Total Information Awareness--Bush--From DAY ONE. You know it!

[autorank]

You just know Bush has been doing total information awareness since day 1. The NSA had all the data, Bush had Poindexter to take the beating which allowed Congress to think it was stalled. In the mean time, they've been snooping, listening, and "archiving" everything. This article makes the case for this possibility but the reality is clear to us: it's ongoing, without much of a doubt.

My assessment is based on the following formula:

Worst possible fear for our civil liberties
+ Worse possible action Bush can take
Bush Worst Case Scenario

Bush Worst Case Scenario
- Policy, people, technical screw ups (characteristic of the Administration)
Typical Bush Outcome or (TBO)

TBO is the result we can anticipate from every significant Bush action impacting our personal freedoms and our national security.



UPDATE: Total Information Awareness Lives
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/02/11/tia-lives/
Congress voted to shut down the Pentagon’s controversial Total Information Awareness program in 2003 (though not before it was renamed “Terrorism Information Awareness” — sound familiar?).

During a Senate hearing last week, General Michael Hayden was asked whether TIA had simply been “moved to various intelligence agencies” after Congress tried to terminate it. As ThinkProgress noted, Hayden stonewalled:

SEN. RON WYDEN (D-OR): I and others on this panel led the effort to close it . We want to know if Mr. Poindexter’s programs are going on somewhere else. Can anyone answer that? …

HAYDEN: Senator, I’d like to answer in closed session.

In fact, the answer is yes.

oday, very quietly, the core of TIA survives with a new codename of Topsail (minus the futures market), two officials privy to the intelligence tell NEWSWEEK. … “It is truly Poindexter’s brainchild. Of all the people in the intelligence business, he has the keenest appreciation of using advanced information technology for intelligence gathering,” . Poindexter, who lives just outside Washington in Rockville, Md., could not be reached for comment on whether he is still involved with Topsail.

The will of Congress thwarted again. Why do they even bother?

[Mnemosyne]

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