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Whistleblowers: How NSA Created the 'Largest Failure' In Its History (zdnet.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the that-wasn't-very-good dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Former NSA whistleblowers contend that the agency shut down a program that could have "absolutely prevented" some of the worst terror attacks in memory. According to the ZDNet story: "Weeks prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks, a test-bed program dubbed ThinThread was shut down in favor of a more expensive, privacy-invasive program that too would see its eventual demise some three years later -- not before wasting billions of Americans' tax dollars. Four whistleblowers, including a congressional senior staffer, came out against the intelligence community they had served, after ThinThread. designed to modernize the agency's intelligence gathering effort, was cancelled. Speaking at the premier of a new documentary film A Good American in New York, which chronicles the rise and demise of the program, the whistleblowers spoke in support of the program, led by former NSA technical director William Binney."

3 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. I would have loved to hear the conversation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Where the powers that be were convinced that warrantless wiretapping of everyone was an improvement over concentrating on terror targets.

    I imagine it got really cold in that room with all the hand waving going on.

  2. I doubt there was intention to catch perpetrators by Trachman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Legends and myths grow around the historic events.

    It is true that a couple of years before 9/11 events CNN/ABC sent a crew to meet Bin Laden's to get the interviews multiple times. Even two months before the events bin Laden was giving interviews to the local journalists.

    If journalists could meet, why the fuck do we need electronic surveillance at all and later we hear complains saying that we needed more surveillance, since if we had more surveillance events would have been prevented. If journalists can get interviews freely, then I would be really stupid to believe that US, which has very powerful and most expensive intelligence agencies in the world, really wanted to catch him, because they did not.

  3. Hear we go again: EVERY spook has an AGENDA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That's why I got out of the business. You folks need to realize TT was a program of many. You know in the black projects world, there are multiple stovepipes, more are doing the same thing, due to creating of competing teams. Where's the academic paper that shows how better this system was... against others? All we know is the politics since TBlazer was the big, most bloated, known contract of the time.

    Though TT has some merit in its creation and performance, there's a dozen others you don't know about that could have did the same as TT... or better. Just that TT is being a poster child due to a few grumpy employees that did get a conscience to expose it.

    No news here folks.