Paging lala_rawraw: What were 'they' trying to tip you off to?

[TayTay]

I hope lala_rawraw is still at least monitoring DU. She had this post going back in February of this year:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=520607

It started out:

I just got a call from some folks and was told that 10 PM EST, CNBC was something I needed to tune into and take notes. So I found a listing for the hour and program, it is a Russert show with James Risen and another intel writer (http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/CNBCTV/TV_Info/P210... ).

I then made some calls and was told certain things that will be presented on this show, which came completely under radar. If what I have heard is correct, we have entered 1984 completely.

I was told to take notes on the following:
Company Names/Locations/Field of Expertise
Technology overlaps
What you infer from what you are being told

lala and anyone else who particpated in that thread: in light of the recent NSA spying revelations, what were your sources telling you to be on the look out for. How does ChoicePoint and the other big Data Mining and Data Storage concerns play into these recent NSA revelations that Gen. Hayden's NSA domestic wiretapping may have been much more extensive than we thought? Hmmmmmm, don't you think.

I think you should recheck this story out my dear.

[Sydnie]

1. I remember that night

We were typing furiously trying to get all the facts from that show documented.

[Journeyman]

3. And what was it that you typed? . . .

And what did you document? . . .

[Sydnie]

4. we were looking for company names and their

geography if I recall correctly. ChoicePoint was a big factor in that show. There were two threads, if I recall, because the first one filled up fast, then Larissa stopped posting as she thought it better not to speculate on the info in public while she was researching it ...

[SpiralHawk]

2. Que pasa?

I, too, would love to read a follow up.

In the meantime, a tip of the Hawk Wing to LaLa for all the great reporting she has done, and continues to do. Keep on soaring, LaLa. - a Fan

[Oilwellian]

5. Palast wrote about ChoicePoint just today

The leader in the field of what is called "data mining," is a company, formed in 1997, called, "ChoicePoint, Inc," which has sucked up over a billion dollars in national security contracts.

Worried about Dick Cheney listening in Sunday on your call to Mom? That ain't nothing. You should be more concerned that they are linking this info to your medical records, your bill purchases and your entire personal profile including, not incidentally, your voting registration. Five years ago, I discovered that ChoicePoint had already gathered 16 billion data files on Americans -- and I know they've expanded their ops at an explosive rate.

They are paid to keep an eye on you -- because the FBI can't. For the government to collect this stuff is against the law unless you're suspected of a crime. (The law in question is the Constitution.) But ChoicePoint can collect if for "commercial" purchases -- and under the Bush Administration's suspect reading of the Patriot Act -- our domestic spying apparatchiks can then BUY the info from ChoicePoint.

Who ARE these guys selling George Bush a piece of you?

ChoicePoint's board has more Republicans than a Palm Beach country club. It was funded, and its board stocked, by such Republican sugar daddies as billionaires Bernie Marcus and Ken Langone -- even after Langone was charged by the Securities Exchange Commission with abuse of inside information.

I first ran across these guys in 2000 in Florida when our Guardian/BBC team discovered the list of 94,000 "felons" that Katherine Harris had ordered removed from Florida's voter rolls before the election. Virtually every voter purged was innocent of any crime except, in most cases, Voting While Black. Who came up with this electoral hit list that gave Bush the White House? ChoicePoint, Inc.

And worse, they KNEW the racially-tainted list of felons was bogus. And when we caught them, they lied about it. While they've since apologized to the NAACP, ChoicePoint's ethnic cleansing of voter rolls has been amply assuaged by the man the company elected.

And now ChoicePoint and George Bush want your blood. Forget your phone bill. ChoicePoint, a sickened executive of the company told us in confidence, "hopes to build a database of DNA samples from every person in the United States ...linked to all the other information held by CP (ChoicePoint)" from medical to voting records.

And ChoicePoint lied about that too. The company publicly denied they gave DNA to the Feds -- but then told our investigator, pretending to seek work, that ChoicePoint was "the number one" provider of DNA info to the FBI.

"And that scares the hell out of me," said the executive (who has since left the company), because ChoicePoint gets it WRONG so often. We are not contracting out our Homeland Security to James Bond here. It's more like Austin Powers, Inc. Besides the 97% error rate in finding Florida "felons," Illinois State Police fired the company after discovering ChoicePoint had produced test "results" on rape case evidence ... that didn't exist. And ChoicePoint just got hit with the largest fine in Federal Trade Commission history for letting identity thieves purchase 145,000 credit card records.

