Does the Bush Administration Work For Al Qaeda?
Posted by
Kevin
Digby asks that question after reading this:
The National Security Agency developed a pilot program in the late 1990s that would have enabled it to gather and analyze massive amounts of communications data without running afoul of privacy laws. But after the Sept. 11 attacks, it shelved the project — not because it failed to work — but because of bureaucratic infighting and a sudden White House expansion of the agency’s surveillance powers, according to several intelligence officials.
The agency opted instead to adopt only one component of the program, which produced a far less capable and rigorous program. It remains the backbone of the NSA’s warrantless surveillance efforts, tracking domestic and overseas communications from a vast databank of information, and monitoring selected calls.
[…]
n what intelligence experts describe as rigorous testing of ThinThread in 1998, the project succeeded at each task with high marks. For example, its ability to sort through massive amounts of data to find threat-related communications far surpassed the existing system, sources said. It also was able to rapidly separate and encrypt U.S.-related communications to ensure privacy.
But the NSA, then headed by Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden, opted against both of those tools, as well as the feature that monitored potential abuse of the records. Only the data analysis facet of the program survived and became the basis for the warrantless surveillance program.
The decision, which one official attributed to “turf protection and empire building,” has undermined the agency’s ability to zero in on potential threats, sources say. In the wake of revelations about the agency’s wide gathering of U.S. phone records, they add, ThinThread could have provided a simple solution to privacy concerns.
A number of independent studies, including a classified 2004 report from the Pentagon’s inspector-general, in addition to the successful pilot tests, found that the program provided “superior processing, filtering and protection of U.S. citizens, and discovery of important and previously unknown targets,” said an intelligence official familiar with the program who described the reports to The Sun. The Pentagon report concluded that ThinThread’s ability to sort through data in 2001 was far superior to that of another NSA system in place in 2004, and that the program should be launched and enhanced.
Under Clinton, the NSA developed a program that was legal, protected the privacy rights of American citizens, and was extraordinarily good at providing useful information. After 9/11, when such a program would be worth its weight in gold, one would think, the Bush Administration allowed it to be dismantled, destroying its effectiveness and its protections for American citizens. Read that again: the Bush Administration replaced an effective, legal program that protected the rights of Americans with an ineffective, illegal program that violates all of our freedoms. Does the Bush Administration even care about defeating terrorists? Because a lot of the time, they don’t seem to act like it.
Dear God, when did life turn into a bad Oliver Stone movie?
Two notes:
1) While the development may have happened under Clinton, that was pure coincidence and we see that the Clinton administration made no effort to get it deployed.
2) This kind of thing pales to insignificance compared to the creation of the DHS on the scale of “not serious about domestic security”.
Comment 5/18/2006
Kevin, I am a bit skeptical of “legal” aspect of this. I doubt the existence of an algorithm that can discern calling patterns without access to calling data. On the face of it, it is an absurd notion. The analysis program must be fed calling data so it can be processed.
Note that NSA does not currently gather the calling data - it receives this data from the phone companies. I would be very interested to learn how an analysis program would alter that scenario.
I am also less willing than you to accept the overall validity of this story. As far as I can tell, it is attributed to a couple of unnamed sources. I’m not dismissing it, but I would need significantly more corroboration before I am convinced.
Comment 5/18/2006
What we should start doing as an experiment is when we get unsolicited calls from salesmen and other annoyances, regardless of what they are selling, we should, in a loud clear voice say:
No, I will not join your Al-Queda Cell!
No, I will not join your terrorist network!
Maybe we could memorize some stock phrases in Arabic. Then see what happens.
Comment 5/18/2006
Ted said: Note that NSA does not currently gather the calling data - it receives this data from the phone companies.
Fred: Who says? The phone companies have denied giving the numbers. If you are basing your beliefs on reports from the liberal media, then good luck in finding out the truth.
Comment 5/18/2006
Fred, true, the facts have not been nailed down on this yet. For the sake of my argument, I was relying on the information originally published in USA Today and widely referenced since then, including by members of Congress.
As for the “liberal media”, you might want to check out a report published by FAIR eight years ago on the topic. They conducted extensive research before reaching a conclusion.
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2447
Comment 5/18/2006
True to form for government work. The man at the top, Hayden in this case is swayed by smoothe talk rather than results. Been there, seen that.
A successful program was ditched by the Air Force because it contained only two man weeks of effort by someone who knew what he was doing in favor of a program that was yet to work at all which contained over three man years of effort. Thank God the USSR didn’t attack and are just as F’d up.
Comment 5/19/2006
credit facts…
lots of good info on credit at http://www.credit-facts.org/sitemap.aspx 12…
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Comment 10/9/2007