Posted on 09/28/2009 2:08:30 PM PDT by Coleus
Recently declassified documents obtained by Wired magazine reveal a massive Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) data mining operation. It already possesses over 1.5 billion records from government and private-sector sources. That figure is expected by the FBI to balloon to over 6 billion within a few years. And it is not just terrorists they are after. According to the documents, the National Security Branch Analysis Center (NSAC) is being used to pursue multiple types of non-terrorism domestic investigations. It is also meant to be able to sort through the data — everything from health and travel records to credit card transactions and car rentals — to identify people who might pose a threat. The “pattern analysis” capabilities search for suspicious behavior to finger people of interest, but the whole concept has been hammered by critics as a sort of unconstitutional “pre-crime” program.
The effort is similar in some respects to the Department of Defense’s controversial Total Information Awareness program that was supposed to be essentially shut down by Congress. But far from disappearing, the program appears to have simply been moved. Now the FBI wants to quadruple the size of the NSAC’s “known” staff, according to the Wired article about the system, entitled ‘Newly Declassified Files Detail Massive FBI Data-Mining Project.’ In 2008, it already had over 100 full time employees and contractors. “We have a situation where the government is spending fairly large sums of money to use an unproven technology that has a possibility of false positives that would subject innocent Americans to unnecessary scrutiny and impinge on their freedom,” explained Kurt Opsahl, an attorney for the privacy watchdog Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). “Before the NSAC expands its mission, there must be strict oversight from Congress and the public.”
Opsahl also cited a 2008 study by the National Research Council that said these types of operations are a dangerous and ineffective way of identifying potential terrorists. The paper highlighted poor data quality, the inevitability of false positives, privacy concerns and the preliminary nature of the concepts involved. It concluded that “automated identification of terrorists through data mining or any other mechanism is neither feasible as an objective nor desirable as a goal of technology development efforts.” The EFF produced a damning report about the biggest component of the FBI’s program — the Investigative Data Warehouse, which the bureau claims is its “single largest repository of operational and intelligence information.” The database contains a wide variety of information including telephone records and even some biometric data. The EFF report also reveals that an employee in the FBI’s Office of General Counsel recommended “against raising congressional consciousness levels and expectations” about the privacy implications of the system.
“The IDW objective was to create a data warehouse that uses certain data elements to provide a single-access repository for information related to issues beyond counterterrorism to include counterintelligence, criminal and cyber investigations,” according to a formerly secret 2008 budget request cited by Wired. “These missions will be refined and expanded as these capabilities are folded into the NSAC.” So how did the FBI get all of the data? Nobody really knows, except the data miners themselves, perhaps. Some of it was handed over voluntarily by companies, some is from the government itself and other parts came from the use of provisions in the “Patriot” Act. The FBI would not comment, nor would many of the companies involved. A report ordered by Republican U.S. Representative Jim Sensebrenner about how the data would be used and how the FBI was safe-guarding the information has not been made public.
Another stunning revelation of the program is that the FBI had been sharing NSAC information with one of the Department of Defense’s domestic spying units, the office of Counter-Intelligence Field Activity. The secretive program was caught gathering information about American anti-war groups and even the Quakers. The FBI has since told Congress that they will be more careful. NSAC data was also used in the prosecution of a telemarketing company, and is supposedly being used against hackers and a wide variety of common criminals. Recent revelations from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts show that out of 763 so-called “sneak-and-peak” requests under the Patriot Act, only three were in any way related to terrorism. The majority were drug cases.
Now the FBI has produced a “wish list” of more information it wants for the operation. On the list were databases from the Airlines Reporting Corporation, which has billions of American travel itineraries, credit card information and a myriad of other private data. Also included were the national social security database, Postal Service databases, and more. The documents provided to Wired contained an additional 24 databases that were blacked out.
Americans already know who the government is looking for — so-called “right-wing extremists” concerned about issues like U.S. sovereignty, the shredding of the Constitution, abortion, and even illegal immigration. The Department of Homeland Security made that abundantly clear when it called them the “most dangerous” threat to national security in the infamous report that turned out to have been sourced largely to discredited political groups like the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center and a website with dragons, unicorns, and tarot cards across the top.
Congress should thoroughly investigate the program and hold responsible parties accountable. Americans have a right to be secure from such invasive tactics unless a warrant is issued by a judge based on a specific criteria. The time has come to dismantle the police state and restore the rule of law under the U.S. Constitution. Alex Newman is an American freelance writer and the president of Liberty Sentinel Media, Inc., a small media consulting firm. He is currently living in Sweden and has spent most of his life in Latin America, Europe and Africa. He has a degree in foreign languages and speaks Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian and a little Swedish and Afrikaans. In addition, he earned a degree in journalism from the University of Florida, with emphasis on economics and international relations.
What if it’s the “bad guys” who control and use this technology for their own nefarious purposes?
Then it would be the “good guys” who were running scared, would it not?
CA....
What makes you think they have any interest in finding "real criminals/terrorists"?
It's all about control of you and I.
Just like it's easier for cops to be tax collectors with their radar guns, than it is to solve crime with actual victims. You are a revenue source, criminals are not.
Obama didn’t do this - Bush did. >>>
yea i know, he didn’t act alone; it’s probably part of the patriot act.
>>I personally haven’t done anything wrong
Oh, just by posting here on FR we’ve undoubtedly been caste into the feudal “Naughty Thoughts” bin.
Everyone knows what’s in room 101...
The government agencies already had the names of those in on the 9-11 attacks. They don’t investigate to prevent incidents. It provides the means necessary to prove the case after the fact.
It’s a power grab but ultimately it is misapplied and does not make us safer.
There was data mining in the error of Clinton too.
And in England.
You mean the various branches of the government?
Echelon.
I know.. I know...
But, how else will they ever get caught????
Can’t it just be a practice used for times of war?
And then it can be taken away.
I often wonder why those camera guys who chase all
the movies stars around, why they can’t go chasing
the senators, congressman, etc... Let’s get the low
down on them...
bump
The Gestapo was only 8,000 strong and most of them were office workers and file clerks (faceless bureaucrats), but they were feared to be 'Everywhere'. And though they had files on millions of people (Sigfried didn't say Heil Hitler), once the file was made and cataloged, they were never read again. But the fear of that 3:00am knock on the door by the guys in the Black Leather Coats was there.
This what Obama's doing.
So you’re OK with government having this sort of power and capability, just so long as they leave YOU alone. Do I have that right? As long as the enemies they go after are YOUR enemies as well?
I can’t begin to think why you would EVER want to be on this forum. You need Statists-r-Us, two doors down on the LEFT. Hard left. We here are about RESTORING THE CONSTITUTION AND THE REPUBLIC, not about spying on folks in clear VIOLATION of the Constitution we want RESTORED.
Yeah BABY!
I want to know what the Quakers are up to?
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