This superb documentary tells the story of Bill Binney and his team of code-breakers at the NSA, who developed such sophisticated technology that the attacks of 9/11 could have and should have been prevented.
Binney was always ahead of the curve in his work as an analyst. In 1967, he had detected the evidence of the North Vietnamese TET offensive that should have led to greater preparedness of the American military in the 1968 offensive. He also predicted the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and the 1973 Yom Kippur War. By the end of the century, Binney was ahead of everyone in understanding the importance of "traffic analysis" through the gathering of "metadata." He also recognized the potential for the abuses of power in the national security network. He had worked too long with people who believed that they had so much power that they were invincible.
The name of Binney's operation was Thinthread, and the film goes into great detail about the visionary work of Binney's system to track electronic and phone communications of anyone throughout the world. His program also ensured that no American citizen's identity could be compromised without a warrant.
But the bureaucracy of the NSA opted for greed instead of the goal of protecting the American people. It also chose discarding civil liberties in the name of national security. The Thinthread project was disbanded in favor of outside contractors selected by General Michael Hayden. The new program called Trailblazer failed whereas Thinthread would have identified specific details about the al-Quaeda plot of September 11, 2001.
Binney and his colleagues even demonstrated how the data would have been generated to prevent the attacks. In the wake of 9/11 and to prevent embarrassment to Hayden and his minions (Maureen Baginski, Bill Black, and Sam Viser), the homes of Binney and his colleagues were raided, and their programs were confiscated.
This is a story of corruption, fraud, waste, and abuse. It is also the story of the incompetency of unelected officials determining national policy that favor greed over security of its citizens. Vice-President Dick Cheney discussed the "dark side" that he embraced in the wake of 9/11. The film reveals how the dark side has compromised the ideals of our nation's foundational documents and how the moral standing of America in the world has possibly been irredeemably compromised.
Binney was always ahead of the curve in his work as an analyst. In 1967, he had detected the evidence of the North Vietnamese TET offensive that should have led to greater preparedness of the American military in the 1968 offensive. He also predicted the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and the 1973 Yom Kippur War. By the end of the century, Binney was ahead of everyone in understanding the importance of "traffic analysis" through the gathering of "metadata." He also recognized the potential for the abuses of power in the national security network. He had worked too long with people who believed that they had so much power that they were invincible.
The name of Binney's operation was Thinthread, and the film goes into great detail about the visionary work of Binney's system to track electronic and phone communications of anyone throughout the world. His program also ensured that no American citizen's identity could be compromised without a warrant.
But the bureaucracy of the NSA opted for greed instead of the goal of protecting the American people. It also chose discarding civil liberties in the name of national security. The Thinthread project was disbanded in favor of outside contractors selected by General Michael Hayden. The new program called Trailblazer failed whereas Thinthread would have identified specific details about the al-Quaeda plot of September 11, 2001.
Binney and his colleagues even demonstrated how the data would have been generated to prevent the attacks. In the wake of 9/11 and to prevent embarrassment to Hayden and his minions (Maureen Baginski, Bill Black, and Sam Viser), the homes of Binney and his colleagues were raided, and their programs were confiscated.
This is a story of corruption, fraud, waste, and abuse. It is also the story of the incompetency of unelected officials determining national policy that favor greed over security of its citizens. Vice-President Dick Cheney discussed the "dark side" that he embraced in the wake of 9/11. The film reveals how the dark side has compromised the ideals of our nation's foundational documents and how the moral standing of America in the world has possibly been irredeemably compromised.