UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
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Without leaving their desks, government
intelligence analysts could soon be viewing information from a massive
supercomputer that sifts through government databases, private databases and
Internet mail to search for patterns indicative of illegal activity.
And they won't need a search warrant to do
so.
Known as Total Information Awareness, the
computer is being built by the Information Awareness Office of the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency. It will use pattern recognition
techniques known as data
mining.
"What we are doing is developing
technologies and a prototype system to revolutionize the ability of the United
States to detect, classify and identify foreign terrorists, and decipher their
plans, and thereby enable the US to take timely action to successfully pre-empt
and defeat terrorist acts," said Jan Walker, a defense spokesperson.
Security
over privacy
Historically, military and intelligence
agencies have not been permitted to spy on Americans without authorization. In
addition, the Privacy Act of
1974 limits what government agencies can do with private information.
But following the terrorist attacks of
September 11, privacy concerns have been less important than security concerns.
This has led to new legislation that eliminates privacy protections, some of
which has been proposed by the Bush administration in the Homeland
Security Act that is now before Congress.
All of this worries
civil liberties proponents.
"This could be the perfect storm for civil liberties in America," Marc
Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy
Information Center in Washington, told
The New York Times. "The vehicle is the Homeland Security Act,
the technology is DARPA and the agency is the FBI. The outcome is a system of
national surveillance of the American public."
Civil libertarians argue that the new
system will lead to a surveillance state, and that potential terrorists will
soon learn how to avoid detection anyway.
And there is no way of knowing when the
snooping has begun: Military officials will not say when TIA will become
operational.
How It Works
John Markoff of the New York Times describes the capability of the TIA program:
"...it will provide intelligence analysts and law enforcement officials with instant access to information from Internet mail and calling records to credit card and banking transactions and travel documents, without a search warrant. Historically, military and intelligence agencies have not been permitted to spy on Americans without extraordinary legal authorization. But Admiral Poindexter, the former national security adviser in the Reagan administration, has argued that the government needs broad new powers to process, store and mine billions of minute details of electronic life in the United States. Admiral Poindexter, who has described the plan in public documents and speeches but declined to be interviewed, has said that the government needs to 'break down the stovepipes' that separate commercial and government databases, allowing teams of intelligence agency analysts to hunt for hidden patterns of activity with powerful computers."
The
Web: The Pentagon's private Internet
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Chicago, IL, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- The Pentagon has
begun a massive program -- whose budget dwarfs the Manhattan Project to build
the first atomic bomb -- to install its own encrypted, private computer
Called
the Global Information Grid,
or GIG, the Pentagon is budgeting approximately $200 billion on the
network-centric warfare project over the coming decade, which is intended to
give soldiers and sailors bandwidth on the battlefield powerful enough to
download three full-length motion pictures in a few seconds.
"The
old way of making war does not work anymore," said Wolfgang Gentzsch,
managing director for grid computing at MCNC, a computer research firm in
Research Triangle Park, N.C.
"In
Iraq, the opposition is working in cells -- they are distributed," Gentzsch
told UPI's The Web. "But our troops are operating in a centralized fashion.
The answer is a distributed infrastructure of many kinds of resources --
computers, storage, networks and sensors. This will make the soldiers on the
edge as independent, flexible, and intelligent as possible."
Earlier
this month, contractors announced they had completed the initial operational
capacity tests for the new network for the Defense Information Systems Agency.
Juniper Networks Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., working through prime contractor
Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego, completed installation of
Internet-protocol routing platforms at one of the six planned GIG hub sites.
"Reaching
the milestone on budget and on schedule demonstrates that our vendors are
successfully supporting the DoD's goal of leveraging information technology to
more efficiently network our troops with operations," Lt. Gen. Harry D.
Raudege, director of DISA, said in a statement.
Thus
far, vendors told The Web, between 80 and 90 sites around the globe have been
connected to the GIG, a fiber-optic cable-based network with up to 10 Gigabits
per second connectivity. In the future, that could be expanded dramatically --
to 40 Gbps.
