Reply #3: This is Able Danger Reborn

[leveymg]

Arkin then goes on to describe how this Total Information Awareness-style program works, and its origins in the Able Danger program:

Massive amounts of collected data -- actual intercepts of phone calls, e-mails, etc. -- together with "transaction" data -- travel or credit card records or telephone or Internet service provider logs -- are mixed through a mind-boggling array of government and private sector software programs to look for potential matches.

In discussing the "Able Danger" program, I previously described how information targeters began data mining in the 1990's to discover new patterns of indicators to identify events of interest when they could not be directly observed. The theory is that data mining techniques applied to the intelligence take, combined with massive "transaction" databases, can uncover clandestine relationships or activities.

In Section B above, when the law says "the search does not use personal identifiers of a specific individual or does not utilize inputs that appear on their face to identify or be associated with a specified individual to acquire information," I take it to mean the new computer-based data mining isn't looking for an individual per se, it is looking at information about all individuals (at least all who make international telephone calls or send e-mails overseas or travel to foreign countries according to the government) to select individuals who may be worthy of a closer look.

In other words, with the digitization of everything and new computer and software capabilities, the government couldn't go to the Court or the Congress and say, "hey, we'd like to monitor everyone on a fishing expedition to find the next Mohamed Atta." It's one conceivable explanation. If this in fact is what the NSA has been doing since 9/11, perhaps Congress should figure out: one, whether it's legal; and two, how it can be done consistent with the Privacy Act and the Fourth Amendment.

SNIP

To which I responded with a comment about how Able Danger retains a significant legacy:

Bill - You're right, this is Able Danger, reborn. Maybe it was never really shut-down. It's unimaginable that the DoD actually scrubbed those 2.5 terabytes of data in the project's computers. Hit the delete button, and it's all gone. Not hardly!

At least, the original, classified DIA files and NSA intercepts were retained. Among them are surely the NSA intercepts that led CIA to track al-Midhar and al-Hazmi to Kuala Lumpur in early 2000. What about the audio and video tapes of the discussions inside the condo next to the golf course? Didn't the 9/11 Commission say that what was to become the "Planes Operation" hijackings and the USS Cole attacks were discussed? There's also the CIA files as the future Flight 77 hijackers and bin Atash were followed to Bangkok after the summit, and from there, the pair proceeded on to Los Angeles.

We have to wonder whether the Pentagon knew at the time that Cofer Black, then the director of the CIA Counterterrorism Center (CTC), ordered the FBI liason at CTC to withhold that cable to the Bureau's National Security Office in NY that would have notified the rest of the Bureau of the arrival of the pair.

Wouldn't the Bureau have been required to seek FISA warrants at that point? But, no warrants were applied for. As a result, 3,000 people died the following September.

What exactly was in the Able Danger files that linked Atta to the Flight 77 hijackers? I'll bet it was the very same NSA intercepts and DIA files that are still on the shelf at the Pentagon. When are we going to get a chance to see what CENTCOM knew about the Brooklyn Cell months before the attacks. Once we can see that, we'll understand a lot better why Able Danger was ordered closed down.

Mark G. Levey