Here it is..... My First Post. [HOAX]

Wouldn't terrorist activity on the internet........
.... not be in english?

Alethea: I'm honestly not sure on disguising words. I've never seen anything like that so I assume it works.

Also we don't get any bonus and I don't think we get an incentive for finding anything good although it might be kind of nice if we did.

m0r1arty: Thanks

TheBeatlesWillSaveUs: To be honest with you I applied three times for this job. Well not this job specifically with this organization three times. The first two times I passed the psych tests but no positions were opened and the third I passed and this was the only job open at the time. It wasn't what I wanted at all.

reject: Look for jobs on the DHS section of jobs.gov

Qwenn: I think safety is always important online

LenGXV6: Sorry my iPhone has TERRIBLE video quality. It is a jailbreak unlock iPhone first generation. No matter how much light shows up the pure brightness of the monitor seems to saturate everything around it.

That said I don't think we have much security in way of phones. We don't seem to be that secure either. They claim we are videotaped but we have determined that isn't always the case. I expected a job like this in secrecy to have key cards or thumb readers or something on the doors but they simply open.

I guess the approach here is that by leaving things open we are basically not giving people a reason to just walk in. If you do though we have a front desk and it seems like a regular "software development" company though.

Since I have an unlocked iPhone turning off all the radios in it was very easy. No wifi, or GSM radios turned on. I felt it was a risk but I know of other people who have put phones in airplane mode at work so I felt pretty safe doing so to take a quick video but not safe enough to go much farther.

Ex: Hello Ex

v01i0: I agree with you fully. This system seems like a waste of time and money. The people who really need to be caught aren't likely to just use plain old words. I have yet to see anything outrageous on my terminal yet.

I suppose I could have made a program like that. I wish I had the skills

In all seriousness though I don't think its a massive conspiracy but I felt compelled to share what I do because I feel it is such a waste of time, money, and I don't feel it necessary to be monitoring regular people when we should be investing time and money to really catching the bad people who want to hurt us.

pegasi51: All PCs and for the important machines it appears we are running SLINUX which was created by a government research company. Steal some open source stuff and "secure" it. Again I think we have more of an illusion of security than actual security. Your tax dollars hard at work.

Molan27: Haven't really heard anything. I do have a correction though apparently social networks are monitored. While nothing has shown up for me on my terminal apparently some terminals are tasked with watching Twitter. I don't use Twitter so I don't know a lot about it. Maybe someone here does.

As far as posting location I'm going to stay mum on that. I feel the way you do. So much stuff online the likelyhood of being caught for me is low as long as I don't do anything stupid like slip up and tell someone at work or do it from work or something like that.

Yes the government really does seem to think they will outright say it. Or they want to have this in place so when they make something up they can say our new high tech systems caught it. I feel the real conspiracy here is that we are giving ourselves the allusion of safety and security by wasting time and money.

Everwatcher33: It seems just having our phone in airplane mode is okay. I don't feel we have amazing security either though.

Qwenn: Thanks for the thoughts and being skeptical is always good. I'm skeptical what the real point of my job is at this point. I don't consider myself to be overly smart but smart enough to see what I am doing doesn't really make a difference in my opinion.

More replies soon.

Sounds like what happens here. Star and Flag deemed unsafe to status quo. Monitoring exactly how much bull# we'll buy. They teach us to do it. Fact or Fantasy you decide and then monitor if we believe their are people out there that sit at monitors all day and review a page or idea.

spooky

there's already an AT&T whistle blower, how many threads on that one?

reply to post by formerspook


Madison?

Any idea which building it is?

Send me a message if you can supply me with any information.

[edit on 2-12-2009 by Commando717]

Originally posted by formerspook
LenGXV6: Sorry my iPhone has TERRIBLE video quality. It is a jailbreak unlock iPhone first generation. No matter how much light shows up the pure brightness of the monitor seems to saturate everything around it.

i still think it's a black desktop background and that nothing else than monitor surface was covered on that video. rising the contrast/brightness would probably reveal it, at least to some degree - such details are usually almost invisible, but are still there - and that's not the case with your video.