Chip
Elliott, a principal engineer with BBN Technologies, a networking firm in
Cambridge, Mass., said work has been going on for the GIG for several years
behind the scenes.
"It
is just coming to light now," he said, "but the scale of this is quite
staggering."
Much
of the project is shrouded in secrecy. In fact, one contractor, SI International
of Reston, Va., would not comment on the record for the story, even after UPI
agreed to submit questions in advance. What is known has been disclosed through
contracts announced by the Pentagon and its vendors.
"We
are under non-disclosure agreement," Elliott said, "but there is
public knowledge about certain aspects of the project."
He
said year ago, BBN helped create the Internet -- at the time known as the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Network, or DARPA-Net, also for the Pentagon.
Other experts told The Web there are four main components to the GIG:
a fiber optic network connecting sites, such as buildings, around the globe;
a satellite system to relay high-speed connectivity and satellite imagery to troops in the field;
a radio network,, and
a
bevy of next-generation encryption devices
to keep all communications secure.
"We're
very actively in the building stage right now," Elliott said.
Some
of the hardware being used is known publicly. For example, the Pentagon is using
M and T series routing platforms from Juniper, technologies that integrate
easily with high-performance routers, firewalls, Frame/ATM switches, virtual
private network appliances, packet shapers and traffic monitoring and analysis
devices.
Many
of the technologies are commercial off-the-shelf products used by commercial
companies, vendors told UPI.
"For
economy's sake, the government didn't lay all of their own fiber," Marty
Schulman, chief technologist at Juniper's federal division in Herndon, Va., told
The Web. "They do use the same cable bundles that carry commercial
telephone traffic, but we are not privy to the details with interconnections
with other systems. I would expect that any exchange points with commercial
Internet take place at a limited number of well-managed, well-guarded points,
but nobody would want to see lots of the details of this disclosed."
Just
as the Internet revolutionized computing and society decades after its initial
debut, so too will this network offer commercial spin-offs in the coming years
that are not yet even imagined.
Gentzsch
said the new Pentagon Internet is a prime example of what is called in the
computing community "grid computing," which is the latest, most
advanced stage of IT.
Rather
than using a network to bring information back to a centralized location, the
Pentagon, or a battlefield commander's office, sensors can be used to capture
data in the field and analyze it over the network,
enabling the soldiers themselves to make the decision.
"This
is part of the trend of going away from the supercomputer and towards delivering
computing in every cell -- through sensors," said Gentzsch. "There are
sensor fields out there, and, very soon, computing data and intelligence will be
resident in them to do part of the job."
The
network, with sensors in the field, could even help reduce human error in
tactical decision making during combat.
"The
only one who benefited from centralization was the general," Gentzsch said,
"but human faults and attitudes can overload one when decision making time
comes."
The
network could become so advanced one day that sensors might even be incorporated
into soldiers' clothing, so if they are wounded, their blood pressure, blood
loss, and other vital signs can be wired to a doctor -- perhaps hundreds or
thousands of miles away -- who can direct medics as to how to deal with the
trauma, immediately, Gentzsch said.
"Grid computing will help solve more complex problems and challenges than in the past," he added. "It will create a permanent feedback loop where we will be in constant contact with the tools we create."
