What makes you think that they don't come to these things? Intelligence agencies from every nation try to keep up with new development and academic conferences would seem like a perfect opportunity to do that. While we tend to equate intelligence with James Bond and the like, a lot of what intelligence agencies do is the same thing that we do--analyze data. Why wouldn't they want our take on all of this? John McNutt On Sunday, November 28, 2004 1:14 PM, Charles Ess [SMTP:ess@uni-trier.de] wrote: | So shall we invite the CIA to the next AoIR conference? (smile) | | In seriousness, I thought this report would be of considerable to many | Airists who know something about chatroom research and how easy it is to | profile users... (_not_ smiling this time...) | | Charles Ess | Fall '04: Fulbright Senior Scholar | Universitat Trier | Fachbereich II | Fakultaten der Medienwissenschaft, Sinologie | Universitatsring 15 | 54296 Trier (Germany) | Office phone: (49) (0)651-201-3744 | Sekretariat: (49) (0)651-201-3203 | Fax: (49) (0)651-201-3741 | | Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies | Drury University | 900 N. Benton Ave. Voice: 417-873-7230 | Springfield, MO 65802 USA FAX: 417-873-7435 | | Home page: http://www.drury.edu/ess/ess.html | Co-chair, CATaC: http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/catac/ | | Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23 | | | ------ Forwarded Message | From: George Lessard <media@web.net> | Reply-To: <chineseinternetresearch@yahoogroups.com> | Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 10:05:50 -0700 | To: Chinese Internet Research List <chineseinternetresearch@yahoogroups.com> | Cc: L mediamentor <mediamentor@yahoogroups.com> | Subject: [chineseinternetresearch] National Science Foundation to help CIA | spy on IRC chatrooms | | <http://management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39126120,00.htm>htt p:// | management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39126120,00.htm | | CIA checks out chatrooms | November 25 2004 | by Declan McCullagh | | [Excerpts] | | In April 2003, the CIA agreed to fund a series of research projects | that the documents indicate were intended to create "new capabilities | to combat terrorism through advanced technology". One of those | projects is research at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, | N.Y., devoted to automated monitoring and profiling of the behaviour | of chatroom users. | | Even though the money ostensibly comes from the National Science | Foundation, CIA officials were involved in selecting recipients for | the research grants, according to a contract between the two agencies | obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and | reviewed by silicon.com sister site CNET News.com. | | EPIC director Marc Rotenberg, whose nonprofit group obtained the | documents through the Freedom of Information Act, said the CIA's | clandestine involvement was worrisome. "The intelligence community is | changing the priorities of scientific research in the US," Rotenberg | said. "You have to be careful that the National Science Foundation | doesn't become the National Spy Foundation." | | A CIA representative would not answer questions, saying the agency's | policy is never to talk about funding. The two Rensselaer Polytechnic | Institute researchers involved, Bulent Yener and Mukkai | Krishnamoorthy, did not respond to interview requests. | | Yener and Krishnamoorthy, both associate professors of computer | science, wrote that their research would involve writing a program | for "silently listening" to an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel and | "logging all the messages". | | A June 2004 paper they published, also funded by the NSF, described a | project that quietly monitored users of the popular Undernet network, | which has about 144,000 users and 50,000 channels. In the paper, | Yener and Krishnamoorthy predicted their work "could aid [the] | intelligence | community to eavesdrop in chatrooms, profile chatters and identify | hidden groups of chatters in a cost-effective way" and that their | future research will focus on identifying "topic-based information". | | | | -- | -- | | = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = | Via / By / Excerpted / From / Tip from / Thanks to: | | JULES SIEGEL Apdo. 1764 77501-Cancun Q. Roo Mexico | http://www.cafecancun.com/portfolio | | Newsroom-l, news and issues for journalists | http://www.newsroom-l.net/blog | | ? info | http://members.tripod.com/~media002/disclaimer.htm | Due to the nature of email & the WWW, check ALL sources. | = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = | | [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] | | | Yahoo! 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