So this is what it is about! The significance of the Ashcroft hospital bed visit

[JDPriestly]

becomes clear in a timeline presented on The Next Hurrah

Here is what Emptywheel says:


Commenter joejoejoe sent me a superb timeline to show the chronology of Congress' building opposition to the Total Information Awareness program as it relates to the NSA's domestic wiretap program (how cool is that? I, the chronology weenie, am getting timelines out of the blue! Better than Christmas!!), which appears at the bottom of this post.

I'd like to pull out just a few salient dates and add four (in bold italics) to what joejoejoe did. I think the time line lends support for the argument that one of the problems--a big problem--with the domestic wiretap program is that it violated clear instructions from Congress.

. . . .

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/07/tia-and-tsp.html

So, this suggests that Bush was clearly violating the law if he continued the TIA program as is suspected. Wow! No wonder Roberts is had a stress seizure. This is mighty powerful stuff if this means what I suspect it means.

[pnwmom]

1. K & R!

[flyarm]

2. POINDEXTER WAS TO LEAD THE TIA A CONVICTED FELON!!

http://www.geocities.com/totalinformationawareness/

SNIP:

Total Information Awareness Resource Center
A source of information and action regarding the Total Information Awareness program for concerned citizens, legislators and the media



Update 11/22/02: Senator Dianne Feinstein told the San Jose Mercury News that "she plans to introduce legislation to ensure that does not infringe on the privacy rights of Americans." Thank you to everyone who emailed her about TIA! Grassroots activism is not dead. Please thank Senator Feinstein (whether or not you vote in California) so we can show her the widespread support for her legislation.

ACTION ALERT! Email Senator Russ Feingold, Chairman of the US Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution and let him know that you are concerned about the potential deterioration of your privacy due to the Total Information Awareness program. Ask him if the subcommittee can investigate possible violations of the 4th Amendment by the TIA program. Sample letter

The Total Information Awareness (TIA) program is a project of the Information Awareness Office (IAO), which is under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), part of the Defense Department. In January 2002, former Reagan administration national security advisor John Poindexter was appointed to be the director of the newly-formed IAO. Here is how the Washington Post's Robert O'Harrow Jr. described Poindexter's past in a 11/12/02 news article:

" was convicted in 1990 of five felony counts of lying to Congress, destroying official documents and obstructing congressional inquiries into the Iran-contra affair, which involved the secret sale of arms to Iran in the mid-1980s and diversion of profits to help the contra rebels in Nicaragua.

Poindexter, a retired Navy rear admiral, was the highest-ranking Reagan administration official found guilty in the scandal. He was sentenced to six months in jail by a federal judge who called him "the decision-making head" of a scheme to deceive Congress. The U.S. Court of Appeals overturned that conviction in 1991, saying Poindexter's rights had been violated through the use of testimony he had given to Congress after being granted immunity."

The Information Awareness Office's stated mission is to "imagine, develop, apply, integrate, demonstrate and transition information technologies, components and prototype, closed-loop, information systems that will counter asymmetric threats by achieving total information awareness useful for preemption; national security warning; and national security decision making." In non-bureaucratic speak, the IAO's purpose is "developing new surveillance technologies in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks" (Markoff, New York Times, 11/9/02).

[Decruiter]

3. Color me not surprised. When Dubya surrounded himself with all the

gang from Iran/Contra as his Cabinent and staff and promised to bring back "honor and integrity" to the "peoples" house did anyone not know what we have experienced these last few years was not what we were in for?

I knew. I looked at D and said "we're going to war". The shock of 12/12/00 has never left.

All these thugs were pardoned by Poppy, went underground (into corporate America) and plotted and planned for all of this.

If we don't rid this world of them now we never will. The world is waiting on us.

[flyarm]

5. I WAS POSTING THIS STUFF WHEN IT WAS HAPPENING AND BEGGING PEOPLE TO PAY ATTENTION!

AND I WAS DOING callings to congress screaming about this ..along with everyone in my internet groups!!

but it was hard to get others to pay attention!!

fly

[Decruiter]

6. I hear you loud and clear, same here in the deep South. I was running around

like "Henny Penny", of the sky is falling fame. No one would listen. Well dear, they are at least listening now, maybe.

Peace

[NoFederales]

9. Why are there no restrictions placed on felons and related ilk to participate

in government? What would it take to do so?

NoFederales

[fed-up]

10. my sister and I made phone calls back then-you weren't alone trying to alert/educate people nt

[mzmolly]

11. And many of us knew that when Nader was praddling on about how

Gore = Bush.

[flyarm]

4. ABOUT TIA NAME CHANGE ..

I DO NOT BELIEVE THIS HAS COPYRIGHT PROBLEMS..IF MODS THINK IT NEEDS EDITING PLEASE FEEL FREE TO

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Information_Awareness

Background
The IAO was first mentioned in the media by New York Times reporter John Markoff on February 13, 2002, with few details available as to the agency's role or activities. In the following months, as more and more information emerged about the IAO's full scope, protest among civil libertarians grew over what they claim is the IAO's disturbingly Orwellian mission, especially within the larger framework of other invasive homeland security measures and policies implemented by the Bush administration. Also at issue is the integrity of Poindexter as head of the IAO, as he was convicted on five felony charges for lying to the Congress and deliberately altering and destroying documents pertaining to the Iran-Contra Affair.

On January 16, 2003, US Senator Russ Feingold introduced legislation to halt activity of the IAO and the Total Information Awareness initiative pending a Congressional review of privacy issues involved. A similar measure introduced by Senator Ron Wyden would bar the IAO from operating within the United States unless specifically authorized to do so by Congress, and would shut the IAO down entirely 60 days after passage, unless either the Pentagon prepared a report assessing the impact of IAO activities on individual privacy and civil liberties, or the President certifies that the program's research is vital to national security interests. Any action in the US Congress to attempt to halt a specific internal Department of Defense project is highly unusual, underscoring the grave threat to civil liberties and privacy that many lawmakers perceive in the Information Awareness Office.

