via youtube.com
20110630
20110629
Behind The Modern Man - Mind Control Pt.2
"World War II was nearing the end. At the same time the American government and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), with the cooperation of the US military leadership, granted asylum for Nazi SS doctors that performed psychological, surgical, and chemical experiments on the prison camp inmates. These people were never tried for any crimes in Nuremburg because they were grafted in to the newly formed CIA. It is the ideas of these very Nazi doctors that were applied in Vietnam by the US military research and are used even today. Knowing about the involvement of the CIA and US military is a key to understanding the anatomy of PSYOPS in Vietnam.
In the North Vietnam arena in the 1960′s, the Viet Cong ruled every facet of society. This Viet Cong Infrastructure (VCI) consisted of more than 75,000 South Vietnamese brainwashed by the Viet Cong (VC) which returned to fight the American military. Back in 1941 Ho Chi Minh, who studied in the United States, formed the Vietminh to throw the Japanese and French out of Vietnam led by “… General Vo Nguyen Giap and his First Armed Propaganda Detachment … By mid-1945 the Vietminh held six provinces near Hanoi and was working with the forerunner of the CIA, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) …” As of September 1945 Minh declared Vietnam an independent state, partly because he received significant support from the American military supplies left behind for him as World War II ended in Japan. The CIA even assisted the British, and released French Legionnaires, in South Vietnam to fight the Vietminh. Early in the Vietnam War the Vietminh in North Vietnam, “Secret cells were organized, and guerilla units were formed to monitor and harass French units … and organize armed propaganda teams.” The CIA even organized military units to hunt down these Vietminh propaganda units. “The GCMA’s [French-Vietnamese commandos] were formed concurrently with the US Army’s First Special Forces at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.” And you thought only US soldiers were taught at Fort Bragg..." http://www.hourofthetime.com/wordpresstest/?p=580720110628
20110626
Asshole(s) of the day: TSA
Elderly woman asked to remove adult diaper during TSA search
"A woman has filed a complaint with federal authorities over how her elderly mother was treated at Northwest Florida Regional Airport last weekend. Jean Weber of Destin filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security after her 95-year-old mother was detained and extensively searched last Saturday while trying to board a plane to fly to Michigan to be with family members during the final stages of her battle with leukemia. Her mother, who was in a wheelchair, was asked to remove an adult diaper in order to complete a pat-down search..." http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/mother-41324-search-adult.html
20110625
Will NSA Go After Hacker Group LulzSec With Psychic War Assets?
"NSA may have developed a secret weapon: the ability to use non-physical effects to hunt down America's unseen enemies. (STARpod.org) -- America's National Security Agency, the NSA, may have a secret weapon buried deep inside a black-budget program. And for shadowy virtual organizations, like LulzSec -- the hacker group has targeted numerous organizations, including the CIA's public website -- NSA's alleged super-secret project is capable of tracing Internet connections directly to the minds behind Internet hacks..." http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/239048
The explosive nature of nanothermite
"In the last few years, a series of peer-reviewed scientific articles has been published that establish the presence of thermitic materials at the World Trade Center (WTC). [A-D] Although we know that nanothermite has been found in the WTC dust, we do not know what purpose it served in the deceptive demolition of the WTC buildings. It could be that the nanothermite was used simply to drive fires in the impact zones and elevator areas – fires which would otherwise have gone out too early or not been present at all – and thereby create the deception that jet fuel-induced fires could wreak the havoc seen. Nanothermite might also have been used to produce the explosions necessary to destroy the structural integrity of the buildings. Nanothermite, also called superthermite, is the common name for a subset of metastable intermolecular composites (MICs) characterized by a highly exothermic reaction after ignition. Nanothermites contain an oxidizer and a reducing agent that are intimately mixed on the nanometer scale. Such nano-energetics are produced for various applications including propellants, explosives, and pyrotechnics. There are various ways to make nanothermites. They can be made as solid mixtures of aluminum and metal oxides which are typically produced using techniques like dynamic vapor phase condensation and arrested reactive milling. These mixtures are much like typical thermite mixtures, but with the components introduced on a much smaller scale. Alternatively, nanothermites can be made in a liquid solution that later gels, capturing the reactive components in an intimately mixed composite which is dried before it can be ignited. These are called sol-gel nanothermites, also known more generally as energetic nanocomposites..." http://digwithin.net/2011/06/19/the-explosive-nature-of-nanothermite/
20110623
20110621
Military spends more to air condition tents than NASA’s entire budget
"Steve Anderson, a retired brigadier general who was Petraeus' chief logistician in Iraq, says that the Pentagon spends $20 billion a year just to air condition tents and temporary buildings in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's more than NASA's entire annual budget. 
