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Clara T Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-24-06 11:27 PM
Original message
Rumsfeld Zeros in on the Internet


Rumsfeld Zeros in on the Internet

By Mike Whitney

As the Pentagon’s chief-coordinator, Rumsfeld enjoys a prominent place among American mandarins. He is the caretaker of their most prized possession; the high-tech, taxpayer-funded, laser-guided war machine. The US Military is the crown-jewel of the American empire; a fully-operational security apparatus for the protection of pilfered resources and the ongoing subjugation of the developing world.

Rumsfeld’s speech alerted his audience to the threats facing America in the new century.
He opined: “We meet today in the 6th year in what promises to be a long struggle against an enemy that in many ways is unlike any our country has ever faced. And, in this war, some of the most critical battles may not be in the mountains in Afghanistan or in the streets of Iraq, but in newsrooms—in places like New York, London, Cairo, and elsewhere.”

<snip>

The Pentagon’s strategy for taking over the internet and controlling the free flow of information has already been chronicled in a recently declassified report, “The Information Operations Roadmap”; is a window into the minds of those who see free speech as dangerous as an “enemy weapons-system”. The Pentagon is aiming for “full spectrum dominance” of the Internet. Their objective is to manipulate public perceptions, quash competing points of view, and perpetuate a narrative of American generosity and good-will.

Rumsfeld’s comments are intended to awaken his constituents to the massive information war that is being waged to transform the Internet into the progeny of the MSM; a reliable partner for the dissemination of establishment-friendly news. The Associated Press reported recently that the US government conducted a massive simulated attack on the Internet called “Cyber-Storm”. The wargame was designed, among other things, to “respond to misinformation campaigns and activist calls by internet bloggers, online diarists whose ‘Web logs” include political rantings and musings about current events”.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12060.htm
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benddem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-24-06 11:34 PM
Response to Original message
1. so the obvious answer
is Star Wars.
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waiting for hope Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-24-06 11:36 PM
Response to Original message
2. My God! That is one scary
picture...
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liberaltrucker Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-24-06 11:39 PM
Response to Original message
3. Orwell was 22 years off
:scared:
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Clara T Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-24-06 11:44 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. One Need Not Speculate
It's all out there hidden in plain sight.



Rumsfeld's Roadmap to Propaganda

Secret Pentagon "roadmap" calls for "boundaries"
between "information operations" abroad and at home
but provides no actual limits as long as US doesn't "target" Americans

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 177

For more information contact:
Kristin Adair / Thomas Blanton
202 994 7000

Posted - January 26, 2006

Obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archive at George Washington University and posted on the Web today, the 74-page "Information Operations Roadmap" admits that "information intended for foreign audiences, including public diplomacy and PSYOP, increasingly is consumed by our domestic audience and vice-versa," but argues that "the distinction between foreign and domestic audiences becomes more a question of USG intent rather than information dissemination practices."

The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948, amended in 1972 and 1998, prohibits the U.S. government from propagandizing the American public with information and psychological operations directed at foreign audiences; and several presidential directives, including Reagan's NSD-77 in 1983, Clinton's PDD-68 in 1999, and Bush's NSPD-16 in July 2002 (the latter two still classified), have set up specific structures to carry out public diplomacy and information operations. These and other documents relating to U.S. PSYOP programs were posted today as part of a new Archive Electronic Breifing Book.

Rumsfeld's Roadmap to Propaganda
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 177
Edited by Kristin Adair
Posted - January 26, 2006

The Information Operations Roadmap, a 30 October 2003 document approved personally by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, "provides the Department with a plan to advance the goal of information operations as a core military competency" and "stands as an another example of the Department's commitment to transform our military capabilities to keep pace with emerging threats and to exploit new opportunities afforded by innovation and rapidly developing information technologies." The plan was developed by an oversight panel led by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Resource and Plans) and representatives from the Joint Staff, Office of the Secretary of Defense, and Special Operations Command, among other organizations.



http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB177/index.htm
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FreedomAngel82 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-24-06 11:48 PM
Response to Reply #5
8. Operation Mockingbird is back
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liberaltrucker Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-24-06 11:49 PM
Response to Reply #5
9. Saved for later review
Thanks.

