Ok, so I got curious about this new government database that’s been in the news lately as it is apparently going to track what everyone buys in order to see if it follows a suspicious pattern (i.e. you’re a un-American terrorist type individual). It’s called the Total Information Awareness System and its run by the Information Awareness Office of DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), if you’re interested in looking up information on it.
Anyway, when I got to the IAO’s website I quite frankly had to smack myself to make sure I hadn’t somehow fallen into a bad X-Files episode!
Here’s the URL http://www.darpa.mil/iao/.
Nice Masonic symbol there fellas, and I especially like the ‘Information is Power’ logo you’ve picked for yourselves although my Latin is a bit rusty so maybe I’m wrong on that. And someone want to tell me what, exactly, ‘truth maintenance’ is?! The real kicker here is that Poindexter (yep, the same sleaze bag that was convicted of multiple felonies during Iran-Contra) is in charge of TIA. Nice job on the website there fellas, now you mind terribly much telling us all exactly what you’re doing?
I adore thee, EVOE!
I adore thee, IAO!
I’m still waiting on someone to explain this to me:
Biologically inspired algorithms for agent control
What the hell does that mean?
Is this a joke? Seriously.
No joke unfortunately. I found out about this from an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article today (AJC Thur., Nov. 21 2002 on page A4, called ‘New Tool in War on Terrorism Defended: US says Privacy will be Protected’) and checked some of the personal details of the people involved. You can do a Google search and find articles from some of the people working there (Ted Senator was the guy I looked for) and there was apparently a news conference today in which Pete Aldridge (Undersecretary of Defense in charge of Technology) spent the entire time defending this thing. And the AJC quoted Rumsfield as saying that those who were spreading ‘hype and alarm’ about this program were ‘doing a disservice to the country’. The site has been up all day so I seriously doubt it’s been hacked either.
This is worse than that idiotic TIPS program (you remember, the one where we were going to have the Post Office spying on us) and I didn’t think that was possible. I expect some cigarette-smoking guy to come take me away any minute now… 
Not to mention giving those tin-foil sporting Illuminati folk some new ammunition in the battle of ignorance.
Shit, they’re gonna cream over this one.
Looks real, but only in a developmental stage – i.e. it’s an office to figure out how they would do all that snooping. Then again this is DARPA, they tend towards strangeness anyway.
(The Latin is more standardly rendered as “Knowledge is Power” )
That Poindexter be in charge of it, I’d rather that were joke.
As to the origin of their logo right out of the Book-of-the-SubGenius, look at the back of the nearest one-dollar bill.
There was already a thread about this in GD a few weeks ago. I think the thread title was something like “Can we please do away with the Masonic symbols” or something. Feel free to do a search, but I hate doing them (clogs up my computer).
Anyway, they have some good explanations about the “Masonic symbol” in there.
Yea, I know the ‘Eye-Pyramid’ thing probably doesn’t mean something spooky (the actual powers of the IAO are scary enough) but it sure as hell makes for one X-File-esque website, doesn’t it? And I agree with you World Eater, if we don’t all end up in some Orwellian society we’ll still be tortured by the tinfoil people for years about this crap. We just can’t win. 
The GD thread in question was Great Seal of the US–can we dump the Masonic symbolism yet?, during which it was argued that the whole Eye of Providence and Pyramid thing isn’t really Masonic at all.
But yeah, in addition to the actual concerns I have about what that particular government program will really be doing, what were the people who designed that logo and wrote that web page thinking?
I bet John Poindexter recently bought a bunch of Alcoa stock.
Mike Skallas posted a link to this page at his fine weblog, Everything Isn’t Under Control, a couple of months ago. It’s the real deal.
You know, pretty much, until now, I was going to give the governmen–and the current administration, personal political preferences aside–the benefit of the doubt on these kind of matters. You know, innocent until proven guilty and all that. This, however, freaks me out.
I mean, it looks like they’re not even trying to cover things up anymore.
Part of me wonders whether the page is meant to scare terrorists away. If that’s so, whoever designed it did a good job, 'cause little old law-abiding, worst-she’s-ever-done-is-jaywalk Angel’s seriously considering moving her ass up north after graduation if this kind of thing is going to become de rigeur in my native land.
Food for thought: assuming the page is legit, this is the stuff they’re willing to let the public know. I’m afraid to find out what they’ve got hidden…actually, no; I’m curious as hell. It’s still probably some scary stuff, though.
**How could anyone write this rubbish with a straight face?
American agencies are reminding me more and more of this ad campaign I saw a while back… especially the one where this guy gets arrested in a library. Here it is.
Their goals aren’t that great, either.
“Collaboration and sharing over TCP/IP networks across agency boundaries”
Great. TCP/IP. Hope you figure that one out.
“Biometric signatures of humans”
Been tried a while and doesn’t work. I’m just wondering why the specificity is needed…
“Event prediction and capability development model building engines”
Which means they wanna get tomorrows news today. I think people are best at this right now.
That globe logo is kinda weird. Best I can tell, if it’s a real globe, Florida’s in the middle.
BTW, could one of you shut the eye off when you’re done with it? Canada needs to get some sleep, and it’s shining through the drapes.
Heres a link to a thread I started after this one inspired me, kinda along the same thing but less vague.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=145588
Good to note that the all powerful eye is not watching Australia (nor Afghanistan or Pakistan)
So, we can keep doing what it is without you guys knowing anything?