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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRobert Scheer: How the Government Outsourced Intelligence to Silicon Valley
from truthdig:
How the Government Outsourced Intelligence to Silicon Valley
Posted on Feb 18, 2015
By Robert Scheer
Excerpt from They Know Everything About You: How Data-Collecting Corporations and Snooping Government Agencies Are Destroying Democracy (Nation Books, February 2015).
For years, the outsourcing of defense and intelligence work was, with good reason, controversial in political circles. But in the last years of Bill Clintons administration, the president authorized the CIAs creation of the first US governmentsponsored venture capital firm, In-Q-Tel, designed to invest in cutting-edge Silicon Valley companies. The firm, named after Ian Flemings fictional character Q, who masterminds James Bonds spy gadgets, was founded on September 29, 1999, when the intelligence agencies came to realize they couldnt produce the technology required to make sense of the vast amount of data they had acquired.
The firms mission is to identify, adapt, and deliver innovative technology solutions to support the missions of the Central Intelligence Agency and broader US community. This process provided a way of tapping the resources and creativity of Silicon Valleywhich undoubtedly had gained a technological edge over government in the postCold War periodwithout the burden of trying to directly recruit the free spirits of Palo Alto into government bureaucracy.
Under the guise of In-Q-Tel, the CIA has invested in hundreds of start-ups, including a company called Keyhole, whose satellite mapping software became Google Earth. In-Q-Tel proved immensely successful in its first five years, bringing revenue into the agency and, more significantly, allowing it to discreetly co-opt technologies and companies that would exponentially enhance its spying capabilities without causing the public to ever raise an eyebrow.
The practice of tapping tech companies for government work, then, began to shed its taboo and appear increasingly attractive to other governmental entities. For example, NASA and the US Army, inspired by the success of In-Q-Tel, are currently planning to develop their own venture capital firms in its image. Thanks in part to In-Q-Tel, the already substantial for-profit investment in the intelligence area was expanded significantly under President George W. Bush, such that it constituted about 70 percent of the intelligence budget by 2007. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/how_the_government_outsourced_intelligence_to_silicon_valley_20150218
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Robert Scheer: How the Government Outsourced Intelligence to Silicon Valley (Original Post)
marmar
Feb 2015
OP
xchrom
(108,903 posts)1. du rec.
nationalize the fed
(2,169 posts)2. ^
One reply. Astounding. Is Scheer under the bus?