:yourock:
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Sparkman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-26-06 12:06 PM
Response to Reply #5
45. The Nazi propaganda machine has reimerged in the U.S. government.
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CAG Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-24-06 11:44 PM
Response to Original message
4. None of the daily failures of the cheney/rummy administration are their
fault; you must understand that each failure can be attributed to one or more of the following:
a. Something Clinton did 10 years ago
b. Something that ol' librul media said
c. all those unpatriotic traitors who are dissenting in any way (note that within the last week or so we can now add O'leilly, George 'silver spoon' Will, and William 'marxist librul pinko' Buckley Jr to that list)
d. any mix of the above
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jimshoes Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-24-06 11:46 PM
Response to Original message
6. Hey fuckwad,
Edited on Fri Feb-24-06 11:49 PM by jimshoes
we're not the fucking enemy you intolerable douchebag. We're Americans. Thankfully your ilk is circling the toilet bowl about to be flushed into the septic tank of history.


sp
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ClayZ Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 04:41 AM
Response to Reply #6
26. Yeah, what you said!
:toast:
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libhill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 08:28 AM
Response to Reply #6
34. Now, now -
Edited on Sat Feb-25-06 08:29 AM by libhill
We all know what a serious threat free speech and internet bloggers pose to our country - can't dismiss these things as though they were insignificant, comparable to , umm - oh, say something as minor and petty as selling six of our ports to the United Arab Emirates. One must set ones priorities.
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FreedomAngel82 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-24-06 11:46 PM
Response to Original message
7. McCarthyism all over again!
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RazzleDazzle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 10:41 PM
Response to Reply #7
41. Oh, this is much, much, much worse than McCarthyism
This is what McCarthy and about 20,000 others exactly like him could only have DREAMED about.
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The Backlash Cometh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-24-06 11:54 PM
Response to Original message
10. We're the only thing standing in the way of their quick getaway.
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linazelle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-24-06 11:57 PM
Response to Reply #10
11. You'd think people would connect the Google subpeonas to this
But noooooo.

They don't get it.

But Bu$hCo will get it...the internet that is.
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Clara T Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-24-06 11:58 PM
Response to Reply #10
12. Keep repeating that message
People must hear it over and over. Too often looking for and from someone or something within such a thoroughly corrupted system to save their bacon.

It is up to us and the way we operate in our daily lives and how willing we are to confront the fascistic machine. We must do it every day in large and small ways and with the support of each other.

Peace and reciprocity.
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kaygore Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 12:00 AM
Response to Original message
13. The Internet fosters free speech
and that's the enemy of a dictatorship!
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WannaJumpMyScooter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 12:06 AM
Response to Original message
14. Keep laughing fucktard... I WILL dance on your grave
very, very happily.

Not a threat... just mathematics.
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Swamp Rat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 12:21 AM
Response to Reply #14
16. I was thinking about taking a huge dump on it...
... after eating three plates of red beans and rice. :D

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WannaJumpMyScooter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 01:44 AM
Response to Reply #16
20. I am honored to know ya, SRat... I truly am
I pissed on J. Edgar Hoover's grave.

On MLK's birthday too.

Felt good, real good.
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Swamp Rat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 01:49 AM
Response to Reply #20
21. ... with lots of Cayenne pepper, alligator sausage, and okra.
:D

J. Edgar Hoover's grave? ... You da man! :applause:


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Pachamama Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 03:54 AM
Response to Reply #21
25. Hey Swamp'r! Was that your Mardi Gras dinner?
:hi:

Crazy sh*t going on, eh? Wonder how many of those Pentagon "infiltrators" are already busy practicing their craft here on the DU? :eyes:

They are really nervous about free-thinking Americans, aren't they?
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Swamp Rat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 04:50 AM
Response to Reply #25
27. Hopefully they are concentrating on real terrorists,
Edited on Sat Feb-25-06 04:50 AM by Swamp Rat
for the sake of ALL of us.

:hug:

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Pachamama Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 04:56 AM
Response to Reply #27
28. Yeah, sure, they are concentrating on the "real" terrorists and keeping us
"safe"...I guess the UAE port deal should be an indicator of how well they are doing that...

Then again, how can they protect us from themselves? :eyes:
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Swamp Rat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 05:09 AM
Response to Reply #28
29. It's all part of the plan Stan.
At least the Warí consumed their dead as an expression of grief. 'Our tribe' voraciously eats the living - themselves.

We never really left the cave.
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Ouabache Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 08:22 AM
Response to Reply #14
33. You dance on his grave first, because I plan on pissing on it
like a race horse.
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WannaJumpMyScooter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 12:54 PM
Response to Reply #33
36. You never seen me dance... I laugh so hard at myself
I piss myself, so join right in.
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CrazyOrangeCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 12:18 AM
Response to Original message
15. Burros laugh like that.
Hey Rummy!