But it won't stop, despite Republican senators shedding big crocodile tears about "surveillance" of innocent Americans. That's because FEAR is a lucrative business -- not just for ChoicePoint, but for firms such as Syntech, Sybase and Lockheed-Martin -- each of which has provided lucrative posts or profits to connected Republicans including former Total Information Awareness chief John Poindexter (Syntech), Marvin Bush (Sybase) and Lynn Cheney (Lockheed-Martin).

(more)

http://www.gregpalast.com/

[northamericancitizen]

10. Scary stuff. I hope (probably in vain) it 's not in Canada yet.

[flyarm]

13. i just posted alot about CHOICEPOINT ..here>>>>>>>>>>

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2625349&mesg_id=2626215

check it out i just posted alot about choicepoint at this link..

fly

[cosmicdot]

14. Palast: "...linking this info to your medical records..."

I suspect that Bu$h's Medicare Rx-for-profiteering program spearheaded by Scottie's brother, Mark McClellan, is helping out in collecting some of those medical records ... after all, to 'find' a corporate plan with a formulary (the meds a plan covers) which includes as many of one's meds as possible, one enters all the medications one takes into 'the system' for guidance ... so, now, Big Brother knows all the types of medications taken by a good number of Americans ...


something else I found unsettling ... the Medicare 800 number's navigation system is totally voice-activated now ... there's no option to push a key ... I just hope that it doesn't collect a voice print-in-process ...


as a side note ... in doing the Medicare Rx thing, one time the 'agent' was in Arkansas ... the 2nd time in Missouri .... all outsourced ... privatized ... where have all the Medicare government workers gone?

[MazeRat7]

6. Maybe this will help.....

http://www.orgnet.com/sna.html

Hummm... wonder what companies would benefit from this type of analysis

http://www.answers.com/topic/choicepoint


Now the real question... WHO was responsible for the actual security breech at CPS ?


MZr7

[originalpckelly]

8. Or for LexisNexis Seisint? Did the NSA break into those databases?

Who has the most powerful computers in the world??
The NSA.
What if the NSA couldn't get that information and hacked into both ChoicePoint and Seisint? Wow! You're a genius, it makes a lot of sense, in fact I'd say it was completely logical.

[originalpckelly]

9. Sounds Nixonian.(n/t)

[MazeRat7]

11. Well if you don't want to go on record as having bought something....

Steal it... and of course be sure you set some 18yo script kiddies up for the fall....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/19/AR2005051900704_pf.html

MZr7

[Sydnie]

7. Link to thread two from that night

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=521016

[dave502d]

12. I remember that night,it was about software they used.

They gave it to NSA.

[TayTay]

15. Yeah, they did.

The fact that Larisa got that tipoff seems to mean, to me at least, that there are a lot of people with knowledge of the NSA programs who want this found out as well.

This jibes with a lot of recent information that people affiliated with the NSA and, maybe, with the Data Mining & Data Storage companies want this to be found out.

Interesting stuff. Someone was trying to tell lala something big months ago.

[DoYouEverWonder]

16. A 97% error rate in finding Florida "felons,

The deliberate incompetence is astonding. Yet they continue to get away with it?

[rox63]

17. Check in, lala

K&R for lala

[lala_rawraw]

18. Still on it...

But Cambone is all I am going to say:)

[TayTay]

19. Bless you woman

And, ahm, if you ever need anything.....

For some damn reason I can't figure out stuff like this has just stuck with me since early last year.

BTW,it is beyond nice to have you check in. Thanks! (Oh and that name is hardly a shocker. Same old gang of criminals up to the same old tricks.)

[lala_rawraw]

20. thanks hon

and what I need is a life jacket as the thing called my life is sinking... but work is good:) yeah, this nsa stuff is really bad and even worse than what people know, but in order to write something like that i would require more than the few sources i have... like an army of sources... the nsa sources have the journos they trust, they are not going to another journo this late in the game... but from what I understand, the NsA is the tool that the DIA is using.

[TayTay]

21. I am not surprised

And, btw, you do excellent work. Dealing with 'leaks' from the NSA must be an incredible job. (Gawd, I would be spending a lot of time in paranoia world on that one. I would imagine people wat hing me in every conceivable way LOL, but not really.)

I still think it's a good thing to remind DU of the amazing tentacles this NSA story has and that some of our 'favorite' Rethug companies from the past, who have monetarily benefitted tremendously from this Admin, are still in the mix. There are issues beyond just the spying here, like who is collecting and databasing and cataloguing this info and who are they selling this info to and is it legal and, now, above board. Damn, that is a lot of stuff to ponder.

