Tech workers picket Palantir amid 'Muslim registry' fears

If Palantir promised not to violate the human rights of Americans, Palo Alto should expel them if they break the promise.

Does anyone really think that the FBI/CIA are not quite well informed on all of us already? Why should religion not have been included?

"Does anyone really think that the FBI/CIA are not quite well informed on all of us already? Why should religion not have been included?"

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how it was possible to have the Final Solution -- because of thinking like that.

It is propaganda and fear mongering to suggest there will be a national Muslim registry. Trump's comments were in the context of dangerous people coming to the US from terrorist hotbeds.

There remains a need for an Islamic Terrorist watch/tracking list which by definition will be almost 100% Muslim.

The enemy encourages these false protests so that it can hide behind our freedoms. It is turning the naive and misguided into pawns and worse.

Why shouldn't a national terrorist watch list include home-grown terror suspects, such as Dylan Roof or Timothy McVeigh or Eric Rudolph?

Timothy McVeigh was captured shortly after his bombing and executed in 2001. Dylan Roof was arrested the day after his shooting and has recently been convicted for his crime and sentenced to death. Once Eric Rudolph was identified as a suspect he was placed on the FBI's 10 most wanted list. I am afraid I don't see an inconsistency here and even how those examples are relevant.

Your examples were all of individuals using terrorist tactics. They were also US citizens already living here locally. As far as has been identified, they were not part of a global network or ideology that has declared war against the United States.

In other cases where those structures have been identified like with organized crime or terrorist organizations, they certainly are monitored and screened more robustly with data mining.

For cases of failed states or openly hostile regions of the globe like Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen where there are no traditionally reliable ways to screen people, extra precautions using profiling and electronic vetting techniques are necessary and reasonably warranted.

Passports and customs form declarations are just not sufficient to keep us safe.

Palantir is just a convenient target for fears and misgivings about what Trump has proposed. If he made his list in an Excel spreadsheet would people be picketing in Redmond?

@Sanctimonious City - The whole point of a terrorist watch list is to stop them BEFORE they commit mass murder. That is what Trump is proposing with his database, right??

Hitler's Germany used cataloging to keep track of the sects/people that they killed. it is a hidden fact that IBM's programs helped nazi germany do that

check out the book: "IBM and the Holocaust" by Edwin Black

what Trump wants to do is so similiar. but who knows maybe our gov't has already cataloged that already

Palantir is guilty of performing a lot of questionable and amoral project work, but a Muslim Registry is not one of them!

Agree it is creepy that a CIA backed startup has such a presence in leafy liberal Palo Alto. And let us not forget the Thiel-Trump connection so now Palantir is in the White House, it's like a bad spy movie. But even if Palantir made teddy bears I would picket them for destroying the character of downtown Palo Alto. I think it's time they put on their big-boy pants and found themselves a office campus outside of downtown (and don't come to Mountain View, we have more than our share of startups and tech companies)

Palantir Palo Alto locations (corrections to this list are welcome):
101 Forest Ave
100 Hamilton Ave
167 Hamilton Ave
542 High St
650 High St
151 Lytton Ave
181 Lytton Ave
151 University Ave
156 University Ave
635 Waverley St

they will be added into the "never hire" list of Palantir. Haha.

The "CIA's primary mission is to collect, analyze, evaluate, and disseminate foreign intelligence to assist the President and senior US government policymakers in making decisions relating to national security."

Web Link

What is so "creepy" about having a CIA office in Palo Alto? They need our best talent and support to do their job effectively. Their employees are your sons, daughters and neighbors.

Maybe some prefer that we don't defend our country against our enemies who are actively trying to hurt us or impair our strategic interests.

Or maybe, some just prefer to let others do the difficult and dangerous work and then sit back and criticize them while enjoying the protections they provide.

Just to set the record straight McVeigh did have accomplices - it was more than an individual act on his part see (e.g.) Web Link

"Maybe some prefer that we don't defend our country against our enemies who are actively trying to hurt us or impair our strategic interests."

True. And one of them will become President of the United States this Friday.

I guess underpasses like we have on Oregon and Embarcadero would be too much to ask. Engineers five decades ago could figure that out and get it done in a year.

If it is any consolation, we have the high speed rail boondoggle syphoning off resources and connecting two tumbleweeds together near Bakersfield. In the meantime, maybe we could get Curmudgeon to stand out by the tracks and wave a red lantern when the train is coming ;-)

Due to repeated violations of our Terms of Use, comments from this poster are automatically removed. Why?