Your gig's almost up, ya git.

Soon you'll be sellin' Chiclets behind the counter at the theater--where you belong.



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Katherine Brengle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 12:23 AM
Response to Original message
17. Honestly, if the US gov't takes over the net, I WILL move to another
country--if for no other reason than to be able to funnel information into the United States that will no longer be available to the public.

This is the kind of thing that could easily fly under the public radar until it is too late, but it is also one of the most insidious attempts of this administration thus far to restrict American freedom.
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dweller Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 12:53 AM
Response to Original message
18. 'American Mandarin' ???
it's spelled Mandrill !!




dp
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MadisonProgressive Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 12:54 AM
Response to Original message
19. JEEBUS! He looks more like Himler everyday
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blogslut Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 01:58 AM
Response to Original message
22. not surprised
The Dept. of Defense was bound to take a "We built it. We own it." stance.

assholes.
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Oilwellian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 02:11 AM
Response to Original message
23. Remember when the republican women....
were all goo goo over Rumsfeld's charm and good looks?
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SammyBlue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 01:18 PM
Response to Reply #23
37. Republican women find Rumsferatu witty and good looking?

I've see better wits in

lumps of shit

and better heads on a

mugs of beer.

What

are these fucking people drinking?

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Mythsaje Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 03:37 AM
Response to Original message
24. Hey, Rummy!
Fuck you, the horse you rode in on, and the little dog that followed behind.

You're playing with fire and don't even realize it. This is America, and we're Americans, and Americans have a history of kicking the shit out of tyrants and would-be dictators. Oh, I realize, not YOUR kind of American--you're the type who likes to cuddle up to them and sell them chemical weapons. But OUR kind of Americans...you know, the kind who think FDR was a great man, and who still believe the Constitution is worth a damn. The kind who stormed the beach at Normandy, and chased Hitler into his bunker, where he took his own worthless life. Yeah, that kind of American. The kind of American who believes in telling truth to power, not sucking the ass of privileged frat boys who just happen to have the political pull to get selected President.

Yeah, Rummy, I said fuck you. You can go Cheney yourself. And, no, that doesn't mean you need to go hunting with Deadeye Dick and get shot in the face. You need to live a long life and get a chance to consider the evil that you've done. Hopefully from an 8x10 prison cell for war crimes.

Prick.
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GeorgeGist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 05:56 AM
Response to Original message
30. I recognize the melody...
it's from the 'Emperor Waltz' by Leo Strauss. Right?
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malaise Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 06:00 AM
Response to Original message
31. Poor fool
The more they scheme and plan the more they expose their agenda to the world's people. Put simply Rummy et al believe that they can be as evil and murderous as they like as long as they can fool the people. The racket is over Rummy.
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Time for change Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 08:13 AM
Response to Original message
32. One more piece of evidence that this administration intends to destroy
what's left of our democracy.
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Clara T Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 12:26 PM
Response to Original message
35. kick
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bobthedrummer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 07:18 PM
Response to Original message
38. Military Contractors (from topsy.org)
http://www.topsy.org/contractors.html

Support our troops, not the war criminals.
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Clara T Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 08:18 PM
Response to Reply #38
39. That's a great information source
I'll pass it along.

thanx



To download enitre QDR go Here:
http://www.comw.org/qdr/
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Sparkman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-26-06 12:00 PM
Response to Reply #38
44. Nice mil-contractor listing, but scant. No BOEING or GM or General Mills?
Why is it that the military contributions of many other HUGE corporations that have some "legitimate" business that isn't on the dole or tax-based clients, omitted? So much to do, so little time.
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ronnie624 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-26-06 01:20 PM
Response to Reply #38
47. Thank you so much for that link.
This is why I am driven to visit Democratic Underground daily. I hold you and numerous other posters personally responsible for my inability to get anything done.
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Clara T Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-27-06 11:15 AM
Response to Reply #38
51. US Plans Massive Data Sweep
US plans massive data sweep
Little-known data-collection system could troll news, blogs, even e-mails. Will it go too far?
By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

The US government is developing a massive computer system that can collect huge amounts of data and, by linking far-flung information from blogs and e-mail to government records and intelligence reports, search for patterns of terrorist activity.

The system - parts of which are operational, parts of which are still under development - is already credited with helping to foil some plots. It is the federal government's latest attempt to use broad data-collection and powerful analysis in the fight against terrorism. But by delving deeply into the digital minutiae of American life, the program is also raising concerns that the government is intruding too deeply into citizens' privacy.

