Data data everywhere but no real information anywhere.
May/20/06 03:09 AM
Mr. President,
You seem to be getting a hell-of-a lot more secretive as America becomes a target-rich environment for your spies.
As you covertly set about learn more and more about our internet activities, our friends, our neighbors, our phone calls and our personal histories; we learn less and less about your past activities, your present activities, and the people you make deals with.
A democratic government is supposed to have it the other way around. Our personal information is supposed to be private, and your activities are supposed to be transparent.
First let's get one thing clear, monitoring millions of Americans' phone calls is illegal. The upcoming Democratic-led House of Representatives in December will verify this fact after their investigation of your methods involving the NSA and the Pentagon.
Secondly, your explanation of using this huge database of all our phone calls to look for terrorists does not make sense. Tracking millions of innocent Americans' calls to find the bad guys is ridiculous. Your assumption here is that all of us are guilty until your software search proves us ,otherwise.
The NSA is not the only federal agency you are using. You are also using the military to monitor Americans as well.
The Wall Street Journal reported one noteworthy and telling episode involving one suspicious group working in Akron Ohio. This mysterious group had been tracked by the finest minds within an elite counterintelligence unit called 902nd Military Intelligence Group.
The 902nd, established during World War II, known as the "Deuce," is part of the Army command. They are another branch of Rummy's Rangers.
This unique counterintelligence group reviewed police databases, internet traffic by the group, photographs and records of vehicles before tipping off the police about the group's anticipated moves.
On March 19, 2005, about 200 members of the suspicious group were headed to a Marine Corps recruiting center and a Federal Bureau of Investigation office in Akron Ohio. Close following the group was the police in unmarked cars. The 902nd had earlier sent the local police a two-page alert from the elite and very secretive 902nd Military Intelligence Group.
The 902nd surmised from the intelligence they gathered, the suspected terrorist's plan involved taking on the appearance of protesters listening to anti-war speeches against the Iraq war that March-day.
Army official Claude G. Benner Jr. told the police, "the potential for a spontaneous, unprovoked attack against either. The demonstrators or pro-US Military persons is assessed as HIGH." This is military talk for "these un-American bad boys are very likely to bust up the city, kick some ass, and raise hell at the military recruiters and at the protest."
Nothing happened. There were no fires, no fights, no rock throwing no overturned police cars, no broken windows. It was as advertised; a peaceful protest and the suspicious terrorist group turned out to be middle-aged Quaker peace marchers. But to the super secret counterintelligence group they were identified and targeted as probable-terrorists.
Commander. Hick at the Pentagon says the assessment that the Akron protest posed a threat "was based on the best information available at the time, which was lawfully received from another federal agency." Commander. Hicks continued, "The fact that the marches proceeded peacefully is irrelevant to leveling criticisms against the Army in this instance."
Those feisty Quakers surely had those military intelligence people nervous. I didn't know Quakers had such a bad reputation. They must be like the Taliban or the Black Panthers to get so much attention.
The article, stated, an Army report issued in May 2005 to the U.S. Northern Command, which is in charge of joint military operations in the continental United States, trashed the idea that hidden "provocateurs" might be organizing multiple protests around the country. "We have not noted a significant connection between incidents (i.e. recurring instigators at protests, vehicle descriptions)," said the report.
Those dangerous terrorists you tracked were an average peace-loving Christian group. They are middle-aged Christians who were as American as apple pie.
The phrase Army intelligence ends up becoming an oxymoron at the end of this episode of Rummy's Dummy Rangers
.
Many people were probably unaware that a military group could operate inside the United States.
They probably missed your comments shortly after 9/11 when you declared the continental United States "a theater of military operations."
The last president to do this was Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.
After 9/11 you went all out, you didn't just bend the laws you shattered them when you set up information gathering programs such as the Counter Intelligence Field Activity. CIFA. CIFA gets some of its raw data from a reporting process called Talon (short for "Threat and Local Observation Notice")
Your Pentagon made Talon the standard method for armed forces personnel to report "non-validated" information about possible terrorist activity. Again, this is military talk for, any military personnel can write anything about anyone into this system.
I bet you hope you could extract some useful patterns to uncover terrorists by using data mining techniques on the Talon's database. The Talon's database can be combined with other information such as internet usage, phone call traffic, and other personal information.
My question is that even after you set up these sophisticated information gathering programs and manned them with an elite counterintelligence outfit like the 902nd, how did they get it so wrong? And how come the fancy programs and their gung ho military analysts' have NOTHING to show for their efforts after four years?
After failing to find terrorists what else could you possibly use this huge database of information on millions of Americans?
I know you would NEVER think about politicizing something as powerful as this huge database. But think about how handy all this information about people's lives could help Republicans win elections across the country this November and beyond.
Makes a guy wonder you know.
From: comments@whitehouse.gov
Date: May 20, 2006 3:35:45 AM CDT
To: guzmatom@mac.com
On behalf of President Bush, thank you for your correspondence.
We appreciate hearing your views and welcome your suggestions.
Due to the large volume of e-mail received, the White House is
unable to respond to every message, and therefore this response
is an autoreply.
