fanaskin
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...871_story.html
NSA growth fueled by need to target terrorists
Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, its civilian and military workforce has grown by one-third, to about 33,000, according to the NSA. Its budget has roughly doubled, and the number of private companies it depends on has more than tripled, from 150 to close to 500, according to a 2010 Washington Post count.
The hiring, construction and contracting boom is symbolic of the hidden fact that in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the NSA became the single most important intelligence agency in finding al-Qaeda and other enemies overseas, according to current and former counterterrorism officials and experts. "We Track 'Em, You Whack 'Em" became a motto for one NSA unit, a former senior agency official said.
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"enabled the agency to find cellphones even when they were turned off."This helped identify "thousands of new targets, including members of a burgeoning al-Qaeda-sponsored insurgency in Iraq," according to members of the special operations unit interviewed by the Post
In 2006, it was reported that the FBI had deployed spyware to infect suspects' mobile phones and record data even when they were turned off. The NSA may have resorted to a similar method in Iraq, albeit on a much larger scale by infecting thousands of users at one time. Though difficult, the mass targeting of populations with Trojan spyware is possible - and not unheard of."
http://warincontext.org/2013/07/23/n....XfyMLwj1.dpuf
NSA growth fueled by need to target terrorists
Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, its civilian and military workforce has grown by one-third, to about 33,000, according to the NSA. Its budget has roughly doubled, and the number of private companies it depends on has more than tripled, from 150 to close to 500, according to a 2010 Washington Post count.
The hiring, construction and contracting boom is symbolic of the hidden fact that in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the NSA became the single most important intelligence agency in finding al-Qaeda and other enemies overseas, according to current and former counterterrorism officials and experts. "We Track 'Em, You Whack 'Em" became a motto for one NSA unit, a former senior agency official said.
------
"enabled the agency to find cellphones even when they were turned off."This helped identify "thousands of new targets, including members of a burgeoning al-Qaeda-sponsored insurgency in Iraq," according to members of the special operations unit interviewed by the Post
In 2006, it was reported that the FBI had deployed spyware to infect suspects' mobile phones and record data even when they were turned off. The NSA may have resorted to a similar method in Iraq, albeit on a much larger scale by infecting thousands of users at one time. Though difficult, the mass targeting of populations with Trojan spyware is possible - and not unheard of."
http://warincontext.org/2013/07/23/n....XfyMLwj1.dpuf
