The government is capturing all Internet communication

[sabra]

Our fears were reaffirmed last night...

- All of our emails
- All of bank transactions

I've posted this a few times:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x354275
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2757039

But unfortunately this blockbuster of a story was over shadowed by the Libby verdict...

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/03/whistleblower_h.html





Whistle-blower Talks About 'Secret NSA Rooms' at AT&T

Whistle-blower AT&T technician Mark Klein says his effort to reveal alleged government surveillance of Internet traffic was blocked not only by U.S. intelligence officials but also by the top editors of the Los Angeles Times.

[liberal N proud]

1. Can we all say Hi Agent Mike?

:hi:

[LiberalEsto]

3. Hi Agent Mike

Do you remember if I paid the gas bill this month?

:hi:

[hootinholler]

11. Actually that's the name of my wireless home network

I figured since I encrypt it, I might as well have some fun.

-Hoot

[stevedeshazer]

2. Kick

This is a very important story.

[snappyturtle]

4. I DVR'd Nightline last night but I haven't seen it YET but

I will. This along with the credit card company fiasco are two matters that effect millions. I guess we are the ones to keep it in the forefront. Of course, when news groups are blocking the reporting.......................

[sabra]

8. ignore the first part of the show - puff piece regarding Libby

even had Mary Matalin defending Libby's action...

But the second report will blow your mind!

[snappyturtle]

10. Thanks for the heads up! n/t

[helderheid]

5. All your blogs are belong to us!

[Trillo]

55. All your blogs belong to spammers!

[IWantAChange]

6. A huge Thank You to Whistleblower Mark Klein...

their contributions to maintaining Democracy should not go unnoticed.

[sabra]

9. on the ABCNews website comments section - Freepers are smearing him

as predicted :-(

[The Doctor.]

13. What is wrong with these motherF#^&ers?

They really can't understand that there is NO REASON to circumvent FISA except to get intel on political opponents and to sell pertinent information to the highest interested bidders.

Freepers and Bush-Bots are the most ill-informed people in America. Why can't we outlaw ignorance?

[Occulus]

27. My mom has their reasoning, such as it is

I grew up with this. If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear from this; if you have nothing to fear from it, by definition you are doing nothing wrong. Thus, in their minds, if you have nothing to hide, you are doing nothing wrong. Therefore, if you are against spying on other citizens, because you might be spied on, you have something to hide and by definition are doing something wrong.

I know, I know. But this is how they think. I honestly don't know if people who think this way can be gotten through to.

[DKRC]

31. Circular logic (such as it is) in my family too

There is no getting through to them. They believe, you challenge that belief, so you are wrong - AND - up to no good.
Gave up years ago on them.
:eyes:

*Edited because some days my cat can type better than I can

[ProudDad]

35. Try this on them:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I did not speak out;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.



Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Kommunist.

Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.

Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,
habe ich nicht protestiert;
ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.

Als sie mich holten,
gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte.


OR:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak out for me.


Martin Niemöller, Ex-U-Boat Officer, Ex-Nazi, Peace Warrior

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Niem%C3%B6ller

[Straight Shooter]

33. Flawed reasoning in your mother's logic.

It doesn't matter whether you are doing something right, or wrong. What matters is how it is perceived by those in power as to whether you are doing something right, or wrong.

It's easy, see? If we could trust those in power, we could trust them to use that power wisely. But we don't trust them, and the people should never trust their government with private information. This is the USA, not the KGB.

I sure hope your mother isn't one of those people that believe if you're charged with a crime, that automatically makes you guilty. :(

[The Doctor.]

34. How funny you should say that...

My thoroughly Reaganite, Clinton-Hating, Republican parents are fairly much the same way.

They really think Democrats are out to destroy corporate America, take all of their wealth, and create a 100% welfare state thus destroying the country.

I remember Ma Eldritch explaining why she watched Fox; "Because you hear things on Fox that other channels don't tell you."

-I couldn't answer... I was literally stunned.

