Daily Archives: November 1, 2015

en.m.wikipedia.org

Posted: November 1, 2015 at 10:43 am

The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence organization of the United States government, responsible for global monitoring, collection, and processing of information and data for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes a discipline known as signals intelligence (SIGINT). NSA is concurrently charged with protection of U.S. government communications and information systems against penetration and network warfare.[8][9] Although many of NSA's programs rely on "passive" electronic collection, the agency is authorized to accomplish its mission through active clandestine means,[10] among which are physically bugging electronic systems[11] and allegedly engaging in sabotage through subversive software.[12][13] Moreover, NSA maintains physical presence in a large number of countries across the globe, where its Special Collection Service (SCS) inserts eavesdropping devices in difficult-to-reach places. SCS collection tactics allegedly encompass "close surveillance, burglary, wiretapping, breaking and entering".[14][15]

Unlike the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), both of which specialize primarily in foreign human espionage, NSA does not unilaterally conduct human-source intelligence gathering, despite often being portrayed so in popular culture. Instead, NSA is entrusted with assistance to and coordination of SIGINT elements at other government organizations, which are prevented by law from engaging in such activities without the approval of the NSA via the Defense Secretary.[16] As part of these streamlining responsibilities, the agency has a co-located organization called the Central Security Service (CSS), which was created to facilitate cooperation between NSA and other U.S. military cryptanalysis components. Additionally, the NSA Director simultaneously serves as the Commander of the United States Cyber Command and as Chief of the Central Security Service.

Originating as a unit to decipher coded communications in World War II, it was officially formed as the NSA by Harry S. Truman in 1952. Since then, it has become one of the largest of U.S. intelligence organizations in terms of personnel and budget,[6][17] operating as part of the Department of Defense and simultaneously reporting to the Director of National Intelligence.

NSA surveillance has been a matter of political controversy on several occasions, such as its spying on anti-Vietnam war leaders or economic espionage. In 2013, the extent of the NSA's secret surveillance programs was revealed to the public by Edward Snowden. According to the leaked documents, the NSA intercepts the communications of over a billion people worldwide and tracks the movement of hundreds of millions of people using cellphones. Internationally, research has pointed to the NSA's ability to surveil the domestic internet traffic of foreign countries through "boomerang routing".[18]

The origins of the National Security Agency can be traced back to April 28, 1917, three weeks after the U.S. Congress declared war on Germany in World War I. A code and cipher decryption unit was established as the Cable and Telegraph Section which was also known as the Cipher Bureau and Military Intelligence Branch, Section 8 (MI-8). It was headquartered in Washington, D.C. and was part of the war effort under the executive branch without direct Congressional authorization. During the course of the war it was relocated in the army's organizational chart several times. On July 5, 1917, Herbert O. Yardley was assigned to head the unit. At that point, the unit consisted of Yardley and two civilian clerks. It absorbed the navy's cryptoanalysis functions in July 1918. World War I ended on November 11, 1918, and MI-8 moved to New York City on May 20, 1919, where it continued intelligence activities as the Code Compilation Company under the direction of Yardley.[19][20]

MI-8 also operated the so-called "Black Chamber".[22] The Black Chamber was located on East 37th Street in Manhattan. Its purpose was to crack the communications codes of foreign governments. Jointly supported by the State Department and the War Department, the chamber persuaded Western Union, the largest U.S. telegram company, to allow government officials to monitor private communications passing through the company's wires.[23]

Other "Black Chambers" were also found in Europe. They were established by the French and British governments to read the letters of targeted individuals, employing a variety of techniques to surreptitiously open, copy, and reseal correspondence before forwarding it to unsuspecting recipients.[24]

Despite the American Black Chamber's initial successes, it was shut down in 1929 by U.S. Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson, who defended his decision by stating: "Gentlemen do not read each other's mail".[21]

During World War II, the Signal Security Agency (SSA) was created to intercept and decipher the communications of the Axis powers.[25] When the war ended, the SSA was reorganized as the Army Security Agency (ASA), and it was placed under the leadership of the Director of Military Intelligence.[25]

On May 20, 1949, all cryptologic activities were centralized under a national organization called the Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA).[25] This organization was originally established within the U.S. Department of Defense under the command of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.[26] The AFSA was tasked to direct Department of Defense communications and electronic intelligence activities, except those of U.S. military intelligence units.[26] However, the AFSA was unable to centralize communications intelligence and failed to coordinate with civilian agencies that shared its interests such as the Department of State, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).[26] In December 1951, President Harry S. Truman ordered a panel to investigate how AFSA had failed to achieve its goals. The results of the investigation led to improvements and its redesignation as the National Security Agency.[27]

