart and Publix are a couple of places that don't require cards. And then it's a trade-off with Walmart... they are NO friend of liberty. OR, you could be as dishonest with the store as they are with you... but, you must be diligent. YOU MUST BE DILIGENT. I'll keep repeating this if need be. But, let me tell you how to do it:
Starting tomorrow, the next time you visit a store, get the "customer loyalty card" application even if you have a card... well, go ahead and cut up the old card. Fill in the application with totally bogus information. Once you get the card, pay for purchases in cash. Stores can run a card and match it to your check and then the information on a check, debit card, credit card, etc. is linked to your "loyalty card." So, use only cash... EVERY TIME! One slip of this rule and you have to start all over again.
Cash is your friend and next to that would be money orders. Reduce the paper trail. Protect your privacy. And in protecting your privacy, you learn how to look for the goods on the people who would do you harm.
We've covered most aspects of the paper trail and how information can be misused and used against you. I have an antecdotal story and then you'll understand this part of security protocols before we switch gears.
Some years ago, I went to a clothing store at the mall called Mervyns. I bought some clothes there and wrote a check. The clerk then asked for my driver's license, which I produced. He then wrote down my driver's license number and I was on my merry way - out of town for vacation.
Within ten days I was broke and sitting back at the house wondering how. Well, a little investigating revealed what happened. The clerk at Mervyns copied the information from the check and my driver's license number was my Socialist Surveillance Number... ooops, "Social Security Number." He then rented a box at a Mail Boxes Etc. in my name and then applied for a lot of credit. When he was turned down for the credit, he requested the free credit report... sent to Mail Boxes Etc. And with that, he had my credit card numbers, personal information, etc. And he proceeded to rob me blind.
Identity thieves get your information because you give it to them for the most part. Pedophiles operate on the lack of parents attention to security protocols. The government can keep tabs on EVERYTHING you do because of your lack of attention to security protocols... and your privacy can be destroyed by businesses and organizations who market what you make available. I'm telling you all of this to make you realize the importance of the entire Security Protocol program.
In another thread here, we discussed how to "freeze" your credit file in order to protect from prying eyes (identity thieves, people doing shady investigations into your life, etc.) I won't discuss it here but, will leave you with the link so that you can see how to do freeze your credit file:
Also, you want to get out of the marketers programs. By that I mean you don't want those anonymous phone solicitations for house cleaning, cable tv, chiropractic services, etc. nor those endless preapproved credit card offers. You have to OPT OUT.
The telephone number, 1-888-5-OPT-OUT, was set up to establish a single point of contact for consumers to call to request that all three major U.S. credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) remove consumers' information from the marketing lists and pre-approved credit offer lists sold to third parties. By entering your information, you prevent the credit bureaus from releasing your personal information to credit card companies. As a result, you should receive fewer credit card solicitations in the mail.
Calling the number in the e-mail will not stop your bank, credit union, brokerage company, etc. from selling your information. For that, you must respond individually to the "Privacy Policy" statements you received from each financial institution in the mail. Or, you must call the institution or company yourself.
Also, it is ok to enter yout Social Security number when prompted for it. The system needs that to verify your identity and remove you from the lists. Next posting we change gears.
Communication is a necessity. But sometimes what we say or otherwise communicate can come back to haunt us. I have two things which will serve you well:
Pick your words. Make them short and sweet. You never know from day to day which ones you may have to eat.
"Love your friends. Love them well. But to your friends no secrets tell. For if your friend becomes your foe... Your secrets EVERYONE will know" Ogden Nash
The most dangerous person who can hurt you with information will not be JBTs, LEOs, nor the media. It won't even be a foreign government nor the enemy you will meet on the battlefield. The worst person to have info on you is... YOUR OWN FAMILY! Some people can operate on assumptions and what they deduce from the information you make available as in the instances from earlier posts. But, your family knows enough about to connect all the dots, to confirm for the bad guys what the real facts are. And in doing so, they inadvertently become snitches... or they may be forced to sell you out if someone is pressuring / torturing / threatening them.
