Friday, June 14, 2013

The CIA and Facebook Walk Into a Bar....

Two years ago, the Onion New Network did a parody of Facebook and the CIA.  They reported on how the CIA extended the funding for their biggest information gathering platform - Facebook.




When I first saw this video, I laughed out loud.  Who would have thought that the Onion News Network actually came close to the truth?

While some people think that the CIA has a connection to Facebook, I find the facts scary enough without attempting to add in potential back door connections.  The fact that I'm speaking of?  In 1999, the CIA created its own venture capital company, In-Q-Tel, for the purpose of utilizing the private sector to create new technologies applicable to intelligence gathering. (For more information, see the CIA website.)

To be clear here, that means that the CIA is using tax money from the American people to create technology to spy on the American people.

Since 1999, In-Q-Tel has contributed to over 130 technological advances that help intelligence gathering, from creating longer-lasting, smaller batteries to facial recognition software to quantum computers to Keyhole, satellite-mapping software. Google bought Keyhole in  2004, and renamed it Google Earth.  In fact, Google based not only Google Earth, but Google Maps and all of its associated services on Keyhole.

If you want more information, you can find a list of all the companies currently working with In-Q-Tel here.  You can also find similar information on Wikipedia.

Before you point out that the CIA focuses on foreign intelligence gathering, let me ask you a question.  Do you really think that the FBI, CIA, and NSA don't share resources and technologies?  In fact, I hypothesize that the intelligence community might have picked the CIA to begin In-Q-Tel to make the situation more palatable for the tax payers.  Think about it - what kind of uproar would have happened if the NSA or FBI said that they want new ways to spy on Americans?

The big question is:  What will we do now?  Do we keep rolling over, accepting the false statement that safety trumps liberties?  Or do we fight to get our liberties back?

No comments:

Post a Comment

Feel free to agree or disagree, just be polite.

Freaky Friday News: Unicorn Licenses

Los Angeles County Gives a Young Resident a Unicorn License Last month, a resident of Los Angeles county, Miss Madeline, sent a handwritte...