She's an MIT Grad for Christ's sake!

[JDPriestly]

46. Does your mom wear clothes on hot summer days?

If so what is she trying to hide. Or does she just like privacy as to certain things. Everyone has a sense of privacy. Our communications with our friends and family are private.

As an attorney, I have a duty to maintain the confidentiality of my communications with my clients. The government has no business eavesdropping on my communications with my clients. In my view, the ACLU and the ABA should pursue the issue of attorney client confidentiality in light of government eavesdropping on e-mails.

[NYC Liberal]

51. Ask her this: if you have nothing to hide, then WHY should they be spying on you?

I mean it would stand to reason that if they've got nothing on you, and there's nothing to hide, then they shouldn't have any business spying on you.

[sammythecat]

57. I have a friend like that.

There are times when he will actually listen to real facts and logic and it will seem very much like a light is coming on in his head. Next time I see him he's back to being just as stupid as he ever was. A couple days of Fox News and all my effort is erased. It's like trying to bend a tree. It might bend a little, for a while, but as soon as the pressure's off it springs right back.

Some people really are hopeless. I think my friend is hopeless. I still like him, but he's hopeless in this regard.

[CrispyQ]

68. Interesting.

I have experienced that with my mother. There was a short period of time last fall when I thought she was coming around a bit & then by Christmas it was gone.

I'd given her a subscription to Jim Hightower's Lowdown report the year before. In the fall she told me she was surprised by how much she agreed with him. "Not on everything, but on a lot, I do agree with him." By Christmas she told me not to bother extending her subscription to the Lowdown. "I don't need to read that stuff." The tone with which she said it spoke volumes. I didn't bother to ask why the change in attitude. I have put a complete nix on all political talk, although she keeps trying to sneak it in. She is so ignorant it makes me sad to read her thoughts & responses. And yes, she watches Fox & believes in the liberal media.

I like your tree analogy.

[w4rma]

65. Talk about buisness secrets being stolen by powerful people with government ties. (nt)

[magellan]

42. Wait until a Dem is president

...and it occurs to these bright sparks that a Dem administration is rummaging through their emails. Then they'll sing another tune.

[ajeffersonian]

71. I Agree

Shame L.A. Times. Shame.

[L. Coyote]

76. Negroponte involved. This is what we pay these guys to do?? n/t

[libodem]

7. Hi Agent Mike

[chaska]

12. I think it's time for a new constitutional convention...

Read this and you may agree. I'm just too done with this shit.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=12169

[rec_report]

14. Kick & Recommend

n/t

[lectrobyte]

15. If my thought-dreams could be seen, they'd probably put my head in a guillotine.

Hey NSA, have some Dylan to chew on. That'd be Bob, not Thomas.


Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying.

Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool's gold mouthpiece
The hollow horn plays wasted words
Proves to warn
That he not busy being born
Is busy dying.

Temptation's page flies out the door
You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover
That you'd just be
One more person crying.

So don't fear if you hear
A foreign sound to your ear
It's alright, Ma, I'm only sighing.

As some warn victory, some downfall
Private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eyes of those that call
To make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don't hate nothing at all
Except hatred.

Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Made everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It's easy to see without looking too far
That not much
Is really sacred.

While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have
To stand naked.

An' though the rules of the road have been lodged
It's only people's games that you got to dodge
And it's alright, Ma, I can make it.

Advertising signs that con you
Into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done
That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you.

You lose yourself, you reappear
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near
When a trembling distant voice, unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
That somebody thinks
They really found you.

A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit to satisfy
Insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not fergit
That it is not he or she or them or it
That you belong to.

Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to.

For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Cultivate their flowers to be
Nothing more than something
They invest in.

While some on principles baptized
To strict party platform ties
Social clubs in drag disguise
Outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize
And then say God bless him.

While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society's pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he's in.

But I mean no harm nor put fault
On anyone that lives in a vault
But it's alright, Ma, if I can't please him.

