Glutton: UK Army Intelligence real time tracking of vehicle number plates

Have you ever noticed blue or green 'lampposts' with shaded flat screens facing the traffic every few miles on the sides of British A Roads? These have appeared under the name 'AA Trafficmaster' over the last three or four years. First used against the IRA now against peaceful protesters in the UK.

Many of these Trafficmaster 'lamppost' cameras say on them 'Traffic jam early warning system for motorists, NOT A CAMERA, NOT A SPEED TRAP, Telephone 01908 249800'. Well maybe Trafficmaster should be prosecuted under the trades descriptions act - because, while the devices do detect the speed of passing traffic and relay it to the AA they certainly are cameras, and have a secret function that is mentioned on neither the poles or the publicity. They are also linked to similar devices which are replacing infra-red sensors on motorway bridges.

The 'Trafficmaster' cameras are primarily a vehicle number plate tracking system connected to British Army Intelligence under the army's codename 'Glutton'. The Automobile Association are providing a genuine congestion avoidance service but it is also a convenient cover for domestic army intelligence (and presumably MI5 too) surveillance of all cars in the UK.

The cameras are used for 'real-time' tracking of number plates on trunk roads across the country using a system called 'Passive Target Flow Measurement' or PTFM. The British army and unspecified 'others' are using the system to track suspicious or innocent vehicles with no checks on who they are tracking and why. The system can be used to track peaceful protesters, church outings, journeys to party conferences. Anything, in fact that those with access to Glutton choose.

The system got its army codename because of the sheer volume of number plate time and location data it keeps, so every single time your vehicle has gone past one of these 'non-camera' cameras it will have been recorded. A useful way of checking where cars have been and when but also an outrageous infringement of civil liberties introduced with absolutely no justification.

This technology has been introduced, as much of the similar CCTV biometric technology, without approval from the British people and is actively destructive of the democratic system. It must be exposed, it must be dismantled. The people who have arranged for and profited from the installation of this system are arguably guilty of contempt for human rights and privacy.

The Trafficmaster website provides a comprehensive map of Glutton surveillanced trunk roads here  http://www.trafficmaster.co.uk/page.cfm?key=network so you can plan your route to avoid being tracked by army intelligence if you wish.

It is part of a much wider top-down change by the establishment in the way we do things. Its about discarding the assumption of innocence, held sacred since Magna Carta. Now every citizen is a suspect and this has left us with biometric, face-recognition, CCTV and now Glutton. (see Qinetiq's biometric nightmare by Alf Mendes  http://www.bilderberg.org/wwiii.htm#Q)

Remember - if you've never done anything wrong you have nothing to fear from Glutton. But I, for one, would be extremely surprised if drug dealing mafia elements within our intelligence agencies will get caught in their own net. Don't hold your breath.

With the wall of secrecy surrounding army intelligence the public are not even allowed to know who is deciding what is a legitimate journey and what is not.

Further info and pictures at  http://www.spy.org.uk/trafficmaster.htm



Road spy cameras will track criminals
 http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/17436099?source=Evening%20Standard

By David Williams Motoring Editor, Evening Standard

A new national network of mobile cameras is to track criminals on the roads.

Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras - linked to an extensive database - will pinpoint vehicles police want to trace.

The system led to a dramatic increase in arrests when it was tested by 23 forces between June 2003 and June last year, police say.

The cameras, mounted in vans, scan number plates and check them against a police database containing more than 8.5 million registrations.

It takes less than a second, allowing police at checkpoints to stop "wanted" vehicles immediately and question the occupants.

Last year the Government pledged ?15 million to support the ANPR rollout over the next year.

The Association of Chief Police Officers said that during the trials 13,499 people were arrested, including 2,263 for theft and burglary and 1,107 for drugs offences.

Civil rights group Liberty said it had concerns about the roll-out of the system. Campaign coordinator Doug Jewell said: "We feel that what the police should be talking about is tackling specific problems with the new cameras."