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                Date: 2002-11-09
                 
                 
                US: Das totale Datamining
                Ohne viel Aufsehens davon zu machen, ist mit Admiral Poindexter ein besonderer Hardliner aus der Reagan-Ära zurückgekehrt.Wegen einer Hauptrolle in der so genannten Iran-Contra Affäre zwischendurch ausgeschieden, steht Poindexter nun dem "Office of Information Awareness" an der "Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency" vor. Seine Aufgabe ist die Abwicklung des totalen Zugriffs auf alle logfiles und Banktransaktionen, Kreditkarten- und Airline-Datenbanken, - ohne Gerichtsbeschluss, wie gehabt.
                 
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The Pentagon is constructing a computer system that could create a vast  
electronic dragnet, searching for personal information as part of the hunt  
for terrorists around the globe - including the United States. 
 
As the director of the effort, Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, has described  
the system in Pentagon documents and in speeches, it will provide  
intelligence analysts and law enforcement officials with instant access to  
information from Internet mail and calling records to credit card and  
banking transactions and travel documents, without a search warrant. 
 
Historically, military and intelligence agencies have not been permitted to  
spy on Americans without extraordinary legal authorization. 
 
[...] 
 
Admiral Poindexter, who has described the plan in public documents and  
speeches but declined to be interviewed, has said that the government needs  
to "break down the stovepipes" that separate commercial and government  
databases, allowing teams of intelligence agency analysts to hunt for  
hidden patterns of activity with powerful computers. 
 
[...] 
 
Admiral Poindexter quietly returned to the government in January to take  
charge of the Office of Information Awareness at the Defense Advanced  
Research Projects Agency, known as Darpa. The office is responsible for  
developing new surveillance technologies in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. 
 
[...] 
 
The possibility that the system might be deployed domestically to let  
intelligence officials look into commercial transactions worries civil  
liberties proponents. 
 
"This could be the perfect storm for civil liberties in America," said Marc  
Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in  
Washington "The vehicle is the Homeland Security Act, the technology is  
Darpa and the agency is the F.B.I. The outcome is a system of national  
surveillance of the American public." 
 
[...]. 
 
Some members of a panel of computer scientists and policy experts who were  
asked by the Pentagon to review the privacy implications this summer said  
terrorists might find ways to avoid detection and that the system might be  
easily abused. 
 
"A lot of my colleagues are uncomfortable about this and worry about the  
potential uses that this technology might be put, if not by this  
administration then by a future one," said Barbara Simon, a computer  
scientist who is past president of the Association of Computing Machinery.  
"Once you've got it in place you can't control it." 
 
[...] 
 
If deployed, civil libertarians argue, the computer system would rapidly  
bring a surveillance state. They assert that potential terrorists would  
soon learn how to avoid detection in any case. 
 
The new system will rely on a set of computer-based pattern recognition  
techniques known as "data mining," a set of statistical techniques used by  
scientists as well as by marketers searching for potential customers. 
 
The system would permit a team of intelligence analysts to gather and view  
information from databases, pursue links between individuals and groups,  
respond to automatic alerts, and share information efficiently, all from  
their individual computers. 
 
[...] 
 
Before taking the position at the Pentagon, Admiral Poindexter, who was  
convicted in 1990 for his role in the Iran-contra affair, had worked as a  
contractor on one of the projects he now controls. Admiral Poindexter's  
conviction was reversed in 1991 by a federal appeals court because he had  
been granted immunity for his testimony before Congress about the case. 
 
 
tnx 2 Georg Schoefbaenker 
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/09/politics/09COMP.html?pagewanted=print&position=top
                   
 
 
                
                 
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edited by Harkank  
published on: 2002-11-09 
comments to office@quintessenz.at
                   
                  
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