Old lady judges watch people in pairs
Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare
While money doesn't talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares
Propaganda, all is phony.

While them that defend what they cannot see
With a killer's pride, security
It blows the minds most bitterly
For them that think death's honesty
Won't fall upon them naturally
Life sometimes
Must get lonely.

My eyes collide head-on with stuffed graveyards
False gods, I scuff
At pettiness which plays so rough
Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it off
Say okay, I have had enough
What else can you show me?

And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
But it's alright, Ma, it's life, and life only.

[rman]

16. Not everything is "captured" as in "stored"

but everything is tapped and monitored and certain data events cause the data to be recored for closer analysis.

For the Bush gang to know whether or not your are calling to Al Qaeda, they have to trace all your phone calls. For them to know whether or not your are emailing Al Qaeda, they have to trace all your internet traffic. In that sense, Big Brother IS watching, everyone, all the time.

That takes quite a bit of computing power and some clever software, but it's entirely feasible, and that's what the NSA is doing.
AT&T provides the 'mega tap' that although it's very specialized optical hardware, does not cost any bandwith or processing power.

[EFerrari]

17. I caught that this morning on Amy's show.

Do we have a flipping off smilie? :hi:

[FatDave]

22. Will this work?

Found this one on google images:



Oh, and Fuck You Agent Mike!

[EFerrari]

30. LOL!

Perfect.

:hi:

[mconvente]

18. Hi Agent Mike - kick for importance

Now you have even MORE proof to show your right-wing neo-con bastard co-workers or whomever that Big Brother really DOES exist.

[porphyrian]

19. Good, more evidence. Fuck them. - n/t

[SpiralHawk]

20. REPUBLICONS LOVE BIG GOVERNMENT

they like to say they don't, but in practice they are all for Big Brother - Big Government.

Republicons = America haters.

[intheflow]

21. So true, so true. n/t

[FatDave]

23. So what keywords you think they're looking for?

Here's my guesses:

Al Qaeda
Bomb
Terrorist
Opium
Osama
Obama
Fuck You Agent Mike

That should get us noticed.

[sabra]

25. in '04 it was "Kerry", "Dan Rather"...

now it's prolly "Obama" "Hillary" :-)

[Wednesdays]

56. Now we're onto something...

Let's make posts en masse of nothing but "Obama" and "Hillary" followed by several rows of random characters. They'll waste hours trying to decypher the "encripted messages."

:rofl:

[treestar]

72. Project X is ready to go

Obamamamamamamamarilllary

:rofl:

[dogday]

24. I posted something very similar about this and am

glad you are making others aware as well.... :hi:


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=362389&mesg_id=362389

[Warren DeMontague]

26. Dean Baquet, now Washington Bureau Chief of the NY Times.

...And Government Stooge.

Hmmm. I'm sure the NY Times, with their solid (cough) record of (cough) standing up to this (cough) Administration, will immediately fire the guy.

:eyes:

[grizmaster]

28. in that case... F*** YOU CHENEY!

[tom_paine]

29. Thanks for the confirmation, but I already knew from my knowledge of history

Bushler is very similar to Hitler in almost all ways except overt rascism and violence, Cheney the same as Himmler and so forth.

Kinder and Gentler Nazis, and so, is was quite clear what they were about to do when they started and continued with Total Information Awareness. It continues undoubtedly and even this article is likely the merest tip of a massive iceberg.

Just remember, if the Nazis did it, then the Busheviks are capable of it. This is true for almost all of the things the Nazis did and maybe, in the end we will find out it was ALL the things the Nazis did that the Busheviks were capable of.

Face it. Amerika is only free in the barest, basest sense of the word. And when they wish to snap shut the trap they have constructed, probably after the upcoming 9/11 #2 they are assisting or planning (or perhaps Gulf of Tonkin #2..details are impossible to predict, only trends, and Amerikla's trends are written in neon arrows a mile long by half a mile wide)

And so, the "would the Nazis do it?" regarding Total Information awareness is a resounding YES.