Thank you again for taking the time to write.
You seem to be getting a hell-of-a lot more secretive as America becomes a target-rich environment for your spies.
As you covertly set about learn more and more about our internet activities, our friends, our neighbors, our phone calls and our personal histories; we learn less and less about your past activities, your present activities, and the people you make deals with.
A democratic government is supposed to have it the other way around. Our personal information is supposed to be private, and your activities are supposed to be transparent.
First let's get one thing clear, monitoring millions of Americans' phone calls is illegal. The upcoming Democratic-led House of Representatives in December will verify this fact after their investigation of your methods involving the NSA and the Pentagon.
Secondly, your explanation of using this huge database of all our phone calls to look for terrorists does not make sense. Tracking millions of innocent Americans' calls to find the bad guys is ridiculous. Your assumption here is that all of us are guilty until your software search proves us ,otherwise.
The NSA is not the only federal agency you are using. You are also using the military to monitor Americans as well.
The Wall Street Journal reported one noteworthy and telling episode involving one suspicious group working in Akron Ohio. This mysterious group had been tracked by the finest minds within an elite counterintelligence unit called 902nd Military Intelligence Group.
The 902nd, established during World War II, known as the "Deuce," is part of the Army command. They are another branch of Rummy's Rangers.
This unique counterintelligence group reviewed police databases, internet traffic by the group, photographs and records of vehicles before tipping off the police about the group's anticipated moves.
On March 19, 2005, about 200 members of the suspicious group were headed to a Marine Corps recruiting center and a Federal Bureau of Investigation office in Akron Ohio. Close following the group was the police in unmarked cars. The 902nd had earlier sent the local police a two-page alert from the elite and very secretive 902nd Military Intelligence Group.
The 902nd surmised from the intelligence they gathered, the suspected terrorist's plan involved taking on the appearance of protesters listening to anti-war speeches against the Iraq war that March-day.
Army official Claude G. Benner Jr. told the police, "the potential for a spontaneous, unprovoked attack against either. The demonstrators or pro-US Military persons is assessed as HIGH." This is military talk for "these un-American bad boys are very likely to bust up the city, kick some ass, and raise hell at the military recruiters and at the protest."
Nothing happened. There were no fires, no fights, no rock throwing no overturned police cars, no broken windows. It was as advertised; a peaceful protest and the suspicious terrorist group turned out to be middle-aged Quaker peace marchers. But to the super secret counterintelligence group they were identified and targeted as probable-terrorists.
Commander. Hick at the Pentagon says the assessment that the Akron protest posed a threat "was based on the best information available at the time, which was lawfully received from another federal agency." Commander. Hicks continued, "The fact that the marches proceeded peacefully is irrelevant to leveling criticisms against the Army in this instance."
Those feisty Quakers surely had those military intelligence people nervous. I didn't know Quakers had such a bad reputation. They must be like the Taliban or the Black Panthers to get so much attention.
The article, stated, an Army report issued in May 2005 to the U.S. Northern Command, which is in charge of joint military operations in the continental United States, trashed the idea that hidden "provocateurs" might be organizing multiple protests around the country. "We have not noted a significant connection between incidents (i.e. recurring instigators at protests, vehicle descriptions)," said the report.
Those dangerous terrorists you tracked were an average peace-loving Christian group. They are middle-aged Christians who were as American as apple pie.
The phrase Army intelligence ends up becoming an oxymoron at the end of this episode of Rummy's Dummy Rangers
.
Many people were probably unaware that a military group could operate inside the United States.
They probably missed your comments shortly after 9/11 when you declared the continental United States "a theater of military operations."
The last president to do this was Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.
After 9/11 you went all out, you didn't just bend the laws you shattered them when you set up information gathering programs such as the Counter Intelligence Field Activity. CIFA. CIFA gets some of its raw data from a reporting process called Talon (short for "Threat and Local Observation Notice")
Your Pentagon made Talon the standard method for armed forces personnel to report "non-validated" information about possible terrorist activity. Again, this is military talk for, any military personnel can write anything about anyone into this system.
I bet you hope you could extract some useful patterns to uncover terrorists by using data mining techniques on the Talon's database. The Talon's database can be combined with other information such as internet usage, phone call traffic, and other personal information.
My question is that even after you set up these sophisticated information gathering programs and manned them with an elite counterintelligence outfit like the 902nd, how did they get it so wrong? And how come the fancy programs and their gung ho military analysts' have NOTHING to show for their efforts after four years?
After failing to find terrorists what else could you possibly use this huge database of information on millions of Americans?
I know you would NEVER think about politicizing something as powerful as this huge database. But think about how handy all this information about people's lives could help Republicans win elections across the country this November and beyond.
Makes a guy wonder you know.
From: comments@whitehouse.gov
Date: May 20, 2006 3:35:45 AM CDT
To: guzmatom@mac.com
On behalf of President Bush, thank you for your correspondence.
We appreciate hearing your views and welcome your suggestions.
Due to the large volume of e-mail received, the White House is
unable to respond to every message, and therefore this response
is an autoreply.
Thank you again for taking the time to write.