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| Science & Technology |
| NSA - We've Got Our Eye On You |
| 2008-12-06 |
| Surrounded by barbwire fencing, the anonymous yet massive building on West Military Drive near San Antonio’s Loop 410 freeway looms mysteriously with no identifying signs of any kind. Surveillance is tight, with security cameras surrounding the under-construction building. Readers are advised not to take any photos unless you care to be detained for at least a 45-minute interrogation by the National Security Agency, as this reporter was... America’s top spy agency has taken over the former Sony microchip plant and is transforming it into a new data-mining headquarters — oddly positioned directly across the street from a 24-hour Walmart — where billions of electronic communications will be sifted in the agency’s mission to identify terrorist threats. “No longer able to store all the intercepted phone calls and e-mail in its secret city, the agency has now built a new data warehouse in San Antonio, Texas,” writes author James Bamford in the Shadow Factory, his third book about the NSA. “Costing, with renovations, upwards of $130 million, the 470,000-square-foot facility will be almost the size of the Alamodome. Considering how much data can now be squeezed onto a small flash drive, the new NSA building may eventually be able to hold all the information in the world.” So just what will be going on inside the NSA’s new San Antonio facility? Bamford describes former NSA Director Mike Hayden’s goals for the data-mining center as knowing “exactly what Americans were doing day by day, hour by hour, and second by second. He wanted to know where they shopped, what they bought, what movies they saw, what books they read, the toll booths they went through, the plane tickets they purchased, the hotels they stayed in… In other words, Total Information Awareness, the same Orwellian concept that John Poindexter had tried to develop while working for the Pentagon’s [Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency].” |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #10 Secret city? Has American geography been altered while I wasn't looking? the new NSA building may eventually be able to hold all the information in the world.” At the rate the amount of information is increasing? I rather doubt that. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-12-06 19:54 |
| #9 No longer able to store all the intercepted phone calls and e-mail in its secret city I didn't realize they kept the printouts.... Seamonkey 1.0.5 here. The button bar is jumpy (as it was in Opera). |
| Posted by: KBK 2008-12-06 19:00 |
| #8 I am assured that there is no such agency. And besides, even if there were, why would they especially care what I read on the throne? |
| Posted by: eLarson 2008-12-06 18:31 |
| #7 "Bamford describes former NSA Director Mike Hayden's goals for the data-mining center as knowing "exactly what Americans were doing day by day, hour by hour, and second by second." That is the job of the FBI. NSA handles stuff outside of the US. It is actually against the law to intercept communications of anyone legally inside the US without a court (FISA) order. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2008-12-06 18:31 |
| #6 ooooooh! Walmart!!!1!! even got worked into this nonsense |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-12-06 18:14 |
| #5 "exactly what Americans were doing" Excuse me, but Bamford is FULL OF SHIT on this point. He is not privy to certain NSA and other directives that specifically forbid activities involving US Persons, which means non-Americans as well as Americans. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-12-06 18:10 |
| #4 OK, I know it won't work, but it will make some people very rich. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2008-12-06 17:05 |
| #3 Why no apply to our enemies instead of ourselves? ooh new editor....
centered |
| Posted by: 3dc 2008-12-06 16:36 |
| #2 That is what we want you to think. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-12-06 16:35 |
| #1 Bet you it doesn't work. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2008-12-06 16:09 |