Therefore, the Busheviks are capable an, yes, they are doing that and more.

I am daily astonished that it is just that simple when dealing with tyrannical monsters like Bush, Hitler, Cheney, or Himmler.

[ProudDad]

37. Amerika is free

as in,

freedom: License for the rich to rob everyone else!

[Leopolds Ghost]

32. Why do you think all Internet traffic is funneled through MAE-EAST?

Why do you think the CIA Foreign Electronic Surveillance Listening Post
is across the street from MAE-East?

Why do you think there's a tunnel between the two buildings?

Why do you think Tyson's Corner, VA exists?

(largest concentration of office and retail space between Miami and DC)

It was a CIA listening post on the outskirts of Langley before anything else was there.

Then the trunk lines for ARPAnet were laid down along the Dulles Toll Road and the Washington and Old Dominion right-of-way.

And MAE-East was built.

Next door to the existing listening post.

Then the rest of Tyson's Corner was built.

After Reagan's privatization of the security industry into numerous for-profit, CIA-affiliated research and telecommunications companies.

All of which located in Northern Virginia.

As did the headquarters of Exxon-Mobil.

Why do you think AOL is located along the Dulles Corridor,
near the CIT, CACI, and SAIC?

Research, people, learn up on the major industries in your community!

[TheWraith]

39. Actually, that's not true.

For starters, MAE East is comprised of five different facilities, so it's not a single building.

And all internet traffic is certainly not routed through MAE East. It's one of roughly 200 different internet exchanges in the world, including half a dozen to a dozen here in the US.

[Leopolds Ghost]

74. I happen to know someone in the Web industry who did contract work

Developed one of the first multi-processor virtual computing rings.

MAE East and MAE West were the two primary facilities for Internet
traffic at the time.

There is and was a tunnel between the two buildings (MAE East primary
facility and CIA foreign intelligence surveillance post)

The presence of MAE-East (and the mall) are the only reasons Tysons and the Dulles corridor exists. And the CIA was there first.

They provided the slush money for most of those muilti-million dollar private contracting firms, many of them pencil pushers, many of which are only "assets" in the sense that they are part of the defense industry or private contractors for civil service. The stockholders have the inside track on what's going on.

Now, the CIA operates slightly more within the bounds of the law when
it comes to domestic operations, since their mission is to break OTHER
countries' laws, not our own.

So it could be they focus on exactly what they claim to focus on.

After all, the NSA has a far larger operation and no longer needs
to phone-phreak land lines directly into the main switching station;
the NSA has the full cooperation of every Telecom industry cheiftain
in the land. Why? Why do you think the Telecom bill of 1996 was
passed? Quid pro quo.

Point is, when that tunnel was built, was before Echelon. Tysons
Corner, Reston, Dulles, exist solely on the backs of the classified
defense and intelligence "security industry" Reagan created. We
already know what else CACI, SAIC, Lockheed, and AOL for that matter
and the other Telecom and Security industries based in the Dulles
Corridor have their hands in.

It is an entire industry based on domestic surveillance, powering a
multi-billion dollar economy mostly in Fairfax and Loudoun County,
and the area around Fort Meade.

Surveillance of credit cards, surveillance of phone lines, surveillance of Internet trunk lines, that is where the infrastructure is, so that is where the headquarters and the good engineering jobs go -- and the research projects like CIT (soon to get its own Metro station) geared to the multi-billion dollar effort to create a surveillance-based economy with RFID chips and biometric identifiers and ID cards required to get in every building in America.

Industries like Exxon-Mobil locate in the corridor because they are tied into the casual contracting relationship of casual corruption which the Republican Party has always specialized in. Even the pencil pushers are outsourced to corrupt Beltway Bandits, like they were in the days of the Indian Wars when Native Americans were overcounted by Republican contractors and provided rotten meat on the reservation.

Walter Reed is just the tip of the iceberg. Did you know that the building at the center of the Walter Reed controversy was an off-campus Motel 6? Used as a red-light flophouse before Walter Reed's contractors took it over?

