FC: Pentagon wants a "Big Brother" supercomputer, from NYT

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Previous Politech message:

"U.S. creates (another) surveillance office run by J. Poindexter"
http://www.politechbot.com/p-03153.html

---

From: "Danny Yavuzkurt" <ayavuzk () fas harvard edu>
To: <declan () well com>
Subject: Pentagon desires 'Big Brother' supercomputer
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2002 12:12:05 -0500

Don't know if you've seen this article already, Declan (I assume you have,
it's a couple of days old), but everyone on Slashdot was talking
(http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/11/09/2242250) about this article
at the New York Times
(http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/09/politics/09COMP.html) that makes CopNet
look like an Atari 2600.  Who's involved?  Are you not surprised to find out
it's Vice Admiral John Poindexter, of Iran-Contra infamy (he was Reagan's
National Security Director, and would've been convicted of felonies, if it
hadn't been for Reagan's protection..).  Now, combine that with, oh my god,
he's the director of the IAO (http://www.darpa.mil/iao/, have you ever seen
a more disturbing logo - or mission statement?).. and you can see why we're
worried.

According to the article, the IAO is responsible - no surprise - for
"developing new surveillance technologies in the wake of the Sept. 11
attacks," and the supercomputer idea is reportedly being mulled over by
Rumsfeld, who was seen having lunch with Poindexter.  It's all hush-hush,
the administration won't comment on it, and civil liberties advocates aren't
the only ones worried - hell, even the panel the Pentagon hired to review it
is having second thoughts.  Here's a direct paragraph from the article:
-----
"A lot of my colleagues are uncomfortable about this and worry about the
potential uses that this technology might be put, if not by this
administration then by a future one," said Barbara Simon, a computer
scientist who is past president of the Association of Computing Machinery.
"Once you've got it in place you can't control it."
-----

Looks like the people who know the technology, at least, have their heads on
straight about this.  Too bad the government pinheads and Poindexters think
technology can solve all our security problems - and that we should go ahead
and line up to be strip-searched of our rights to 'prevent terrorism'.  So,
data mining of all Americans' credit card data, cross-referenced with
traffic violations, Usenet posts, and medical records, will suppsedly detect
terrorists?  It doesn't take a genius to see that this system will be far
more useful for creating 'enemies lists' Nixon would have killed for,
suppressing internal dissent, harrassing law-abiding citizens, and,
eventually, turning this country into the police state the Pentagon - and,
apparently, the Bush administration - wants.

Danny

---

Date: Sat, 09 Nov 2002 09:35:58 -0600
To: declan () well com
From: Scott Schram <scott () schram net>
Subject: NYTimes: Pentagon Plans "Total Information Awareness"

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/09/politics/09COMP.html

(Registration required.)

Pentagon Plans a Computer System That Would Peek at Personal Data of Americans
By JOHN MARKOFF

The Pentagon is constructing a computer system that could create a vast 
electronic dragnet, searching for personal information as part of the hunt 
for terrorists around the globe — including the United States.

As the director of the effort, Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, has described 
the system in Pentagon documents and in speeches, it will provide 
intelligence analysts and law enforcement officials with instant access to 
information from Internet mail and calling records to credit card and 
banking transactions and travel documents, without a search warrant.

<snip>

---

To: "Declan@Well. Com" <declan () well com>
Subject: FW: Poindexter et al (was Surveillance ...)
Date: Sat, 9 Nov 2002 12:50:55 -0800

Declan,

I posted this reply to an e-mail list that I'm on. You've probably seen the
NYT lead in article at this point, and are much more aware of the political
background. Personally, I'm dismayed by how many retreaded apparatchiks with
what I'd view as unsavory backgorounds are being re-instated within the
current government and administration.

(no attribution thanks)


XXXX wrote:
That the issue is being reported by the NYT suggests the system already exists
and may have existed for many years. Now it's just a matter of the extent to
which it will be used by those with the authority to use it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/09/politics/09COMP.html?ex=1037509200&en=873ff5626a3c666e&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------

Excerpt:
As the director of the effort, Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, has described the
system in Pentagon documents and in speeches, it will provide intelligence
analysts and law enforcement officials with instant access to information from
Internet mail and calling records to credit card and banking transactions and
travel documents, without a search warrant.

Historically, military and intelligence agencies have not been permitted to spy
on Americans without extraordinary legal authorization. But Admiral Poindexter,
the former national security adviser in the Reagan administration, has argued
that the government needs broad new powers to process, store and mine billions
of minute details of electronic life in the United States.

