Subject: Re: Metal Gear piece
From: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
Date: 4/19/11, 15:28
To: Steve Ragan <security@thetechherald.com>

Hi, Steve-

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

First off, I received the following message today from one of our three informants on Metal Gear, all of whom have proven reliable. This person in particular would be in a position to know what is going on; like one other, this one has asserted to us that some of the instances of Metal Gear we see in such things as the USAF go beyond CENTCOM and up to U.S./U.K./Canadian/NZ/AUS joint command. The other told us a few weeks ago that he'd attended a briefing in which it was conveyed that Echelon was to be either replaced or updated in June. This one just told me the following (I should note that we cannot verify the identify of the other informant but can with this one; the third informant, who first confirmed to us that Booz is involved in this sort of thing, is also identified, our group having contacted him). Here's the message, which, again, is from someone we can verify to be in a position to know. First, I asked:

You don't happen to have any specific direction you can put me in
>regarding Echelon and a potential update to the apparatus this
>June, do you?

The reply I just received:

I do, although I have not officially heard about the June
timeframe. Do not think of Einstein, Metal Gear, Echelon, or
Carnivore as separate programs. Combine the capabilities of all,
and you have something as close to AI as we can possibly get at the
moment that can automatically target someone based on pre-
determined criteria, interact with them as if having real
conversations, and automatically update the persona to keep track
of the content, context, and order of events using the capabilities
of all of those programs. It also automatically builds a dossier of
the target and updates it to indicate relationships, sways in
opinion, and other important details. Even the shrewdest character
would have no idea that they were talking to an automated persona
because the depth of conversation is so realistic. SIGINT, OSINT,
and certain aspects of MASINT are being rolled into one on this
one. The system can also learn the online mannerisms and speech of
a real person and mimic that person, allowing him/her to have an
online presence without ever again taking an active part in the
online conversation.

Based on what else I've been told by various people as well as my research into signals intelligence, I believe that this account is accurate; at the very least it should serve as a hypothetical framework for anyone who seeks to determine the overall picture.

Two other things: My team has established a wiki which I'll be filling out a bit more this week and which will be continually added to so that it may serve as a usable resource on this matter, and also I just happened to come across this:

http://www.govconwire.com/2010/06/booz-allen-wyle-claim-air-force-contracts/

Let me know if you have any other questions for now.

On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 4:35 PM, Steve Ragan <security@thetechherald.com> wrote:
I'll end up covering this...
http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2011/04/18/spam-bots-flooding-twitter
-to-drown-info-about-syria-protests/

MG in action...

Steve Ragan
Security Editor - The Tech Herald
Phone: 317-348-1281
Email: security@thetechherald.com
Web: http://www.thetechherald.com


>-----Original Message-----
>From: Barrett Brown [mailto:barriticus@gmail.com]
>Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2011 4:24 PM
>To: Steve Ragan
>Subject: Metal Gear piece
>
>http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/8396-the-secret-states-q
>uest-for-persona-management-software.html
>
>--
>Regards,
>
>Barrett Brown
>512-560-2302
>
>




--
Regards,

Barrett Brown
512-560-2302