[northamericancitizen]

22. Can I send you a dozen life jackets?

In the mean time I am sending good vibes your way.

northamericancitizen

[lala_rawraw]

28. only if one of them

is a cure for Lupus and the other a cure for divorce:( other than that, send vibes and thanks:D

[lukery]

35. incoming

incoming vibes & lifejacket...

sent with hugs

[flyarm]

23. How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib.

hmmmmmmmmm this cambone???

thanks lala..fly


THE GRAY ZONE
How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib.
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040524fa_fact



One Pentagon official who was deeply involved in the program was Stephen Cambone, who was named Under-Secretary of Defense for Intelligence in March, 2003. The office was new; it was created as part of Rumsfeld’s reorganization of the Pentagon. Cambone was unpopular among military and civilian intelligence bureaucrats in the Pentagon, essentially because he had little experience in running intelligence programs, though in 1998 he had served as staff director for a committee, headed by Rumsfeld, that warned of an emerging ballistic-missile threat to the United States. He was known instead for his closeness to Rumsfeld. “Remember Henry II—‘Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?’ ” the senior C.I.A. official said to me, with a laugh, last week. “Whatever Rumsfeld whimsically says, Cambone will do ten times that much.”

Cambone was a strong advocate for war against Iraq. He shared Rumsfeld’s disdain for the analysis and assessments proffered by the C.I.A., viewing them as too cautious, and chafed, as did Rumsfeld, at the C.I.A.’s inability, before the Iraq war, to state conclusively that Saddam Hussein harbored weapons of mass destruction. Cambone’s military assistant, Army Lieutenant General William G. (Jerry) Boykin, was also controversial. Last fall, he generated unwanted headlines after it was reported that, in a speech at an Oregon church, he equated the Muslim world with Satan.

Early in his tenure, Cambone provoked a bureaucratic battle within the Pentagon by insisting that he be given control of all special-access programs that were relevant to the war on terror. Those programs, which had been viewed by many in the Pentagon as sacrosanct, were monitored by Kenneth deGraffenreid, who had experience in counter-intelligence programs. Cambone got control, and deGraffenreid subsequently left the Pentagon. Asked for comment on this story, a Pentagon spokesman said, “I will not discuss any covert programs; however, Dr. Cambone did not assume his position as the Under-Secretary of Defense for Intelligence until March 7, 2003, and had no involvement in the decision-making process regarding interrogation procedures in Iraq or anywhere else.”

In mid-2003, the special-access program was regarded in the Pentagon as one of the success stories of the war on terror. “It was an active program,” the former intelligence official told me. “It’s been the most important capability we have for dealing with an imminent threat. If we discover where Osama bin Laden is, we can get him. And we can remove an existing threat with a real capability to hit the United States—and do so without visibility.” Some of its methods were troubling and could not bear close scrutiny, however.

[lala_rawraw]

29. The Cambone in all of my articles

on pre-war intel and Feith

[flyarm]

30. ohhh now you have me waiting with bated breath waiting for this story!!

you are the best LALA!!

waiting..waiting..and imagination running wild!!

i love your passion and research LALA!!

fly

[Generic Other]

24. Great link to Choicepoint's whole sordid history

ChoicePoint is an Alpharetta, Georgia-based company that sells information in three markets--insurance, business and government, and marketing. According to a recent quarterly statement filed at the Security and Exchange Commission, ChoicePoint sells: "claims history data, motor vehicle records, police records, credit information and modeling services...employment background screenings and drug testing administration services, public record searches, vital record services, credential verification, due diligence information, Uniform Commercial Code searches and filings, DNA identification services, authentication services and people and shareholder locator information searches...print fulfillment, teleservices, database and campaign management services..."

http://www.epic.org/privacy/choicepoint/

[3waygeek]

32. FWIW,

I used to work in the building that houses ChoicePoint HQ; I was told that the architect who designed it was best known for designing prisons.

[robertpaulsen]

25. K & R!

:kick:

[Rockholm]

26. Kick

[KT2000]

27. Northrop Grumman

A friend who works personnel at the US Commerce Dept told me that Northrop Grumman is taking over those duties. They will manage federal personnel files. Don't know if it is for the entire federal government or what.
Tons of data there!

[Roland99]

31. How has their house of cards not collapsed under all of the strain?

[DemReadingDU]

33. I need a spare brain to keep track of all these scandals!

K&R

[lukery]

34. transcript

i transcribed the Russert/ Risen / O'Harrow interview last week

it's here
http://wotisitgood4.blogspot.com/2006/05/spying-hayden-risen-oharrow-russert.html

(apparently it hadn't been transcribed before)