Admiral Poindexter, who has described the plan in public documents and speeches
but declined to be interviewed, has said that the government needs to "break
down the stovepipes" that separate commercial and government databases,
allowing teams of intelligence agency analysts to hunt for hidden patterns of
activity with powerful computers.

"We must become much more efficient and more clever in the ways we find new
sources of data, mine information from the new and old, generate information,
make it available for analysis, convert it to knowledge, and create actionable
options," he said in a speech in California earlier this year.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------

Doesn't that name Poindexter sound familiar?

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/nsaebb2.htm

Manuel Noriega
In June, 1986, the New York Times published articles detailing years of
Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega's collaboration with Colombian drug
traffickers. Reporter Seymour Hersh wrote that Noriega "is extensively involved
in illicit money laundering and drug activities," and that an unnamed White
House official "said the most significant drug running in Panama was being
directed by General Noriega." In August, Noriega, a long-standing U.S.
intelligence asset, sent an emissary to Washington to seek assistance from the
Reagan administration in rehabilitating his drug-stained reputation.
 Oliver North, who met with Noriega's representative, described the meeting in
an August 23, 1986 e-mail message to Reagan national security advisor John
Poindexter. "You will recall that over the years Manuel Noriega in Panama and I
have developed a fairly good relationship," North writes before explaining
Noriega's proposal. If U.S. officials can "help clean up his image" and lift
the ban on arms sales to the Panamanian Defense Force, Noriega will "'take care
of' the Sandinista leadership for us."

North tells Poindexter that Noriega can assist with sabotage against the
Sandinistas, and suggests paying Noriega a million dollars -- from "Project
Democracy" funds raised from the sale of U.S. arms to Iran -- for the
Panamanian leader's help in destroying Nicaraguan economic installations.

 The same day Poindexter responds with an e-mail message authorizing North to
meet secretly with Noriega. "I have nothing against him other than his illegal
activities," Poindexter writes.

 On the following day, August 24, North's notebook records a meeting with CIA
official Duane "Dewey" Clarridge on Noriega's overture. They decided, according
to this entry, to "send word back to Noriega to meet in Europe or Israel."

 The CIA's Alan Fiers later recalls North's involvement with the Noriega
sabotage proposal. In testimony at the 1992 trial of former CIA official Clair
George, Fiers describes North's plan as it was discussed at a meeting of the
Reagan administration's Restricted Interagency Group: "[North] made a very
strong suggestion that . . . there needed to be a resistance presence in the
western part of Nicaragua, where the resistance did not operate. And he said,
'I can arrange to have General Noriega execute some insurgent -- some
operations there -- sabotage operations in that area. It will cost us about $1
million. Do we want to do it?' And there was significant silence at the table.
And then I recall I said, 'No. We don't want to do that.'"

 Senior officials ignored Fiers' opinion. On September 20, North informed
Poindexter via e-mail that "Noriega wants to meet me in London" and that both
Elliott Abrams and Secretary of State George Shultz support the initiative. Two
days later, Poindexter authorized the North/Noriega meeting.

 North's notebook lists details of his meeting with Noriega, which took place
in a London hotel on September 22. According to the notes, the two discussed
developing a commando training program in Panama, with Israeli support, for the
contras and Afghani rebels. They also spoke of sabotaging major economic
targets in the Managua area, including an airport, an oil refinery, and
electric and telephone systems. (These plans were apparently aborted when the
Iran-Contra scandal broke in November 1986.)


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/DOCUMENT/940411.htm

[...]
There's something about the White House electronic mail that seems to bring out
the worst tendencies among government officials, whoever's in the White House:


Oliver North and national security adviser John Poindexter electronically
shredded thousands of their E-mail messages on their way out of the NSC in
November 1986 (but the system's back-up tapes allowed investigators to recover
these messages and use them as legal evidence).
The Reagan Administration, with the acquiescence of the National Archives,
planned to blip out all the E-mail memory and backup tapes on its way out of
office in January 1989, only to be stopped by our lawsuit.
After we won court rulings establishing that the records laws apply to e-mail,
the Bush Administration staged a midnight ride on Inauguration Eve 1993 to
round up the computer tapes and put them beyond the law, under a secret
agreement which purported to give Mr. Bush control of the tapes, contrary to
the post-Watergate Presidential Records Act.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------

