GOV/MIL New NSA center near Augusta, GA?

[FarmerJohn]

Has anyone here seen the new NSA center near Augusta, GA? It's supposed to be a whopper, with a price tag of around one billion dollars. It's expected to be fully online by 2012.

I learned of it a few years ago from James Bamford's book The Shadow Factory. I've just re-read parts of the book, including it's creepy last line:

There is now the capacity to make tyranny total in America. Only law ensures that we never fall into that abyss--the abyss from which there is no return.

FJ

http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/102107/bus_148538.shtml

 

[fredkc]

Whatever we let govt do to "them" will also be used on us.

 

[Brutus]

Certainly, anything can be abused, but the NSA does have a legitimate function in the defense of our country (something that many of you seem to have forgotten). With the increase in cell phones, sat phones, 'puters, etc. among everyone - namely our enemies - they've probably run out of capacity and space to build at Fort Meade.

I'm assuming this is going to be at Fort Gordon? Logical choice as that is/was the home of the US Army Signal Corps.

 

[hrspwr]

Are they hiring? I knew a lot of folks who had good jobs and worked near 32 and 175 in MD.

 

[FarmerJohn]

Certainly, anything can be abused, but the NSA does have a legitimate function in the defense of our country (something that many of you seem to have forgotten). With the increase in cell phones, sat phones, 'puters, etc. among everyone - namely our enemies - they've probably run out of capacity and space to build at Fort Meade.

Please don't assume that I was accusing NSA of abusing it's powers or anything of that sort. I've one friend and one relative who've worked for the and can't imagine those kind of people doing anything nefarious.

However, the place is supposed to be the size of three Wal-mart supercenters so it might possibly be noticed. If anybody notices a lot of middle-eastern types around Augusta or hears Arabic, Farsi, Pashto or Urdu being spoken in the local Wal-mart or wherever, it's probably because that location is now a big locus for that kind of specialist.

Bamford has written extensively, respectfully and non alarmist on the NSA in Body of Secrets, The Puzzle Palace, A Pretext for War and most recently The Shadow Factory. Perhaps because of that sober history I was also struck by something else that he wrote in The Shadow Factory:

Well beyond word spotting [in phone or internet communications], NSA is also developing another tool that... is designed to know what people are thinking. With the entire Internet and thousands of databases for a brain, the device will be able to respond almost instantaneously to complex questions posed by intelligence analysts. As more and more data is collected--through phone calls, credit card receipts, social networks like facebook and MySpace, GPS tracks cell phone geolocation, Internet searches,Amazon book purchaces, even E-Z Pass toll records--it may one day be possible to know not just where people are and what they are doing, but what and how they think. The system is so potentially intrusive that at least one researcher has quit, citing concerns over the dangers in placing such a powerful weapon in the hands of a top-secret agency with little accountability.

FJ

 

[FarmerJohn]

Are they hiring? I knew a lot of folks who had good jobs and worked near 32 and 175 in MD.

Do they speak Arabic, Farsi, Pashto or Urdu really well and can pass a very thorough security check, I'll bet the can get a job at Ft. Meade or Ft. Gordon.

FJ

 

[energy_wave]

Well beyond word spotting [in phone or internet communications], NSA is also developing another tool that... is designed to know what people are thinking. With the entire Internet and thousands of databases for a brain, the device will be able to respond almost instantaneously to complex questions posed by intelligence analysts. As more and more data is collected--through phone calls, credit card receipts, social networks like facebook and MySpace, GPS tracks cell phone geolocation, Internet searches,Amazon book purchaces, even E-Z Pass toll records--it may one day be possible to know not just where people are and what they are doing, but what and how they think. The system is so potentially intrusive that at least one researcher has quit, citing concerns over the dangers in placing such a powerful weapon in the hands of a top-secret agency with little accountability.

Maybe the beast is not human, but a nation wide computer system that oversees everything. That would explain the mark, a bar code really, that we will all have to wear. The mark of the Beast.

 

[Brutus]

Please don't assume that I was accusing NSA of abusing it's powers or anything of that sort. I've one friend and one relative who've worked for the and can't imagine those kind of people doing anything nefarious.

However, the place is supposed to be the size of three Wal-mart supercenters so it might possibly be noticed. If anybody notices a lot of middle-eastern types around Augusta or hears Arabic, Farsi, Pashto or Urdu being spoken in the local Wal-mart or wherever, it's probably because that location is now a big locus for that kind of specialist.

Bamford has written extensively, respectfully and non alarmist on the NSA in Body of Secrets, The Puzzle Palace, A Pretext for War and most recently The Shadow Factory. Perhaps because of that sober history I was also struck by something else that he wrote in The Shadow Factory:



FJ

I was responding more to Fred than to you.

 

[changed]

I thought it was supposed to be a nuke plant.