In the Beginning There was ECHELON and CARNIVORE...
Big Brother Gets Stronger.
The Total Information Awareness system the government wants to put in effect has its infancy in the systems known as ECHELON and CARNIVORE. Once we start down this path of spying and gathering information about anyone and everyone...even you...will we stop? If the past is any comment on how our government behaves, I would have to say no. If we have it, we will use it. This is the beginning of our life histories, our purchases, our trips or vacations, our drivers licenses etc. being recorded by the governement under the "ruse" of protecting the citizens of the United States from terrorists. Now, dont get me wrong, there may be a lawful use for these technologies, but to take my personal information about me without my consent..or at least a court order somehow does not seem right. However with the new Homeland Security it is now legal. Big Brother is alive and well and getting stronger.
The system known as "ECHELON" is an interception system which differs from other intelligence systems in that it possesses two features which make it quite unusual: The first such feature attributed to it is the capacity to carry out quasi-total surveillance. Satellite receiver stations and spy satellites in particular are alleged to give it the ability to intercept any telephone, fax, Internet or e-mail message sent by any individual and thus to inspect its contents.
The second unusual feature of ECHELON is said to be that the system operates worldwide on the basis of cooperation proportionate to their capabilities among several states (the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand), giving it an added value in comparison to national systems: the states participating in ECHELON (ECHELON states) can place their interception systems at each other’s disposal, share the cost and make joint use of the resulting information. This type of international cooperation is essential in particular for the worldwide interception of satellite communications, since only in this way is it possible to ensure in international communications that both sides of a dialogue can be intercepted.
The system know as "CARNIVORE" comprises: (1) a one-way tap into an Ethernet data steam; (2) a general purpose computer to filter and collect data; (3) additional general purpose computers to control the collection and examine the data; and (4) a telephone link to the collection computer.
The collection computer is typically installed without a keyboard or monitor. PCAnywhere, a standard commercial product from Symantec Inc., allows the additional Draft computers to control the collection computer via the telephone link. The link is protected by an electronic key such that only a computer with a matching key can connect.
Carnivore software is loaded on the collection computer while Packeteer and CoolMiner are installed on the control computers. Control computers are located at law enforcement sites. When connected by modem to the collection computer, a control computer operator can set and change filter settings, start and stop collection, and retrieve collected information. Using Packeteer and CoolMiner, the operator can reconstruct target activity from the collected IP packets.
In pen mode, the operator can see the TO and FROM e-mail addresses and the IP addresses of computers involved in File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) sessions. In full-collection mode, the operator can view the content of e-mail messages, HTTP pages, FTP sessions, etc. Carnivore operators are anonymous to the system. All users are logged in as "administrator" and no audit trail of actions is maintained.
Are you worried about "BIG BROTHER" yet? Keep reading.
The Effective Affordable Reusable Speech-To-Text (EARS) program is developing speech-to-text (automatic transcription) technology whose output is substantially richer and much more accurate than currently possible. This will make it possible for machines to do a much better job of detecting, extracting, summarizing, and translating important information. It will also enable humans to understand what was said by reading transcripts instead of listening to audio signals.
EARS is focusing on natural, unconstrained human-human speech from broadcasts and telephone conversations in multiple languages. The intent is to create core enabling technology suitable for a wide range of advanced applications.
So I'm guessing this will enable our conversations whether on the phone or just spoken person to person to be transcribed as well as recorded.
Project "GENOA" provides analyst tools to augment human cognitive process and aid understanding of complex arguments. Project Genoa matured and transitioned to a search engine that was delivered to the office of the Secretary of Defense and Joint Counter-Intelligence Assessment Group (JCAG), a field element of ASD/C31.
Genoa II is a FY02 new-start program. It will focus on developing information technology needed by teams of intelligence analysts and operations and policy personnel in attempting to anticipate and preempt terrorist threats to US interests. Genoa II’s goal is to make such teams faster, smarter, and more joint in their day-to-day operations. Genoa II will apply automation to team processes so that more information will be exploited, more hypotheses created and examined, more models built and populated with evidence, and in the larger sense, more crises dealt with simultaneously.
Program Strategy:
Genoa II will develop and deploy: 1) cognitive aids that allow humans and machines to"think together" in real-time about complicated problems; 2) means to overcome the biases and limitations of the human cognitive system; 3)"cognitive amplifiers" that help teams of people rapidly and fully comprehend complicated and uncertain situations; and, 4) the means to rapidly and seamlessly cut across and complement existing stove-piped hierarchical organizational structures by creating dynamic, adaptable, peer-to-peer collaborative networks.
GENISYS
The Genisys program’s goal is to produce technology enabling ultra-large,
all-source information repositories. To predict, track, and preempt terrorist
attacks, the U.S. requires a full-coverage database containing all information
relevant to identifying: potential foreign terrorists and their possible supporters;
their activities; prospective targets; and, their operational plans. Current
database technology is clearly insufficient to address this need.
Of course we all are aware of the Face Recognition System in place
in many areas right now. Here are some of the plans for that technology in the
coming years.
FY 03 Plans:
Develop multi-model fusion algorithms for human identification.
Develop algorithms for locating and acquiring subjects out to 150 meters (500
ft) in range.
