...The controversies involving the NSA are sure to complicate Senate confirmation hearings on Hayden's nomination as CIA director. Hayden may find himself fielding questions about whether the administration has reconstituted a heavily criticized massive data-collection effort known as Total Information Awareness that was once run by the Defense Department. It swept up billions of pieces of consumer and personal data and analyzed them in an attempt to detect patterns possibly linked to terrorism.
Following a public outcry over privacy concerns, the department said in 2003 it was dropping the program, which was an initiative of retired Navy Adm. John Poindexter, a central figure in the Reagan administration's Iran-contra scandal.
The existence of a second covert information-gathering program suggests the administration has reconstituted at least parts of the TIA program, said former Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
At least parts of the TIA program have been revived at NSA, according to a Feb. 23 report in the National Journal. Earlier in February, Intelligence Committee member Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked Hayden if several of the TIA programs had been shifted to other intelligence agencies.
"Senator, I'd like to answer you in closed session," Hayden replied.
Supposedly John Poindexter has retired and the Total Information Awareness program has closed down, but... the Information Awareness Offices slogan is/was "Scienta est potentia," Latin for, "Knowledge is power" and that phrase pops up in the first paragraph on NSA's Signals Intelligentce webpage
The National Security Agency collects, processes and disseminates foreign Signals Intelligence (SIGINT). The old adage that "knowledge is power" has perhaps never been truer than when applied to today's threats against our nation and the role SIGINT plays in overcoming them. ...
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