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Weldon is asking for a criminal investigation of the Able Danger coverup.

Ed, in record breaking speed that to me clearly denotes selective retaliatory attention, the DIA's SAB has affirmed the revocation of Tony's security clearance. Unfortunately DIA has seen fit to completely disregard our submissions, and Cong Weldon and Hunters' formal requests to refrain from acting against Tony. This was the final stage of the process. There are no more administrative appeals left with respect to the clearance. A response to the indefinite suspension will be filed tomorrow. I expect that Tony will receive a notice of termination also in record breaking speed. That will take effect no sooner than thirty...

Teenager finds sperm donor dad on internet Ian Sample, science correspondent Thursday November 3, 2005 The Guardian (UK) Using nothing more than a swab of saliva and the internet, a 15-year-old boy has tracked down his anonymous sperm donor father, according to details released today. By sending a swab taken from the inside of his cheek for genetic testing, the teenager was able to use genealogy websites to trace his father by looking for men with a matching Y-chromosome, which is passed down the male line. The genetic detective work has major implications for men who have donated sperm under...

With Saddam Hussein’s trial underway, this would be an appropriate occasion to re-visit the persevering efforts that led to that historic day in December 2003 when the Butcher of Baghdad was pulled from his rathole. One of the intelligence techniques employed was the same used by the Able Danger to identify Mohammed Atta. “Data mining is the slang for it,” Captain Timothy Morrow explained to me. That is, slang for the methods he and his small team employed. Captain Morrow served as intelligence officer for 1/22nd Infantry and credited LTC Russell and Col. Hickey for allowing his staff the leeway...

Discovering hidden value in your data warehouse Overview Data mining, the extraction of hidden predictive information from large databases, is a powerful new technology with great potential to help companies focus on the most important information in their data warehouses. Data mining tools predict future trends and behaviors, allowing businesses to make proactive, knowledge-driven decisions. The automated, prospective analyses offered by data mining move beyond the analyses of past events provided by retrospective tools typical of decision support systems. Data mining tools can answer business questions that traditionally were too time consuming to resolve. They scour databases for hidden patterns,...

MacRanger (who is-Former Career Military (logistics, intelligence) reports: Early today I watched the 'Spector House' Able Danger hearings on CSPAN. I watched closely, because at 8am, my cell was buzzing, a call from a friend. I had asked him to get some clarification on Shaffer's story that Rummy told 'em not to testify. The word I got from him was that contrary to popular knowledge, Rummy didn't pull the plug on the witnesses, it came from "Cobweb", which is just a little - OK, a lot higher up the chain. Here's what I know. Spector is being "allowed" this little...

In one indication as to why the Pentagon might have wanted to keep the existence of Able Danger from becoming public, Congress has determined that data-mining presents a danger to privacy, although so far no one has demanded an end to the practice. The GAO reports that a sample of five agencies using the technique routinely violated safeguards intended to protect citizens from unnecessary incursions by the government: None of five federal agencies using electronic data mining to track terrorists, catch criminals or prevent fraud complied with all rules for gathering citizen information. As a result, they cannot ensure that...

U.S. authorities remain concerned because, as one official said, even seemingly innocuous information, when pulled together from various sources, can yield useful intelligence to an adversary.

CHOOSE A NAME FOR THIS LATEST CLINTON SCANDAL-- How about "WALLGATE" or "TREASONGATE"?

"...In April, CNSNews.com staff writer Scott Wheeler reported that a senior U.S. government official and three other sources claimed that the 1995 memo written by Jamie Gorelick, who served as the Clinton Justice Department’s deputy attorney general from 1994 to 1997, created "a roadblock" to the investigation of illegal Chinese donations to the Democratic National Committee. But the picture is much bigger than that. The Gorelick memo, which blocked intelligence agents from sharing information that could have halted the September 11 hijacking plot, was only the mortar in a much larger maze of bureaucratic walls whose creation Gorelick personally oversaw..."

"...So it's my clear belief that the wall itself developed this culture which restrained in a substantial way the exchange of information in the intelligence and law enforcement communities. The Bellows report, which was part of some recommendations following the Wen Ho Lee case, indicated that it was part of the culture at the FBI that if one made a mistake and shared information that was later deemed to be inappropriate, it was called a career- ender, so that the risk of a person sharing information improperly was at least known in the culture of the law enforcement community to...