Continue the development of the most promising biometric technologies based
upon experimental evaluation performance.
FY 04 Plans:
Develop and demonstrate a human identification system that operates
out to 150 meters (500 ft.) using visible imagery.
Fuse face and gait recognition into a 24/7 human identification system.
Perform an operational evaluation of a multi-model human identification system.
TIDES
No more speaking pig latin. The Translingual Information Detection, Extraction
and Summarization (TIDES) program is developing advanced language processing
technology to enable English speakers to find and interpret critical information
in multiple languages without requiring knowledge of those languages.
Then there is the BABYLON program. The goal of the Babylon program is to develop rapid, two-way, natural language speech translation interfaces and platforms for the warfighter for use in field environments for force protection, refugee processing, and medical triage. Babylon will focus on overcoming the many technical and engineering challenges limiting current multilingual translation technology to enable future full-domain, unconstrained dialog translation in multiple environments.
So now we've come to the TOTAL INFORMATION AWARNESS progam.
The goal of the Total Information Awareness (TIA) program is to revolutionize the ability of the United States to detect, classify and identify foreign terrorists and decipher their plans and thereby enable the U.S. to take timely action to successfully preempt and defeat terrorist acts. (this is also the program to be enlisted to spy on American Citizen's) To that end, the TIA program objective is to create a counter-terrorism information system that: (1) increases information coverage by an order of magnitude, and affords easy future scaling; (2) provides focused warnings within an hour after a triggering event occurs or an evidence threshold is passed; (3) can automatically queue analysts based on partial pattern matches and has patterns that cover 90% of all previously known foreign terrorist attacks; and, (4) supports collaboration, analytical reasoning and information sharing so that analysts can hypothesize, test and propose theories and mitigating strategies about possible futures, so decision-makers can effectively evaluate the impact of current or future policies and prospective courses of action.
Program Strategy:
The TIA program strategy is to integrate technologies developed by DARPA (and elsewhere as appropriate) into a series of increasingly powerful prototype systems that can be stress-tested in operationally relevant environments, using real-time feedback to refine concepts of operation and performance requirements down to the component level. The TIA program will develop and integrate information technologies into fully functional, leave-behind prototypes that are reliable, easy to install, and packaged with documentation and source code (though not necessarily complete in terms of desired features) that will enable the intelligence community to evaluate new technologies through experimentation, and rapidly transition it to operational use, as appropriate. Accordingly, the TIA program will work in close collaboration with one or more U.S. intelligence agencies that will provide operational guidance and technology evaluation, and act as TIA system transition partners.
Technically, the TIA program is focusing on the development of: 1) architectures for a large-scale counter-terrorism database, for system elements associated with database population, and for integrating algorithms and mixed-initiative analytical tools; 2) novel methods for populating the database from existing sources, create innovative new sources, and invent new algorithms for mining, combining, and refining information for subsequent inclusion into the database; and, 3) revolutionary new models, algorithms, methods, tools, and techniques for analyzing and correlating information in the database to derive actionable intelligence.
The scale of the government intrusion into our private lives is enormous. Edward Aldridge outlined the project in a news media briefing. Aldridge was seeking to downplay the negative outcry regarding the project. He explained the project has three parts: researching technologies that would allow rapid language translation; discovery of connections between current activities and future events, and "collaborative reasoning and decision-making tools to allow interagency communications and analysis."
However, this system is just a little more complicated that what Aldridge would have you believe. It would gather information regarding virtually "every area of your life". With data-mining, many innocent citizens and individuals would be accessed and analyzed by the system in its search for terrorists. It would also include commercial, government and possibly private records, said the Defense Department's Information Awareness Office, which oversees the project. Here are a few more of the things data mining would glean..passports, visas, work permits, driver's licenses, credit cards, airline tickets, rental cars, gun purchases, chemical purchases, and those detailing events such as arrests or suspicious activities. How do you "downplay" this threat to liberty?
Privacy watchdog groups are concerned that the government will not be held accountable for abuses. The trust level in government agencies slips lower daily as our privacy's and civil rights are eroded.
Many are concerned that Rear Adm. John Poindexter is to head the project. John Poindexter, was convicted on five counts of lying to Congress in the Iran-Contra scandal. (the conviction was "later" overturned)
Retired Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely, a national security analyst, said the surveillance system is a potentially effective tool in a war that has to be fought behind the scenes.
"I'm particularly concerned about immigration," Vallely said. "We don't have a good data base on that and we can't track the failures of our Immigration and Naturalization Service."
Under homeland security, a lot of loopholes will be tightened up, but Americans will have to be prepared to undergo some possible inconveniences in the war on terrorism, he said.
"From time to time, especially if there's a terrorist threat, we'll have to buckle down and do what we have to do to provide the maximum security for our children and our families," Vallely said.
James X. Dempsey of the civil liberties group Center for Democracy and Technology says there are few if any rules to govern this and that the 1974 Privacy Act is so technologicaly out of date it does not address the issue.
Americans will have to be prepared for quite a lot of "inconveniences" to our privacy and our civil rights. It looks like "Big Brother" is here to stay and "Big Brother" is our government determined to keep us "safe".