There's an easy fix, says Anderson: Spray tents with polyurethane foam. An existing $95 million contract to spray-insulate tents is providing $1 billion in cost-avoidance, Anderson says. But insulating tents instead of air conditioning them is still not official military policy."
http://www.grist.org/list/2011-06-17-military-spends-more-on-air-conditioning...20110620
A Memo on Torture to John Yoo
"Whether torture helped lead to the killing of Osama bin Laden or not, the beating of John Yoo's tell-tale hearthas compelled him to speak. His preemptive rush, in a recent op-ed article for the Wall Street Journal, to vindicate the Bush administration's torture policies that he and Jay Bybee created betrays his guilt for approving one of the most reprehensible policies in US history – a policy of systematic torture that not only failed to provide actionable intelligence, but undermined the security of the United States.
In the infamous torture memos of 2002, Yoo and Bybee, authorized "enhanced interrogation" techniques (EITs), acts previously recognized by the US as torture – and the same torture methods used on US soldiers to obtain false confessions during the Korean war. In 131 pages of memos, the two justice department legal counsels redefined torture in a manner that required medical monitoring of all EITs, but failed to provide any meaningful provisions to detect medical evidence of torture as defined by them. Moreover, their "good faith" defence against criminal liability for torture rested on two presumptions, that interrogators would not exceed the severe physical and severe and prolonged mental pain thresholds for torture as defined by Yoo and Bybee, and, even if they did, that it would not constitute torture unless these physical and psychological harms were the precise objectives of the interrogators..." https://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/06/02-8http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Yoo
Grand Jury Investigates Torture in Abu Ghraib Death
"It has been nearly a decade since Manadel al-Jamadi, an Iraqi prisoner known as "the Iceman" — for the bungled attempt to cool his body and make him look less dead — perished in CIA custody at Abu Ghraib. But now there are rumbles in Washington that the notorious case, as well as other alleged CIA abuses, could be returning to haunt the agency. TIME has learned that a prosecutor tasked with probing the CIA — John Durham, a respected, Republican-appointed U.S. Attorney from Connecticut — has begun calling witnesses before a secret federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., looking into, among other things, the lurid Nov. 4, 2003, homicide, which was documented by TIME in 2005.
TIME has obtained a copy of a subpoena signed by Durham that points to his grand jury's broader mandate, which could involve charging additional CIA officers and contract employees in other cases. The subpoena says "the grand jury is conducting an investigation of possible violations of federal criminal laws involving War Crimes (18 USC/2441), Torture (18 USC 243OA) and related federal offenses..." http://battleland.blogs.time.com/2011/06/13/haunted-by-homicide-federal-grand...
Hackers Are Everywhere. Panic!
"I think the number of recent hacks and the amount of news coverage on these attacks is suspicious. Could they be false flag events to help the government regulate the Internet?