According to The New York Times (8 July 2003): "the federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 terror attacks said today that its work was being hampered by the failure of executive branch agencies, especially the Pentagon and the Justice Department, to respond quickly to requests for documents and testimony." Several alternative media have joined the bandwagon. George W. Bush is accused of obstructing the investigation...Former Jersey governor Thomas Kean, the commission's chairman is presented as an honest and uncompromising individual, who is courageously confronting the US government: "Without greater cooperation, Kean said, ''we cannot do the job we are supposed...

"...It was a deeply rewarding experience to work with highly capable colleagues and for such distinguished and thoughtful commissioners. Our commission sessions had long and occasionally heated discussion, but it was always productive and the commissioners themselves were devoted to achieving bipartisanship and unanimity. They understood very well that their impact would be greatest if they were unanimous..."

WASHINGTON -- The government is still financing research to create powerful tools that could mine millions of public and private records for information about terrorists despite an uproar last year over fears it might ensnare innocent Americans. Congress prevented the Pentagon from developing the terrorist tracking technology because of the outcry over privacy implications. But some of those projects from retired Adm. John Poindexter's Total Information Awareness effort were transferred to U.S. intelligence offices, according to congressional, federal and research officials. In addition, Congress left undisturbed a separate but similar $64 million research program run by a little-known office called...

The activities of the Able Danger project by US military intelligence appear to be at odds with the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 which forbids use of military personnel in domestic policing actions. Apparently some "intelligence support" is permitted under court and executive interpretations of the act. There was anger on the left in the early 1970s when it was learned that military intelligence kept files on (left-leaning) protest (or revolutionary) groups. There was anger on the right in the 1990s when it was learned that military advisors were present at Waco.

House wants to know about data-mining WASHINGTON, July 24 (UPI) -- The Bush Administration is now opposing part of the anti-terrorism legislation it had been lobbying Congress to reauthorize. A recent amendment to the USA Patriot Act requires the Justice Department to give an annual report to Congress about its data-mining efforts -- attempts to use existing databases to hunt for characteristic behavior of terrorists. Officials in the department say it would take away valuable time.

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9-11 Commission), an independent, bipartisan commission created by congressional legislation...is chartered to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, including preparedness for and the immediate response to the attacks...

...Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), the No. 2 man on both the House Armed Services and Homeland Security committees, revealed that an elite military-intelligence unit known as Able Danger identified Atta and three other hijackers as likely members of a terror cell in this country as early as 1999. The spies wanted to turn the info over to the FBI in 2000, Weldon said, "so they could bring that cell in and take out the terrorists." He claimed Pentagon lawyers rejected the recommendation because they mistakenly believed that since Atta and the others were in the country legally on visas, they...

...The former intelligence official said the first Able Danger report identified all four men as members of a "Brooklyn" cell, and was produced within two months after Mr. Atta arrived in the United States. The former intelligence official said he was among a group that briefed Mr. Zelikow and at least three other members of the Sept. 11 commission staff about Able Danger when they visited the Afghanistan-Pakistan region in October 2003...

Legislatures in more than two dozen states are considering ways to give consumers more control over personal information that is collected and sold by private firms, but many of the proposals are drawing fire from financial services companies. Bills are on the table in 28 states responding to a series of high-profile security breaches at information brokers, banks and universities that so far this year have resulted in more than 1 million Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, names and addresses falling into the hands of potential identity thieves. In the most recent case, a medical group in San Jose...

If you're ticketed by Green Bay police, you'll get more than a fine. You'll get fingerprinted, too. It's a new way police are cracking down on crime. If you're caught speeding or playing your music too loud, or other crimes for which you might receive a citation, Green Bay police officers will ask for your drivers license and your finger. You'll be fingerprinted right there on the spot. The fingerprint appears right next to the amount of the fine. Police say it's meant to protect you -- in case the person they're citing isn't who they claim to be. But...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government has begun testing a computerized screening system that compares airline passengers' names with those on terrorist watch lists, a Transportation Security Administration official said Thursday. Called "Secure Flight," it's meant to replace a plan that never got to the testing stage because of criticism that it gave the government access to too much personal information. Testing of Secure Flight began November 30. No announcement was made; TSA spokesman Justin Oberman disclosed its status when asked by The Associated Press. The testing has not turned up any suspected terrorists. Oberman said the agency expects to wrap...

