"CIA's Spy Tools Make Maxwell Smart's Look Like Toys"
USA Today (05/26/04); Maney, Kevin
Damning reports about intelligence failures related to Sept. 11, 2001, and the recent scandal surrounding an alleged Iraqi double-agent have done little to demolish the CIA's image as technologically incompetent. CIA Director George Tenet told the 9/11 Commission that information analysis technology will be the agency's salvation, although he estimated that another five years of work must pass "to have the kind of clandestine service our country needs." Clues as to what kind of technology the CIA wants and needs to accomplish this feat can be found in startups funded by In-Q-Tel, the agency's investment arm. One such start-up is Tacit Knowledge Systems, a developer of software that could monitor all CIA agents' outgoing email for clusters of words that describe each agent's knowledge and associations, which could help facilitate more effective information sharing among CIA agents or between the CIA and the FBI. Information written in multiple languages is a tough challenge the CIA is trying to meet through companies such as Language Weaver, which produces a technology that uses a statistical model of machine translation that is reportedly faster and more accurate than the older, grammar-based approach. The CIA is in desperate need of a sorting mechanism for the massive volume of information it must handle, and the solution will probably be found in multiple technologies. MetaCarta's geographical sorting products, Non-Obvious Relationship Awareness technology from Systems Research & Development, and PiXlogic's image sorting techniques are some potential candidates. Dust Networks is an example of one of the CIA's more radical investments: The company is working on minuscule sensors that could presumably be deployed on enemy ground to track troop movements based on vibrations.
www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/kevinmaney/2004-05-25-smart_x.htm