Let's start with some basic rules:
1) Never argue in front of your children. NEVER. Children need to know they are safe, secure, and loved. Not only can they repeat stuff you'd rather that nobody else knew about, if they feel threatened, they will tell what they know
2) Don't discuss specific finances with your children. If you can't afford what they want, say "we don't have enough money this week" and leave it at that OR if they're old enough, you might say, you need a part time job so you can afford it
3) In a militia context, you only discuss business on a need to know basis. That way, if they are pressured to tell all they know, and they don't know anything, they can't say a lot
4) Your spouse and children must be taught - and the lessons revisited often about what can be said to people outside your household... EVEN when answering the phone. Here's an example:
Q - Is your daddy home
A - No sir, he's at work. He won't be at home until 9 pm
How much valuable information is lost right there on a simple, innocuous phone call? How do you handle it?
Family members are instructed to say: "He's not here at the moment. Could I leave a message and tell him who is calling?" When you begin building a set of Security Protocols, the language must be precise and there is no deviation. After a while, it becomes as natural as brushing your teeth.
More to come on this aspect
When I was very young I recall people in the Mafia using discussions about baseball and horse racing to cover up a discussion about illegal activity. But, they used the same thing over and over until the feds pretty well understood what they were talking about.
Foreigners have their native language. The JBTs, LEOs, and other alphabet agencies have their own methods of communicating. So, what I'm going to say to you has merit in an intel context.
Suppose that a JBT / LEO has come into your house while you're gone. They want to pick you up on some trumped up charge. And IF you knew they were there, you wouldn't go home. Now, the JBT / LEO has your spouse call you at work and summon you home with some kind of "emergency." How can you prepare for this scenario?
Once you are on the line, you could ask a family member how they are. Their answer could tell you all you need to know. This is only an example and if you use it, you will need to alter the answers every few months just in case someone figures it all out.
Your spouse calls. You ask, "How are you?" Now each of the responses will tell you something important:
Okay - This response may mean everything is normal
Fine - This response may mean that someone you cannot stand or something dangerous awaits you, so stay away
Very Well - This response means that the family member needs you to come home right away and help them out of a jam. Your mother in law is annoying your spouse and your spouse wants you to come home right away, pass some of your famous gas, and run your mother in law off.
Whichever response your spouse or other family member uses sounds innocent enough but, can alert you to situations - imagine how useful that would be in a war time scenario!
In time you can build upon the principle to use subtle moves and responses to common questions to hold entire conversations that can't be detected by anyone not trained in that security / communication protocol.
As we move along with these security protocols, the pace and amount of information will become greater and greater. And it will require separate threads to do many of the individual topics justice.
Our next area of concern is the use of phone trees. A phone tree is basically the use of a list to reach as many people as possible in as short a time as possible. Let me give you a quick example:
During Katrina, people were evacuated from their homes and businesses. If you had been one of them, who would you have called first? And you have to remember that you and your family may have become separated. Who will they call? How much time and how many phone calls will it take for all of you to figure out where the other is and whether or not each is okay?
If each of you called the same people in the same order, you could communicate through the same family member or friend and use them as a common liaison, passing information from one spot and reuniting the family. And this is just one use of a phone tree! It sure beats making 50 phone calls to 50 different people and trying to haphazardly get information passed along.
Everybody would call A and if A did not answer, they would go to B. If B answers the phone, then they can pass the information along to everybody else. And so forth. Calling the same people, in the same order is the shortest route.
I have a quick story here and we'll move along. As you know, I've been involved in the patriot movement for more than 30 years. I've attempted to tell people the advantages of the phone trees. And tax protestors have to be the ones who NEED to have outside contact more than most anyone on the face of this earth. In the entire time, NOBODY has ever called me when a tax protestor needed IMMEDIATE help. I'd hear about it a day, week, or even a month later. Everyone would assume I knew. Yet no organized method of contacting people exists in the patriot movement... though all of us NEED it. Watch the Comms. forum here for specific threads on phone trees.
Our next Security Protocol is Evacuation and Rendezvous.
This one is basic and simple. You probably saw this in grammar school. A fire alarm goes off, you exit the building and meet in a prearranged spot in the parking lot. You evacuate the building and you rendezvous in the parking lot.