When is the last time you can recall so many news items about hackers? It's become a massive meme within society as a whole. Hardly a day goes by without some discussion or news about hackers. And, I should mention this right off: If there was ever any attempt to soft-pedal the word hacker versus cracker (with hacker meaning a guy who likes to fool around with his computer to discover new things and the cracker meaning the evil, black-hat criminal), well that definition is done. The hacker today is now the cracker for all practical purposes of discussion. Now that I have that definition out of the way, let me try and figure out what is going on here..." http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2387203,00.asp20110619
NYC Dept. of Buildings: No Records for Pre-9/11 WTC Elevator Rebuild, One of the “Largest, Most Sophisticated” Ever
"The New York City Department of Buildings (DoB) has reported within a June 6, 2011 Freedom of Information (FOI) response, that no records could be located regarding the following request for information pertaining to the massive elevator modernization project underway at World Trade Center buildings 1 and 2 until the very morning of September 11, 2001, one of the largest ever [1]. The DoB governs elevator construction and use within New York City. An April 15, 2011 FOI appeal request sought: “Permits or certifications provided by the NYC Department of Buildings regarding elevator modernization/renovation work performed at the former World Trade Center buildings 1 and 2 during the 1990s and 2000s." The DoB’s June 6, 2011 FOI answer reads as follows: “BIS shows no elevator records for the time period in question...” http://911blogger.com/news/2011-06-16/nyc-dept-buildings-no-records-pre-911-w...
NSA allies with Internet carriers to thwart cyber attacks against defense firms
"The National Security Agency is working with Internet service providers to deploy a new generation of tools to scan e-mail and other digital traffic with the goal of thwarting cyberattacks against defense firms by foreign adversaries, senior defense and industry officials say. The novel program, which began last month on a voluntary, trial basis, relies on sophisticated NSA data sets to identify malicious programs slipped into the vast stream of Internet data flowing to the nation’s largest defense firms. Such attacks, including one last month against Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin, are nearly constant as rival nations and terrorist groups seek access to U.S. military secrets..." http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/major-internet-service-providers-coope...
LulzSec - 1000th tweet statement
" • Dear Internets,
• • This is Lulz Security, better known as those evil bastards from twitter. We just hit 1000 tweets, and as such we thought it best to have a little chit-chat with our friends (and foes).
• • For the past month and a bit, we've been causing mayhem and chaos throughout the Internet, attacking several targets including PBS, Sony, Fox, porn websites, FBI, CIA, the U.S. government, Sony some more, online gaming servers (by request of callers, not by our own choice), Sony again, and of course our good friend Sony.
• • While we've gained many, many supporters, we do have a mass of enemies, albeit mainly gamers. The main anti-LulzSec argument suggests that we're going to bring down more Internet laws by continuing our public shenanigans, and that our actions are causing clowns with pens to write new rules for you. But what if we just hadn't released anything? What if we were silent? That would mean we would be secretly inside FBI affiliates right now, inside PBS, inside Sony... watching... abusing..."
• • This is Lulz Security, better known as those evil bastards from twitter. We just hit 1000 tweets, and as such we thought it best to have a little chit-chat with our friends (and foes).
• • For the past month and a bit, we've been causing mayhem and chaos throughout the Internet, attacking several targets including PBS, Sony, Fox, porn websites, FBI, CIA, the U.S. government, Sony some more, online gaming servers (by request of callers, not by our own choice), Sony again, and of course our good friend Sony.
• • While we've gained many, many supporters, we do have a mass of enemies, albeit mainly gamers. The main anti-LulzSec argument suggests that we're going to bring down more Internet laws by continuing our public shenanigans, and that our actions are causing clowns with pens to write new rules for you. But what if we just hadn't released anything? What if we were silent? That would mean we would be secretly inside FBI affiliates right now, inside PBS, inside Sony... watching... abusing..."
