It’s Alive!!!
In the beginning there was Total Information Awareness (TIA), another bad idea from the mind that gave us Iran-Contra, John Poindexter. Having avoided prison by confessing all of his crimes before Congress under a grant of immunity, he was just one of many Reagan retreads who were hired by the Shrubbery for position in excess of their abilities.
Congress was so impressed by what John had created, that they specifically defunded the entire concept in 2003. Silly people that they are, Congress thought that they had killed it.
Almost immediately after the program was defunded, a new program appeared: Terrorist Information Awareness (TIA), that was totally new and different, and had nothing to do with Total Information Awareness … 😈
TIA begat Mainway, Nucleon, Marina, Prism, and a British cousin, Tempora. After Obamacare is implemented they will have access to the electronic medical records that are required, but this isn’t Total Information Awareness because that program was killed by Congress in 2003 … honest.
The latest revelation is about the Xkeystore software, which shows how easy it is for anyone with access to the system to look at all of your information, despite all of the claims about oversight.
Lambert has a link to a CNN video of Piers Morgan, Glenn Greenwald, James Risen, and Jeffrey Toobin discussing Xkeystore that is worth watching.
Without Edward Snowden none of this would have come to light. This is being used to track the Occupy movement and environmental activists, not terrorists. This latest travel warning and terror alert will probably turn out to be nothing more than a distraction.
6 comments
I’ve noticed something interesting over the past few weeks. People who I know have old-school NSA connections are almost universally derisive of the various Washington official’s dismissals of Snowden’s revelations, while the defenders of the administration (and attackers upon Snowden) are almost universally either Obama administration officials, or partisan supporters of the Obama administration. None — zero — of the old-school NSA people seem dismissive of what Snowden has said or think that the programs revealed are a good idea.
Just a data point I found interesting. No real point to this comment otherwise. (Latest one — Bruce Schneier weighs in — and yes, Bruce’s NSA past is common knowledge in the Valley, though never acknowledged by himself or the NSA of course).
If you ever had reason to go to NSA Headquarters at Ft. Meade you had to attend the security orientation before getting your ID. There were two issues that were stressed in that orientation that fly directly in the face of what we now know about the current activities of NSA – the Posse Comitatus Act and the Fourth Amendment. It was made extremely clear that the NSA was military and the military didn’t operate in the United States except in very limited circumstances, and you don’t intercept US citizens without a really good reason, as in they were engaged with an overseas target or a US government facility, like a military base.
If there was an accidental intercept, you had to file a report and delete it. This stuff was checked.
If you make a call to or from a military base, it may be monitored. All US facilities overseas are subject to monitoring for security reasons. For years when I answered a telephone the first words I said were “This is an unclassified line.” It was an automatic reminder to people not to discuss classified material on the telephone, and to be aware that the phone might be monitored. The monitoring wasn’t a secret. People were told about it. That is very different from what is going on now with everything being monitored.
Like Bruce says – you can’t trust anyone anymore.
“If you ever had reason to go to NSA Headquarters at Ft. Meade you had to attend the security orientation before getting your ID.”
Hell, that was true of the international data center of a major oil company I did contract work for. The reception desk assigned a person to lead me straight to the security office, who badged me in, explained what I was and was not allowed to do, and then assigned someone else to lead me directly to the meeting I was attending. (The building was immense. Without a guide, one could plausibly excuse wandering by saying “I got lost;” the guide was their way of preventing that.) After the meeting, it was the same process in reverse.
I would hardly expect less of an actual government security office, though fortunately I’ve never been to one.
I sort of doubt it took hours and included a lunch break, Steve, or that people kept reminding you about 10 years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine, but many companies are intense about protecting their trade secrets.
The real point was, in the old days NSA was really insistent that people did not monitor US citizens, and that doing so was a violation of US law and military law. This was not mentioned in passing, this was a major bullet point in the briefing. Anyone, like General Michael Hayden, who went through that briefing would know that there was no question that these programs are illegal and unConstitutional. That is what is so upsetting to NSA veterans.
Bryan, I spent about 18 hours resolving an issue for a Fortune 5 company. Yes, the first place they took me was the security office. Then they assigned me to a team, four people responsible for keeping an eye on me at all times who took turns working me until the issue was resolved. There was a lunch break, sort of — vending machine food. There was a supper break, sort of — more vending machine food. I got walked to the restroom. I got walked to the break room. I got walked back to the cubicle where I was working on the problem. I had my laptop computer with me, but they were watching everything I did at all times and I was not allowed to connect to any network, all changes had to be written to a USB keyfob provided by them, they would examine the files, then walk them by hand to their prototyping lab to test whether the changes resolved the problem. After the problem was finally resolved, they walked me back out to my car. It was early in the morning the next day then, of course. I crashed and then the next morning found out that my flight had been canceled because the pilot never showed up. Luckily they found me a seat on another airline. In first class. Almost made it worth it to experience what middle-tier executives get to experience :).
I never had to go visit our installation at the NSA, thankfully, before the company tanked. (Oops, sorry, “DARPA”, I keep forgetting those little niceties, as the butterbars rotating through there would remind me 😉 ). There was talk near the end of sending me out there, but then the company imploded. I was sad that the company imploded, but relieved I didn’t have to go out there to Maryland… flying is just such a hassle today, among other things. Sigh!
Yeah, but those guys weren’t toting M-16s and didn’t have German Shepherds 😉
The bloody Marines that guarded NSA HQ at the time would hit the bricks at 5AM and run around the barracks area in formation singing cadence songs while carrying their rifles overhead. before heading off to breakfast. I’m sure that really helped their ‘people skills’ when they were manning the entry points.
After living in barracks for flight crews where someone is always on crew rest, you got used to quiet. You listened to music on headphones, so you didn’t disturb anyone. This was before cellphones, so there were no ringing phones. Actually there weren’t even payphones in the living areas. It was a bit like a monastery.