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NSA To Build 20-Acre Data Center In Utah
Hugh Pickens writes "The Salt Lake City Tribune reports that the National Security Agency will be building a one million square foot data center at Utah's Camp Williams. The NSA's heavily automated computerized operations have for years been based at Fort Meade, Maryland, but the agency began looking to decentralize its efforts following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and accelerated their search after the Baltimore Sun reported that the NSA — Baltimore Gas & Electric's biggest customer — had maxed out the local grid and could not bring online several supercomputers it needed to expand its operations. The agency got a taste of the potential for trouble January 24, 2000, when an information overload, rather than a power shortage, caused the NSA's first-ever network crash, taking the agency 3 1/2 days to resume operations. The new data center in Utah will require at least 65 megawatts of power — about the same amount used by every home in Salt Lake City — so a separate power substation will have to be built at Camp Williams to sustain that demand. 'They were looking at secure sites, where there could be a natural nexus between organizations and where space was available,' says Col. Scott Olson, the Utah National Guard's legislative liaison. NSA officials, who have a long-standing relationship with Utah based on the state Guard's unique linguist units, approached state officials about finding land in the state on which to build an additional data center. 'The stars just kind of came into alignment. We could provide them everything they need.'"
First of all, without a security clearance and need-to-know you will never know what the NSA does. And then forget what MSNBC has convinced you is true about the agency; there are very strict rules as to how any "signals" involving US citizens are handled. There is more foreign collection than you could possibly imagine, and that is where they expend most of their power.
Help fight poverty: Punch a poor person.
If you bothered to read past the first couple of words on the link you posted, you might have noticed it ALSO said, "and to produce foreign signals intelligence information." And the first bullet says, "Collect (including through clandestine means), process, analyze, produce, and disseminate signals intelligence information and data for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes to support national and departmental missions."
Which is what I said. Your sig is pathetically ironic. Fucking retard.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
Are we supposed to believe they do not monitor and listen in any domestic conversations ?
Yes you are. And you should read USSID 18 while you are at it and see for yourself that their are specific restrictions against listening in on domestic conversations. You will also learn that it requires a warrant granted by the Attorney General (not the Director of the NSA, not the President, not a mythical National Security Czar, Not Your Mom).
...or: Utah and Mormonism are almost synonymous. Mormons go on their "missions" from age 19 to 20 to convert more mormons. MANY of them must learn a foreign language to do it. So Utah ends up with the best linguist pool in the nation. So they get a couple NG linguist units to utilize the pool. Their "moral" lifestyle makes them more likely to get TS clearances than most Americans....and bingo. Linguists + TS clearance = NSA ties.
THL phish sticks