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Googlestalking For Covert NSA Research Funding
Posted by
Zonk
on Sun Oct 07, 2007 04:11 PM
from the because-what-else-are-you-going-to-do dept.
from the because-what-else-are-you-going-to-do dept.
James Hardine writes "Wikileaks is reporting that the CIA has funded covert research on torture techniques, and that the NSA has pushed tens or hundreds of millions into academia through research grants using one particular grant code. Some researchers try to conceal the source of funding, yet commonality in the NSA grant code prefix makes all these attempts transparent. The primary NSA grant-code prefix is 'MDA904'. Googling for this grant code yields 39,000 references although some refer to non-academic contracts (scolar.google.com 2,300). The grants issue from light NSA cover, the "Maryland Procurement Office" or other fronts. From this one can see the broad sweep of academic research interests being driven by the NSA."
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Capture it now, before its disappeared (Score:2, Funny)
And *NO*, I do *NOT* want to hop over there and waste my time doing meta-moderation!
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Re:Capture it now, before its disappeared (Score:5, Interesting)
Abuse us by funding research on the subjects of:
- Duality for modules over finite rings and applications to coding theory
- Bounding the number of geometric permutations induced by k-transversals
- A unified framework for enforcing multiple access control policies
- Affine Lie algebras and multisum identities
?You sure do sound abused, kid. But not by (this) government...
Parent
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All I can say is that your lack of understanding or imagination is *NOT* going to protect you if such an agency actually existed...
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All of it can. By breaking up the encryption believed to be secure, NSA can wreck havoc in today's world of information. I — unlike you, who believes, that government funding automatically taints any research (except on the subject of global warming, and even then it better come up with the right answer) — just happened to trust my government a notch more than enemies.
In your world, of course, there are no enemies — only friends, whose
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In reality, and not just my reality, there are plenty of cases where different people have irresolvable conflicts of interests. The question is whether those conflicts can be mediated i
Some don't consider this government abuse. (Score:2)
I don't know if the indexes are being deleted, but there are only 8,400 now.
You said, "Anyway, I forgot to note that it is possible that the information society will cut both ways, not only against us, but also against the governments that want to abuse us."
I'm surprised that some people don't consider this a story about abuse by the U.S. government. See this comment, which has been modded down to 0 at present: Zeitgeist, the movie [slashdot.org].
What's the Story here?? (Score:4, Informative)
This is just a veiled attempt at provoking more flamewars because it's got NSA, torture and google, hence this is a flamebait story.
Re:What's the Story here?? (Score:5, Insightful)
That is not what academics do, it is what private sector contractors do.
Hence the academics have been overwhelming the National Science Foundation since 2001 or so. Acceptance rates for NSF research proposals are at all time lows. If the NSA also gives money for mathematics and certain segments of computer science, apparently all publicly published, why not take it?
It has been usual since 1945 that source for non-biological scientific and mathematical research have come through multiple government agencies, many military-affiliated.
What happens if you don't accept this funding? Somebody else gets it, and they get papers and grants and they stay funded. You don't. You probably won't get promotions or tenure without signficant government funding. If you're on soft money, you're just plain unemployed.
What will your protest do to stop torture by CIA or whoever? Nothing. BTW those policies didn't come spontaneously from CIA---they were ordered and approved by political appointees.
BTW: "MDA" usually means "Missile Defense Agency".
Parent
Re:What's the Story here?? (Score:5, Informative)
These are the people who are "keeping us safe" from terrorists. God help us.
Parent
The linked papers... (Score:4, Interesting)
So. The NSA, whose job it is to create and to crack strong encryption, are interested in computers and in mathematics. Big surprise there, guys.
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Our Cryptography experts in the government are funding papers on Cryptography and mathematical and computer modeling related to it!
And NP! What will our government do with these horrors! The abuse of terrorists in Camp X-ray is mind boggling using papers like "A unified framework for enforcing multiple access control policies" http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=253260.253364&type=series [acm.org]
Domestic Spying Sucks. (Score:2)
Research into computer science, number theory or encryption are not the problems. The problem is a run away agency that's able to tap, transcribe and parse every phone conversation in the world. As the author noted:
None of those doing research had the information they needed to prevent the outrageous political misuse
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If I were doing legitimate research, I would have no qualms about taking research funding from the NSA - as long as I can freely publish and discuss the results of my research.
