Thinthread - NSA Failure

I just happened to watch an excellent documentary on Netflix that I commend to you all. It's called "A Good American". It follows the story of the development and demise of Thinthread a signals intelligence analysis program developed by a small group of Intelligence Experts at the NSA and then rejected and 'disavowed' in the interests of a non-functional 'private sector' system costing hundred's if not thousand's times more then the inhouse solution that could have predicted, if not prevented, 9/11.

This is a fascinating documentary - about meta-data analysis, terrorism, the military/industrial complex, the folly of 'running' government like a business and so much more. And the public sector life long bureaucrats are the heroes in this story - and to a lessor degree the villains.

I'd like to hear what you think of it. I think this doc convinced me of the utility of collecting metadata, the Thinthread program even worked while maintaining personal (US citizen at least) privacy whereas the Corporate rival Trailblazer did away with any privacy...

A couple of background articles:

www.zdnet.com...

www.newyorker.com...

www.historycommons.org...

Oh, and it's a great story about how science works.

Again, the documentary is "A Good American" and you can find it on Netflix and probably other sources as well.

a reply to: FyreByrd

I'll take a look tonight

the Thinthread program even worked while maintaining personal (US citizen at least) privacy whereas the Corporate rival Trailblazer did away with any privacy...

And of course that is the very reason they didn't accept it...plus it put an IT company at their disposal.

a reply to: FyreByrd

I think I wrote about this Netflix movie last night on another thread. Anyway, glad to see that others have viewed it. It is absolutely, positively stunning and chilling. If you frequent ATS you MUST see this movie.

If one accepts the story line, then you should be wondering why Thinthread was refused admittance into the NSA arsenal of tricks. Keep in mind the name of Tom Hayden and his subsequent roles.

My point is simple: IF Thinthread was as brilliant of a program as they said that connected the interconnections of everybody in the world, then to run it on the 9/11 data would have clearly shown up connections that the official NSA program could not discern. The test run after the fact showed that to be true.

The only rational reason why Thinthread was refused is that it showed interconnections to 9/11 that were not wanted to be known then or even today. Does that suggest that 9/11 was an inside job, or like the situation around the attack on Pearl Harbor, something that was allowed. I've never followed the 9/11 conspiracy threads too closely, but one that always bothered me and yet lingers on is the supposed information that over a thousand people of a particular ethnic heritage called in sick that day. (If that was an entirely false report, I would love to see some data. You see, the attack on the USS Liberty is still a sore spot with me.)

originally posted by: liveandlearn
a reply to: FyreByrd

I'll take a look tonight

the Thinthread program even worked while maintaining personal (US citizen at least) privacy whereas the Corporate rival Trailblazer did away with any privacy...

And of course that is the very reason they didn't accept it...plus it put an IT company at their disposal.

What I believe you mean to say is that it put "The People's Intelligence Resources" at the disposal of a Private Corporation.

Watching this movie now, so far I'm intrigued.