DOD secretly continued intel program (TIA "data mining" program)

[sabra]

http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20060223-082516-5272r

DOD secretly continued intel program

WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- A controversial counter-terrorism program has quietly continued despite being theoretically ended two years ago.

The Department of Defense's Total Awareness Information program was halted by lawmakers more than two years ago amid outcries from privacy advocates. However, it was stopped in name only and has quietly continued within the intelligence agency now fending off charges that it has violated the privacy of U.S. citizens, the National journal reported Thursday.

The TIA program developed technologies to predict terrorist attacks by mining government databases and the personal records of people in the United States. Its research was moved from the Pentagon's research-and-development agency to another group that builds technologies primarily for the National Security Agency, the National Journal said.

The publication cited documents it had obtained and intelligence sources. The names of key projects were changed, apparently to conceal their identities, but their funding remained intact, often under the same contracts, the Journal said.

[psychopomp]

1. Did anyone expect otherwise?

TIA and CARNIVORE surely never went away...much like COINTELPRO.

[European Socialist]

2. Didn't they call it--"lets listen to lefty". nt

[donkeyotay]

9. And it is proof that the war on terra is really just a new, improved

version of the war on the people's nations waged by the multinational corporations. How else to explain that these neocon idiots can, with a straight face, talk about the military threat of China after having defeated us economically by selling out the American worker?

I've been reading "Silent Coup: the removal of an American president" and they discuss how Nixon rationalized domestic spying because the Left was the enemy. Now mind you, was the Left a threat to democracy or the military industrial complex? These militaristic nut jobs have BEEN the American government for a very long time now. They are not held accountable for their multiple failures, instead they blame the Left. Exactly what threat has the Left been other than demanding civil rights and that war be used only as a last resort? Was increasing the minimum wage or universal healthcare complicity with al Qaeda?

The book discusses the "Huston Plan" which

called for six activities, some of which were clearly illegal. They included electronic surveillance of persons and groups "who pose a major threat to internal security"; monitoring of American citizens by international communications facilities; the relaxation of restrictions on the covert opening of mail by federal agents; surreptitious entries and burglaries to gain information on the groups; the recruitment of more campus informants; and, to ensure that the objectives were carried out and that intelligence continued to be gathered, the formation of a new interagency group consisting of the agencies at the June 5 meeting and military counterintelligence agencies. Nixon endorsed these measures in the Huston Plan on July 14, 1970, because, as he put it in his memoir, "I felt they were necessary and justified by the violence we faced." (page 99)

So our government and our military have long been concerned with the thoughts of free citizens who are concerned with what happens in the name of protecting us. Why are we considered such a threat? Is it because we threaten their free rein to make the world a more peaceful place and safe for the Pentagon's version of democracy - or should I call it demockracy?

[seafan]

3. And here's John *Mr. TIA* Poindexter, in FL 2 days ago:

Poindexter: Citizens need assurance about civil rights

by Troy Moon
February, 22, 2006


Former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter said he believes President Bush has "the authority to do what he's doing'' in implementing the National Security Agency's secret surveillance program aimed at fighting terrorism.
Poindexter, 69, spoke to more than 150 people Tuesday at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, part of the institute's continuing lecture series.

But Poindexter, who was national security adviser to President Reagan in the mid-1980s, said that Americans need reassurances that citizens' rights won't be trampled with the electronic surveillance program. Poindexter said privacy "appliances'' he helped develop when working for the Defense Department in 2002-03, would have helped give those reassurances. But the program he directed while at the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Information Awareness Office was scuttled after technology developed there drew criticism that the program could infringe on privacy rights.

"We don't have the privacy appliances'' in the current surveillance program, Poindexter said. "We need something like the privacy appliances we developed.''
Poindexter also told the Pensacola audience that "going to Iraq was the right thing to do,'' and added that "the whole issue of WMDs, well, I'm not sure if we know what the end of that story will be.''

snip

Poindexter was a key figure during the Iran-Contra scandal that rocked Reagan's administration in the mid 1980s. He was convicted of five felonies, including lying to Congress for his part in the scandal, which included selling arms to Iran to finance the Contras -- right-wing rebels who were aiming to overthrow the elected socialist Sandinista government of Nicaragua. Both the sale of weapons and the funding of the Contras violated U.S. policy.

His convictions were later overturned.

snip

"Our culture has led us to be overly reliant on technology,'' said Brice Harris, 28. "I think we'd gain much more to invest more money in creating smarter people rather than smarter technology."

http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060222/NEWS01/602220343/1006

[Nothing Without Hope]

4. K & R More lies exposed, and can we get the public to care? n/t

[Fridays Child]

5. Does this shit ever end?

K & R

[WePurrsevere]

6. Another day, another lie/crime exposed. n/t

:kick: for the morning crowd. :hangover:

[Lochloosa]

7. And I guess this document can be used to wipe our butts with....

Congressional Record: September 24, 2003 (House)
H8500-H8550

CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 2658, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS
ACT, 2004 (House Report 108-283)



<...>

Sec. 8131. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law,
none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available in
this or any other Act may be obligated for the Terrorism
Information Awareness Program: Provided, That this limitation
shall not apply to the program hereby authorized for
Processing, analysis, and collaboration tools for
counterterrorism foreign intelligence, as described in the
Classified Annex accompanying the Department of Defense
Appropriations Act, 2004, for which funds are expressly
provided in the National Foreign Intelligence Program for
counterterrorism foreign intelligence purposes.
(b) None of the funds provided for Processing, analysis,
and collaboration tools for counterterrorism foreign
intelligence shall be available for deployment or
implementation except for:
(1) lawful military operations of the United States
conducted outside the United States; or
(2) lawful foreign intelligence activities conducted wholly
overseas, or wholly against non-United States citizens.
(c) In this section, the term "Terrorism Information
Awareness Program" means the program known either as
Terrorism Information Awareness or Total Information
Awareness, or any successor program, funded by the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency, or any other Department or
element of the Federal Government, including the individual
components of such Program developed by the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency.

<...>

JOINT EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

<...>

Terrorism Information Awareness (TIA)

The conferees agree with the Senate position which
eliminates funding for the Terrorism Information Awareness
(TIA) program within the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA). The conferees are concerned about the
activities of the Information Awareness Office and direct
that the Office be terminated immediately. The only research
projects previously under the jurisdiction of the Information
Awareness Office that may continue under DARPA are: Bio-Event
Advanced Leading Indicator Recognition Technology, Rapid
Analytic Wargaming, Wargaming the Asymmetric Environment, and
Automated Speech and Text Exploitation in Multiple Languages
(including Babylon and Symphony). The conferees find these
programs are not components of TIA for the purposes of
section 8131. The conference agreement does not restrict the
National Foreign Intelligence Program from using processing,
analysis and collaboration tools for counterterrorism foreign
intelligence purposes.

[Career Prole]

8. I knew it as soon as Gonzales was directly asked

during his testimony on the wiretapping if TIA had merely been "moved" and he refused to answer in open session.

K & R!