And if I were doing research that only a few folks like the NSA could put to use, with little positive uses for my work, then it is irrelevant whether the NSA is funding it or not. If the Salvation Army funded it, then the NSA can misuse
Parent is a moron (Score:2)
oid (Score:3, Insightful)
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/index.php?title=On_the_take_and_loving_it&oldid=6476 [wikileaks.org]
One would think it would be better for slashdot discussion if TFA was not a moving target. To think slashdot is ten years old. That's one hell of a slow clue train.
Conspiracy? (Score:4, Informative)
Google Scholar search results for "NSA Grant": about 1720
Doesn't look like many are trying to hide, especially since anybody familiar with the NSA grant code would already know what MDA904 is.
Re:Conspiracy? (Score:4, Interesting)
There is no doubt the NSA and the other spying agencies are using talented researchers, and obviously they would have appeal to many people-- after all it is likely their grants are good, they are researching hard and interesting problems, and there is also the patriotic factor (your gubbermint is not your friend, but the foreign gubbermints are even less your friends). So, it is not a surprise that people go for those grants.
It'd be hard to draw universal moral rules governing such participation. I'd say there is no moral issue if the research is public (as seems to be the case with most of the grants mentioned on the Wikileak). There might be a moral issue if the research is obviously done with the purpose to actively harm people, but it is unlikely such research will be publicized, except by a whistle blower.
All in all, except for clear-cut Dr. Mengele-like cases, I'd say the blame (if any) should be put on the government (which hires NSA and decides their agenda), and the issue should not be the grants, but, rather, the level and quality of oversight the general public has over such organizations, because it is oversight that will contribute more to keeping spy agencies in check, rather than the attitude of the individual researchers.
#Echelon noise: company president, Baghdad thief, nuclear family, water bomb
Parent
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Grr... My comment itself reads like Slashdot has no preview buttons...
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Recall that thesis [slashdot.org] which layed out (using public sources) all the fiber optic cables in the US? The Government wanted to classify his paper and they went ahead and started scrubbing all those public sources of non-classified information.
I think it's worth pointing out in the case of the Sean Gorman paper that the author (Gorman) and his institution (George Mason Univ.) didn't protest too hard. They pretty much fell over themselves to voluntarily take all sorts of draconian "security" procedures, because they wanted to get into the good graces of the national security establishment. In fact, Gorman has gone on to become an adviser to various government agencies (through his private firm), and it wouldn't surprise me if the company is sup
Warnung!: Conspiracy theory (Score:5, Funny)
Torture? Submitter did not RTFA. (Score:5, Informative)
Duality for modules over finite rings and applications to coding theory
Bounding the number of geometric permutations induced by k-transversals
A unified framework for enforcing multiple access control policies
Affine Lie algebras and multisum identities
I think these only qualify as torture if you're a math or computer science graduate student.
The NSA is not a "hands on" group... they are signal intelligence. The bulk of these grants appear to be for exactly that, signal intelligence. I'm sure a few of them may have some mysterious/questionable motives but the bulk of them are nerds working on computers trying to break ciphers or improve our own.
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You urgently, urgently need to read The Atrocity Archives, by Charlie Stross. You will very quickly change your mind. Trust me on this.
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The article is edit by unknown/reserved IP number (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The article is edit by unknown/reserved IP numb (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
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Interesting how ford has a class A but GM doesnt. ( i remember years ago Ford actually used those valid 19x external addresses even on workstations. Not sure of the network guys were clueless about NAT type devices or just didn't care as it wasnt the same dangerous net as it is today ).
I wont get into how i know thats what they were doing
Spooks editing on Wikipedia (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Re:The article is edit by unknown/reserved IP numb (Score:3, Informative)
The user talk page [wikileaks.org] for that IP claims it is part of the "Wikileaks anonymizing network".
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WikiLeaks tunneled? (Score:2)
More fun:
This is the network of http://prq.se/ [prq.se], the company famous for among other things hosting The Pirate Bay. They also have a tunneling service [prq.se] (info in Swedish only, the company is based in Stockholm, Sweden), so th
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Highest paid professors (Score:2)
Here are 5 aspects of the corruption: (Score:2, Interesting)
1) There are U.S. government agencies that exist for the purpose of murdering, torturing, and otherwise breaking the law and showing no respect for the law.
2) Those agencies are secret. U.S. citizens must pay for the agencies, but citizens are not allowed to know what the agencies are doing or even how much they are paying.
3) The secret agencies are not only sometimes lawless, they are allowed to own their own businesses
*YAWN* (Score:3, Informative)
1) There are U.S. government agencies that exist for the pur
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Actually, Bush also need help from people who call themselves "Democrats", but actually just suffering from the mental illness called envy.
