Facebook and the CIA
It was two years ago today that the BBC News reported on the Information Operations Roadmap, the United States military’s approach to information warfare, with an emphasis on the Internet.
Now, from the revealing article, With Friends Like These [...], in the prestigious journal, Guardian, comes some important related information:
“The third board member of Facebook is Jim Breyer. He is a partner in the venture capital firm Accel Partners, who put $12.7m into Facebook in April 2005. On the board of such US giants as Wal-Mart and Marvel Entertainment, he is also a former chairman of the National Venture Capital Association (N.V.C.A). Now these are the people who are really making things happen in America, because they invest in the new young talent, the Zuckerbergs and the like. Facebook’s most recent round of funding was led by a company called Greylock Venture Capital, who put in the sum of $27.5m. One of Greylock’s senior partners is called Howard Cox, another former chairman of the N.V.C.A, who is also on the board of In-Q-Tel. What’s In-Q-Tel? Well, believe it or not (be sure to check out its website), this is the venture-capital wing of the CIA. After 9/11, the US intelligence community became so excited by the possibilities of new technology and the innovations being made in the private sector, that in 1999 they set up their own venture capital fund, In-Q-Tel, which ‘identifies and partners with companies developing cutting-edge technologies to help deliver these solutions to the Central Intelligence Agency and the broader US Intelligence Community (I.C.) to further their missions’.”
“The US defence department and the C.I.A. love technology because it makes spying easier. ‘We need to find new ways to deter new adversaries,’ defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in 2003. ‘We need to make the leap into the information age, which is the critical foundation of our transformation efforts’[...]“
courtesy of: Pip Wilson
bt: Mihaela Lica- Blip.TV video
Originally posted 2008-01-26 18:45:00. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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January 26th, 2008 on 20:52
can I just tell you how much I enjoy reading your blog? You always have such interesting and unexpected stuff. how do you do it?
January 28th, 2008 on 08:59
Lets all send Big Brother a hug, a poke and invitation to hot friends!
The number of times I give Facebook permission to bridge with other applications, there is probably nothing FB does not know about me.
Its a worry. I have had fun trying to influence the ads FB feeds to me though – typing brand names in my status updates.
January 28th, 2008 on 18:02
I would say this is amazing, Saboma, but on second thought, I would fully expect the CIA to be full of venture-Capitalists!
Thanks for another interesting post!