20110617
A Primer on Wikileaks Espionage on TOR Exit Nodes
"In 2007, Dan Egerstad, Swedish security researcher, exposed how the
Tor network could easily be used for intelligence gathering: [1]
nodes. Last month, he posted a list of 100 e-mail credentials --
server IP addresses, e-mail accounts and the corresponding
passwords -- for embassies and government ministries around the
globe, all obtained by sniffing exit traffic for usernames and
passwords of e-mail servers.'' Note that this was not a case of embassy staff using Tor to access
their own email accounts, which is absurd. This was a case of
blackhat hackers (or intelligence) using Tor to anonymously access
the compromised accounts. In fact, Egerstad states that the Iranian
government contacted him to thank him for having uncovered the
otherwise unknown compromise..." http://pgpboard.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=458
Dog sentenced to death by stoning
"A Jerusalem rabbinical court recently sentenced a wandering dog to death by stoning. The cruel sentence stemmed from the suspicion that the spirit of a famous secular lawyer, who insulted the court's judges 20 years ago, had been transferred into the dog's body.
Several weeks ago, according to the Behadrei Hadarim website, a large dog entered the Monetary Affairs Court near the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim. The dog scared the court's visitors and, to their surprise, refused to leave even after they attempted to drive him away..." http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4082843,00.html
Several weeks ago, according to the Behadrei Hadarim website, a large dog entered the Monetary Affairs Court near the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim. The dog scared the court's visitors and, to their surprise, refused to leave even after they attempted to drive him away..." http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4082843,00.html
20110616
20110615
The Federal Reserve Cartel: The Eight Families
"(Part one of a four-part series)
The Four Horsemen of Banking (Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo) own the Four Horsemen of Oil (Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch/Shell, BP Amoco and Chevron Texaco); in tandem with Deutsche Bank, BNP, Barclays and other European old money behemoths. But their monopoly over the global economy does not end at the edge of the oil patch. According to company 10K filings to the SEC, the Four Horsemen of Banking are among the top ten stock holders of virtually every Fortune 500 corporation.[1] So who then are the stockholders in these money center banks? This information is guarded much more closely. My queries to bank regulatory agencies regarding stock ownership in the top 25 US bank holding companies were given Freedom of Information Act status, before being denied on “national security” grounds. This is rather ironic, since many of the bank’s stockholders reside in Europe. One important repository for the wealth of the global oligarchy that owns these bank holding companies is US Trust Corporation – founded in 1853 and now owned by Bank of America. A recent US Trust Corporate Director and Honorary Trustee was Walter Rothschild. Other directors included Daniel Davison of JP Morgan Chase, Richard Tucker of Exxon Mobil, Daniel Roberts of Citigroup and Marshall Schwartz of Morgan Stanley. [2]..." http://zombieamerica.blogspot.com/2011/06/federal-reserve-cartel-eight-famili...Who is behind the hacks? (FAQ)
"Every day there's another report of a computer hack. Yesterday it was a video game company and a U.S. Senate database. And today it could be the Federal Reserve. There's no doubt that there's a wave of attacks going on right now, against different targets and with seemingly different motives. The questions on everyone's mind are who is behind these computer attacks and why are they doing it. This FAQ will help answer those questions in at least some of the cases.
Who is Anonymous?..." http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20071100-245/who-is-behind-the-hacks-faq/
Who is Anonymous?..." http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20071100-245/who-is-behind-the-hacks-faq/
Pakistan: A reality check amid the terror and chaos
"Editor's note: Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf came to power in a bloodless military coup in 1999 when he was chief of Pakistan's army. He held power until the 2008 elections after which he resigned; since then he has lived in self-imposed exile in London. In late 2010 he launched the All Pakistan Muslim League party with a view to running for office in 2013.
(CNN) -- Today Pakistan finds itself in the eye of the terrorism storm. An environment of controversies, contradictions, distortions and mutual suspicions prevails all around, polluting and weakening the war on terror.The situation demands a clearer understanding of ground realities in south Asia, bridging the acute trust deficit and developing a unity of thought and action among all coalition players. Blame games, rigidity, arrogance and insensitivity to others' interests will always remain counterproductive.
