FBI Data-Mining Plan Hits Roadblock in Congress

[sabra]

Source: ABC News

House Says Program Could Violate Americans' Privacy

A Congressional panel voted Wednesday against giving the FBI $11 million it requested to expand a controversial data-mining program, citing concerns about Americans' privacy and the lack of answers from the bureau on how the program operates.

The National Security Analysis Center (NSAC) brings together hundreds of millions of electronic records created or collected by the FBI and other government agencies, according to FBI documents. The bureau has said it expects that number to skyrocket in the coming years. Its annual budget, which the FBI had hoped to increase, is roughly $60 million.

Last year, lawmakers raised questions about the FBI's stated goal of using the vast ocean of data to "predict" who might be a potential terrorist, in the absence of intelligence linking the man or woman to any radical or extremist group. Leading experts, and even U.S. intelligence officials, have said the approach is not feasible.

In an earlier report to Congress, the FBI called NSAC "a dynamic organization with an evolving mission" and "the next essential step" in fulfilling President Bush's order to create a National Security Service within the Justice Department and FBI. The Bureau did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.

"It is unclear how the Bureau intends to define these predictive models in such a way as to avoid needless intrusions into the privacy of innocent citizens," a House appropriations panel wrote in a report explaining its decision to withhold $11 million in money the FBI had requested to expand the program. The report also cites concerns about the program wasting agents' time by sending them out to run down false leads.

Read more: http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5255140&page=1

[Bonhomme Richard]

1. Yeah,Yeah...Now it's time to bend over. n/t

[midnight]

9. I hate to agree with your response, but good god you know

they will just cave in at the end.

[shraby]

2. Wasn't there a flap about this a couple of years ago

about the FBI checking out a lot of "suspicious" pizza places because of the number of calls placed to those businesses that brought them to the attention of the every attentive FBI.

[ReadTomPaine]

3. This is just rich. After what happened this week..

they expect us to believe they care about our privacy?

[gatorboy]

10. More than likely they were afraid of the FBI violating THEIR privacy.

Everyone else: :nuke:

[RedLetterRev]

4. And what has happened

(if anything) to Blackwater's Total Information Awareness data mining? That is patently illegal, yet continues. The FBI's version of TIA has also suffered blows by the courts, been told to stop, yet continues. The CIA and NSA, well, they're doing the same thing continuously. It's not like FISA makes a damn one way or another -- they're all doing it; they're all doing it against the law; they're all doing it against court orders for them to stop; yet, they all do as they damnwell please.

I feel as if I went to sleep in 1975 and got somehow stuck in a 1984 nightmare. Please to G'd, somebody wake me up.

[kestrel91316]

5. I can think of several of us here on DU who will probably be very

quickly "predicted" to be potential terrorists (yours truly included) because of our comments about the misadministration.

[kimmylavin]

6. "Could" violate??? "Could"?

I'm thinking DOES is the more appropriate word...

[Hail Lama]

7. If it walks like a chicken...

Sounds like propaganda to me, how about you?? With their use of supercomputers I seriously doubt that they would stop data mining the American people. "They" have us all phsycologically profiled already based on the websites we visit and the links we click.. I for one am not buying this story.

I know this might sound crazy, but google the movie "global warming or global governance"... Its very informative and I think you should watch it to get an even broader perspective on this issue.. Trust me its good viewing...

Also if you have time google Loose Change 2nd Edition!! Happy trails..

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

8. Isn't this about the "thought police?"

Last year, lawmakers raised questions about the FBI's stated goal of using the vast ocean of data to "predict" who might be a potential terrorist, in the absence of intelligence linking the man or woman to any radical or extremist group.

[PSPS]

11. "Bush's order to create a National Security Service"

In an earlier report to Congress, the FBI called NSAC "a dynamic organization with an evolving mission" and "the next essential step" in fulfilling President Bush's order to create a National Security Service within the Justice Department and FBI. The Bureau did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.

This would be bush's Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (Stasi)