The agency was formally established by Truman in a memorandum of October 24, 1952, that revised National Security Council Intelligence Directive (NSCID) 9.[28] Since President Truman's memo was a classified document,[28] the existence of the NSA was not known to the public at that time. Due to its ultra-secrecy the U.S. intelligence community referred to the NSA as "No Such Agency".[29]

In the 1960s, the NSA played a key role in expanding America's commitment to the Vietnam War by providing evidence of a North Vietnamese attack on the American destroyer USSMaddox during the Gulf of Tonkin incident.[30]

A secret operation code-named "MINARET" was set up by the NSA to monitor the phone communications of Senators Frank Church and Howard Baker, as well as major civil rights leaders including Dr. Martin Luther King, and prominent U.S. journalists and athletes who criticized the Vietnam War.[31] However the project turned out to be controversial, and an internal review by the NSA concluded that its Minaret program was "disreputable if not outright illegal."[31]

In the aftermath of the Watergate Scandal, a congressional hearing in 1975 led by Sen. Frank Church[32] revealed that the NSA, in collaboration with Britain's SIGINT intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), had routinely intercepted the international communications of prominent anti-Vietnam war leaders such as Jane Fonda and Dr. Benjamin Spock.[33] Following the resignation of President Richard Nixon, there were several investigations of suspected misuse of FBI, CIA and NSA facilities.[34] Senator Frank Church uncovered previously unknown activity,[34] such as a CIA plot (ordered by the administration of President John F. Kennedy) to assassinate Fidel Castro.[35] The investigation also uncovered NSA's wiretaps on targeted American citizens.[36]

After the Church Committee hearings, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 was passed into law. This was designed to limit the practice of mass surveillance in the United States.[34]

In 1986, the NSA intercepted the communications of the Libyan government during the immediate aftermath of the Berlin discotheque bombing. The White House asserted that the NSA interception had provided "irrefutable" evidence that Libya was behind the bombing, which U.S. President Ronald Reagan cited as a justification for the 1986 United States bombing of Libya.[37][38]

In 1999, a multi-year investigation by the European Parliament highlighted the NSA's role in economic espionage in a report entitled 'Development of Surveillance Technology and Risk of Abuse of Economic Information'.[39] That year, the NSA founded the NSA Hall of Honor, a memorial at the National Cryptologic Museum in Fort Meade, Maryland.[40] The memorial is a, "tribute to the pioneers and heroes who have made significant and long-lasting contributions to American cryptology".[40] NSA employees must be retired for more than fifteen years to qualify for the memorial.[40]

In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the NSA created new IT systems to deal with the flood of information from new technologies like the internet and cellphones. ThinThread contained advanced data mining capabilities. It also had a 'privacy mechanism'; surveillance was stored encrypted; decryption required a warrant. The research done under this program may have contributed to the technology used in later systems. ThinThread was cancelled when Michael Hayden chose Trailblazer, which did not include ThinThread's privacy system.[42]

Trailblazer Project ramped up in 2002. SAIC, Boeing, CSC, IBM, and Litton worked on it. Some NSA whistleblowers complained internally about major problems surrounding Trailblazer. This led to investigations by Congress and the NSA and DoD Inspectors General. The project was cancelled in early 2004; it was late, over budget, and didn't do what it was supposed to do. The Baltimore Sun ran articles about this in 200607. The government then raided the whistleblowers' houses. One of them, Thomas Drake, was charged with violating 18 U.S.C.793(e) in 2010 in an unusual use of espionage law. He and his defenders claim that he was actually being persecuted for challenging the Trailblazer Project. In 2011, all 10 original charges against Drake were dropped.[43][44]

Turbulence started in 2005. It was developed in small, inexpensive 'test' pieces rather than one grand plan like Trailblazer. It also included offensive cyber-warfare capabilities, like injecting malware into remote computers. Congress criticized Turbulence in 2007 for having similar bureaucratic problems as Trailblazer.[44] It was to be a realization of information processing at higher speeds in cyberspace.[45]

The massive extent of the NSA's spying, both foreign and domestic, was revealed to the public in a series of detailed disclosures of internal NSA documents beginning in June 2013. Most of the disclosures were leaked by former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden.

