Utah home to NSA's new mega-warehouse for data

[Alan]

Utah home to NSA's new mega-warehouse for data

http://news.yahoo.com/utah-home-nsas-mega-warehouse-data-080502716.html

BLUFFDALE, Utah (AP) — The nation's new billion-dollar epicenter for fighting global cyberthreats sits just south of Salt Lake City, tucked away on a National Guard base at the foot of snow-capped mountains. The long, squat buildings span 1.5 million square feet, and are filled with super-powered computers designed to store massive amounts of information gathered secretly from phone calls and emails.

Two small, weathered signs in the sagebrush greet interlopers to this place with a stark warning: "Military reservation. No trespassing." But there is no visible marker bearing the facility's name and operator: The Utah Data Center, brought to you courtesy of the National Security Agency.

When it opens this fall, the facility will be the NSA's largest data storage center in the U.S. Just don't ask Utah officials, and certainly not the residents of tiny Bluffdale, just north of the new center, to tell you exactly what will go on inside. They either don't know, or aren't saying. And the NSA is famously tight-lipped.





I hope by now every US citizen understands that the US government, with the assistance of the post-9/11 hysteria and the USA Patriot Act, basically observes no more restrictions upon itself in terms of whom it spies on, how, and for what reason.  In the wake of the IRS leaks it should be clear this is a rogue government which will indeed use its power against those who have "politically incorrect" opinions.  Factions can and do use theur powers against private citizens, businesses, non-profits organizations, and opposing political organizations.  And I'm not bashing just the dems; the republicans are just as bad and what's more there are effectively no insiders who haven't bought into the system enough that the system is actually threatened.  If there were they would be silenced, even permanently.  

Our government now has all the technology and reach it needs to go far beyond what Orwell's "1984" talked about in terms of monitoring each and every one of us, all of the time.  Started with the Patriot Act, the government doesn't even have to pretend any more by getting a search warrant; if it deems you "interesting" they can do anything.  For example, come secretly into your house without warrant and plant bugs and cameras and intercepts for your computer keyboard, and they don't ever have to even tell you.

Alan

[ncjohn]

I listen to the arguments on this topic with great interest. I find it disturbing that many even on the libertarian end of the spectrum seem to think it's ok to allow this unconstitutional intrusion into our lives in the name of "national security."

I think old Benjamin Franklin had it dead right when he said "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

There is no doubt in my mind that however good the intentions of those collecting the information may be that the information will be obtained and used by people with personal agendas. It is a bell that we won't be able to unring.