In the Monitor
Monday, 02/27/06

"We don't realize that, as we live our lives and make little choices, like buying groceries, buying on Amazon, Googling, we're leaving traces everywhere," says Lee Tien, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "We have an attitude that no one will connect all those dots. But these programs are about connecting those dots - analyzing and aggregating them - in a way that we haven't thought about. It's one of the underlying fundamental issues we have yet to come to grips with."

The core of this effort is a little-known system called Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight, and Semantic Enhancement (ADVISE). Only a few public documents mention it. ADVISE is a research and development program within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), part of its three-year-old "Threat and Vulnerability, Testing and Assessment" portfolio. The TVTA received nearly $50 million in federal funding this year.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0209/p01s02-uspo.html
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Clara T Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 10:25 PM
Response to Original message
40. TIA Lives On
ADMINISTRATION
TIA Lives On

By Shane Harris, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Thursday, Feb. 23, 2006

A controversial counter-terrorism program, which lawmakers halted more than two years ago amid outcries from privacy advocates, 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. Research under the Defense Department's Total Information Awareness program -- which developed technologies to predict terrorist attacks by mining government databases and the personal records of people in the United States -- was moved from the Pentagon's research-and-development agency to another group, which builds technologies primarily for the National Security Agency, according to documents obtained by National Journal and to intelligence sources familiar with the move. The names of key projects were changed, apparently to conceal their identities, but their funding remained intact, often under the same contracts.

It is no secret that some parts of TIA lived on behind the veil of the classified intelligence budget. However, the projects that moved, their new code names, and the agencies that took them over haven't previously been disclosed. Sources aware of the transfers declined to speak on the record for this story because, they said, the identities of the specific programs are classified.

Two of the most important components of the TIA program were moved to the Advanced Research and Development Activity, housed at NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Md., documents and sources confirm. One piece was the Information Awareness Prototype System, the core architecture that tied together numerous information extraction, analysis, and dissemination tools developed under TIA. The prototype system included privacy-protection technologies that may have been discontinued or scaled back following the move to ARDA.

A $19 million contract to build the prototype system was awarded in late 2002 to Hicks & Associates, a consulting firm in Arlington, Va., that is run by former Defense and military officials. Congress's decision to pull TIA's funding in late 2003 "caused a significant amount of uncertainty for all of us about the future of our work," Hicks executive Brian Sharkey wrote in an e-mail to subcontractors at the time. "Fortunately," Sharkey continued, "a new sponsor has come forward that will enable us to continue much of our previous work." Sources confirm that this new sponsor was ARDA. Along with the new sponsor came a new name. "We will be describing this new effort as 'Basketball,' " Sharkey wrote, apparently giving no explanation of the name's significance. Another e-mail from a Hicks employee, Marc Swedenburg, reminded the company's staff that "TIA has been terminated and should be referenced in that fashion."

Sharkey played a key role in TIA's birth, when he and a close friend, retired Navy Vice Adm. John Poindexter, President Reagan's national security adviser, brought the idea to Defense officials shortly after the 9/11 attacks. The men had teamed earlier on intelligence-technology programs for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which agreed to host TIA and hired Poindexter to run it in 2002. In August 2003, Poindexter was forced to resign as TIA chief amid howls that his central role in the Iran-Contra scandal of the mid-1980s made him unfit to run a sensitive intelligence program.


http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2006/0223nj1.htm
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seafan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-25-06 10:45 PM
Response to Original message
42.  "Justice Dept. Rejects Google's Concerns", February 25, 2006
Edited on Sat Feb-25-06 10:46 PM by seafan
Here they go again with the *incremental* desensitization. "NOOOO, WE don't *intend* to trace internet traffic to specific users....."


Justice Dept. Rejects Google's Concerns

Feb 25, 7:17 AM ET

Concerns by Google Inc. that a Bush administration demand to examine millions of its users' Internet search requests would violate privacy rights are unwarranted, the Justice Department said in a court filing.

The 18-page brief filed Friday argues that because the information provided would not identify or be traceable to specific users, privacy rights would not be violated.

snip

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google has staunchly resisted the Justice Department since receiving a subpoena last summer, setting the stage for the current legal battle.

The case has attracted widespread attention because it has underscored the potential for Internet search engines becoming tools for government surveillance. A hearing is scheduled before U.S. District Judge James Ware in San Jose March 13.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060225/ap_on_hi_te/google_justice_1&printer=1;_ylt=AsobM1TtSDH6F3Hh80_rOs5k24cA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-




But today's NY Times gives us an *entirely different picture* of their intent.




