Lockheed Martin: Giant weapons maker becomes Big Brother

01-16-2011 • atimes.com/

Tim Shorrock, author of the seminal book Spies for Hire, has described Lockheed Martin as "the largest defense contractor and private intelligence force in the world". As far back as 2002, the company plunged into the "Total Information Awareness" (TIA) program that was former National Security Advisor Admiral John Poindexter's pet project. A giant database to collect telephone numbers, credit cards, and reams of other personal data from US citizens in the name of fighting terrorism, the program was de-funded by congress the following year, but concerns remain that the National Security Agency is now running a similar secret program. In the meantime, since at least 2004, Lockheed Martin has been involved in the Pentagon's Counter-Intelligence Field Activity (CIFA), which collected personal data on American citizens for storage in a database known as "Threat and Local Observation Notice" (and far more dramatically by the acronym TALON). While congress shut down the domestic spying aspect of the program in 2007 (assuming, that is, that the Pentagon followed orders), CIFA itself continues to operate. In 2005, Washington Post military and intelligence expert William Arkin revealed that, while the database was theoretically being used to track anyone suspected of terrorism, drug trafficking or espionage, "some military gumshoe or overzealous commander just has to decide someone is a 'threat to the military' " for it to be brought into play. Among the "threatening" citizens actually tracked by CIFA were members of anti-war groups. As part of its role in CIFA, Lockheed Martin was not only monitoring intelligence, but also "estimating future threats". (Not exactly inconvenient for a giant weapons outfit that might see antiwar activism as a threat.)

1 Comments in Response to Lockheed Martin: Giant weapons maker becomes Big Brother

Comment by Hawkeye

Entered on: 1/17/2011 4:15:37 AM

So what? The Patriotic Americans that work for "Lockheed Martin" will continue to go to work each day.It`s all about a pay check...nothing else.just pay me and I`ll do what you want...to hell with my countrymen.

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