[aristotles]

Having seen the recent revelations concerning the NSA and their "PRISM" project, it got me thinking about the Bourne Identity series of books and movies.

Was that series of books put out by the CIA and NSA as a form of plausible deniability in case someone started leaking information about their programs? Did they leak the existence of certain programs with fictitious names to make leaks of actual programs in the future less believable?

Think about it for a minute. Would any of you, at the time of the Bourne movies have imagined that the NSA could tap into our internet activity and phone conversations looking for keywords? Didn't it appear to be completely fictitious and implausible? I'm sure many of us had heard about previous leaks about programs like carnivore and had a hard time believing such a thing was possible.

We now know that they did indeed have listening posts around the world like those portrayed in the Bourne movies and we know know that they used special software to mine the voice and internet data for specific keywords.

I find the revelations both frightening and interesting as my work in the private sector involves similar sciences and techniques as those used in the PRISM project. In fact, one of the tools we use was actually written by the CIA originally.

[subego]

The NSA was doing this type of thing in the 90's, and it was publicly, if not widely known.

What's surprising about all this isn't they can do it, it's they're being allowed to do it.

[aristotles]

Originally Posted by subego 

The NSA was doing this type of thing in the 90's, and it was publicly, if not widely known.

What's surprising about all this isn't they can do it, it's they're being allowed to do it.

I think you are referring to the rumours about ECHELON and Carnivore at the time. Relatively little was known about those programs and how they operated at the time. Since that time, the science of data analysis has evolved.

The science behind analyzing that much data is a relatively new field of study.

[subego]

We knew enough it was doing a keyword search. IOW, the Bourne stuff, 10 years later, wasn't particularly implausible seeming.

[Chongo]

Can I interest you in a copy of "Catcher in the Rye?

[mattyb]

Wasn't Bourne a Vietnam vet in the books? Wouldn't surprise me what sorts of programs were going on with Kennedy, Johnson and then Nixon in the White House.