Spy Scandal Far Bigger Than Just the NSA
Doesn't Anyone Remember Poindexter's Total Information Awareness? He Left; It Didn't
DAVE LINDORFF | December 18 2005Now that we know that President Bush, through the misuse of secret executive orders, authorized the super-secret National Security Agency to monitor domestic phone and Internet communications without any involvement of the courts, it's time to recall Admiral Poindexter and his Total Information Awareness project.
Recall that Poindexter, a convicted Iran-Contra felon until he had his conviction overturned on a technicality, had been appointed by Bush to develop a program using Pentagon and NSA supercomputers to monitor all communications and financial transactions in the country.
TIA was officially dumped when word of it leaked out, particularly because of the unsavory history of the man put in charge of it.
But it bears mentioning that in fact, much of the hardware and software for realizing Poindexter's dark dream already exists. Carnivore--a software program that allows the Feds to scan all Internet communications for certain key words--is already in operation. American companies, in fact, have been honing these skills in products they have developed to help China monitor its Internet and phone systems. Don't think those fearsome capabilities have gone unnoticed in the White House.
cont..........http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/december2005/181205spy_scandal.htm