IN-Q-TEL CIA, DARPA - VENTURE CAPITAL FIRMS INVESTING IN TECHNOLOGIES TO SPY ON AMERICAN CITIZENS

Transcript

[Music] gain scan Corporation manufactures low power Wi-Fi semiconductors that form the heart of modern remote sensing monitoring and control Technologies recorded futur Inc is a Massachusetts web startup that monitors the web in real time and claims its media analytic search engine can be used to predict the future Keyhole Corp created the 3D Earth visualization technology that became the core of Google Earth the common denominator all of these companies and hundreds more cuttingedge technology and software startups have received seed money and investment funding from inel the cia's own Venture Capital firm welcome this is James Corbett of the Corbett Report with your eyeopener report for boiling frogs post.com for decades the defense Advanced research projects agency or DARPA has been the American governmental body tasked with conducting high-risk High payoff Research into cuttingedge Science and Technology responsible most famously for developing the world's first operational packet switching Network that eventually became the core of the internet DARPA tends to Garner headlines these days for some of its more outlandish research proposals and is generally looked upon as a blue sky research agency whose Endeavors only occasionally bear fruit in the post 911 consolidation of the American intelligence Community iarpa or or the intelligence Advanced research projects agency was created to serve as the Spy Masters equivalent of darpa's Defense research in contrast to this inel was formed by the CIA in 1999 as a private not for-profit Venture Capital firm with the specific task of delivering technology to America's intelligence Community publicly inel markets itself as an Innovative way to Leverage The Power of the private sector by identifying key emerging Technologies and providing companies with the funding to bring those Technologies to Market in reality however what inel represents is a dangerous blurring of the lines between the public and private sectors in a way that makes it difficult to tell where the American intelligence Community ends and the IT sector begins inel has generated a number of headlines since its Inception based on what can only be described as the creepiness factor of its investments in overtly or Willian Technologies in 2004 km World published an interview with Greg peeps then inq tell senior director of federal and intelligence Community strategy about some of their Investments peeps was especially proud of the cia's investment in inite a company that offered software for data mining unstructured data sources like blogs and websites with analytical processing in 2006 it was revealed that AT&T had provided NSA Eve droppers full access to its customers internet traffic and that the American intelligence Community was illegally scooping up reams of internet data wholesale the data mining equipment installed in the NSA backd door aerys sta 6400 was developed by a company whose Partners were funded by inel also in 2006 News 21 reported on an inel investment in call Miner a company developing technology for turning recorded telephone conversations into searchable databases in late 2005 it was revealed that the NSA had been engaged in an illegal warrantless wiretapping program since at least the time of the 9/11 attack monitoring the private domestic phone calls of American citizens in breach of their fourth amendment rights in 2009 the telegraph reported on inq tell's investment in visible Technologies a company specializing in software that monitors what people are saying on social media websites like YouTube Twitter Flickr and Amazon the software is capable of real-time Communications tracking Trend monitoring and even sentiment analysis that categorizes blog posts and comments as positive negative or neutral just last month the Federal Reserve tendered a request for proposal for just this type of software so the privately owned Central Bank could monitor what people are saying about it online two of the names that come up most often in connection with inel however need no introduction Google and Facebook the publicly available record on the Facebook inel connection is tenuous Facebook received $12.7 million in venture capital from Excel whose manager James Brer now sits on their board he was formerly the chairman of the national Venture Capital Association whose board included Gilman Louie then the CEO of incel the connection is indirect but the suggestion of CIA involvement with Facebook however tangential is disturbing in the light of Facebook's history of violating the privacy of its users another black eye for Facebook the social networking giant has reportedly revealed the sexual orientation of some users to advertisers researchers discovered that targeted ads are sent to accounts of people have described themselves as gay or straight now that means a person who wants to keep their private life private may be actually sharing it and just last week we learned some of the most popular apps on Facebook were leaking users information to advertisers do you feel like it's a backlash or that you feel like you're violating people's privacy do you you feel like you're adequately portrayed as a because I want to wonder about the person who actually created this thing yeah I mean I you know a lot of stuff happen happened along the way I think um you know there were real learning points and turning points along the way in terms of um in terms of building things a recently released IM conversation between Facebook founder Mark zukerberg and a friend revealed the underlying attitude of Facebook towards its users The Exchange took place in 2004 when Zuckerberg had recently started the popular social networking website in it he told the friend quote quote Yeah so if you ever need any info about anyone at Harvard just ask I have over 4,000 emails pictures addresses SNS to which the friend replied what how do you manage that one and zukerberg responded people just submitted it I don't know why they trust me dumb Google's connection to inel is more straightforward if officially denied in 2006 excia officer Robert David steel told Homeland Security today that Google had been taking money in direction for elements of the US intelligence Community including the office of research and development at the Central Intelligence Agency inel and in all probability both the National Security Agency and the Army's intelligence and security command later that year a blogger claimed that an official Google spokesman had denied the claims but no official press statement was released Steel's accusation is not the only suggestion of American intelligence involvement with Google however in 2005 inel sold over 5,000 shares of Google's stock the shares are widely presumed to have come from incel's investment in Keyhole Inc which was subsequently bought out by Google but this is uncertain in 2010 it was announced that Google was working directly with the National Security Agency to secure its electronic assets also in 2010 wired reported that incel and Google had jointly provided Venture Capital funding to recorded future Inc a temporal analytic search engine company that analyzes tens of thousands of web sources to predict Trends and events but as potentially alarming as incel's connections to internet giants like Facebook and Google are and as disturbing as its interest in data mining Technologies might be the cia's Venture Capital arm is interested in more than just web trffic monitoring the inel website currently lists two practice areas information and communication Technologies and physical and biological Technologies the latter field consists of capabilities of Interest such as the on-site determination of individual human traits for intelligence Community purposes and tracking Andor authentication of both individuals and objects inel also lists two areas that are on its radar when it comes to biotech nanobio convergence and physiological intelligence detailed breakdowns of each area explain that the intelligence Community is interested in amongst other things self assembling batteries single molecule detectors targeted drug delivery platforms and sensors that can tell where a person has been and what substances he has been handling from biomarkers like Trace compounds in the breath or samples of skin in the years since its formation many have been led to speculate about inel and its Investments but what requires no speculation is an understanding that a privately owned Venture Capital firm created by and for the CIA in which well-connected board members drawn from the private sector can then profit from the investment made with CIA funds that itself come from the taxpayer represents an erosion of the barrier between the public and private spheres that should give even the most credulous pause for thought what does it mean that emerging technology companies are becoming wedded to the CIA as soon as their technology shows promise what can be the public benefit in fostering and encouraging Technologies which can be deployed for spying on all internet users including American citizens in direct contention of the cia's OWN prohibitions against operating domestically if new software and technology is being brought to Market by companies with inel advisers on their boards What Faith Can anyone purchasing American technologies have that their software and Hardware is not designed with CIA back doors to help the American intelligence Community achieve its vision of total information awareness rather than scrutinizing each individual investment that inel makes perhaps an Institutional approach is required at this point the American people have to ask themselves whether they want the CIA an agency that has participated in the overthrow of foreign democratically elected governments an agency that has implanted fake stories in the news media to justify American war interests an agency that at this very moment is engaged in offensive drone strikes killing suspected insurgents and civilians alike in numerous theaters around the world should be entrusted with developing such close relationships with the it sector or whether inel should be scrapped for good this video is part of a new weekly video news series future editions of this series will be available to subscribers of boiling frogs post.com for more news and commentary from James Corbett please visit Corbett