Sun's Wolfgang Gentzsch On the Evolution Of GridDenver, Colorado--HPCwire recently spoke with Wolfgang Gentzsch, Engineering Director for Grid Software at Sun Microsystems Inc. In the following interview, Dr. Gentzsch talks about the evolution of Grid Computing and the latest developments at Sun. HPCwire: Let's start with why. Why is Grid Computing so important? GENTZSCH: Inevitable would be a better term to use. Increased network bandwidth, more powerful computers, and the acceptance of the Internet have driven the on-going demand for new and better ways to compute. Commercial enterprises, academic institutions, and research organizations alike continue to take advantage of these advancements, and constantly seek new technologies and practices that enable them to reinvent the way they conduct business. Therein lies the need for Grid Computing. HPCwire: What are the challenges for IT administrators in businesses? GENTZSCH: The same as always. They are being asked to reduce development costs, improve the time-to-market, provide greater throughput, and improve quality and innovation. In addition, they must deal with the reality that computational needs are outpacing the ability of most organizations to deploy sufficient resources to meet growing workload demands. Today, a vast amount of potential computing capacity remains untapped. Users are continually searching for more computing resources to help solve problems, resulting in systems that are alternately over-loaded or under-utilized. With some tasks taking days and weeks to run, the practice of manually starting and restarting jobs wastes valuable time and reduces productivity. Clearly, in order for users to optimize productivity, they must focus on design and development rather than hunting for resources. No group is without resource constraints. Investments in computing hardware need to be justified -- total cost of ownership (TCO) is a critical priority, and organizations must find ways to enable more work to be done with available resources. Beyond the expense of constantly upgrading hardware to meet increasing performance needs, administrators must cope with the inefficiency of maintaining hardware and software configurations unique to each system. Organizations need an efficient solution that gives them a greater return on their computing investment without compromising performance. On top of these challenges is the need to handle dynamically changing workloads. The truth is, flexibility is key. In a world with rapidly changing markets, enterprises need to quickly provide compute power where it is needed most. Indeed, if systems could be dynamically created when they are needed, teams could harness these resources to increase innovation and better achieve their objectives. Imagine if all this could be done today. It can, with Grid Computing. HPCwire: So how do you define Grid Computing? GENTZSCH: Grid Computing is computation, collaboration and communication over the advanced web. It's a model for problem solving, through resource pooling in virtual systems. At the heart of Grid Computing is a computing infrastructure that provides dependable, consistent, pervasive and inexpensive access to computational capabilities. Researchers working to solve many of the most difficult scientific problems have long understood the potential of such shared distributed computing systems. Development teams focused on technical products, like semiconductors, are using Grid Computing to achieve higher throughput. Likewise, the business community is beginning to recognize the importance of distributed systems in applications such as data mining and economic modeling. With a grid, networked resources-desktops, servers, storage, databases, even scientific instruments-can be combined to deploy massive computing power and for collaboration and communication. Users can find resources quickly, use them efficiently, and scale them seamlessly. HPCwire: You say the world has taken notice, but have they adopted the Grid Computing model? GENTZSCH: The adoption of Grid Computing is increasing at a phenomenal rate. In fact, Sun estimates Grid Computing will grow 300 percent by the year 2003. HPCwire: Why do you think Grid Computing will grow at such a pace? GENTZSCH: Conceptually, a grid is quite simple--it is a collection of computing resources that performs tasks. By pooling federated assets, a grid provides a single point of access to powerful distributed resources. Users can literally submit thousands of jobs at a time without knowing--or caring--where they will run. Innovative application of the model continues to spread both in research and business. It's just that compelling, and this will fuel the explosive adoption rate. HPCwire: How would you break down the Grid Computing architecture? GENTZSCH: A grid actually consists of a layered architecture. Resource management loads the grid. Infrastructure software links the grid. System management monitors the grid. Portals enable access to the grid. Tools facilitate the development of applications for the grid. Behind it all, networking infrastructure, rich clients, Web servers, high speed storage, and compute servers make this possible. No two grids are alike, and no size fits all. By utilizing a flexible computing architecture based on clusters -- systems