Most of us don't have such a plan for the home. And that's why a lot of people die or get injured in house fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. And so, you should have a WRITTEN plan of exiting the home and where you'll meet. Further, you should have WRITTEN plans should it be your community that you have to evacuate. That way, between a good phone tree AND a common rendezvous spot, you should be able to reunite with family and friends after fleeing a disaster. Again, this will be dealt with in a specific thread very soon. BTW, be sure to revisit this thread and see the addendums which will be added.
We've covered a lot of ground thus far. We have covered the need for personal security information with our ID, ssn, credit cards, and the need to get away from "customer loyalty cards." We've talked about things you say and DON'T say around people outside the family (this is sometimes called COMSEC (Communications Security) in a military context... though admittedly ours is a elementary use of the word. And we've discussed phone trees and the need for an evacuation / rendezvous plan.
If you are serious, you will take the basics and practice with them until the practice becomes a much a habit as brushing your teeth.
Let us switch gears to the top TEN things you need to do in order to insure the security of your home and property. If you do all these things this year, keep your receipts. The first seven are tax deductible, so there's an additional reason to add anything missing from the list to your home:
1) Deadbolt locks on your doors
2) Locks on your windows
3) Smoke alarms
4) A burglar alarm / security service
5) A safe in your home
6) Flood lights and lights outside your home
7) Motion sensors for the lights
8) A dog for protection
9) CS gas burglar bombs
10) motion sensing cameras (available in the sporting section of Wallyworld)
All of this stuff combined is in the $3500 and up price range for most of us. That is a small price when spread out over a long period of time. The tax write off and insurance cost reductions offset a lot of the expense too.
Well now, we've pretty well covered the issue of Security Protocols pretty well.
If you implement what you've learned in this thread, taking the time to research issues like Evacuation and Rendezvous, Phone Trees, and Privacy with respect to identification, credit information, and finances then you are well on your way. You have an elementary understanding of Comsec (Communications Security) and OPSEC (Operations Security.)
There are a couple of other considerations which deserve threads of their own but, still must be mentioned. And the first one is that little box in your home called the computer.
Each time you get on the computer, you've got to assume that a myriad of people are watching your every move. As fast as security software is made to thwart hackers and so forth, there is some evil genius figuring out how to defeat it. So, beware of the sites you visit. Somebody's usually watching AND your ISP will turn over your surfing info to the LEO community without a warrant.
From a security standpoint, I did want to mention that there is a guy at the gun shows here who sells a system to monitor your home and yard via the computer and several cameras. The great thing is, this system can record everything that goes on with motion sensor cameras and send it to your e mail account. If someone steals your computer, you can still go online and read your e mails and have a picture of what the cameras saw. Cops say you're wasting your money on the $250 to $500 units that record terrible images where the pictures are so bad they can't identify who burglarized or robbed you. Good units START at $2500... but if you have a lot of personal possessions in your home, it is cheap insurance. And these systems are tax deductible AND might save you some on your insurance premiums as well.
Finally, in the area of personal protection, you should examine things like lethal and non-lethal forms of protection. Alarms, sprays like CS gas, and stun guns deserve consideration after careful research. And what kind of firearm (s) you consider must be done with a lot of attention to your needs, budget, and willingness to learn the basics of. And for what it's worth, I'm going to give you some practical and legal advice here about guns.
Never handle a gun that you are not familar with the workings of
Don't point a firearm at anything you cannot afford to destroy or kill
NEVER leave a loaded firearm lying around in your home. The ONLY and I mean ONLY loaded gun in your home should be on your person and under your immediate control.
Last, for those who have a lot of time and some skills or a major budget, you have to consider a Safe Room in your house. And yes, it's about what it sounds like... only you and your family are what the contents are designed for. BTW, that's covered in the first phase of S.P.I.K.E.
Once you've mastered these skills, you have the prerequisites to teach others how to become Citizen - Soldiers. A lot more could be said but, nobody has contacted me about any of this, so I understand the silence and move on. But, for those of you who read this thread, it will serve you well. Thanks for considering it.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