Taking Spying to Higher Level, Agencies Look for More Ways to Mine Data
By JOHN MARKOFF

February 25, 2006

PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 23 — A small group of National Security Agency officials slipped into Silicon Valley on one of the agency's periodic technology shopping expeditions this month.

On the wish list, according to several venture capitalists who met with the officials, were an array of technologies that underlie the fierce debate over the Bush administration's anti-terrorist eavesdropping program: computerized systems that reveal connections between seemingly innocuous and unrelated pieces of information.

snip

In the wake of 9/11, the potential for mining immense databases of digital information gave rise to a program called Total Information Awareness, developed by Adm. John M. Poindexter, the former national security adviser, while he was a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Although Congress abruptly canceled the program in October 2003, the legislation provided a specific exemption for "processing, analysis and collaboration tools for counterterrorism foreign intelligence."

snip

Much of the recent work on data mining has been aimed at even more sophisticated applications. The National Security Agency has invested billions in computerized tools for monitoring phone calls around the world — not only logging them, but also determining content — and more recently in trying to design digital vacuum cleaners to sweep up information from the Internet.

Last September, the N.S.A. was granted a patent for a technique that could be used to determine the physical location of an Internet address — another potential category of data to be mined. The technique, which exploits the tiny time delays in the transmission of Internet data, suggests the agency's interest in sophisticated surveillance tasks like trying to determine where a message sent from an Internet address in a cybercafe might have originated.

snip, much more

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/25/technology/25data.html


This rates right up there with "There are NO war plans on my desk."


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Clara T Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-26-06 11:47 AM
Response to Reply #42
43. There it is
Incremental encroachments. And everything is fine.
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goforit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-26-06 12:17 PM
Response to Reply #42
46. Can't two play the same game? Dish back their own plans and see how...
they like to see themselves.
Truth is reality whether they like it or not.
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JackRiddler Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-26-06 01:34 PM
Response to Original message
48. please, everyone...
keep this one kicked; it should be reposted once archived.

We cannot be vigilant enough to this - it's the whole ballgame.

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Clara T Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-27-06 11:03 AM
Response to Reply #48
49.  The importance of Psychological Operations (PSYOP)

The Roadmap was personally approved by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

The Roadmap presents as one of its key assumptions the importance of Psychological Operations (PSYOP), particularly in wartime: "Effectively communicating U.S. Government (USG) capabilities and intentions is an important means of combating the plans of our adversaries. The ability to rapidly disseminate persuasive information to diverse audiences in order to directly influence their decision-making is an increasingly powerful means of deterring aggression. Additionally, it undermines both senior leadership and popular support for employing terrorists or using weapons of mass destruction." The military defines PSYOP generally as "planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence the emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals."

The Roadmap has been cited in the media several times (see James Bamford, "The Man Who Sold the War: Meet John Rendon, Bush's general in the propaganda war," Rolling Stone, November 17, 2005; Stephen J. Hedges, "Media use backfires on U.S.; Many ask if Pentagon altered information to make case for war," Chicago Tribune, December 11, 2005.) , but has not previously been released to the public. The document calls on DoD to enhance its capabilities in five key Information Operations (IO) areas: electronic warfare (EW), PSYOP, Operations Security (OPSEC), military deception and computer network operations (CNO).

In light of recent media coverage of alleged propaganda activities by the military in Iraq, the Roadmap gives as one of its recommendations the need to "Clarify Lanes in the Road for PSYOP, Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy." The U.S. government is legally prohibited from conflating these operations by targeting PSYOP activities--intended for foreign audiences--at the American public. 22 U.S.C. § 1461 (Smith-Mundt Act), which created the United States Information Agency (USIA) in 1948, directs that information about the United States and its policies intended for foreign audiences "shall not be disseminated within the United States, its territories, or possessions." Amendments to the Smith-Mundt Act in 1972 and 1998 further clarified the legal obligations of the government's public diplomacy apparatus and several presidential directives, including Reagan's NSD-77 in 1983, Clinton's PDD-68 in 1999, and Bush's NSPD-16 in July 2002 (the latter two still classified), have set up specific structures and procedures, as well as further legal restrictions, regarding U.S. public diplomacy and information operations.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB177/index.htm
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Avalux Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-27-06 11:15 AM
Response to Original message
50. Please read this article by Hersh - dovetails nicely with this:
THE COMING WARS
What the Pentagon can now do in secret.
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
Issue of 2005-01-24 and 31
Posted 2005-01-17

George W. Bush’s reëlection was not his only victory last fall. The President and his national-security advisers have consolidated control over the military and intelligence communities’ strategic analyses and covert operations to a degree unmatched since the rise of the post-Second World War national-security state. Bush has an aggressive and ambitious agenda for using that control—against the mullahs in Iran and against targets in the ongoing war on terrorism—during his second term. The C.I.A. will continue to be downgraded, and the agency will increasingly serve, as one government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon put it, as “facilitators” of policy emanating from President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney. This process is well under way.