Originally posted by formerspook
pegasi51: All PCs and for the important machines it appears we are running SLINUX which was created by a government research company. Steal some open source stuff and "secure" it. Again I think we have more of an illusion of security than actual security. Your tax dollars hard at work.

and you know this how? SELinux (developed mainly by NSA) was merged into linux kernel source code years ago - and that's what it is - a set of linux kernel modifications. whole linux distro is something else - and in fact, any current linux distribution available for everyone can use SELinux features, since it's all there, built into kernel long time ago. also, i still think the window border on your video looks like it's running under windows vista - unless it's compiz with a theme making it look exactly like vista's aero interface.

I have a question.


What does the screen say above the "Immediate Review" button.

Looks like "freedom - Workstation 1"

The video makes it seem like you simply work for a company that creates Internet filters for schools, etc.

This looks quite genuine.

An excellent thread, let's keep it alive, the owners of those websites should also be warned - what was it "Leoville"?

Originally posted by william.gauncents
My guess is that the op is someone involved with ATS.

20 post count before you can even start a new thread, right?

This is the OP's first post.

How does that happen if you are not logged in as admin of this site?

When I tried to make a thread before my 20 post limit I could not even get it to post. What Gives? How does this happen without the op contacting the mods/admins first ?

kingmonkey: LOL I assure you I'm not posting this now because I might get laid off. Some people at work would though I am sure. I am mainly posting this because I disagree with what we are doing. I feel we are wasting money by watching what regular people are doing. I feel it is wasteful and disgusting a bit to sort through people's personal blogs and sites.

Qwenn: I had a genuine fear this would be deleted because of the rules. I'm not very familiar with this site and only learned of it from work. Where I heard it will need to be kept a secret but I'm pretty sure it came up for someone and I'm pretty sure it was deemed safe if it was ever on a terminal. I don't know any coworkers that have marked anything to be reviewed again right away.

LenGXV6: As far as the alarms go and what not I'm not sure we have them. I shouldn't dare to find out though. We are searched as we go in past the locker rooms but the security feels pretty lax as they don't seem to really pad us down that much. I'm not sure if that is by choice or that people are just getting lazy.

Our PCs do not have USB ports on them though which I thought was odd on my first day but it made sense. Where the USB ports would seem to have been are just a black panel. I'm guessing they pulled them out or maybe they get them special that way. I kind of wonder now actually.

Soylent Green Is People: I don't think we are always being monitored to be honest. I think they have said things to make us think that is the case but others feel the same way where I work.

A52FWY: I don't know who Leo Laporte is nor do I know why it was brought to my terminal. If his site has comments on it though it could be someone else said something. Not really sure. To be honest with you we are expected to review as many sites as we can as quickly as we can and I feel we would miss something real if something was displayed.

It does sort of have a parental control software feel I suppose. I sort of like the way it sounds. We are the parents of the Internet. LOL.

LenGXV6: No don't feel the need to bait a line. Just posting out of frustration that we are wasting time and money and spying on the wrong things. Wanted to vent my frustration somewhere mainly. I suppose thinking about it now I could have done so easily on a blog but I don't have one and setting up a blog just for posting something like this seems like a bad idea.

mckyle: No offense taken. I honestly think the reason I got this "deadend" job with this organization is they didn't think I had what it takes to do the real stuff. That is already deflating enough personally.

My motivation is likely why I have this craptastic job. I feel guilty and I feel that we are watching the wrong people. The real sensitive operations are the people who work for this organization in cointel.

Should I be locked up for treason? I suppose so as I have broken the law but my principles are what they are and I personally feel this sort of operation will only be shutdown in the near future as our spending is cut and scrutiny from other areas of the government are increasing.