Outsource the slush money, outsource the black ops and technical support to for-profit companies like Metal Storm, and use their boards of directors as a further slush fund for recruiting and training ex-intelligence, Young Republican, Ollie North "secret government" types to make billions of dollars in "private contracting", all of which comes from the government, to make weapons, decrease domestic liberty, publish propagandistic think tank articles, and destabilize foreign regimes.

[ProudDad]

36. In That Case

Death to fascist pigs!!!

If you're reading this, you know who you are...


And FUCK AT&T!!!

[TheWraith]

38. That would be quite completely impossible.

Let me be unequivocal: it would be impossible to capture all internet traffic. Period. Even if you had unfettered access to every one of the major internet backbones all around the planet, even if you had access to each of the thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of smaller networks within which data doesn't need to go over a backbone, there is simply too much data running back and forth to capture it all. You'd need hundreds of thousands of terabytes of storage to try, and even then you couldn't acquire more than a few days snapshot.

Now, you can monitor traffic, and try to pick out pieces which interest you using various keyed searches or intelligent analysis, but that's vastly different from "capturing" all internet communication.

In any event, this original article is fairly old news--it originally was reported about at least a year ago.

[karlrschneider]

40. Big fucking deal. And so what? No action can be taken using any of all this

information until some human sees it and makes a determination. Send a thousand people into the Library of Congress and let them sift through every piece of paper, looking for something of "interest." Multiply that scenario by a million, or a billion even...talk about "information overload"...:eyes:

There aren't enough "agents" in the world to peruse all the traffic on the internets. I'm not defending what they're probably TRYING to do but it's pretty damn futile no matter what.

[Liberal In Texas]

41. Correct. But if they, say, want to read all of the emails from Edwards or Obama or Clinton...

...they're in the database.

This regime, like the Nixon one, has got to be spying on political opponents. I would expect nothing less of them.

[karlrschneider]

43. LOL! Well, I suppose we'll just have to let Edwards, Obama and Clinton worry

about that - I seriously doubt any of them are losing sleep over the possibility. :D

[Liberal In Texas]

45. Except if they use email to communicate with campaign managers etc.

about strategy or whatever, then the repukes have "inside" info about it.

As I recall, that's what the Watergate burglery was about.

[file83]

54. What kind of logic is that?

Your argument is that since they are gathering so much information, it's of no use to them? Huh?

You have heard of data mining haven't you?

If they have a political enemy they want target, they can zero in on that data and make it "useful".

Moreover, this slapstick attitude of "what's the big deal if we have no privacy" is based on naivete and ignorance of historical precedence and current technological capabilities of our politically and criminally motivated opponents in office.

Ignorance isn't bliss, it's a lever they use against us. So don't be ignorant.

[Leopolds Ghost]

75. That's not how it works. The computer sifts it for them. Parallels drawn, friends & family networks

Posts like yours and mine are being categorized for significance, our ISPs recorded (if known) when we sign on to web logs, and the computer decides
whether or not we are saying something that merits putting us in a certain
watch category. This has been going on for decades now.

The only thing protecting us is the incompetence and lack of motivation of the bureaucrats that have to read the printouts, "Brazil" style, and they will follow orders when they get a printout saying "watch list -- hold for special searches at airports" and the like. They don't care. There are "bad guys" here in America, and the computer tells them who the bad guys are, just like our database of suspects does in Iraq.

You know how pissed off our generals are about the fact that Saddam Hussein DIDN'T use a census and DIDN'T have universal ID cards like the Nazis and the Rwandan genocidal government did? They're trying to impose one now, In Iraq, to make it easier for them to track and detain people.

It's only the first step. When those Blackwater veterans and military intel vets get home the Republicans want to apply what they've learned
domesstically.

They explicitly did so during Katrina, setting military curfews and shooting people leaving on foot, and frogs like you sat in your pot
and yawned.

