Untitled Document

[00:00:00] Whitney Webb. She uncovers the shocking [00:00:02] origins of mass surveillance through [00:00:04] John Po Dexter's Total Information [00:00:06] Awareness Program. Webb reveals how a [00:00:09] government initiative designed to [00:00:10] predict terrorist attacks transformed [00:00:12] into a sophisticated private sector [00:00:14] surveillance machine. It's meant to be [00:00:17] an entire drag net um of basically [00:00:20] pre-rime and Palunteer uh in in [00:00:23] concordance with Point Dexter's [00:00:25] ambitions has been a major piloter of [00:00:27] pre-rime technology in the United [00:00:29] States. Um I think they began doing that [00:00:33] um in New Orleans initially. Um but it [00:00:36] was they call it predictive policing is [00:00:38] the term that that they use, but a lot [00:00:40] of other companies have attempted to [00:00:42] also get in on this. Uh the one of the [00:00:45] most notorious being PRP pole uh that [00:00:47] was um a partnership I believe with uh [00:00:50] UCLA and LAPD or something to that [00:00:53] effect. Um, and they're notoriously [00:00:55] inaccurate and they're almost always [00:00:57] piloted in low-income minority [00:00:59] neighborhoods and basically are away um [00:01:03] I mean in essence what happens because [00:01:05] the accuracy rate is so low is that [00:01:07] you're creating this pipeline of people [00:01:10] um basically being sent to to prison or [00:01:14] you know uh being caught up in crimes uh [00:01:17] that are that are very petty but I mean [00:01:19] you're just having sending police to all [00:01:21] these areas um in in in a relatively, [00:01:24] you know, discriminatory way to what [00:01:26] Palanteer and total information [00:01:28] awareness would later do. Uh, like [00:01:30] Saffron Technology, Cintech Technologies [00:01:32] that were defense contractors and trying [00:01:35] to basically create uh use uh sort of u [00:01:39] you know predictive analytics um to [00:01:42] determine uh what terrorists would do [00:01:44] next. all before 9/11 even happened and [00:01:47] of course there was a renewed demand for [00:01:49] that type of technology and these sort [00:01:51] of innovative solutions in the immediate [00:01:54] post 911 era. Um and uh when this [00:01:58] information you know uh was reported on [00:02:00] total information awareness there was a [00:02:02] huge outcry um throughout uh you know US [00:02:05] mainstream media um a lot of [00:02:07] organizations including the ACLU and [00:02:09] organizations like that uh rightly noted [00:02:12] that it would eliminate uh the [00:02:14] constitutional right to privacy uh and [00:02:16] create this uh very disturbing era um of [00:02:19] of mass surveillance uh by you know it b [00:02:23] I think one of the mainstream media [00:02:25] reports on And it said that it would uh [00:02:26] fight terrorism by terrifying US [00:02:29] citizens basically and making everyone a [00:02:31] suspect um in under this this type of um [00:02:35] this paradigm he was seeking to usher [00:02:37] in. And so it was eventually you know [00:02:40] under pressure. It was I think first [00:02:41] announced in February 2003 and by May [00:02:44] they attempted to change the name to [00:02:46] terrorism information awareness uh [00:02:48] trying to move away from uh the idea [00:02:51] that it would uh be total it would [00:02:53] surveil absolutely everyone uh through a [00:02:55] name change but obviously it didn't [00:02:57] change how the program actually worked. [00:02:59] It would still uh be focused on everyday [00:03:01] Americans um you know a total drag net [00:03:05] really. Um and in that same month where [00:03:07] that name change happened uh Peter Teal [00:03:09] incorporated uh Palunteer and as [00:03:12] Palanteer uh was developing as a company [00:03:15] uh they you uh Peter Teal and Alex Karp [00:03:18] the Palunteer co-founders uh reached out [00:03:21] to Point Dexter directly through Richard [00:03:23] Pearl who's a well-known neoconservative [00:03:25] figure and was also one of the [00:03:27] architects of the Iraq war at the uh [00:03:29] Bush era Pentagon [00:03:31] and uh you know basically they hatched [00:03:34] this plan to privat [00:03:35] to privatize this program. rightly [00:03:38] calculating that if they turned it into [00:03:40] a entirely private sector enterprise uh [00:03:43] the outrage uh would uh you know [00:03:47] essentially dissipate which it uh [00:03:50] remarkably did because um you know [00:03:51] originally it was a public private [00:03:53] partnership housed within DARPA and then [00:03:55] by making it this private sector uh [00:03:58] enterprise um you know a lot of the [00:04:00] concerns about it uh disappeared and bec [00:04:03] and this is arguably because by moving [00:04:05] into the private sector uh they were [00:04:07] able to accomplish a lot more than they [00:04:09] than they could have uh by being [00:04:11] affiliated