I suppose I sort of hope I am on the right side of things when the axing happens because someone in congress gets snoopy or some newspaper writer gets the story and runs it. It happened with another organization in 2001. News came out they were doing the same sort of thing and the people involved with blowing the lid off are all just fine now.

jibeho: I appreciate your thoughts and when I get laid off maybe I'll try crocheting or something. Not my thing but I suppose I can always try something new.

mckyle: I said myself that getting banned was the least of my worries. I'm sure the penalties for sharing real information as I have are very strict. As you've said before it could be charged as treason I am sure. Then again did anyone charge the people involved in this sort of project in 2001? Nothing more happened except a "supposed" shutdown and the mass firing.

andrewh7: That could be the case. They tell us we are looking for things out of the ordinary and terrorist activities. Neither which I have seen yet. Could be the people they felt couldn't hack it are put in this crap spot and then they wait to see what we do with what they tell us. For all I know at this point they could be really just setting us people up and the ever growing paranoid side of me makes me wonder.

v01i0: You are right. Nothing truly exciting to see here. Just wanted to get it off my chest. I'm certain any normal person would assume this is already being done. I'm just not sure why the need to monitor the everyday sort of stuff personally.

TXRabbit: LOL. In all honesty I am afraid that going to the media might result in something. I'm not sure though. Maybe I can get the opinion of others on here. Previously this sort of thing was being done in "secret" and in 2001 the agency doing it was busted in the media for doing so. As a result the people involved were fired and the project "shut down". That makes me feel almost safe enough to take some really hard evidence to someone in the media but at the same time I'm just not sure it is safe.

Strype: I'm not sure on the Firefox plugin. Could be though I suppose. Here is what I do know it is a custom browser not one used in the public, the menus are rendered by the actual program. Right clicking inside the browser brings up nothing and we can't select the URLs we are visting. I know that this project and others use stolen open source software so it is plausible that the buttons are stolen as well.

We get on average an update once a week to the software. Not sure what the updates do as the appearance has been the same since I have started but we've been told that soon the reporting system will get better. Whatever that means.

LenGXV6: Getting the camera in wasn't as hard as even I had thought. I simply left airplane mode on and the room has decent lighting. I would even go as far as saying really good lighting. This is a first generation iPhone not designed to take video though (had to have it unlocked / jailbreak for this sort of feature) so I'm not sure the quality will ever do justice to the fact we have lights.

v01i0: I hope someone digs up this Firefox extension as I am interested to see how similar it is.

InertiaZero: The technology is still really good. My understanding is the human element was brought in to help aid the technology. I do believe that we have indexes of the indexes. We take snapshots of Google I guess you could say.

Also most of the data is from the Internet providers themselves so I guess I can at least confirm that for you.

It is amazing what money will do and what companies will do for it.

butcherguy: Sadly I am not aware of who Leo Laporte is but I will Google him later!

mckyle: It might be watched and the person who told me about the site might even be the person that brings me down. :\

Alchemst7: LOL. I am hoping what I believe is true even moreso now that we just get so much data that this won't be found.

Rhetoric: Interesting thoughts. I'm not aware really of what has been previously posted. If I feel safe enough I will likely just take my story straight to the media in all honesty. I could name names, buildings, places for people to check out but if I do so it will be to the media. That might be a bad idea though. I'm just not sure yet.

I feel you are right though. Nothing will change except my source of income and seeing as how I hate it anyways this might be a good time to do so. I should try to find out what reporter published the original story in 2001 and contact them.

Then again that might be a horrible idea if that person is watched now.

SassyCat: No offense taken. I can see your points for sure and if I could go back and do it again I would. I might give it another try in the future. I'm really just not sure. I felt it was risky enough to do what I did but I might get more brave soon.

Raregolddragon: I applied for another job in this organization twice before. This was my third attempt and they told me this was the only thing open. I don't believe them though.

elvisofdallas: Good points on China. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, they all give in to the money very easily. They gave in to our money so why would they not give in to the money from China. It spends just the same.

I think you are on to something about the black boxes. One rather large provider controls several backbones in Dallas and I know for a fact we have machines and spokes / hubs in that area. A lot of the traffic on the Internet passes through those machines.

flylead: I still work for this organization. When I'm not at work it becomes I worked. It is always good to be skeptical though I believe.

mckyle: Maybe so. I've never been on here really before and the more I am thinking and reading everything the more I believe I should just go to the media.