It was revealed that the NSA intercepts telephone and internet communications of over a billion people worldwide, seeking information on terrorism as well as foreign politics, economics[46] and "commercial secrets".[47] In a declassified document it was revealed that 17,835 phone lines were on an improperly permitted "alert list" from 2006 to 2009 in breach of compliance, which tagged these phone lines for daily monitoring.[48][49][50] Eleven percent of these monitored phone lines met the agency's legal standard for "reasonably articulable suspicion"(RAS).[48][51]

A dedicated unit of the NSA locates targets for the CIA for extrajudicial assassination in the Middle East.[52] The NSA has also spied extensively on the European Union, the United Nations and numerous governments including allies and trading partners in Europe, South America and Asia.[53][54]

The NSA tracks the locations of hundreds of millions of cellphones per day, allowing them to map people's movements and relationships in detail.[55] It reportedly has access to all communications made via Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, YouTube, AOL, Skype, Apple and Paltalk,[56] and collects hundreds of millions of contact lists from personal email and instant messaging accounts each year.[57] It has also managed to weaken much of the encryption used on the Internet (by collaborating with, coercing or otherwise infiltrating numerous technology companies), so that the majority of Internet privacy is now vulnerable to the NSA and other attackers.[58][59]

Domestically, the NSA collects and stores metadata records of phone calls,[60] including over 120 million US Verizon subscribers[61] as well as internet communications,[56] relying on a secret interpretation of the Patriot Act whereby the entirety of US communications may be considered "relevant" to a terrorism investigation if it is expected that even a tiny minority may relate to terrorism.[62] The NSA supplies foreign intercepts to the DEA, IRS and other law enforcement agencies, who use these to initiate criminal investigations. Federal agents are then instructed to "recreate" the investigative trail via parallel construction.[63]

The NSA also spies on influential Muslims to obtain information that could be used to discredit them, such as their use of pornography. The targets, both domestic and abroad, are not suspected of any crime but hold religious or political views deemed "radical" by the NSA.[64]

According to a report in The Washington Post in July 2014, relying on information furnished by Snowden, 90% of those placed under surveillance in the U.S. are ordinary Americans, and are not the intended targets. The newspaper said it had examined documents including emails, message texts, and online accounts, that support the claim.[65]

Despite President Obama's claims that these programs have congressional oversight, members of Congress were unaware of the existence of these NSA programs or the secret interpretation of the Patriot Act, and have consistently been denied access to basic information about them.[66] Obama has also claimed that there are legal checks in place to prevent inappropriate access of data and that there have been no examples of abuse;[67] however, the secret FISC court charged with regulating the NSA's activities is, according to its chief judge, incapable of investigating or verifying how often the NSA breaks even its own secret rules.[68] It has since been reported that the NSA violated its own rules on data access thousands of times a year, many of these violations involving large-scale data interceptions;[69] and that NSA officers have even used data intercepts to spy on love interests.[70] The NSA has "generally disregarded the special rules for disseminating United States person information" by illegally sharing its intercepts with other law enforcement agencies.[71] A March 2009 opinion of the FISC court, released by court order, states that protocols restricting data queries had been "so frequently and systemically violated that it can be fairly said that this critical element of the overall ... regime has never functioned effectively."[72][73] In 2011 the same court noted that the "volume and nature" of the NSA's bulk foreign internet intercepts was "fundamentally different from what the court had been led to believe".[71] Email contact lists (including those of US citizens) are collected at numerous foreign locations to work around the illegality of doing so on US soil.[57]

Legal opinions on the NSA's bulk collection program have differed. In mid-December 2013, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon ruled that the "almost-Orwellian" program likely violates the Constitution, and wrote, "I cannot imagine a more 'indiscriminate' and 'arbitrary invasion' than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval. Surely, such a program infringes on 'that degree of privacy' that the Founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment. Indeed, I have little doubt that the author of our Constitution, James Madison, who cautioned us to beware 'the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power,' would be aghast."[74]

Later that month, U.S. District Judge William Pauley ruled that the NSA's collection of telephone records is legal and valuable in the fight against terrorism. In his opinion, he wrote, "a bulk telephony metadata collection program [is] a wide net that could find and isolate gossamer contacts among suspected terrorists in an ocean of seemingly disconnected data" and noted that a similar collection of data prior to 9/11 might have prevented the attack.[75]