I would like to start by analyzing the existing environment in its historical perspective. How did religious militancy get introduced into Pakistan? There is no doubt that Pakistan is a victim of terrorism and is certainly not the perpetrator. In 1979, the United States, in its own interest of containing Soviet expansion, and Pakistan, in its own national interest of preserving its integrity against the Soviet design of reaching the warm waters of the Indian Ocean through Pakistan, initiated a jihad (holy war in defense of Islam) in Afghanistan. We inducted 25,000 to 30,000 Mujahedeen (holy warriors) from all over the Muslim world into Afghanistan and also pumped in Taliban from the tribal agencies of Pakistan after arming and training them..." http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/06/08/pakistan.pervez.musharraf.islamism/inde...
20110614
20110613
20110612
TSA: Frequently Asked Questions
"Q. What is advanced imaging technology?
A. Advanced imaging technology safely screens passengers for both metallic and non-metallic threats, including weapons and explosives, which may be concealed under a passengers’ clothing without physical contact to keep the traveling public secure. Q. Does imaging technology work?
A. Yes. Imaging technology is a highly effective security tool, which can detect both metallic and non-metallic items that may pose a threat to aviation security. AIT is a proven technology and TSA is highly confident in its detection capability. Q. Is imaging technology optional?
A. Yes, imaging technology screening is optional for all passengers. Passengers who do not wish to receive imagining technology screening will receive alternative screening, including a physical pat-down..." http://www.tsa.gov/approach/tech/ait/faqs.shtm
A. Advanced imaging technology safely screens passengers for both metallic and non-metallic threats, including weapons and explosives, which may be concealed under a passengers’ clothing without physical contact to keep the traveling public secure. Q. Does imaging technology work?
A. Yes. Imaging technology is a highly effective security tool, which can detect both metallic and non-metallic items that may pose a threat to aviation security. AIT is a proven technology and TSA is highly confident in its detection capability. Q. Is imaging technology optional?
A. Yes, imaging technology screening is optional for all passengers. Passengers who do not wish to receive imagining technology screening will receive alternative screening, including a physical pat-down..." http://www.tsa.gov/approach/tech/ait/faqs.shtm
Analysis and Evolution of MacDefender OS X Fake AV Scareware
"Over the last month, a new fake AV scareware variant has been circulating for OS X which has been gaining a lot of attention. Mac security developments tend to be hot news whenever announced and this case has been a shining example of the rule. There's a fair share of overhyping at play too, of-course. But rest assured, this isn't the first outbreak of mac-specific malware and it won't be the last.
I suppose by writing this blog post, we're throwing our hat into the cat and mouse game too. (Wait... I forget. Are we the cats or the mice, again?) We're not in the AV business, but it's always good to keep tabs on new malware developments since we do get involved in a lot of incident response and forensics work. Our research team has been tracking development of the MacDefender malware going back to its earliest known variants. My teammate Rodrigo Montoro and I have been gathering and analyzing samples of the malware as well as reviewing security event alerts tied to infections in the wild. The MacDefender family of malware itself is not all particularly unique or threatening but it is the first known fake AV attack known to target Mac OS X. As others have pointed out, it is probably more accurate to label this 'scareware' than 'malware'. However, the MacDefender outbreak still bears a lot in common with other modern 'crimeware' campaigns..." http://blog.spiderlabs.com/2011/06/analysis-and-evolution-of-macdefender-os-x...
I suppose by writing this blog post, we're throwing our hat into the cat and mouse game too. (Wait... I forget. Are we the cats or the mice, again?) We're not in the AV business, but it's always good to keep tabs on new malware developments since we do get involved in a lot of incident response and forensics work. Our research team has been tracking development of the MacDefender malware going back to its earliest known variants. My teammate Rodrigo Montoro and I have been gathering and analyzing samples of the malware as well as reviewing security event alerts tied to infections in the wild. The MacDefender family of malware itself is not all particularly unique or threatening but it is the first known fake AV attack known to target Mac OS X. As others have pointed out, it is probably more accurate to label this 'scareware' than 'malware'. However, the MacDefender outbreak still bears a lot in common with other modern 'crimeware' campaigns..." http://blog.spiderlabs.com/2011/06/analysis-and-evolution-of-macdefender-os-x...
