Exclusive: Intel Outsourcing at Heart of Gonzales Controversy

At the heart of the Constitutional dispute over domestic spying between current Attorney General Gonzales and former Attorney General John Ashcroft is corporate America. Almost all of the government data mining has been outsourced to corporations. The data mining controversy isn’t about the US government spying on Americans. It’s about the government using big corporations as a Constitutional workarounds to spy on Americans. It’s not the government that actually sifts through our emails and phone records but companies such as Lockheed Marin, Raytheon,  SAIC and Booz Allen Hamilton and their subcontractors. 

On Sunday, July 29^th, 2007, the New York Times reported that the dispute between Gonzales and Ashcroft involved data mining and its threat to privacy and noted, “It is not known precisely why searching the databases, or data mining, raised such a furious legal debate.” The reason is most likely the growing use of corporations to perform critical intelligence functions and how these corporations can be used to circumvent legal restrictions upon the government. Outsourcing shifts the legalities or apparently that was what Gonzales was hoping. 

In most cases, corporations are contracted to provide full traffic and pattern analysis services with the US government providing the targets. However, in some instances, contractors actually prepare the target list then conduct the data mining themselves. Not only can corporations be used to violate civil liberties where the government is prohibited, they also have the potential to spy on our email and phone records for their own corporate or client needs. The potential for abuse is tremendous, and, just like with corporate involvement in the President’s Daily Brief, there are no serious mechanisms to guard against this. And some of the very same tools they’re using for data mining could be adapted to monitor for misuse. Of course, abuse on the level of the Administration using corporations to conveniently ignore US law needs Congressional oversight. 

Over the past five to ten years, most government intelligence functions have been outsourced to corporations, with seventy percent of the intelligence budget now going to contractors. As the Associate Director of National Intelligence recently admitted in the Washington Post  in response to my article there, “we could not accomplish our intelligence missions without them [contractors].” The National Security Agency (NSA) which is responsible for monitoring communications has been at the forefront of intelligence outsourcing and has even handed over some of its own management and administrative structures to industrial contractors.

The Mainstream Media is missing the biggest part of the story, that systemic changes due to the outsourcing of critical intelligence functions open up new possibilities for circumventing the Constitution. 

Comments

[Mad Dogs]

"The Mainstream Media is missing the biggest part of the story..."

That, my dear, is the understatement of the week! Clueless doesn't begin to describe our MSM these days.

Hey there RJ! And yes indeedy, I'm in full agreement with you that Junya and Deadeye have been and are using private corporations to both avoid scrutiny and legal jeopardy.

On the legal jeopardy issue, I also believe they've been getting real poor legal advice on this issue.

Outsourcing may not protect them 'cause conspiracy to commit crimes is still criminal.

'Course, if one stacks the courts (including the Supreme Court) with one's own political/ideological flunkies, then perhaps a crime is now longer a crime.

As always, I'm sure we'll all stay tuned!

[phil]

They can't EVER be prosecuted if they are allowed to continue to destroy the evidence.

The Corporate Mainstream Media is not serving the public interest by DEFINITION.

[Squiddy]

And let's not ignore the potential for industrial espionage here. What's to keep Lockheed Martin from spying on Northrop Grumman? Such a move would be far closer to their direct interests, and entirely unpoliceable.

[Jeff Carr]

Given the downside of the privatization of intelligence (as you've clearly laid it out), I wonder if the upside might be that these private firms can apply advances in information technology in a more rapid way? After all, the DoD intelligence agencies are still ironing out the kinks in their DCGS integration backbone so that they can finally share information across agencies. Maybe by the time we're out of Iraq, it'll be out of testing?

[R J Hillhouse]

Yes, and maybe there will be a community badge that works by then, too!

[traduttore traditore]

Ms. Hillhouse, how much have you looked into Fleishman Hilliard and their relationship with the NSA?

I'm very interested in your diary linking outsourcing with the Gonzales testimony. Please write more!

[Tony Foresta]

Outstanding catch Dr. Hillhouse. The socalled MSM is the propaganda and disinformation arm of the Bush government. The MSM is not clueless, but complicit. The real horroshow issue is who exactly are these corporations loyal and accountable to, and how and why are they selected.

My personal opinion is that this entire "privitization" of the the intelligence product is focused entire on profiteering, cronyism, and advancing the fascist machinations of the Bush governmen, and very little to do with advancing the best interests of the American people or America.

"Deliver us from evil"

[kelley b.]

Hi RJH

You might find it interesting to note that at least one progressive web community has been on the corporate angle of this for some time now.

Keep up the good work!

[R J Hillhouse]

Thanks Kelley. Although I'm sure it's well intended, it's not good work, but ill-informed specualtion, though I do admit the idea that Bush was personally acting as a courier while riding his bicycle near NSA headquarters was creative.

RJH

[kelley b.]

In a world of disinformation, you can only expect ill-informed speculation.

Still, the image of Bush biking to the NSA to pick up cherry-picked goodies on his political enemies is a humorous way of describing what seems to be the most logical abuse of the information. That being the political extortion of people who might impede the flow of cash to the corporations that control the surveillance. Humor and hyperbole are the tools of those of us who are less informed but equally at risk in the new order of things.

Besides, if anyone was going to personally pick up dirt on his enemies, it wouldn't be Junior on his bike. It would be Lord Cheney surrounded by dozens of his private Death Eaters.

[4real]

Circumventing the constitution ... for real. Your federally funded contractors and local LE "at work" or "This is easier than eating donuts and it pays better ... it's safer too":
http://www.freedomfchs.com/unwarranted_surveillance.pdf