Able Danger's Computer Found Condoleeza Rice To Be A Threat

Military "Spied" On Rice

http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/52673.htm

(Gold9472: Computers are not racist. If it finds a connection, it finds a connection, regardless of where it came from.)

By NILES LATHEM
8/27/2005

August 27, 2005 -- WASHINGTON — Cyber-sleuths working for a Pentagon intelligence unit that reportedly identified some of the 9/11 hijackers before the attack were fired by military officials, after they mistakenly pinpointed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other prominent Americans as potential security risks, The Post has learned.

The private contractors working for the counter-terrorism unit Able Danger lost their jobs in May 2000. The firings following a series of analyses that Pentagon lawyers feared were dangerously close to violating laws banning the military from spying on Americans, sources said.

The Pentagon canceled its contract with the private firm shortly after the analysts — who were working on identifying al Qaeda operatives — produced a particularly controversial chart on proliferation of sensitive technology to China, the sources said.

Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, the veteran Army officer who was the Defense Intelligence Agency liaison to Able Danger, told The Post China "had something to do" with the decision to restructure Able Danger.

Sources said the private contractors, using sophisticated computer software that sifts through massive amounts of raw data to establish patterns, came up with a chart of Chinese strategic and business connections in the U.S.

The program wrongly tagged Rice, who at the time was an adviser to then-candidate George W. Bush, and former Defense Secretary William Perry by linking their associations at Stanford, along with their contacts with Chinese leaders, sources said.

The program also spat out scores of names of other former government officials with legitimate ties to China, as well as prominent American businessmen. There was no suggestion that Rice or any of the others had done anything wrong.

A Pentagon official said last night that, while the canned contractors worked for Able Danger, the China project was separate from the counter-terrorism assignment.

The Able Danger work was transferred to another Department of Defense contractor — and the program quietly expired later that year when it was completed, the official said.

The China chart was put together by James Smith, who confirmed yesterday that his contract with the military was canceled and he was fired from his company because the military brass became concerned about the focus on U.S. citizens.

"It was shut down in a matter of hours. The colonel said our service was no longer needed and told me: 'You just ended my career.' "

Smith also claims his team came up with 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta's name and photo in 2000.

The New York Post is owned by Rupert Murdoch, FYI...

Based on what the article is saying, the computer database that Able Danger used came up with targets of interest. I'm sure the computer isn't racist in it's findings... it probably cross matched financial transactions, or business connections, and came out with Condi. Remember... Condi came from Chevron, and even had an oil tanker named after her. IN MY OPINION, I'm sure she's had A LOT of shady dealings, etc...

This seems like the kind of story put out there to discredit the Able Danger team.

NY Post: Better a Bad Story than None at All (Able Danger)

http://newsbusters.org/node/720

Posted by John Armor on August 27, 2005 - 12:35.

Today’s New York Post (27 August) carries a story by Niles Lathem entitled “Military ‘Spied’ on Rice.” The good news is that the story ran at all. The bad news is the reporter demonstrated a brass-plated ignorance of how the Able Danger program operated.

The lede from this article says, “Cyber-sleuths working for a Pentagon intelligence unit that reportedly identified some of the 9/11 hijackers before the attack were fired by military officials, after they mistakenly pinpointed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other prominent Americans as potential security risks....”

Able Danger is/was a computer program which does not target or “pinpoint” or “spy” on anyone. The very use of these verbs demonstrates a gross failure to understand Able Danger, and why it is a very powerful investigative tool. To use an example every reporter is well aware of, consider Google News.

This is a computer program that examines a huge data base, namely the entire output thousands of American and foreign news sources. It uses algorithms to find commonalities in that data. That’s how Google identifies the news subjects most often discussed at any time, and comes up with a lead story on that subject and hundreds of others on the same subject. Google “targets” nothing. It simply identifies patterns in the data.

Able Danger works the same way, except with a much larger data base. It might include an arrest record in Bangkok, a speech given in Hamburg, a government document in Iran. The algorithms, however, are similar – find all associations between names, subjects, dates and places. Such a program would naturally show anyone working in international relations, such as Dr. Condi Rice and Dr. Henry Kissinger, as “connected” to China and to all other major foreign powers.

That does not mean that such people are “potential security risks.” Once the computer is finished, humans can enter the picture and eliminate false conclusions that the computer – not knowing Condi Rice from Mata Hari – has made. If Able Danger was shut down during the Clinton Administration for developed associations with China, the radioactive names in the data were more likely Bernard Schwarz, Loral, and Mochtar Riyadi, not Condi Rice.

It is good to see more major media examination of Able Danger – what it was, why it was shut down, and why some are trying to bury the story now. It is unfortunate that most of the press doesn’t yet understand how it worked. Think Google News. Multiply by a million. Then you have it.

John_Armor@aya.yale.edu

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gold9472

The New York Post is owned by Rupert Murdoch, FYI...

Based on what the article is saying, the computer database that Able Danger used came up with targets of interest. I'm sure the computer isn't racist in it's findings... it probably cross matched financial transactions, or business connections, and came out with Condi. Remember... Condi came from Chevron, and even had an oil tanker named after her. IN MY OPINION, I'm sure she's had A LOT of shady dealings, etc...

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Let's watch that libelous wording..:)

Dude... ca mon. Ca mAWn...

I'm corresponding with the author of the second article... I'll post it when I'm done.

Here's my thought, I am not gonna hop on this "Abel Danger" bandwagon and start claiming responsibility to any side.

It's easy in hind sight to place blame and point finger at everyone. But it hard when to have two politcial powers fighting and blocking each other to make their party look better. Part of their in fighting might have resulted in Al Quedas success.

And it's probably nothing that these cybergeeks identified Condi, I am sure they were cross referencing business dealings and travels to certain Countries to ID threats, hence the reason they came up with multiple political bigwigs on both side of the fence.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tyler Durden

Here's my thought, I am not gonna hop on this "Abel Danger" bandwagon and start claiming responsibility to any side.

It's easy in hind sight to place blame and point finger at everyone. But it hard when to have two politcial powers fighting and blocking each other to make their party look better. Part of their in fighting might have resulted in Al Quedas success.

And it's probably nothing that these cybergeeks identified Condi, I am sure they were cross referencing business dealings and travels to certain Countries to ID threats, hence the reason they came up with multiple political bigwigs on both side of the fence.

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I hear what you're saying, but Able Danger was "established by the Special Operations Command in 1999, under a classified directive issued by Gen. Hugh Shelton, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to assemble information about Al Qaeda networks around the world".

If their purpose was to focus on "Al-Qaeda", then the computer they had must have specialized in "Terrorism" or "Al-Qaeda". That means if they came across something that involved Condoleeza Rice, then logically, Condoleeza Rice has connections to "Terrorism" or "Al-Qaeda".

Here's what Shaffer said, "The DIA team used data mining, parallel processing and other cutting-edge computer technology from 1999 through early 2001. By charting the movements and transactions of suspected terrorists, a link was established between Atta and al-Qaida, and the defense intelligence team concluded that the Sept. 11 hijacker, and two others individuals, were part of a New York-based terror cell."

Heh... a local paper.