Cyber detective links up crimes 10:45 05 December 04 Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition. Many more crimes might be solved if detectives were able to compare the records for cases with all the files on past crimes. Now an artificial intelligence system has been designed to do precisely that. Working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it could look for telltale similarities in crime records and alert detectives when it finds them. Developed by computer scientists Tom Muscarello and Kamal Dahbur at DePaul University in Chicago, the system uses pattern-recognition software to link related crimes that may have taken...

... The now-defunct ... Capps II sought to make sure that air passengers are flying under their own identity and are not wanted as a terror suspect. It would have asked passengers to provide four pieces of information -- name, address, phone number and birth date -- when they make their reservation. That information would've been run against commercial records, to see if it matches up, then checked against government intelligence files to determine whether a passenger has possible terror connections. Depending on the outcome of those two checks, a passenger could have been screened more closely at the airport.......

Govt Computer Surveillance Rings Alarm Bells Thu May 27,12:10 AM ET Add Technology - Reuters to My Yahoo! By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nine months after Congress shut down a controversial Pentagon (news - web sites) computer-surveillance program, the U.S. government continues to comb private records to sniff out suspicious activity, according to a congressional report obtained by Reuters. Missed Tech Tuesday? Will the next version of Windows be revolutionary or the same old same old? Get a sense for what's coming -- then stay safe with the latest service pack and get some XP tips. Privacy concerns prompted...

Immediately after 9/11, politicians and pundits slammed the Bush administration for failing to “connect the dots” foreshadowing the attack. What a difference a little amnesia makes. For two years now, left- and right-wing advocates have shot down nearly every proposal to use intelligence more effectively--to connect the dots--as an assault on “privacy.” Though their facts are often wrong and their arguments specious, they have come to dominate the national security debate virtually without challenge. The consequence has been devastating: just when the country should be unleashing its technological ingenuity to defend against future attacks, scientists stand irresolute, cowed into inaction.

Europe and America are worlds apart when it comes to privacy laws. Privacy is a constitutional right in all European Union countries, which zealously safeguard personal information about their citizens. Each has its own data protection commissioner, a privacy watchdog roughly equivalent to the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission in the United States. ...in the United States, people are accustomed to giving out personal information, such as their Social Security number, on all manner of documents. And credit information is collected, sliced and diced by major corporations that use it as part of a relentless stream of marketing. "The...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon assured Congress that its planned anti-terror surveillance system will only analyze legally acquired information and changed the name of the project to help allay privacy concerns that prompted congressional restrictions. The Total Information Awareness program now under development by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, will henceforth be named the Terrorism Information Awareness program. Advertisement In report ordered by Congress 90 days ago, DARPA said the old name ``created in some minds the impression that TIA was a system to be used for developing dossiers on U.S. citizens. That is not DoD's (Department...

<p>Los Angeles officials scoured 324,000 electronic files in the process of hunting down Don Mann, an admitted business- tax violator.</p> <p>But in Mann's case, their prize looks pretty paltry. If Mann's accountant is correct, all that searching will lead the Van Nuys, Calif., resident to cough up about $100 in delinquent business Mann, a freelance movie consultant, concedes he didn't pay the tax, saying he didn't know about it. City officials acknowledge that is likely given the obscure nature of the levy.</p>

Critics say Defense 'total information awareness' impractical By Shane Harris sharris@govexec.com Security advocates and technology experts threw cold water on a controversial Defense Department plan to create a new counterterrorism system that would use information technology to sniff out clues to a possible terrorist assault and identify attackers before they strike. The critics said the system, currently being researched by the Pentagon, would violate civil liberties, undermine commerce and probably wouldn’t work. Charles Peña, a policy analyst with the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, said it’s statistically unlikely that the system could predict and pre-empt attacks and also avoid targeting...