U.S. Military To Patrol The Internet

  Some of us already knew that this was coming, so we aren't a bit surprised at this latest development, what with the reading of our emails and the listening in on our phone chats, among other things.

  What is surprising about this development is that the Pentagon is going to contract this work out.

  What the contractor will do is to patrol the Internet looking of signs of an upcoming terrorist attack or some other kind of hostile web activity. This part of the deal is what has me concerned as our government can classify all sorts of activity as hostile. Free speech is one which comes to mind right off hand.

  U.P.I.

In a solicitation posted on the Web last week, the command said it was looking for a contractor to provide "Internet awareness services" to support "force protection" -- the term of art for the security of U.S. military installations and personnel.
"The purpose of the services will be to identify and assess stated and implied threat, antipathy, unrest and other contextual data relating to selected Internet domains," says the solicitation.

Hembrook was tight-lipped about the proposal. "The more we talk about it, the less effective it will be," he said. "If we didn't have to put it out in public (to make the contract award), we wouldn't have."

  Here comes the best part of this job.

The solicitation says the successful contractor will "analyze various Web pages, chat rooms, blogs and other Internet domains to aggregate and assess data of interest," adding, "The contractor will prioritize foreign-language domains that relate to specific areas of concern … (and) will also identify new Internet domains" that might relate to "specific local requirements" of the command.
Officials were keen to stress the contract covered only information that could be found by anyone with a computer and Internet connection.

   I seriously doubt that last comment.  I may just apply for the job myself since I spend time all over the Internet. Wonder if I could get the contract under a " no-bid " deal like the rest of Bush's cohorts?

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