Standard-Examiner: Will Massive Data Center Make Utah Spy Central?

Write it down so you don't forget it, folks...  "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear"

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Amidst all the hullabaloo surrounding last week's National Security Agency (NSA) "leak" matter, wherein "off-the-reservation" 29-year-old NSA "analyst" Edward J. Snowden "spilled the beans" concerning our federal government's ongoing action of indiscriminately vacuuming-up, collecting and "warehousing" the massive electronic data of each and every U.S. citizen, friend or foe, it stands to reason that a discussion of our own locally-situated Utah Data Center would find its way to the news media front burner, and with this morning's Standard-Examiner story, our home-town newspaper provides just that.  It's a chewy AP story, well worthy of a good read, wethinks:

• Will massive data center make Utah spy central?

All-in-all, a well-researched and highly informative story, wethinks.

Gotta admit that as a University of Utah grad, your blogmeister was fascinated by this interesting story angle (among others) too:

At the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, educators are creating a certificate program that they hope will produce students ready to work at big data centers such as the Bluffdale facility. The NSA helped reviewed the curriculum, offering suggestions, and plans to offer internships to students, said Valerio Pascucci, director of the Center for Extreme Data, Management, Analysis and Visualization.

Imagine that. An academic certificate in spyin' on your neighbors.

There is one important fact element this story did leave out, however.  Although AP reporter Brady Combs does mention "...a spoof website that even includes a phony code name for the facility: "Bumblehive," a play on Utah's nickname of the "Beehive State," our usually fastidious Standard-Examiner editors committed what we believe to be dang near a "cardinal sin" for anyone who publishes stories on the net....  Yep, gentle readers, the S-E editors omitted the spoof website link. 

No hay problema, O Gentle Ones.  We managed to find it this morning after extensive Googling:

• Domestic Surveillance Directorate

Pretty hilarious knock-off of the original NSA site, don'tcha think?

And remember, folks...  "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." Mebbe you should write that down so you don't forget it.

WIRED Magazine: The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say) - Updated

Although we're not quite ready to don our tin-foil hats in re this project, we believe all liberty minded American citizens should keep this situation on their radar screens.

To kickstart the Monday morning conversation, we'll shine the WCF spotlight on a fascinating internet media discussion breaking out concerning the federal government's Utah-situated $1.5 billion National Security Agency data center, which was locally billed in the below-linked 1/6/11 Deseret News story as both a propitious congressional exercise of a Senator Orrin Hatch earmark and "important in the short term for construction jobs and important in the long term for Utah's reputation as a technology center":

• Utah's $1.5 billion cyber-security center under way

As construction continues on this massive project, which was originally touted as a facility designed to protect the government's computer infrastructure from cyber attacks, several online sources are now suggesting more sinister motives, specifically, an unprecedented government invasion into every American citizen's personal privacy.

In that latter connection, here's the lede from last week's Fox News story (of all places):

WASHINGTON – What would you think if someone told you personal emails, voicemails and web searches, basically your electronic footprint, could be viewed and stored by a government official?

The feds say that would never happen but some say it is, and by 2013 it will all be funneled into the Utah Data Center.

A more formal description of the center is the First Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cyber-security Initiative Data Center.

And it’s huge. One million square feet, all to be filled with more technology and data storage than you could imagine.

It is not a stretch to say Utah is quickly becoming the data center capitol of the U.S., especially now that the state will be home to what some say is one the largest spy centers in the nation.

Plans for the facility are nothing new. Construction has been well underway for a year, and brainstorming for the facility began a decade ago. The NSA has been working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the estimated billion dollar data center.

So why is it making headlines now?

In a bombshell article published this month in WIRED Magazine, author James Bamford interviews a whistleblower claiming the NSA has software that searches domestic folks.

This software can reveal everything from target addresses, to web searches to social media sites to email and phone calls.

It claims any communication that looks suspicious are automatically red flagged. Basically, we’re all at risk for being watched.

Read on:

• NSA dismisses claims Utah Data Center watches average Americans

Cutting to the chase, here's the article which sparked the current controversy, i.e., James Bamford's above-cited 3/15/12 WIRED Magazine expose:

• The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)

This one's a a real eye-opener, innit?

Although we're not quite ready to don our tin-foil hats in re this project, we believe all liberty minded American citizens should keep this situation on their radar screens.

And remember, folks, in the midst of this year's Sagebrush Revolution, wherein our wacky Utah Government has vowed to throw off the shackles of federal government tyranny once and for all, Senator-for-Life Hatch characterizes this cyber-security boondoggle as the "largest military construction project in recent memory," and the Utah economy becomes even more dependent on the federal dole.

Go figure.

Update 4/3/12: And there's now more interesting internet media discussion emerging on this topic:

• Data Mining You: How the Intelligence Community Is Creating a New American World

No need to worry about unchecked government surveillance, unless you've done something wrong, right?