directly with the public [00:04:13] sector even though they contract uh with [00:04:15] the public sector. Palunteer co-founded [00:04:18] by Peter Theal emerged from this [00:04:21] surveillance blueprint using algorithms [00:04:23] originally developed for PayPal's [00:04:25] anti-fraud system. The company quickly [00:04:27] became a primary contractor for [00:04:29] intelligence agencies, expanding [00:04:31] surveillance capabilities into health [00:04:33] monitoring, predictive policing, and [00:04:35] comprehensive citizen profiling. And so, [00:04:39] Palunteer uh funding wise was set up [00:04:42] with money from Peter Teal um himself, [00:04:44] and that the algorithm for it had [00:04:46] originally been developed at PayPal and [00:04:49] um uh the other funding source was the [00:04:52] CIA's Inqell. Um, and one of the figures [00:04:56] that helped create uh that helped made [00:04:58] that funding decision uh was the CIA's [00:05:00] chief information officer at the time [00:05:02] named Alan Wade. And Alan Wade had been [00:05:04] one of the top allies of the total [00:05:06] information awareness with Po Dexter um [00:05:10] you know in the immediate post 911 [00:05:13] um era. And so um the CIA was the was [00:05:16] Palanteer's exclusive company sorry [00:05:19] exclusive client for I believe the first [00:05:21] six years of its existence as a company. [00:05:23] um and its its engineers went to Langley [00:05:26] uh you know CIA headquarters in Virginia [00:05:28] every two weeks for several years as [00:05:30] well where the CIA was um developing [00:05:33] their algorithm with them you know in a [00:05:36] very direct partnership and Alex Karp [00:05:38] has even said that the CIA was always [00:05:39] the intended clients um of Palunteer so [00:05:43] Dexter's goal was extremely broad I mean [00:05:46] it really covered I mean it's it's [00:05:48] absolutely staggering when you think [00:05:50] about it so the way it was initially [00:05:51] sold to the public was this is a way to [00:05:53] stop terrorism attacks before they [00:05:56] happen um by coalating so much um data [00:06:00] um from all different sources and then [00:06:03] using an in some sort of analytic or AI [00:06:06] to determine um you know if u certain [00:06:09] data points are flagging that a [00:06:11] terrorist attack will take place here um [00:06:14] here or there but there's various [00:06:16] different aspects of this program that [00:06:18] didn't really get enough coverage at the [00:06:19] time uh so one is that they attempted to [00:06:21] use free market forces to determine if a [00:06:26] terrorism attack would happen. Before it [00:06:28] happened, they created basically what's [00:06:30] referred to as a terrorism futures [00:06:32] market. It was really like a forerunner [00:06:34] to poly market in some of these [00:06:36] predictive markets uh where people bet [00:06:38] on things online. It was basically that [00:06:40] but about whether a terrorist attack uh [00:06:43] will happen in the Middle East or if [00:06:44] there will be turmoil in the Middle [00:06:46] East, if someone like Yaser Arafat would [00:06:48] be overthrown. you know, these were the [00:06:49] kinds of things they were going to have [00:06:50] these unnamed uh investors bet on. Um, [00:06:54] another one was focused entirely on [00:06:56] health um under this program called [00:06:58] bioserveillance [00:06:59] um which actually a lot of it Palunteer [00:07:03] uh helped launch with HHS during the [00:07:06] COVID era. uh things like um analyzing [00:07:09] American wastewater to determine if [00:07:11] there is going to be an outbreak of a [00:07:13] disease before it happens. Uh with um [00:07:17] again with an algorithm or basically you [00:07:19] know surveilling Americans uh health [00:07:21] data uh and uh to determine if there [00:07:24] will be a pandemic before it happens or [00:07:26] if there will be a bioteterror attack [00:07:28] because remember this was also in the [00:07:30] aftermath um of the of the anthrax [00:07:32] attacks. Um and so a lot of that [00:07:34] particularly on the health front has [00:07:36] absolutely come under the portfolio of [00:07:38] Palunteer in the years since. Um they [00:07:40] now uh control basically all of the [00:07:43] health data at HHS and also the CDC [00:07:45] under the HHS and also the NHS in [00:07:48] Britain as well and have continued to [00:07:51] expand on on that front. Um but [00:07:53] Palanteer, you know, also uh works [00:07:56] extensively now in the private sector as [00:07:58] well. Web's investigation exposes how [00:08:01] privatization allowed mass surveillance [00:08:04] to grow unchecked, creating a system [00:08:06] that tracks Americans habits, movements, [00:08:09] and potential behaviors without [00:08:10] meaningful oversight. The story reveals [00:08:12] a hidden infrastructure of control [00:08:15] operating just beneath the surface of [00:08:16] everyday life.