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NSA Is Building a New Datacenter In San Antonio

Posted by kdawson on from the panopticon-economy dept.

An anonymous reader writes in with an article from a Texas paper on the NSA's new facility in San Antonio. "America's top spy agency has taken over the former Sony microchip plant and is transforming it into a new data-mining headquarters... where billions of electronic communications will be sifted in the agency's mission to identify terrorist threats. ... [Author James] Bamford writes about how NSA and Microsoft had both been eyeing San Antonio for years because it has the cheapest electricity in Texas, and the state has its own power grid, making it less vulnerable to power outages on the national grid. He notes that it seemed the NSA wanted assurance Microsoft would be here, too, before making a final commitment, due to the advantages of 'having their miners virtually next door to the mother lode of data centers.' The new NSA facility is just a few miles from Microsoft's data center of the same size. Bamford says that under current law, NSA could gain access to Microsoft's stored data without even a warrant, but merely a fiber-optic cable." The article mentions the NRC report concluding that data mining is ineffective as a tactic against terrorism, which we discussed a couple of months back.

4 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Terrorism? by MindlessAutomata · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The article mentions the NRC report concluding that data mining is ineffective as a tactic against terrorism
    Anyone wanna bet that Obama won't do a damn thing about these obvious attempts to spy on American citizens?

    1. Re:Terrorism? by theaveng · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This isn't about terrorism.

      This is about catching other types of criminals like people distributing images of child sex, people discussing marijuana growing, people discussing anti-government ideas (i.e. like the LP), and so on. It's a way to circumvent the Constitution's requirement for a search warrant.

      --
      FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
    2. Re:Terrorism? by Mikkeles · · Score: 5, Insightful

      'Why are so many Americans so certain that everything their government does is an attempt to oppress them? '

      Six thousand years of historical evidence about governments.

      --
      Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
  2. Re:It won't be shut down because there's no outcry by jcr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The once Senator & future President has expressed a desire to shut down some of the most egregious abuses of power that Mr. Bush came up with.

    I am highly skeptical that he'll do anything of the kind. I hope I'm wrong.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."