and software that manage work on distributed systems -- organizations can create and recreate grids to exactly match changing requirements. HPCwire: How does Sun see the model of Grid Computing evolving? GENTZSCH: Sun sees three stages of Grid Computing: Cluster Grids, Campus Grids, and Global Grids. Today, Cluster Grids are the most popular and simplest form of a grid. Meeting the needs of most organizations, Cluster Grids consist of several systems working together to provide a single point of access to users. Typically owned and used by a small number of users, such as a project or department, Cluster Grids support both high throughput and high performance jobs. Resources in the grid can be focused on a narrow set of repetitive tasks, or made to work in true parallel fashion to execute a complex job. For example, EDA organizations employ Cluster Grids to complete many discrete jobs quickly, while MCAE environments run simulations on different machines in parallel that communicate with each other to solve a set of related problems. Campus Grids are the next level of this model. As capacity needs and demands for greater economy increase, organizations can combine their Cluster Grids into Campus Grids. Campus Grids enable multiple projects or departments to share computing resources in a cooperative way. Campus Grids may consist of dispersed workstations and servers, as well as centralized resources located in multiple administrative domains, in departments, or across the enterprise. Organizations can use Campus Grids to handle a wide variety of tasks, including collaborative engineering, mining large databases, rendering frames for animations, absorbing increased loads during cyclical business processes, and more. And ultimately, this model evolves to Global Grids. When application needs exceed the capacity of a Campus Grid, organizations can tap partner resources through a Global Grid. Designed to support and address the needs of multiple sites and organizations sharing resources, Global Grids provide the power of distributed resources to users anywhere in the world. Global Grids are a collection of Campus Grids, all of which have agreed upon global usage policies and protocols, but not necessarily the same implementation. Computing resources may be geographically dispersed, connecting sites around the globe. They can be used by individuals or organizations sending overflow work to a grid provider, or by multiple companies working together and sharing data -- crossing organizational boundaries with ease. HPCwire: What is the ultimate pay-off of the Grid? GENTZSCH: While the Net provides universal connectivity and access to information, one more step remains. The Grid -- a universal computing infrastructure -- builds on the power of the Net. Extending the Net to its logical conclusion, the Grid offers the opportunity to harness connectivity and change the way people work. Users can now think of the rest of the world as a computational resource ready to be tapped. Organizations can get immediate and easy access to information and services, solve problems, and offer services to anyone in the world. Indeed, just as the global community uses the Net to communicate, one day the world will use the grid to compute and collaborate. The Grid -- the IT infrastructure of the future -- promises to transform computation, communication, and collaboration. Over time, these will be seen in the context of grids - academic grids, enterprise grids, research grids, entertainment grids, community grids, and so on. Grids will become service-driven with lightweight clients accessing computing resources over the Internet. Datacenters will be safe, reliable, and available from anywhere in the world. Applications will be part of a wide spectrum of network-delivered services that include compute cycles, data processing tools, accounting and monitoring, and more. While these changes will revolutionize the way work is done, there will be no disruption in the technology or the way it is used. Always at the forefront, we feel Sun will do for the Grid what it did for the Net-- power it. HPCwire: So you think Sun is well positioned to enable Grid Computing? GENTZSCH: Despite news to the contrary, the grid is not a futuristic fantasy or technological pipe dream. The grid is here, and available from Sun today. In fact, many Sun customers are exploiting the power of distributed computing with grid technology right now. Based on our own research, in the course of just one year, Sun's powerful Grid Engine software is now being used to manage over 118,000 CPUs in roughly 2,000 Cluster Grids worldwide, enabling organizations to put their untapped computing power to work. How hard is it to build a grid? Sony Devices Europe created a Sun grid in just two days. How big can grids get? Ford Motor Company employs 1,000 CPUs for MCAE tasks. How capable are grids? The Durham University Cosmology Engine performs 465 billion arithmetic operations per second on a Sun Cluster Grid. What happens if a grid is not big enough? Organizations can incorporate more resources into their grids, or rent computing resource time from providers, dynamically configuring and reconfiguring the grid as needs dictate. How confident is Sun that Grid Computing is real? Sun itself has a 4,000 CPU Campus Grid