CIA Drone Guy Becomes New Top Spy
How crucial have drone strikes become to the CIA? A senior official involved with them just became the agency’s new top spy. CIA Director Leon Panetta named John D. Bennett the next chief of the National Clandestine Service, the operations side of the agency. Bennett, a retired Marine and four-time agency station chief who returned…
Terahertz Detectors Could See Through Your Clothes From a Mile Away
Someone may soon be able to tell what types material are in your pockets from tens, and possibly thousands, of feet away. Using terahertz remote sensing, detectors could see through walls, clothing and packaging materials and immediately identify the unique terahertz waves of the materials contained inside, such as explosives or drugs. Until now, detecting…
NSA Denies It Will Spy on Civilian Networks Through the “Perfect Citizen” Program
The NSA is denying a report from the Wall Street Journal that a secret program code-named “Perfect Citizen” will be monitoring civilian networks. That’s from a rare public statement by the ultra-secret agency responsible for spying on outsiders and defending classified networks. The NSA, as a wing of the military, is largely prohibited from operating…
Spies Want to Stockpile Your YouTube Clips (And Scan Them for Terror Threats)
Your Youtube videos could soon be scanned and evaluated for terror threats, thanks to a new project funded by the U.S. intelligence community that’ll create a searchable warehouse of open-source clips. Iarpa, the spy agency’s out-there research arm, is behind the program, called Automated Low-Level Analysis and Description of Diverse Intelligence Video (ALADDIN). The advent…