Aircow: I think you could be right. This might be a setup against me. I am not posting from work and I won't be posting from home either. I feel my cell phone is safe but it is terribly slow to really reply to anything at all on. I suppose I could get in a lot of trouble and I understand that.

The more I think about it the more I really should just go to the media that way when they try to do something I am a bit safer.

LenGXV6: I have no idea how the points or anything on this site work sadly. I will do some homework on it though if I stick around.

coolhanddan: Excellent information. I feel that we do much of the same things. In all honesty my paycheck comes from a "company" although it is really just a guise to make the agency I really work for more money and its all done in the sake of "security" but really I feel we are just a racket to make money and give the illusion of safety.

highlyoriginal: You are right. You are totally right. I am thinking it might be a good idea to gather a lot of info quickly and go to the media with it. Not just because I disagree with what we are doing but for the sake of CYA.

Faiol: I am glad to see some skeptics among the masses I suppose but you are right I have no real purpose as I have never really been on this site in the past. I agree on the anger thing as well. It seems pointless to get really angry about this sort of thing because I think everyone really knows it is happening. I'm just not so sure it should be and I am thinking I should go to the media with what I know.

keepureye2thesky: I keep telling myself the layoffs aren't what made me do this. Maybe deep down it is. I tell myself it is a matter of principle but I suppose I have been doing this long enough that should have become more of an issue before now.

azureskys: I think a lot of people involved in other parts of this organization take care to not post like someone who would be watching you. I think you are on to something but then again maybe they do have tell-tale signs. I suppose they would train for something like that though. Sadly I didn't get that far. I got a crappy desk job clicking buttons mindlessly all day.

dmorgan: The machine I use has Windows Vista on it. The government did make the upgrade. If you want to call it that. Simple reason why. Did you know the NSA and Microsoft worked together to add new software to Windows Vista and really improved it in Windows 7? I'm sure you all know that though. I think that might have even made the rounds in the media recently. Money talks.

mckyle: I assure you I have no connections to anyone on this site that I am aware of. The admins or MODs could surely see IP addresses, etc I would believe though. Oh and critical thinking is an art. An art taught in training that I apparently didn't cut it for I believe. Maybe I am bitter.

loam: I found it at work via another person

nik1halo: LOL I applaud your efforts for comedy. Seriously though I had no idea Excel could do that. People always say it is powerful though.

ugie1028: You might be right. They could be sending us the crap stuff. I would even bet that is likely the case as I haven't seen anything "good" yet.

I'm not really James Bond and I don't feel I'm lucky and while I can't prove to you I'm not lying outside of just going to the media and having the story really be opened I can't really explain away what you have said.

What I can tell you though is what I know. I know that the security is lax (I'm not sure if it is intentional, if it is a setup, or if people are just lazy) because others have brought phones in (why I don't know).

I do believe you are right. The monitoring has been going on for a long time though.

mrm143: The bottom line is for our personal last report. I can't see what other people are rating it. Just what my last report. Which is pointless in all honesty because I can't really take back my last rating without filling out a lot of paperwork reporting why I failed to press the wrong button when we have to hit a confirm button to begin with.

Donny 4 million: That is a bit scary to be honest with you. I'm still feeling safe about my actual name though. I made sure to be careful in my video to not give away the terminal ID that appears in the title bar and I've been careful on details about locations as I know for a fact that other hubs are typically placed the same way.

Tifozi: I also believe more effective means exist. I feel they send us crap. For what purpose I am still trying to decide.

ignorant_ape: Good points. This isn't the only part of the operation. Other more advanced parts exist. We are simply a section that is in my belief fruitless. "Crowdthink" has to be the dumbest part of it all but hey it pays the bills (for now).

All Seeing Eye: Thanks for the words and the welcome.

Onward with what you've asked me...

For both quotes....
I think the expectation would be to flag the content. I haven't seen anything like it just yet on my terminal though.