Public Protests Against the Information Awareness Office
There has been extensive criticism of the IAO in the media and on the Internet from both left-wing and right-wing civil libertarians who feel that the unprecedented systematic categorization and access to information that it will enable is a grave threat to individual liberties, and another step farther down the slippery slope to a totalitarian state.

On November 27, 2002, San Francisco Weekly columnist Matt Smith decided to illustrate the perils of information proliferation to John Poindexter personally by publishing a column containing Poindexter's home address and phone number, along with those of his next door neighbors. The information quickly propagated through the Internet and protestors created numerous web sites with this data, as well as with satellite photographs of Poindexter's house.

Congressional Oversight
No government agency may deploy or implement any component of the Terrorism Information Awareness (formerly Total Information Awareness) program without Congressional notification and authorization, according to a provision adopted by the House of Representatives.

The "Limitation on Deployment of Terrorism Information Awareness Program" was included in the 2004 Defense Appropriations Act that was approved by the House on July 8. See the text of the provision (H.R. 2658 Sec. 8124) here.

Funding Threatened
In July 2003, the program is having a bit of an uphill battle getting started. On July 14, 2003, Wired News reports that "The Senate's $368 billion version of the 2004 defense appropriations bill, released from committee to the full Senate on Wednesday, contains a provision that would deny all funds to, and thus would effectively kill, the Terrorism Information Awareness program, formerly known as Total Information Awareness. TIA's projected budget for 2004 is $169 million."

This development generated quite a discussion on 'Slashdot'.

Funding Rejected
Per Conference Report on H.R. 2658, Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2004 (September 24, 2003, House Report 108-283):

Sec. 8131. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available in this or any other Act may be obligated for the Terrorism Information Awareness Program ...
the term "Terrorism Information Awareness Program" means the program known either as Terrorism Information Awareness or Total Information Awareness, or any successor program, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or any other Department or element of the Federal Government, including the individual components of such Program developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
In subsequent review <1>, however, the restrictions have been regarded as only for "deployment and implementation", not for research. <2>

Gov't Quietly Brings Back Total Information Awareness

Reuters has obtained a Congressional report that shows nine months after Congress shut down the controversial Pentagon computer-surveillance program called Total Information Awareness, the U.S. government continues to comb private records and databases to sniff out suspicious activity. Peter Swire, who served as the Clinton administration's top official said "I believe that Total Information Awareness is continuing under other names."—reported by Democracy Now!, June 3, 2004.

IAO Research
As part of the IAO's "Total Information Awareness" program, several new technologies are being researched.

Effective Affordable Reusable Speech-to-text, or EARS, has a stated goal of "developing speech-to-text (automatic transcription) technology whose output is substantially richer and much more accurate than currently possible." This program is focusing on broadcast and telephone human conversations in multiple languages, necessary for the computerized analysis of the massive amount of phone tapping the IAO now has the right to perform without a legal warrant.
Futures Markets Applied to Prediction, or FutureMAP, intends to "concentrate on market-based techniques for avoiding surprise and predicting future events." It will analyze data from the world's economy in attempt to predict political instability, threats to national security, and in general every major event in the near future. The IAO's stated strategy for this division includes "the markets must also be sufficiently robust to withstand manipulation," possibly suggesting the intention of altering future events to further the goals of the United States. See prediction market for more detail on the general phenomenon and its relationship to propaganda efforts.
Genisys is the name given to the database system which will be implemented as the center of information for the IAO. Currently used database systems designed in the 1980s are insufficient for the massive amount of data to be gathered.
Genoa "provides the structured argumentation, decision-making and corporate memory to rapidly deal with and adjust to dynamic crisis management." In essence, this program is designed to make conclusions and decisions based on available information, incorporating human analysis, corporate history, and a structured set of thinking. This research project was finished in fiscal year 2002, and is being followed up by Genoa II, which effectively automates the collaboration between government departments.
Human Identification at a Distance, or HumanID, "is to develop automated biometric identification technologies to detect, recognize and identify humans at great distances." This program intends to be able to implement a face and gait identification system effective up to 150 meters at all times by fiscal year 2004. An extreme proposed version of this is called cognotechnology and would rely on nanotechnology.
Translingual Information Detection, Extraction and Summarization, or TIDES, is being developed to detect, translate, summarize, and extract information in speech or text in multiple languages. Demonstration of machine capabilities and integration into Total Information Awareness systems is expected in 2003.
Wargaming the Asymmetric Environment, or WAE, is intended to develop automated technology capable of predicting terrorist attacks, identifying predictive indicators by examining individual and group behavior in broad environmental context. The WAE will also develop intervention strategies based on the motivation of specific terrorists.

[annabanana]

7. The name change was the very next day... THAT doesn't look so guilty

does it?

2/20/03 - President Bush signed reconciled House Senate version of above law with provision that terminates funding to TIA in 90 days and requires a Congressional update.(Consolidated Appropriations Resolution, 2003, No.108–7, Division M, §111(b) )

5/20/03 - 90 days later, Pentagon changes name of TIA from Total Information Awareness to Terrorist Information Awareness and calls it new program. Problem solved!

7/17/03 - Briefing for Intelligence Committee leadership (Pat Roberts, Jay Rockefeller, Porter Goss, and Jane Harman) on domestic wiretap program. This would be the last briefing before the crisis March 10 meeting.

The importance of this can't be overstated.

[bonito]

8. K&R n/t