Back in 1996, a Mercury News reporter, Webb, published a series titled "Dark
Alliance" which drew links between the surge in crack cocaine usage in LA's
black neighborhoods (which remains a big probelem today) with the possible CIA
link to the Contras. The author subsequently wrote a book of teh same name, and
most of the original article seems to be printed here:

http://home.attbi.com/~gary.webb/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html


Here's a review of the media over-reaction against the article (it has links to
some related reading):

http://www.parascope.com/articles/1196/media.htm

And another "Dark Alliance" page:

http://www.lycaeum.org/drugwar/DARKALLIANCE/


---


Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2002 16:00:01 -0800
From: "Da'ud X Mohammed" <webmaster () ocnsignal com>
Reply-To: webmaster () ocnsignal com
Organization: Oregon Coast News Signal

Hullo Declan,

Two stories:

1. Besides what Poindexter is back to do...

2. He's back!

First the two e-mails you sent, then the following.

Is there a trend here??

Thanks.

With peace

dxm

**********

source: http://cryptome.org/tia-queeg.htm

The New York Times, November 9, 2002

INTELLIGENCE

Pentagon Plans a Computer System That Would Peek at Personal Data of Americans

By JOHN MARKOFF

The Pentagon is constructing a computer system that could create a vast 
electronic dragnet, searching for personal information as part of the hunt 
for terrorists around the globe -- including the United States.
As the director of the effort, Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, has described 
the system in Pentagon documents and in speeches, it will provide 
intelligence analysts and law enforcement officials with instant access to 
information from Internet mail and calling records to credit card and 
banking transactions and travel documents, without a search warrant.

[SNIP]

Declan McCullagh wrote:

> ---
> Subject: Prisoners of K Street
> Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2002 12:36:54 -0500
> From: "James V. Delong" <JDeLong () cei org>
> To: "Declan McCullagh (E-mail)" <declan () well com>
>  Declan -
> Re your piece this morning.
> Best,
> Jim
>  http://www.cei.org/utils/printer.cfm?AID=1923
> ---
>    Prisoners of K Street
>    UpDates
>    by James V. DeLong
>    November 1, 2000
>                             From the October/November issue of CEI UpDate
>    Recently I was talking with Roger Cochetti, VP of Network Solutions
>    and experienced observer of the high tech scene. "The Internet is at a
>    fork," he said. "Over the next couple of years it could be confirmed
>    in its existence as a free-market, free-wheeling, chaotic, fount of
>    imaginative innovation and multiplying value. Or it could go down the
>    road taken by broadcasting and telephone, becoming regulated, stodgy,
>    hostile to technical progress, and lawyer-driven."


[SNIP]

Declan McCullagh wrote:

>
> http://news.com.com/2010-1071-965160.html
>
>    Perspective: Don't get mad, get even
>    By Declan McCullagh
>    November 11, 2002, 4:00 AM PT
>
>    WASHINGTON -- The National Rifle Association rates politicians on
>    whether they support the Second Amendment.
>
>    Emily's List gives campaign cash to pro-choice Democratic women. The
>    Club for Growth supports politicos who pledge to lower taxes and limit
>    government, while aiming to defeat tax-and-spenders.
>
>    Is it time for the technology industry to come up with a similar way
>    to reward friends and punish enemies?

[SNIP]

---

From: "alex kananaskis"
To: declan () well com
Cc: politech () politechbot com
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 03:19:02 -0500
Subject: 'total information awareness' from darpa

hi declan,

[please hide my address]
hope you've seen this from the nytimes, about what vice adm. poindexter's 
orwellian-sounding 'office of information awareness' is up to behind the 
scenes at darpa. a plan is afoot to implement a system for mining and 
monitoring vast quantities of electronic data- way past echelon, and 
similar to rissnet in terms of cross-referencing ability- about people 
around the world, including in the usa. as the piece notes, this would 
require dismembering the enshrined privacy act of 1974.

epic's marc rotenberg: "The vehicle is the Homeland Security Act, the 
technology is Darpa and the agency is the F.B.I. The outcome is a system of 
national surveillance of the American public."

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/09/politics/09COMP.html?ex=1037854354&ei=1&en=2c953778a582ee6b

ever vigilant,
alex

ps- how do you libertarians respond when people like acm's barbara simon 
warn "Once you've got it in place you can't control it"?  the state does 
enforce its monopoly after all...





-------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice.
To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/
Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?qÞclan
-------------------------------------------------------------------------