p2pnet - rss feed: CIA plan to spy on chat rooms
p2pnet.net News:- EPIC says it’s uncovered details of CIA and National Science Foundation project that among other things, "is researching ways to monitor on-line chat rooms for terrorist activities".
EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) made a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the federally-funded National Science Foundation (NSF).
It revealed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the CIA and the NSF on joint funding in the areas of mathematics and physical sciences, says EPIC.
The program is called Approaches to Combat Terrorism: Opportunities for Basic Research.
"EPIC’s FOIA resulted in press reports about a $157,673 grant being awarded by NSF to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY," it says, going on:
"The grant is for a project called "Surveillance, Analysis and Modeling of Chatroom Communities."
“According to the MOU, signed by the CIA on April 14, 2003 and by the NSF on April 16, 2003, the cooperative agreement between the NSF and the Intelligence Community was agreed upon after a joint Intelligence Community/NSF workshop held in November 2002. According to the MOU, the initiative concentrates on Energy Sources, Sensors and Detectors, Image Reconstruction and Analysis, Optical Spectography, and Mathematical Techniques”
EPIC says the MOU states: the initiative sponsors are committed to continuing the initiative beyond Fiscal Year (FY) 2004. According to the MOU, NSF funded $2.50 million in FY2003 and another $2.5 million in FY 2004. The CIA’s total amount is not stated but NSF’s contribution is listed at 70 percent. The MOU states that it was to remain in effect through FY 2004.
"A Sept. 17, 2004 memo from the CIA to Dr. Leland M. Jameson, the Program Director for Computational and Applied Mathematics at the NSF, states, ‘We gratified [sic] that the scientific community wants to help the nation and contribute to the nation’s security in a time of peril.’
“It continues, ‘As far as what we do with the technology - we have thorough oversight by the US Congress and we strictly follow all applicable laws.’
“The CIA email was in response to a Sept. 17, 2004 article about the chat room monitoring program in ‘Red Herring’ and a request for an interview of Jameson by a reporter in New Jersey.
“Jameson informs the CIA official that, ‘I will have to give another interview. I was told the worst thing is for a reporter to write that ‘the NSF refused to comment’.”
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See:-
great opportunity - EPIC UNCOVERS MOU BETWEEN NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION AND CIA ON SCIENTIFIC SUPPORT FOR WEB MONITORING, EPIC, November 24, 2004
November 25th, 2004 at 4:47 am
This seems eerily related, in that discussion forums and internet streaming video are the primary functions of these websites:
November 25
Source: http://usmjparty.blogspot.com/
Major DoS attack launched on Marc Emery & Canadian Indymedia sites
A very sophisticated Denial of Service attack has been launched on Pot TV , Cannabis Culture , Emery Seeds, BC Marijuana Party , Ontario Indymedia , Montreal Indymedia and Ottawa Indymedia
All of this only days before President Bush is to visit Ottawa. Marc and the Canadian cannabis community have been organizing a protest for Bush’s visit.
DoS Attack Update:
Loretta Nall, USMJ Party President just spoke with Marc Emery about the DoS attack.
He says “all business is OK but our site is facing extraordinary attack.”
He also said “Norml-Canada releases new polling data tomorrow”
We are hearing that it is full of surprises.
November 26th, 2004 at 5:34 pm
I have no doubt that chat rooms have been monitored for many years, so this is not news.
The fact that the NSF is involved is. The NSF is too poorly funded as it is. They can’t afford to waste money on this kind of crap, it isn’t science. The money should be coming hundreds of billions of the DoD or DoE.
November 29th, 2004 at 10:27 am
How ridiculus as if terrorists are going to meet in an online chat room for god sake - its just another excuse to spy on people - just picture it - “hello azim”,”oh high mustaffa” , “fancy blowing up infidel american city tomrrow” , “sure nothing else happening in my diary” “hey why dont i just give you all the details on this chat group” , “cool that would be handy, no one is watching us” !!!
gimme a f***** break!