Pegasus Research Consortium

Breaking News => Breaking News => Topic started by: zorgon on November 04, 2011, 03:55:58 am

Title: AP Exclusive: CIA Following Twitter, Facebook
Post by: zorgon on November 04, 2011, 03:55:58 am
AP Exclusive: CIA Following Twitter, Facebook

Well we always knew that right? :P But now its official

Seems they use it specifically to sense the mood of public opinion  :o

Quote
In an anonymous industrial park in Virginia, in an unassuming brick building, the CIA is following tweets — up to 5 million a day.

At the agency's Open Source Center, a team known affectionately as the "vengeful librarians" also pores over Facebook, newspapers, TV news channels, local radio stations, Internet chat rooms — anything overseas that anyone can access and contribute to openly.

From Arabic to Mandarin Chinese, from an angry tweet to a thoughtful blog, the analysts gather the information, often in native tongue. They cross-reference it with the local newspaper or a clandestinely intercepted phone conversation. From there, they build a picture sought by the highest levels at the White House, giving a real-time peek, for example, at the mood of a region after the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden or perhaps a prediction of which Mideast nation seems ripe for revolt.

Quote
The center's analysis ends up in President Barack Obama's daily intelligence briefing in one form or another, almost every day.

After bin Laden was killed in Pakistan in May, the CIA followed Twitter to give the White House a snapshot of world public opinion.

ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/ap-exclusive-cia-twitter-facebook-14878904#.TrPD5exD2uI)
Title: Re: AP Exclusive: CIA Following Twitter, Facebook
Post by: Pimander on November 04, 2011, 05:56:27 am
[youtube]ATDKdubRq9U[/youtube]

Spoof?  Well yes.  True?   :o

Seriously funny.  Funnily serious...