A lot of what we are expected to do is just guess work in all honesty and that is why I think the system (at least our part) fails so much. The guidelines aren't clear and we usually just see crap every day.

rufusdrak: I'm not sure on the accoustics of the room to be honest. I sit here in near silence every day though with the only thing I hear is the humming of many computers. We don't have an outright rule about not talking but everyone knows. We are told we are not to share what we are doing with each other as it could bias the others in the project against sites they might be shown as well.

j2000: LOL I REALLY have to look up Leo Laporte.

Imightknow: It could be I have been setup.

gaborn415: We have SLINUX running in the organization but this machine is Windows Vista I believe. The taskbar etc never shows up and I can't actually minimize the program. Each day I come in and hit the sign in. It loads for about ten seconds downloading a task list and then the window starts the session. As far as where the pages come from I am not sure. I know they come from a machine inside the hub that gets them from a spoke. They load nearly instantly though and yes I can click links inside the page. I can't see the URL though so I don't know if the links are really leading to the outside world or if they are also downloaded.

I have no control over where I go though. Some sites have Google search boxes on them. If we type anything in to those the program just brings up the next site because some people have been fired for trying to use them to read the news and what not via a search engine.

I keep hearing though this is similar to parental control software which as I don't have children I haven't used. Does any open source parental control software exist and if so maybe we have stolen ideas from it? Not really sure. Wish I knew more.

jimmyxl: I've personally never seen this site on my terminal but I'll come right out and say someone I work with has because they told me about it outside of work. If they are lying to me I don't know. As far as Leo Laporte I don't know who he really is but after I write this section of my reply I'm going to look him up since it keeps coming up.

27jd: Thanks! I think you are right we all know this sort of thing is going on I just disagree with the nature of how it is done and maybe I am a bit disgruntled with my job.

nydsdan: Hub and spoke turned around eh? I just know this is what we call it and it could be they do this sort of thing to us on purpose.

You are right I can't see much about the page I am viewing so in all reality this could be a setup to trap me. I'm not so sure though since it is such on a large scale.

Also I have no idea what flags mean / are on here. I take it they are like a kudos system or something. I have no motivation to accumulate them as I wasn't originally planning on spending much time here but the questions are good and are making me wonder what my correct course of action should really be.

AtlasShrugging: Good points. I'll try to address them.

I never said this site was displayed on my terminal personally.

I also felt the information was important but the more I read over it and everyones responses I realize that it really ISN'T unless I act on it and go to the media.

I feel the information can be used against regular people. If I flag something at work for immediate review it goes to more people and is likely to be reviewed to see who posted it, where it came from, etc. The likelyness of this happening is pretty slim though as I've never personally been presented anything that good.

As far as open source it is theft when you don't give back isn't it? I have no idea how it all works to be honest and I've made that clear but I know organizations have taken pieces of open source software, made major modifications and not given back the source code or let anyone have it. I guess my definition on stealing might be different.

As far as security clearances go the organization has them and has people with them. I guess I didn't cut it. Maybe I am bitter but I did have to sign various NDAs and contracts. As far as me going and getting another job that requires a "clearance" I can't as I don't have something that official. I am guessing they do that on purpose for some reason.

I am afraid of being laid off and I guess I am getting bitter about it to go as far as I have but as I have read more replies on here I realize my best course of action is to go to the media instead of posting things to a site on the Internet. Bad move on my part and I'll fully admit it.

the_denv: Thanks for the information As far as who does the monitoring they keep us that do this work out of the know for good reason I am sure. I like how everyone assumes AT&T is involved though and I am glad to see that.

djusdjus: I'm not IT expert by any means. I do realize that the mods / admins / whomever on this site can likely see where I am but I have taken steps to make sure I am not at home.

I've reviewed who Leo Laporte is finally and he seems like a funny guy and a smart one. Sadly I am not that guy.

