Pensieri di un lunatico minore

Taking a swim in the ocean of intellegence

With a recent revalation that the National Security Agency had intercepted a cell phone call on September 10th that might have given us a forewarning about the events of September 11th, there will no doubt be a large number of people wondering how this could have happened. Given the translation didn’t occur until September 12th, and the vague nature of the information, I can’t imagine it would have done much.

At one point in my career, I supported the NSA as a customer, where they bought very large amounts of our networking gear—-first because it was TEMPEST certified, and also because we were pushing the envelope of ATM networking. During that time, I had the honor of working with some very talented people, and getting to know some of them reasonably well. The one thing that all of them shared was regardless of what you might think of the overall mission of the organization, they were all dedicated to doing the best they possibly could to help the country.

That is not to say the NSA hasn’t stepped on plenty of toes, and gone outside its bounds on many occasions. However, I believe those are rogue examples, as with the FBI, and that in general the people are focused on doing the right thing. This however begs many questions.

First, why did it take two days to translate a small bit of conversation. This is relatively easy once you understand that it is “normal operating proceedure” for the NSA to intercept nearly every communication in the world. It would not be exaduration to say they have this capability, or that the exercise it on a regular basis. To contemplate the amount of data that this represents is mind-boggling. This is finding the needle in the hay-stack… the size of Alaska.

Second, the information was vague, and non-commital in details, and provided no “key words” that could have been used to single it out automatically. Even had it been classified and sent to the right people, it’s unlikely the pieces could have been pieced together in time.

Third, the US is drastically understaffed in translators and experts in foreign cultures that can understand the nuance of a communique between two people, neither of whom is American. This is especially true at the CIA, but I’m quite sure the NSA is lacking as well.

While I believe the glaring errors are troubling, I will say that there are numerous occasions when the various intellegence organizations did perform well and prevented various attacks. The trick, in a nation with no real borders, is to balance the desire to avoid harm with the freedoms that you are trying to protect by doing so.

I believe we’ve started to swing too far to the other side, forgoing our liberties in the name of some perception of safety—-where in fact none exists. This is the worst of both words, and is in fact exactly what terrorism is about. Keep people scared, get them to give up what is precious to them, and you really don’t have to conquer a country—-it has conquered itself.