From Obama to You -- Mandatory Alerts

[Kat Kanning]

http://www.infowars.com/sprint-launches-soon-to-be-mandatory-emergency-alert-messages/

Sprint Launches Soon To Be Mandatory Emergency Alert Messages

Americans will be forced to receive spurious terror alerts

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Friday, November 18, 2011

Telecommunications giant Sprint has announced the launch of its Wireless Emergency Alerts program that will deliver messages from the federal government directly to millions of Americans as part of a system set to become mandatory on all new cellphones.
PLAN

"Wireless Emergency Alerts allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to accept and deliver warning messages to wireless networks from the president of the United States, the National Weather Service and state and local emergency operations centers. Sprint customers will be able to effectively and accurately receive warnings and safety information via text alerts to mobile phones that are equipped with the enabling software and based on their geographic location," states the press release.

Although existing mobile handsets can only receive the messages if their users have opted-in to the scheme, all new models will be designed so as to force Americans to receive the messages whether they want to or not.

The federal government is keen to implement a centralized system of control over all communications, with the recent announcement that all new cell phones will be required to comply with the PLAN program (Personal Localized Alerting Network), which will broadcast emergency alert messages directly to Americans' cell phones using a special chip embedded in the receiver. The system will be operational by the end of the year in New York and Washington, with the rest of the country set to follow in 2012.

Assurances that the system will be "voluntary" for wireless carriers are completely meaningless given the fact that all the big boys, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon, have already indicated they will participate.

Customers will have no choice whether to opt-in or not, they will automatically be signed up by their carrier.

"Consumers will have the option....to block all PLAN alerts except for those issued by the president," reports the L.A. Times.

In other words, for the first time ever the feds will have a direct line to the millions of Americans who use cell phones and be able to use the messages to transmit whatever they like, whether that be genuine safety information, fearmongering about spurious terror alerts, or political propaganda.

The "special chip" that the government will use to reach Americans is already present in high-end phones like the latest iPhone.

"The 90-character alerts will be delivered at no charge to the customer and have a distinctive vibration cadence and audio tone similar to what is heard for emergency alerts on broadcast television and radio. Additionally, notification of a wireless emergency alert will be distinguished in the handset's messaging inbox with a distinctive icon," notes the press release, adding, "Wireless users can opt out of all message types with the exception of presidential alerts."

As we reported last week, concerns about the public's reaction to a national broadcast test of the Emergency Alert System prompted the test to be shortened from an initial 3 and a half minutes to just 30 seconds.

Before the end of the year, Sprint plans to team up with the New York City Office of Emergency Management, the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate, and FEMA to conduct a test of the new mobile alert system.

"The test will deliver a series of different geo-targeted wireless alerts to multiple Sprint mobile phones strategically located in Brooklyn, The Bronx, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island," according to the press release.

The PLAN program is part of the wider move on behalf of Homeland Security to create a public environment dominated by a pervasive sense of fear and paranoia, a context in which the safe exercise of constitutional freedoms doesn't normally thrive.

As we have documented, not only is Big Sis already telling Americans to report on each other via Orwellian Wal-Mart telescreens, but new street lights now being installed in major cities have the ability not only to record people's conversations but also to display emergency "alerts" issued by the federal government.

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show.

[Kat Kanning]

Unannounced Verizon Emergency Alert Causes Panic In New Jersey
http://www.infowars.com/unannounced-verizon-emergency-alert-causes-panic-in-new-jersey/
Scared citizens flood 911 boards with anxious calls

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Monday, December 12, 2011

An unannounced test of a soon to be mandatory emergency alert system caused panic in New Jersey today after Verizon customers received text messages warning them that a "civil emergency" was in progress and to "take shelter," prompting alarmed citizens to flood 911 lines with anxious calls.

However, media reports concerning the alarm completely ignore the fact that Verizon was almost certainly running a test for the federal government's soon to be mandatory PLAN alert program, which the company has signed up for.

"A mass text message warning New Jersey cell phone users of a "civil emergency" was sent out by Verizon Wireless earlier today," reports the New Jersey Star-Ledger. Verizon Wireless later apologized to its customers for causing alarm.

The alert message included the text "U.S. Govern," suggesting to customers the text had come from the federal government itself, which undoubtedly fueled the panic.

Residents in three different counties received the message, titled "Emergency alert seek shelter by 1:24 p.m," which was not labeled as a test. Police departments and country authorities fielded four times the usual number of calls, many of them from distressed citizens who wanted to know whether a real emergency was in progress. "There is no reason to panic here," said Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden. "It is a false text done maliciously today at 12:27 p.m."

The Department of Homeland Security was also forced to put out a tweet confirming that there was no emergency after concerned citizens also turned to Twitter for advice, saying they were, "scared and didn't know how to react."

Verizon company spokesman David Samberg told the Star-Ledger that the message was part of a "test emergency notification," apologizing "for any inconvenience or concern this message may have caused." The messages were received by Verizon customers with, "Droid-operated phones in Monmouth and Ocean counties and other parts of central New Jersey."

Though completely absent from reports concerning the scare, the unannounced test was almost certainly conducted in preparation for FEMA's PLAN program (Personal Localized Alerting Network), which will broadcast emergency alert messages directly to Americans' cell phones using a new chip embedded in the receiver. The system is scheduled to be operational across the country by the end of next year.

Verizon are one of the 'big four' wireless carriers that have agreed to sign up for the program, which will use a "special chip" embedded in all newly produced cellphones to send emergency alerts directly from the federal government. Customers will not be able to opt out of messages labeled 'presidential alerts', meaning they will be forced to read what some construe as government propaganda.

As we have documented, the PLAN program is part of the wider move on behalf of Homeland Security to create a public environment dominated by a pervasive sense of fear and paranoia, a context in which the safe exercise of constitutional freedoms doesn't normally thrive.

For the first time ever the feds will have a direct line to the millions of Americans who use cell phones and be able to use the messages to transmit whatever they like, whether that be genuine safety information, fearmongering about spurious terror alerts, or political propaganda.

Judging by today's response, the overwhelming majority of Americans will simply react by panicking, which in a real emergency situation could only make the crisis worse.

[littlehawk]

testing 1..........2..............3

she be a'comin.....get close to God...if ya don't believe in God, hug your dog..or sumpin.'

[Jim Johnson]

That's funny.
Why do they pick on New Jersey?

Orson Wells messed with New Jersey for 'War of Worlds'; maybe Verizon pegged them for suckers too.

[Silent_Bob]

That's funny.
Why do they pick on New Jersey?

Orson Wells messed with New Jersey for 'War of Worlds'; maybe Verizon pegged them for suckers too.

The vast majority of New Jersey inmates/inhabitants are conditioned similar to Pavlov Dogs. Mind games are played there to see what the conditioned response is.

[Russell Kanning]

and there are gang members in many cities that are hoping for or planning the next terrorist attack so they can have more funding

[littlehawk]

New Jersey..the only state named after a shirt. That says a lot!