This is just one part of the system. Most of it is automated. I am beginning to feel they just send us crap at this point though.

butcherguy: LOL Home from school. I work regular hours like most people.

staple: I imagine that might be the case. I have already been told what I would put on my resume if and when the day ever comes. Use the business name and say I was involved in security software. When asked to further elaborate I am to say filtering technology. I can't imagine looking at porn sites all day for any job. Funny though now that you mention it I have never had one displayed on my terminal.

Revolution-2012: You seem so sure that the government wouldn't use an operating system that they helped build in the two latest versions?

As far as the other hard evidence I have decided to go to the media. I will take hard evidence of the paychecks, and anything else I can gather including copies I made of my applications to this organization etc. I am going to gather information tonight and decide how to go about getting it out.

marg6043: I've personally never seen anything anarchy related. I am beginning to think they show us crap for a reason. A reason I have yet to determine.

DJM8507: You bring up lots of valid points and have me even thinking more. I guess the real reason for posting was I was bitter. As much as I like to tell myself it was because of prinicples I can't deny I'm just bitter.

I have made a huge mistake and I can't take it back now but I can try to make good on it and I fully intend to do so.

I think you are right this isn't a high security job and I believe they do make each compartment I guess you could say this way on purpose. Harder to prove anything when everything is spread out and each section is so different.

Haydn_17: As far as the picture gallery I have never uploaded anything to tinypic before so don't know how it would show my face.

The room does have good lighting just didn't show up on my camera. Had I known that would have been such an issue I would have pointed it away from the monitor to try and capture that but I was already scared enough.

I went to work today and no one said anything to me so I feel slightly safer but not enough to stop me from gathering information and going public somewhere outside a forum on the Internet though.

mikeleel: At this point I might as well admit it isn't the CIA at all. Then again I've never said that is the organization.

js331975: Awesome Team America reference

Sadly this is all of the replies I am going to be doing for the time being.

I feel everyone has made an excellent contribution and I also feel the right thing for me to do.... wait the only thing to do is to go public on a larger scale.

I might come back and try to do more replies once I feel safer again because some of you are really paranoid (a good thing) and have me thinking really hard about what the heck I am doing.

yeah... what smells is that you didn't reply to one of the posters here who saw what i've mentioned already in my analysis of your video, as well as to my posts. that 'Freedom - Workstation' thing in title bar looks pretty genuine... as a matter of fact, it would be as blatant as they are to call such software 'Freedom'. still, some of your claims are well... smelly. we'll see where it goes. as for now, there are 50% chances you're really working for them, and 50% chances you're just a bored programmer.

does it really matter?

Appendix 5: Data Mining Data Mining Methodology is a way of looking through large amounts of information to find particular bits of information. The “looking through” can be done by computer. Once the computer finds what it is looking for, it will sound an alarm or alert a human operator, who can then judge whether the item is what was wanted. Also useful is the fact that this methodology allows for a record of the search process, so that patterns of object or item occurrence can be stored and graphed. This pattern-creation is an aspect of the methodology that humans simply cannot perform on their own because of the very large amount of information that must be processed simultaneously. The methodology has been developed largely by businesses to help with marketing, but it has also been useful to the medical profession and has real potential to law enforcement and intelligence operations.

www.fbi.gov...

Just looking through some sites. This popped out at me because of this thread. Good stuff.

We have part of the ECHELON network here in New Zealand and are signatories to the UKUSA (you koozer) agreement. It seems that that would probably be a more efficient monitoring programme.

[edit on 2-12-2009 by aorAki]

Just to interject...this whole thing kinda sounds like a public works' "shovel ready" job creation mechanism that grew out of the 9/11 era.

Do they actually find stuff relevant to national security? Who knows...but it makes jobs in well-connected politicians' districts, supports the revenue base at large, and helps everybody aware of the company's activities feel that "somebody is doing something" about potential terrorist acts.

Also, in many cases, if the money in one area of the federal budget is not spent it defaults back to the treasury, so it pays (literally) to spend the entirety of the pot even if the expenditure is in a questionable area - just like this one.

IMHO, I believe "formerspook" is data mining ATS for actual spooks and former spooks that post here. Looks like he/she found one or two.