[Infowarrior] - Open-Source Spying

[Richard Forno]

December 3, 2006
Open-Source Spying
By CLIVE THOMPSON

When Matthew Burton arrived at the Defense Intelligence Agency in January
2003, he was excited about getting to his computer. Burton, who was then 22,
had long been interested in international relations: he had studied Russian
politics and interned at the U.S. consulate in Ukraine, helping to speed
refugee applications of politically persecuted Ukrainians. But he was also a
big high-tech geek fluent in Web-page engineering, and he spent hours every
day chatting online with friends and updating his own blog. When he was
hired by the D.I.A., he told me recently, his mind boggled at the
futuristic, secret spy technology he would get to play with: search engines
that can read minds, he figured. Desktop video conferencing with colleagues
around the world. If the everyday Internet was so awesome, just imagine how
much better the spy tools would be.

But when he got to his cubicle, his high-tech dreams collapsed. ³The
reality,² he later wrote ruefully, ³was a colossal letdown.²

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/magazine/03intelligence.html?_r=1&oref=slo
gin&pagewanted=print