Bush and Cheney may have set the policy, but it is Rumsfeld who has directed its implementation and has absorbed much of the public criticism when things went wrong—whether it was prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib or lack of sufficient armor plating for G.I.s’ vehicles in Iraq. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have called for Rumsfeld’s dismissal, and he is not widely admired inside the military. Nonetheless, his reappointment as Defense Secretary was never in doubt.

Rumsfeld will become even more important during the second term. In interviews with past and present intelligence and military officials, I was told that the agenda had been determined before the Presidential election, and much of it would be Rumsfeld’s responsibility. The war on terrorism would be expanded, and effectively placed under the Pentagon’s control. The President has signed a series of findings and executive orders authorizing secret commando groups and other Special Forces units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as ten nations in the Middle East and South Asia.

The President’s decision enables Rumsfeld to run the operations off the books—free from legal restrictions imposed on the C.I.A.

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?050124fa_fact
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Clara T Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-27-06 11:18 AM
Response to Reply #50
52. Rumsfeld running operations off the books
Comforting thought. Especially considering he openly admitted before a House panel the Pentagon "lost" over $2 Trillion.

From article:

“Rumsfeld will no longer have to refer anything through the government’s intelligence wringer,” the former official went on. “The intelligence system was designed to put competing agencies in competition. What’s missing will be the dynamic tension that insures everyone’s priorities—in the C.I.A., the D.O.D., the F.B.I., and even the Department of Homeland Security—are discussed. The most insidious implication of the new system is that Rumsfeld no longer has to tell people what he’s doing so they can ask, ‘Why are you doing this?’ or ‘What are your priorities?’ Now he can keep all of the mattress mice out of it.”
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Avalux Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-27-06 11:24 AM
Response to Reply #52
53. The agenda for the war on terror is up to Rumsfeld,
and had been predetermined before the last election. Since Rummie's a PNACer, clear to me what it means. World domination, with the internet being controlled and used as a weapon.
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Clara T Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-28-06 10:29 AM
Response to Reply #50
55. Documents: Department of Defense, Information Operations Roadmap
Documents
Note: The following documents are in PDF format.
You will need to download and install the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view.

Document 1: Department of Defense, Information Operations Roadmap, October 30, 2003, Secret .
Source: Freedom of Information Act request

Document 2: Joint Publication 3-53, Doctrine for Joint Psychological Operations, September 5, 2003.
Source: http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/new_pubs/jp3_53.pdf

Document 3: National Security Decision Directive NSDD-77, "Management of Public Diplomacy Relative to National Security," January 14, 1983.
Source: Freedom of Information Act request.

Document 4: Reorganization Plan and Report, Submitted by President Clinton to the Congress on December 30, 1998, Pursuant to Section 1601 of the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998, as Contained in Public Law 105-277.
Source: http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/pdd/pdd-68-dos.htm

Document 5: Presidential Decision Directive PDD-68, "International Public Information (IPI), April 30, 1999 .
Source: Summary from Steven Aftergood, Federation of American Scientists, http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/pdd/pdd-68.htm, citing IPI Core Group Charter, obtained by the Washington Times (Ben Barber, "Group Will Battle Propaganda Abroad," Washington Times, 28 July 1999).

Document 6: National Security Presidential Directive NSPD-16, July 2002 .
Source: Summarized in Power Point presentation on Information Warfare, Florida International University, 2004, http://www.fiu.edu/~apodaca/Information%20Warfare%20Lecture.ppt



http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB177/index.htm
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Sugar Smack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-27-06 12:19 PM
Response to Original message
54. angry
kick


:grr: :nuke:
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Clara T Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-01-06 12:19 AM
Response to Reply #54
56. Me too
kick
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MisterP Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-01-06 12:23 AM
Response to Original message
57. ugh, Dumsfeld turned into a Francis Bacon painting
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