that features 98 percent CPU utilization executing over 50,000 EDA jobs a day. We know it works. HPCwire: What is Sun's stance on industry standards? GENTZSCH: Sun understands the importance of standards and is engaged in helping establish useful, widely applicable standards that benefit customers. UNIX®, TCP/IP, NFS and Java all stand witness to Sun's leadership in delivering on the promise of open systems. Sun continues this trend with the Distributed Resource Management Application API (DRMAA), a standards initiative for Grid Computing that aims to facilitate application portability across DRM implementations. Open and community source projects, such as NetBeans, Sun Cluster Tools, and Sun Grid Engine, support Sun's belief in collaborative development, helping users accelerate the development and deployment of distributed computing technology. Sun is constantly shaping the future of computing by investing in new technology. Sun recognizes that a consistent, continuous application of time and resources is needed to meet the needs of a rapidly-changing computing marketplace. Significant investments in high performance, low-cost servers, advanced software environments and tools, and adherence to standards ensure that Sun customers will always have access to the best products available. Sun also maintains alliances with other industry leaders, such as Globus and Avaki, in a concerted effort to expand the capabilities for researchers and for companies to deliver new products and technologies that foster greater productivity, higher quality products, reduced time-to-market, and ultimately an improved bottom line. The powerful combination of robust Sun servers and sophisticated distributed resource management software gives organizations a fully integrated solution for Grid Computing today. BackgroundWolfgang Gentzsch is the Engineering Director for Grid Software at Sun Microsystems, Inc. He joined Sun in July 2000, with Sun's acquisition of Gridware, a US/Germany based software company exclusively focussing on distributed computing. He was cofounder of Gridware in 1999, and founder of its predecessor Genias Software, in 1990. From 1985 to 2000, he was a professor of mathematics and computer science at the University of Applied Sciences in Regensburg, Germany, and at the same time a consultant for many vector, parallel and distributed computing companies. |
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Hey
Byron - - - all of your 'laundry' is going to be on the line. Not
only this they will 'know' your exact location via the DOD GPS systems to within
about 6 inches THEY
WILL ALSO KNOW HOW MUCH YOU OWN, WHERE YOU BANK, AND HOW MUCH MONEY YOU HAVE. When you travel and use a Credit Card or make a cell phone
call they will just update your current location information when
'your initiated action' is completed. Better make sure your shorts are
clean.
Just as Bush is quoted, "You can run but you cannot hide".
Does that go for the U.S. citizen
as well?
Ps. Notice the 'headlines' on this
in the media? Where?
(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking records under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. ' 552, from the Department of Defense concerning Pentagon funded programs engaged in “strategic influence, perception management, strategic information warfare and/or strategic psychological operations” through media consultants, “think tanks,” foreign expatriate political organizations and Internet sites. Judicial Watch filed its FOIA request with the Pentagon on March 23, 2004. Following eight (8) requests for a status update, several phone calls and Judicial Watch offers to accept incremental production of the requested records, the Pentagon produced only two (2) spreadsheets listing Defense Department contracts. Judicial Watch was forced to file suit on February 25, 2005.
Judicial Watch is seeking, among other matters; information on a “peace movement” Internet site that reportedly was funded and established by the Pentagon called “Empower Peace.” The site was developed by The Rendon Group, a media consultancy firm the Pentagon has paid more than $40 million dollars to since 2001, and targets participation of American school age children, teachers and schools in what appears to be a “grassroots” peace movement. The Rendon Group’s relationship with the Pentagon has been reported in the New York Times and public relations trade magazines. “Empower Peace” offers “cultural awareness,” interactive web broadcasts between New York and Jordan, as well as Boston and Bahrain, and interaction with school age children of Islamic countries. There is no indication on the site that it is a project of the U.S. Defense Department.
The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 (22 U.S.C. ' 1461), forbids the domestic dissemination of U.S. government authored or developed propaganda or “official news” deliberately designed to influence public opinion or policy. The Pentagon has made aggressive use of various information warfare techniques, developing new programs and hiring outside media consultants in executing their various missions in the Global War on Terror.
“Programs such as ‘Empower Peace,’ in addition to their dubious value, may be in violation of U.S. law,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.