The Death All of Pakistan Saw
"On Wednesday, a young man was pitilessly killed in the heart of Karachi by state security forces. The repugnant moment was caught, in its entirety, on camera, and broadcast across the country and online. In broad daylight, beside a park named after assassinated Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the youth is dragged by his hair and thrown to a gang of Rangers (paramilitary police forces). Tall, weeping, and clothed in jeans and a t-shirt, he wipes his brow in anguish. The Rangers surround him. "Who will do it?" they suggest with their eyes to one another. They tease and test the boy's will by pointing their rifles at him. The youth pleads, bending down to touch their feet. He wants mercy, but clemency is out of stock here. One Ranger steps forward, menacingly, looking directly into the eyes of the youth, and presses his G3 rifle into his neck. But he withdraws, giving his target a moment more to cry, to beg, knowing, that these few seconds of life are a loan: "I am helpless... don't kill me brother," he pleads. The pack encircles 18-year-old Sarfaraz Shah, and two Rangers, ostensibly protectors of civilians, shoot two bullets into the teenager's shuddering legs and hands. He lay there, in a pool of claret-colored blood and dust, trembling, crying desperately for help. The Rangers leave him to die..." http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/06/10/a_death_on_screen
20110609
20110608
Senator Bob Graham: Keys to the Kingdom
"July 6th
The congressional inquiry into the 9/11 attacks left several secrets unanswered. The top three are Saudi Arabia's full role in thepreparation for and the execution of the plot; the Kingdom's willingness and capacity to collaborate in future terrorist actions against the United States; and why this and the prior administration conducted a cover-up that thus far has frustrated finding the answers to the first two questions. Now, there is an even more ominous unknown. Does Saudi Arabia have the bomb? . . . The United States should take prompt action to prevent this potential conflict from becoming a reality. Shortly after this appears in print, his suspicion comes true: Senator Billington, a co-chair of the 9/11 Congressional Inquiry Commission, is murdered near his Florida home. Sensing the danger he faced before he was murdered, Billington left ex-Special Forces operative Tony Ramos detailed instructions for an investigation into Saudi complicity in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Now Ramos, in conjunction with Billington's daughter Laura, must uncover a shocking international conspiracy linking Saudi Arabia -- the Kingdom -- to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, in a race against time that will span Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan..." http://911blogger.com/news/2011-06-08/senator-bob-graham-keys-kingdom
The congressional inquiry into the 9/11 attacks left several secrets unanswered. The top three are Saudi Arabia's full role in thepreparation for and the execution of the plot; the Kingdom's willingness and capacity to collaborate in future terrorist actions against the United States; and why this and the prior administration conducted a cover-up that thus far has frustrated finding the answers to the first two questions. Now, there is an even more ominous unknown. Does Saudi Arabia have the bomb? . . . The United States should take prompt action to prevent this potential conflict from becoming a reality. Shortly after this appears in print, his suspicion comes true: Senator Billington, a co-chair of the 9/11 Congressional Inquiry Commission, is murdered near his Florida home. Sensing the danger he faced before he was murdered, Billington left ex-Special Forces operative Tony Ramos detailed instructions for an investigation into Saudi complicity in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Now Ramos, in conjunction with Billington's daughter Laura, must uncover a shocking international conspiracy linking Saudi Arabia -- the Kingdom -- to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, in a race against time that will span Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan..." http://911blogger.com/news/2011-06-08/senator-bob-graham-keys-kingdom
20110607
20110604
List of cyber-weapons developed by Pentagon to streamline computer warfare
"The Pentagon has developed a list of cyber-weapons and -tools, including viruses that can sabotage an adversary’s critical networks, to streamline how the United States engages in computer warfare.
