-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Mario Profaca" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: June 19, 2007 2:56:36 AM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [SPY NEWS] New agency IARPA develops Spy Tools
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
NEW AGENCY IARPA DEVELOPS SPY TOOLS
AP / by Katherine Shrader
Using a new laptop and a satellite link, FBI agents can find out
within two minutes whether the fingerprint from a newly captured
suspect overseas matches a terrorist database in Virginia.
Intelligence officials are running documents in languages such as
Arabic through a new computer program called "English Now." It
converts the foreign characters into the Roman alphabet and makes
words such as Baghdad, President Bush or Osama bin Laden jump out
to spies who can't read Arabic.
The language software and the fingerprint-recognition system are
examples of new spy gear that the national intelligence director's
office bought last year. They may seem like tools that should have
been available years ago, but the government isn't noted for its
ability to quickly develop new technology.
A fledging center called IARPA is hoping to change that. The
Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity will try to
develop groundbreaking technology for the 16 spy agencies.
One potential tool sounds like it comes from an episode of Star
Trek: "cloaking" technology that can bend radar around an object to
make it appear it's not there. Others include power sources shrunk
using nano-technology and quantum computers that can speed code-
breaking, says IARPA acting director Steve Nixon. "The world has
changed in dramatic ways with globalization of technology," Nixon
said in an interview. "These are the things that might not get done
otherwise."
But not everyone is convinced this is the right way to make new spy
tools. The House Intelligence Committee has questions about whether
the government truly needs it.
"Much of this research is already going on," said Rep. Heather
Wilson, R-N.M., the top Republican on the House Intelligence
Committee's panel on technical intelligence. She said IARPA raises
questions about the role of new National Intelligence Director Mike
McConnell, who was supposed to coordinate U.S. intelligence
agencies _ not get into their daily operations. "Is it to fund
these things and pull them into the DNI's office and give itself
its own turf and projects and pet rocks?" she asked.
There is even resistance within the CIA itself, according to
officials who spoke about the concerns privately. The agency gets
money that is supposed to go for spy tools that can be shared
across the government. CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano denied any
friction, saying the agency welcomes ideas that promote
collaboration on new technology.
In the last half-century, U.S. spy agencies have made technical
breakthroughs large and small. In the 1970s, the CIA shared its
lithium-iodine batteries with the medical field, which now uses
them in pacemakers. Its scientists developed microdot cameras that
can produce images so small that they can be hidden in the period
of this sentence. They also built a life-size robotic dragonfly
that could have been used for surveillance, if only it could have
handled crosswinds.
If IARPA can clear some crucial hurdles, including convincing its
congressional skeptics, the new office will be modeled after a
similar agency that develops gee-whiz toys for the Pentagon.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency was created after the
Russians launched Sputnik in 1957, driving home the U.S.
competitive disadvantage in space. Since then, DARPA researchers
have brought the United States much-heralded advances including
stealth technology, global positioning systems and the Internet.
But it also brought controversy. The agency's Total Information
Awareness data-mining program was launched after the Sept. 11,
2001, attacks to use technology to find terrorists; critics saw it
as a step toward Big Brother-style mass government surveillance.
Congress eliminated the program's funding at DARPA in 2003, but
portions were moved to secret accounts at other agencies.
The new intelligence organization will be significantly smaller
than DARPA, which has a $3 billion annual budget. It will be based
at the University of Maryland and staffed with 56 intelligence
professionals from the CIA and from McConnell's organization.
Rather than funding IARPA in the House intelligence budget bill
passed this month, lawmakers directed technology dollars to centers
developing tools that can be shared across government, including
offices within the CIA, National Security Agency and National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
The measure included criticism of McConnell's office for failing to
provide details on how IARPA will work and raised questions about
whether it would harm existing research for spy tools.
Nixon says IARPA won't have labs and electron microscopes, but will
sponsor research at universities, national labs and other
organizations.
IARPA is thinking broadly, he said. It won't limit itself to hard
sciences, but will also tackle social-science problems such as
finding tools for language research or to help analysts measure
cultural habits of another society. He also said the organization
will work on privacy protection. NSA and other agencies want to be
able to make better use of foreign intelligence information from
overseas, which often contains information on U.S. citizens.
Given the lack of oversight in intelligence agencies, "this is an
area where the research community has to step gingerly," said Marc
Rotenberg, executive director of the Washington-based Electronic
Privacy Information Center.
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