In the Petraeus hearings Lindsey Graham, John Cornyn and Tim Hutchinson
from Alabama (I think) COMPLAINED THAT IRAQ'S INCARCERATION RATES WERE NOWHERE NEAR THAT OF THE DEEP SOUTH.

"We need to build more prisons and incarcerate tens of thousands more Iraqis, like we do in Alabama, South Carolina and Texas" they said.

Many of these prison facilities they are so proud of in the South and Southern Midwest (where blacks used to be banned) are essentially vast SLAVE CAMPS run by private plantation owners.

That is the insanity you are yawning about.

[Art_from_Ark]

77. Tim Hutchinson?

The former senator from Arkansas who was defeated in the 2002 election? Are you perhaps thinking of Texas senator Kay Bailey Hutchison?

[Evergreen Emerald]

44. um...bush sucks....Bush Sucks....BUSH SUCKSSSSS.....

BUSH SUCKS BUSHSUCKSBUSHSUCKSBUSHSUCKSBUSHSUCKS BUSH SUCKS

[WillyT]

47. Ya Gotta Wonder If Those Listening In Realize That They're Nazis !!!

There is really, no other explanation for this.

[Marie26]

48. I saw that

Did anyone else notice that one of the insider documents mentioned "Total Information Awareness"? (!) That's what they're really doing - it's still continuing unabated.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Information_Awareness

[JDPriestly]

49. This is likely to backfire on the U.S. government

I know a Polish guy whose job it was during the Soviet era to censor the news before it got to the Polish people. He became completely disillusioned and escaped to the West well before glasnost. These repressive measures eventually backfire. This is such a waste of money on top of it.

[CGowen]

67. Isn't it automated now ?

[JDPriestly]

78. Identifying communications by keywords may be automated

as may be selecting which communications need to be read. But, sooner or later, a human being has to read the communications and decide whether further action is needed. It is the person who has to do that who is likely to become disillusioned. Many of the communications that will be identified and selected will have no relationship to terrorism and pose no threat. Also, as these things go, the spectrum of communications that the government decides to scrutinize will become broader and broader. If it isn't being used as a political tool yet, the day will come when internet eavesdropping will be politicized. The advantages in using electronic eavesdropping and surveillance of internet communications for political purposes are just too tempting. When that happens, the people who have to read the communications will become disgusted with the corruption. That's when the foot soldiers in the war on privacy will start blowing the whistle -- when the corruption is so pervasive that the people who have to do the dirty work for the corrupt have no respect left for the system that keeps the corrupt in power.

I have heard that it is unlikely that the government will identify terrorists by eavesdropping on electronic internet communications anyway because terrorists probably communicate over private networks and not the public internet and also probably use encoded language that the surveillance techniques can't pick up.

[Tsiyu]

50. Good!

Now they know how much we loathe them all.

They have to have some low self-esteem going on just monitoring THIS site!

:hi: Hi, Agent Mike! Read your Constitution lately?????

[Cobalt-60]

52. Well, let's see, if they look over my shoulder...

They'd a get a mug full of DU, a second look at the spam farm I refer to as my E-Mail inbox,
perhaps a glimpse of my favorite ,er, adult entertainment site, and perhaps astronautix.com, all at dialup speed!
Enjoy Agent Mike!

[Rex]

53. TIA

nt

[Kablooie]

58. Does that mean that they are interested in my cancelling an order for earphones?

[and-justice-for-all]

59. Hi you nose bastards!!

Agent Mike, can you tell me if my 13.5" beer-can dildo has been shipped yet?

[Vickers]

60. GEORGE 'AWOL" BUSH IS A DOUCHEBAG!!!!!

Hey, this is pretty neat! :P

[Lilith Velkor]

61. The government can kiss my shiny pink ass

[Nutmegger]

62. Big hugs to AT&T and the NSA for keeping us safe!

Mega :puke:!

[w4rma]

66. AT&T is too big and has too much to lose by bucking the GOP leadership.

We need to break them up again, imho. Smaller businesses are more likely to resist since they have less to lose from it.

