That's right. No one knows if it's "fit for purpose" because no one knows what's happening including the Secretary of Defense about his own office. He may want it that way to deny as the DoD did with Clinton when questions about abuses arose.
This massive infrastructure magnificently revealed in TSA can hide black ops and R&D that would terrify if known. Worse, it would lead to proper oversight. At the moment the very dark side of the human character can find expression in this monstrous mountain of buildings, companies and people.
This morass can be seen as intentional since it hides and avoids the legal constraints placed upon government and its employees. The essence of spying is to keep it all secret since it's illegal. What is known and how it is obtained must never be known. Confusion is the ultimate cover.
Fortunately, TSA is beginning to peel the onion.
I can see President Obama more and more inside the bubble. If a whistle blower crackdown exists, then the abuses will flourish all the more from inside this intelligence monolith. What's really needed are for those who are targeted with abuse to speak up and communicate it. They are not subject to secrecy laws just more abuse to discredit the truth they report and the reluctance of the recipient of the information to accept it. I'm reminded of the 1980's film "The Whistleblower" with Michael Caine where GCHQ issues were suppressed by methods more associated with the USSR against whom the intelligence effort was being directed.
What is splendid and magnificent about TSA are the uses of the Internet employed so that networking can work to provide the Washington Post, Dana Priest, Bill Arkin, et al with feedback and comment from many sources. People can work through their reported information to provide them with more information. They in turn have a problem about publishing classified information that readers especially targets of intelligence abuse do not have when posting what they've learned from the abusers.
The @PostTSA etc can bring all of this together for the world to see and turn it into a meaningful whole. What they are doing is truly mind boggling in all its aspects, and they could not have selected a better or more important project. It's a real coup for democratic journalism that will keep those who seek to deceive honest (we all hope).
One or two specialist intelligence agencies are needed to track al-Qaeda whatever or whoever they might be. The other 1298 are needed for domestic and international surveillance to identify, track, monitor and generally interfere with or kill if necessary those who are not liked for whatever reason. It's called internal security but exists on a global basis under the ruse of seeking out Osama bin Laden and his ever multiplying network. Taliban?
Fundamentally, the intelligence agency build up occurred as a means to keep those who were in power at 9/11 at the top indefinitely. It didn't quite work out that way, but don't worry they will be back. The few can control the hundreds of millions as Mao, Stalin & Hitler did for a time. Fear generated by creating an elusive enemy that is never ending allows a structure to grow for the control of dissent under the ruse of dealing with the forever elusive enemy al-Qaeda.
1300 intelligence agencies reflect empire building by those who have something to hide and fear exposure. Has the world ever seen anything like it? The huge wealth of the US has been diverted by the current $75 billion/year to an intelligence community for control purposes of the domestic population in the US and elsewhere. It has nothing to do with al-Qaeda, obviously, and reflects the rise of those who have no ability to do anything based upon an inclination and to lie, cheat and steal for their own greed, glory and power.
By the way I do think the terrorist threat is real and needs a proportional, specific and intelligent response. What has happened, however, is that the intelligence community has developed into an industry that thrives on terrorism and needs to keep it going in order to survive. Do not expect this conflict to end anytime soon. It will be perpetual as George Orwell described in "1984" where Big Brother mechanisms were used to control the population. Room 101 is now quite real and operating worldwide.
Since the comments here raise the issue of HUMINT and SIGINT, I'll add this to the discussion since it has not even begun to sink in that these are now combined. The human being can be tracked and completely monitored by Tempest with brainwaves decoded as i've described in other communications this week which I have put on my blog. It's a big step to present this to the world that takes enormous courage because of the ridicule that will result and official attacks which will occur the mildest of which will be "sensationalism."
As I see it, what you are doing is preparing a massive and absolutely essential foundation for going in the direction of ever elusive truth made doubly so by the very nature of the intelligence community. Whether you get to the point of broaching this essential step forward by the intelligence community that I believe has come from the NSA remains to be seen. You have a great difficulty in reporting what might be considered classified. In any case no discussion can move forward in any meaningful way until the fact of brainwave monitoring and feedback is established.
As I've described, I've been a surveillance target for 12 years 9.5 years of that subjected to 24/7/365 brainwave monitoring and feedback surveillance technology based upon Tempest since February 2001 seven months before 9/11. This was introduced by two USMC (Ret) US Agents the senior of whom went off to Kabul after the end of the successful invasion of Afghanistan following 9/11.
Based upon all my experience during these 12 years 24/7/365 which I have completely documented continuously to create a complete record, I believe that the whole thrust of the intelligence community is toward this type of intelligence gathering against the human being which can be done by satellite from any location in the world. Once you understand this, many events over these years will fall into place. This is why there are 1300 agencies using the al-Qaeda ruse to do this work.
It will require massive computer power for it's a step forward from Echelon to intercepting electromagnetic radiation from the human being and decoding it as will also be done with computer technology and all electronic devices. Wire tapping is a thing of the past. So is cryptography. Proximity to electronic devices is the future not turning senior people to divulge information. Their brains can be read, eyes seen through, ears listened with and so on. HUMINT old style has merged with SIGINT. What do you want to call it? Have a naming contest.
Massive supercomputers will be needed to process this information Every language will be needed to read the minds of targets and understand what people are thinking, saying and hearing. When the target uses a computer, as I am doing now to write this, the language will have to be known to the person monitoring. All of these intercepts can be electronically stored, scanned dictionary style and then examined. This is what I believe the 1300 agencies are doing and especially the contractors who are not government employees. Everything is being done to keep this secret.
In my Facebook comment I described this same conclusion based upon my experience from the external observation position of its observable effects. This ties in with that by providing the foundation of what is actually being done and how it is being developed using non-consenting human guinea pigs like myself as indefinite surveillance targets until silenced by death. In the meantime everything is used to discredit what I report by any means, and the media (yup, that's you) will not pick it up. You will not get this one from the top It will have to come from people like me who are subjected to it at the bottom.
There is much more to be said about these 1300 agencies, and my Facebook comments go in that direction. The discussion needs to be opened to include brainwave monitoring surveillance.
I cannot praise you and Bill Arkin enough for what you are doing. I believe that I know what is going on inside all those buildings. I know why they all have special rooms. I know why it's so important to have a secure phone system. It's all because of Tempest which is now able to intercept and decode the human brainwaves surrounding the head
