Subject: Re: Metal Gear info
From: Nicky Hager <nicky@paradise.net.nz>
Date: 4/20/11, 02:23
To: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>

Hi Barrett,

No need to say sorry about the delay. It sounds like you are doing good work.

I am sure that a system like Echelon is updated periodically and, since it would get bigger and clunkier, there might be revolutionary changes at much longer intervals. But on that reply you got, I might not understand where things are moving and it might be true. But my reaction is that it is garbled and not likely to be a genuine inside source (ditto someone who says a USAF contract was intended to be found). It might be true (there is always so much we don't know) but it doesn't sound right to me. I doubt he/she is a reliable and/or well informed source.

Nicky


On 20/04/2011, at 7:39 AM, Barrett Brown wrote:

Hi, Nicky-

Barrett Brown here, the Anonymous fellow. Sorry for the delay in getting back to you; I have had to finish some large projects and made a trip to NYC for a speaking engagement and some other things.

I may have mentioned to you that I have a couple of informants on the Metal Gear situation. One, from among the countries that jointly oversee Echelon, attended a small briefing to the effect that Echelon would be either replaced or updated in June. I asked another informant at an agency in another country - one who had previously maintained that the USAF contract was intended to be found and that these software components were intended for users above the level of CENTCOM - about that allegation. This was 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.

Can you let me know what you make of this, based on your understanding of what's already known about signals intelligence of this sort? Does it sound accurate?

At any rate, another round of articles will soon be appearing in the U.S. press, including Forbes, on Operation Metal Gear; hopefully these will spark additional media investigations into the companies and states involved.

Also, we have just gotten around to creating a wiki with which to compile all of our info in a usable manner; I've just begun filling it out but will continue to do so over the next week, at which point it will actually begin to be useful.

Let me know your thoughts if you get a moment, please.

On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 2:50 PM, Nicky Hager <nicky@paradise.net.nz> wrote:
Hi,

Thanks. That sounds good. I was just checking because there wasn't much to bite on it that other stuff.

Good luck with you organising,

Nicky

On 6/04/2011, at 5:55 AM, Barrett Brown wrote:

Hi, Nicky-

I'm hoping to prepare a better summary for you and the others soon, but had to come to New York on Sunday for a press conference and rally we're holding at the steps of city hall on Thursday as well as some meetings we'll be having throughout the week pursuant to a sort of coalition I'm trying to build in preparation for a wider investigation into Metal Gear. Speaking of which, Professor Jonathan Farley, who's worked with my organization Project PM as well as Anonymous, will be arriving tomorrow night, and I just briefed him over the phone on the generals; he's considered one of the best in the world and will presumably be able to assist with whatever research we find ourselves doing that would benefit from mathematical analysis. So, hopefully I'll have time to prepare a better summary as we need one anyway, but I probably won't have time to do it right until after the 8th. In the meantime, you might read this piece by Ian Cobain, who worked off our early research and with whom we've since been in contact: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks. Let me know if you have any other questions in the meantime.

On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 11:05 PM, Nicky Hager <nicky@paradise.net.nz> wrote:
Hi Barrett,

Good talking to you the other day.

I just had a quick look around the Public Pad references you sent me. You said you'd write to me explaining what you're up to and what you want to find out. Is that still coming, or did you mean for me just to look at those references? If the latter, I'll have a more careful study.

Nicky





--
Regards,

Barrett Brown
512-560-2302




--
Regards,

Barrett Brown
512-560-2302