[Hubert Flottz]

63. If you can read this...

you are pissing on your foot!

He who reads these DU walls...

For a good time call Barb and Jen...

EDIT...Meanwhile back at Tora Bora...Osama is emboldened by Bush wasting our tax dollars, spying on American voters and the folks they elect, instead of using that cash to catch real terrorists.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

64. You Tube Video Link

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QOI1VGKcgGY

[CRH]

69. Add this to the privatization of TIA ...

and if you are involved in a environmental organization, labor reform movement, protesting SOA, or working on a peace march/demonstration; then you are certain to become a file in their data base of potential subversives and possible terrorist. Worse yet, if they really want to slow you down, they can turn your name over to the IRS, who can pursue methods of harassment against anyone. Um Mr. Jones we need to see all your business records and receipts for the past five years, so you can prove you do not owe us $50,000. Failing to respond will result in freezing all your financials.

http://www.pnar.org/privacy.htm

snip

The Orwellian TIA program had many critics including Republican and Democrat Senators. Senator Charles Grassley was particularly concerned about possible FBI involvement with TIA. While President Bush was busy opposing funding cuts to TIA, the Senate blocked funding for the program.

Civil libertarians and privacy advocates had hardly begun to celebrate the defunding of TIA, before news reports revealed that "lawmakers left undisturbed a separate but similar $64 million research program run by a little-known US government office called Advanced Research and Development Activity (ARDA) that has used some of the same researchers as Mr. Poindexter's program".

It should be noted that DARPA's TIA program cost $30 million. Last year, Reuters reported that the government continues to engage in data-mining activities. More recently, the government has enlisted the Bahamas-based Global Information Group to provide a database on travelers.

Meanwhile, back in the private sector, a sinister new database system was being created with private money and government grants. This fascist public/private partnership is called the Multi-State Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, or the Matrix.
snip

More on Matrix and DARPA activities here ...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0223/dailyUpdate.html

US still funding powerful data mining tools
Total Information Awareness projects transferred to other agencies.
By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

The Associated Press reports that the US government is still financing research to create powerful software tools that could mine millions of public and private records for information about terrorists, despite last year's controversy over how easily and how often the software might implicate people who have nothing to do with terrorism.

Although Congress eliminated funding for the original project, known as the Total Information Awareness (TIA) program and run by Iran-Contragate figure retired Adm. John Poindexter, AP reports, lawmakers left undisturbed a separate but similar $64 million research program run by a little-known US government office called Advanced Research and Development Activity (ARDA) that has used some of the same researchers as Mr. Poindexter's program. ARDA, is so secretive it's not listed in the 684-page official compilation of federal departments, agencies and offices, reports Tech Central. ARDA researches and develops computer software and equipment to "intercept and analyze foreign intelligence that is transmitted electronically – and to protect the US methods used to obtain and communicate it."
"The whole congressional action looks like a shell game," said Steve Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, which tracks work by US intelligence agencies. "There may be enough of a difference for them to claim TIA was terminated while for all practical purposes the identical work is continuing."

snip

They don't have to watch everyone, only the ones who organize the actions of the many. Sleep well.

[L. Coyote]

70. Hearsay from an insider. The story is more complicated than this.

It is perfectly legal to capture all internet traffic in the USA by routing the communications thru a series of other nations. Laws in the USA can thereby be circumvented.

Someone told me they have knowledge of this going on. Just hearsay!!

[lectrobyte]

73. The comments on abcnews.com are surreal. I want some of what

this guy is smoking:

A unique war requires unique weapons. In this Information Age, we need to use acquired information as one of those weapons. Let's not tie the hands of every legal agency that is trying to secure the safety and liberty of the US like we tied the hands of the US soldiers fighting in Iraq. That country would have been stabilized months ago if it weren't for our internal polarization.

Explain to me again how our "internal polarization" has kept Bush and his crew from "winning" the Iraq invasion?