Real Life Minority Report

Hello all,

I have just been reading about the film Minority Report and was surprised to find a link on the wiki page to a project that, essentially, aimed to predict terror offences before they happened.

The program was called "Able Danger" and used data mining techniques to capture information thought to be terrorist related.

I have never heard about this before and found it interesting so thought I would share:

Able Danger was a classified military planning effort under the command of the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM). It was created as a result of a directive from the Joint Chiefs of Staff in early October 1999 by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Hugh Shelton, to develop an Information Operations Campaign Plan against transnational terrorism, "specifically al-Qaeda."[

The program used data mining techniques to associate open source information with classified information in an attempt to make associations between individual members of terrorist groups as part of its original "intelligence preparation of the battlespace". The objective of this particular project was to ascertain whether the data mining techniques and open source material were effective tools in determining terrorist activities, and if the resultant data could be used to create operational plans that could be executed in a timely fashion to interrupt, capture and/or destroy terrorists or their cells.

Looks like the program wasn't that successful however;

In December 2006, a sixteen-month investigation by the US Senate Intelligence Committee concluded "Able Danger did not identify Mohammed Atta or any other 9/11 hijacker at any time prior to Sept. 11, 2001," and dismissed other assertions that have fueled 9/11 conspiracy theories.

Source

Pretty worrying don't you think?

I mean anything that helps fighting crime or terror activities can surely only be a good thing however isn't it a bit worrying when were relying on data mining to predict terrorist attacks?

Of course its nothing like the pre-cogs in the film Minority Report however.

Thoughts?

A thread i started a few weeks back...
www.abovetopsecret.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow">Project Hostile Intent - the real 'Minority Report'

Couldn't believe it when i first started reading up on it.

Project HOSTILE INTENT......says it all really doesn't it.

Also, great film

reply to post by LiveForever8


Thats ridiculous! (Project Hostile Intent I mean, not your thread )

Thanks for that mate, I'll comment on it now.

reply to post by Death_Kron


No problemo.

It seems you do what i do after watching a film...straight onto Wikipedia to find out all i can about it

I do the same with books, i cant help myself.

Nice find anyways, its always good to have a bit of 'pub quiz knowledge' to throw at your friends when certain topics like this are raised.

Originally posted by Death_Kron
I mean anything that helps fighting crime or terror activities can surely only be a good thing

Build walls around you and keep armed guards around the clock and you will be safe.

You will also be in prison.


[edit on 28-8-2009 by Copernicus]

Originally posted by Death_Kron
Looks like the program wasn't that successful however

That depends who you ask...

www.youtube.com...