chloe
12-20-2009, 08:21 PM
Big Brother is coming: NSA's $1.9 billion cyber spy center a power grab
"By the very nature of the intelligence business, it is difficult to discuss much of the NSA mission." — National Security Agency Web site
In this post-Sept. 11 world, plans by the National Security Agency to construct a colossal $1.9 billion information storage center at Camp Williams could be considered a power trip.
But it's not the sort of power trip that keeps civil libertarians lying awake at night.
No, this power grab is for the stuff of Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla — the juice needed to keep acres of NSA supercomputers humming and a cyber eye peeled for the world's bad guys.
Aid doubts the NSA will use Camp Williams for domestic prying. Rather, he's of the opinion the data center will significantly expand on the linguistics and electronic surveillance work already being carried out there. "It's an operational mission that's been going on (there) for some time,"
Aid said, describing the setting inside a windowless operations building filled with linguists wearing headphones and dressed in desert fatigues.
During an Oct. 23 news conference at the state Capitol officially announcing the new spy center, Glenn Gaffney, deputy director of national intelligence for collection, said as much when he confirmed that one of the strengths of the Utah location was that it "offered an abundant availability of low-cost power."
Camp Williams was announced to be the next such NSA facility, although back-channel chatter is now questioning if San Antonio is being shoved aside in favor of increasing the Utah center's role.
"I've heard the San Antonio deal is dead," said someone who closely follows the NSA but asked not to be identified. "I was told that given current budgetary constraints that the NSA was basically told they could have one, but not both centers, and it looks like they've chosen Utah."
There's been some speculation that the Camp Williams facility dovetails with the NSA's controversial attempts to further establish itself as the lead dog for the government's expanding cybersecurity initiatives, although NSA officials aren't tipping their hand.
"The NSA is a windowless world," Aid laughs, claiming he can spot an agency installation anywhere because there are never any windows.
They're either built windowless, or if it's a retrofit, they cover them over.
Aid said soldiers "sit rack," as it's termed, behind a computer with radio intercept receivers and recorders monitoring live missions beamed remotely by satellite from Iraq and Afghanistan.
"We (the Utah National Guard) don't do that at Camp Williams," clarified spokesman Lt. Col. Hank McIntire, who said he cannot comment on speculation of that nature.
McIntire did say there has been tremendous interest surrounding Camp Williams and its role following the NSA's announcement. He then repeated his earlier statement that the Utah Guard's role is to provide the real estate for the NSA to build its facility to carry out "specific missions," whatever those might be.
A hodgepodge of military intelligence and security units from the Utah Guard use Camp Williams for training purposes, including the 1,200-member 300th Military Intelligence Brigade, which specializes in linguistics intelligence. McIntire said about 50 percent of the brigade's ranks are made up of returned LDS missionaries who speak a second language.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705352795/Big-Brother-is-coming-NSAs-19-billion-cyber-spy-center-a-power-grab.html?pg=3
Thats just down the road from me.....
"By the very nature of the intelligence business, it is difficult to discuss much of the NSA mission." — National Security Agency Web site
In this post-Sept. 11 world, plans by the National Security Agency to construct a colossal $1.9 billion information storage center at Camp Williams could be considered a power trip.
But it's not the sort of power trip that keeps civil libertarians lying awake at night.
No, this power grab is for the stuff of Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla — the juice needed to keep acres of NSA supercomputers humming and a cyber eye peeled for the world's bad guys.
Aid doubts the NSA will use Camp Williams for domestic prying. Rather, he's of the opinion the data center will significantly expand on the linguistics and electronic surveillance work already being carried out there. "It's an operational mission that's been going on (there) for some time,"
Aid said, describing the setting inside a windowless operations building filled with linguists wearing headphones and dressed in desert fatigues.
During an Oct. 23 news conference at the state Capitol officially announcing the new spy center, Glenn Gaffney, deputy director of national intelligence for collection, said as much when he confirmed that one of the strengths of the Utah location was that it "offered an abundant availability of low-cost power."
Camp Williams was announced to be the next such NSA facility, although back-channel chatter is now questioning if San Antonio is being shoved aside in favor of increasing the Utah center's role.
"I've heard the San Antonio deal is dead," said someone who closely follows the NSA but asked not to be identified. "I was told that given current budgetary constraints that the NSA was basically told they could have one, but not both centers, and it looks like they've chosen Utah."
There's been some speculation that the Camp Williams facility dovetails with the NSA's controversial attempts to further establish itself as the lead dog for the government's expanding cybersecurity initiatives, although NSA officials aren't tipping their hand.
"The NSA is a windowless world," Aid laughs, claiming he can spot an agency installation anywhere because there are never any windows.
They're either built windowless, or if it's a retrofit, they cover them over.
Aid said soldiers "sit rack," as it's termed, behind a computer with radio intercept receivers and recorders monitoring live missions beamed remotely by satellite from Iraq and Afghanistan.
"We (the Utah National Guard) don't do that at Camp Williams," clarified spokesman Lt. Col. Hank McIntire, who said he cannot comment on speculation of that nature.
McIntire did say there has been tremendous interest surrounding Camp Williams and its role following the NSA's announcement. He then repeated his earlier statement that the Utah Guard's role is to provide the real estate for the NSA to build its facility to carry out "specific missions," whatever those might be.
A hodgepodge of military intelligence and security units from the Utah Guard use Camp Williams for training purposes, including the 1,200-member 300th Military Intelligence Brigade, which specializes in linguistics intelligence. McIntire said about 50 percent of the brigade's ranks are made up of returned LDS missionaries who speak a second language.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705352795/Big-Brother-is-coming-NSAs-19-billion-cyber-spy-center-a-power-grab.html?pg=3
Thats just down the road from me.....