It is difficult for the average person to believe that someone who already has a lot of money would kill others simply because he wants more money. However, people from rich famili
I guess no member of your family was killed... (Score:2)
I guess no member of your family has ever been killed by the U.S. government. If you had lost a loved one to U.S. government violence, you would not be concerned whether it was from bombing or invasion.
NSA funding != breach of ethics (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:NSA funding != breach of ethics (Score:4, Insightful)
It may not be necessarily controversial when taken on the small scale, but its says a lot about the level to which covert organizations are controlling our lives. That should be controversial. It shows the increasing lack of respect for our society in academia and its independence from both government and industry. This may have always been just a myth, but that does not mean it shouldn't be controversial and up for debate.
What should be controversial is that due the lack of other funding provided by our government, academics have to go to agencies like the NSA to get funded. Our society becomes ever more beholden to the military-industrial complex.
By the way, university selection process has little to do with free thinking. Universities want staff that gets funding and in this they select those who will not challenge authority. Those who will not question these policies.
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It may not be necessarily controversial when taken on the small scale, but its says a lot about the level to which covert organizations are controlling our lives. That should be controversial. It shows the increasing lack of respect for our society in academia and its independence from both government and industry. This may have always been just a myth, but that does not mean it shouldn't be controversial and up for debate.
No, it doesn't show that. NSA performs a role in US national security. It needs answers to some pretty sophisticated problems. Academics often are the only ones that have the answers. Hence, it pays them.
What should be controversial is that due the lack of other funding provided by our government, academics have to go to agencies like the NSA to get funded. Our society becomes ever more beholden to the military-industrial complex.
Keep in mind that the military-industrial complex serves a role. It may be way out of control now, but even if it were far better controlled, there'd still be academics working for various parts.
By the way, university selection process has little to do with free thinking. Universities want staff that gets funding and in this they select those who will not challenge authority. Those who will not question these policies.
Sure, there are plenty where the above is true, but there are also plenty where this isn't true.
"Maryland Procurement Office" isn't a cover (Score:4, Informative)
It's not much of a cover. NSA lists the Maryland Procurement Office [nsa.gov] on their web site, in the "Doing Business with NSA" section. It's their central point for contractor invoicing. "DoD IECA PKI Certificate is required to access the website."
NSA used to be far more secretive. But that was a long time ago. Now everyone knows who they are and what they do.
The NSA is well known to do (Score:3, Interesting)
All the information I saw linked was pure mathematics research.
However, these papers aside, I have to say that the NSA runs with too little public oversight. The domestic wiretapping, which continues to go on without any kind of meaningful regulation is a good example of no american agency should be allowed to run as a black box to the other two branches of the government. Independents need to be brought in to make sure the NSA doesn't continue to step over ethical and legal boundaries.
Right now, I tend to think that the NSA isn't an evil organization. However, they could easily become destructive in the hands of an administration with the will and ability to politicize the agency. I'm sure the current administration would love to use them to spy on their many political enemies, if they aren't already.
* spooky music for NSA boogeymen * (Score:3)
The nutcase conspiracy theorists really crack me up. You have crackpots talking about horrible research being done, for perverted government ends.
I look at the same result thing and see lots of bleeding-edge research in cryptographic, sigint, hardware oriented, and computer security avenues.
The more links I read on NSA funded research, the more I am pleased that the NSA, more so than any other singular institution, is funding research into critical areas of national security.
Take a peek for yourself [google.com]
MDA908 is much more interesting (Score:3, Interesting)
Search for "MDA908", the "Virginia Contracting Activity". Much more interesting items come up.
- Black Excursions [fbodaily.com].
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Buying missiles from Venezuelan general. [gwu.edu]
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Video Grammar for Locating Named People [ieeecomputersociety.org]
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A Bayesian network for identifying suspicious visitors [innovativedecisions.com]
The Virginia Contracting Activity seems to be the financial management point for DIA, ARDA, and some DARPA and CIA work."The Virginia Contracting Activity on behalf of the Defense Intelligence Agency, request for quotations to purchase and install items listed on the RFQ (emergency response equipment) on black excursions."
A covert missile deal went bad, and the payment issue ended up in court. A good read.
One of many research papers associated with digesting audio and video content into useful forms.
Published in 2004. A reasonable project to be working on at that point.
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Since the XP-38 came out, the MDA404 just hasn't been in demand.
PS: The sooper-secret NSA encryption algorithm:
strcat("MDA9",itoa( fiscal_year % 100) );
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