The classified list of capabilities has been in use for several months and has been approved by other agencies, including the CIA, said military officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive program. The list forms part of the Pentagon’s set of approved weapons or “fires” that can be employed against an enemy..." http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/list-of-cyber-weapons-developed-by-pen...One Brain, Hundreds of Eyes: Darpa Plots Manhunt Master Controller
Thought military tracking technology couldn’t get any creepier? Hold onto your tinfoil hats and hide behind the nearest curtain because the next generation of manhunting gear just took another step closer to reality.
The Pentagon’s bleeding-edge research shop, Darpa, announced this week that it awarded a $14 million contract to defense contractor SAIC to build Insight, its system-of-systems effort to mashup snooping sensors that’ll find human prey on the battlefield.
Darpa has developed loads of sensors and spying gear: everything from the 1.8-gigapixel Argus camera to the Vehicle and Dismount Exploitation Radar (given the wonderful acronym, “Vader”) that pinpoints humans, cars and trucks from a distance. But getting all these systems to mesh together so that your average grunt can form a picture clear enough to track a high value terrorist or insurgent in real time is tricky, to say the least. It’s a classic problem in intelligence work: too much information and too much trouble connecting the dots. The result is “information overload” in general, and “information underload” on specific targets.
And that’s the problem that Darpa wants Insight to solve. It’s supposed to help users sift through the heaps of information collected by the U.S. military’s numerous sensor platforms to find just the right information, on just the right targets using the most appropriate combination of spying gear.
Darpa wants Insight to integrate data from a dizzying array of sources. It’s hungry for info from ground moving target indicators, infrared video, multispectral imagery, human tipsters, audio intercepts, even text chats and social media, among others. The idea, though, isn’t to configure the program for a fixed set of inputs, but allow it to be flexible enough to “plug and play” with different sensors as needs dictate.
But Insight isn’t just supposed to be a warehouse for all the data soaked up by the military’s eyes and ears. It’s supposed to make sense of it, too. In a notice to researchers, Darpa states that the system needs to be able to perform “threat network detection/estimation,” “anomaly detection” and ”behavioral (pattern-of-life) modeling including cultural, social, and insurgency dynamics.” In other words, Insight needs to get a feel for the rhythm of life in the areas it’s looking at, understand what kinds of threats its users are interested in and be able to automatically pick them out of the heaps of data and background noise.
Just so Insight isn’t running off its own smarts alone, Darpa’s planning a number of tools to aid the human-software collaboration, including “visualization, hypothesis manipulation, and on-line learning” as well as other “algorithms and data processing technologies.”
So how will Insight be used on the battlefield? Think high value targets, for one. Darpa says its spy system needs to be able to track so-called “high value individuals” (.pdf) and insurgents, even over the long term, across a range of settings from rural to urban. Insight’s also supposed to be capable enough to think one step ahead of the threats it tracks and anticipate their next move, like sniffing out a possible ambush.
On the ground, it would play out like this. An analyst adds to a watch list the name of a particularly important insurgent. A sensor picks up someone who might be him driving past a checkpoint in Iraq. Insight automatically recognizes that he’ll soon drive out of range of the current sensor and switches over to a new snooping device closer by to pick him up down the road. It follows him as he picks up associates and drives to a meeting, keeping a constant watch on him as it shifts from sensor data to communications intercepts to the real-time reports of spies on the ground, ultimately verifying his identity.
A system this complex, you can’t just dump in Iraq or Afghanistan. So Darpa is looking to set up an “incubator” — a sort of virtual world, where all these sensors and sensor-integrators can be tested out first. The pixelized place will pit the system against a battery of simulated sensor data and information collected from real world threats to see how it performs at tracking threats. Once it’s finished in the virtual world, it moves to meatspace testing at the Army’s National Training Center in Ft. Irwin, California. Only then would it go to an honest-to-God war zone.
Photo: Flickr/US Army
See Also:
- Beyond Surveillance: Darpa Wants a Thinking Camera
- UK Crossing Guards Join the Surveillance State
- New Army Camera Promises Super-Wide Surveillance
- All-Seeing Blimp Could Be Afghanistan’s Biggest Brain
- Navy Seeks Unblinking Eye for Battlefield Surveillance
- With Drones and Satellites, U.S. Zeroed in on bin Laden
via wired.com
Goldman Receives Subpoena Over Crisis Report
"The bad news just keeps coming for Goldman Sachs. The Wall Street investment bank has received a subpoena from the office of the Manhattan district attorney, which is investigating Goldman’s role in the financial crisis, said one person familiar with the subpoena. It comes amid increased enforcement scrutiny of the company, which has faced blistering criticism that it shorted — or bet against — the mortgage market before it collapsed and that it knowingly sold bundles of bad mortgages to its clients. Goldman denies these accusations. The inquiry stems from a 650-page Senate report from the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that indicated Goldman had misled clients and Congress about its practices related to mortgage-linked securities..." http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/06/02/goldman-receives-subpoena-over-financi...
SRI International Selected by the National Science Foundation to Manage Arecibo Observatory
"MENLO PARK, Calif., June 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- SRI International, leading a multi-organization team, has been awarded a five-year cooperative agreement by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to manage, operate and maintain the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The observatory, preeminent for its research in astronomy, planetary studies, and space and atmospheric sciences, is the world's largest and most sensitive single-dish radio telescope. The award, valued at approximately $42M, is scheduled to begin October 1, 2011, following a four-month transition period.
"SRI and its partners bring extensive experience in facility management, space science, radio astronomy and a wide range of high-power radar techniques, as well as expertise in university partnerships and community relations. Together, we will support and, more importantly, expand the observatory's cutting-edge science programs," said John Kelly, Ph.D., senior director of the Center for GeoSpace Studies at SRI. "We will use our combined expertise to allow the observatory to become an ever greater resource to the astronomy, planetary science, and space science communities..." http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sri-international-selected-by-the-nat...20110603
How to disappear completely
"Almost everyone has a digital footprint these days. Think you could remove your tracks? Former skip tracer Frank Ahearn helps folks drop off the face of the Earth. by Joan Goodchild, Senior Editor, CSO
May 03, 2011 In a world where we share more information online than ever before, it might seem impossible to disappear completely. But Frank Ahearn can help. A professional skip tracer for many years, he tracked down 'missing' persons for clients who were searching for them for legal or financial reasons. His arsenal included use of public records, credit reports, utility bills, criminal background checks, tax information and other revealing documents. But these days, Ahearn assists people who want to go the other way—those who want to disappear and erase evidence of their existence. In his book How to Disappear: Erase Your Digital Footprint, Leave False Trails, and Vanish without a Trace 
http://www.csoonline.com/article/print/681282
May 03, 2011 In a world where we share more information online than ever before, it might seem impossible to disappear completely. But Frank Ahearn can help. A professional skip tracer for many years, he tracked down 'missing' persons for clients who were searching for them for legal or financial reasons. His arsenal included use of public records, credit reports, utility bills, criminal background checks, tax information and other revealing documents. But these days, Ahearn assists people who want to go the other way—those who want to disappear and erase evidence of their existence. In his book How to Disappear: Erase Your Digital Footprint, Leave False Trails, and Vanish without a Trace
, Ahearn details some of the tricks he uses when helping clients "get off the grid," as he refers to it, and shares tips for those concerned about information and privacy in this digital-sharing era. And while he refuses to assist people looking to get lost for illegal purposes, he says they often do come looking for help and advice on strategically manipulating information in the wrong direction..."
http://www.csoonline.com/article/print/681282
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