An October 2014 United Nations report condemned mass surveillance by the United States and other countries as violating multiple international treaties and conventions that guarantee core privacy rights.[76]

On March 20, 2013 the Director of National Intelligence, Lieutenant General James Clapper, testified before Congress that the NSA does not wittingly collect any kind of data on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans, but he retracted this in June after details of the PRISM program were published, and stated instead that meta-data of phone and internet traffic are collected, but no actual message contents.[77] This was corroborated by the NSA Director, General Keith Alexander, before it was revealed that the XKeyscore program collects the contents of millions of emails from US citizens without warrant, as well as "nearly everything a user does on the Internet". Alexander later admitted that "content" is collected, but stated that it is simply stored and never analyzed or searched unless there is "a nexus to al-Qaida or other terrorist groups".[67]

Regarding the necessity of these NSA programs, Alexander stated on June 27 that the NSA's bulk phone and Internet intercepts had been instrumental in preventing 54 terrorist "events", including 13 in the US, and in all but one of these cases had provided the initial tip to "unravel the threat stream".[78] On July 31 NSA Deputy Director John Inglis conceded to the Senate that these intercepts had not been vital in stopping any terrorist attacks, but were "close" to vital in identifying and convicting four San Diego men for sending US$8,930 to Al-Shabaab, a militia that conducts terrorism in Somalia.[79][80][81]

The U.S. government has aggressively sought to dismiss and challenge Fourth Amendment cases raised against it, and has granted retroactive immunity to ISPs and telecoms participating in domestic surveillance.[82][83] The U.S. military has acknowledged blocking access to parts of The Guardian website for thousands of defense personnel across the country,[84][85] and blocking the entire Guardian website for personnel stationed throughout Afghanistan, the Middle East, and South Asia.[86]

The NSA is led by the Director of the National Security Agency (DIRNSA), who also serves as Chief of the Central Security Service (CHCSS) and Commander of the United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) and is the highest-ranking military official of these organizations. He is assisted by a Deputy Director, who is the highest-ranking civilian within the NSA/CSS.

NSA also has an Inspector General, head of the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), a General Counsel, head of the Office of the General Counsel (OGC) and a Director of Compliance, who is head of the Office of the Director of Compliance (ODOC).[87]

Unlike other intelligence organizations such as CIA or DIA, NSA has always been particularly reticent concerning its internal organizational structure.

As of the mid-1990s, the National Security Agency was organized into five Directorates:

Each of these directorates consisted of several groups or elements, designated by a letter. There were for example the A Group, which was responsible for all SIGINT operations against the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and G Group, which was responsible for SIGINT related to all non-communist countries. These groups were divided in units designated by an additional number, like unit A5 for breaking Soviet codes, and G6, being the office for the Middle East, North Africa, Cuba, Central and South America.[89][90]

As of 2013[update], NSA has about a dozen directorates, which are designated by a letter, although not all of them are publicly known. The directorates are divided in divisions and units starting with the letter of the parent directorate, followed by a number for the division, the sub-unit or a sub-sub-unit.

The main elements of the organizational structure of the NSA are:[91]

In the year 2000, a leadership team was formed, consisting of the Director, the Deputy Director and the Directors of the Signals Intelligence (SID), the Information Assurance (IAD) and the Technical Directorate (TD). The chiefs of other main NSA divisions became associate directors of the senior leadership team.[99]

After president George W. Bush initiated the President's Surveillance Program (PSP) in 2001, the NSA created a 24-hour Metadata Analysis Center (MAC), followed in 2004 by the Advanced Analysis Division (AAD), with the mission of analyzing content, internet metadata and telephone metadata. Both units were part of the Signals Intelligence Directorate.[100]

The NSA maintains at least two watch centers:

The number of NSA employees is officially classified[4] but there are several sources providing estimates. In 1961, NSA had 59,000 military and civilian employees, which grew to 93,067 in 1969, of which 19,300 worked at the headquarters at Fort Meade. In the early 1980s NSA had roughly 50,000 military and civilian personnel. By 1989 this number had grown again to 75,000, of which 25,000 worked at the NSA headquarters. Between 1990 and 1995 the NSA's budget and workforce were cut by one third, which led to a substantial loss of experience.[103]

In 2012, the NSA said more than 30,000 employees worked at Ft. Meade and other facilities.[2] In 2012, John C. Inglis, the deputy director, said that the total number of NSA employees is "somewhere between 37,000 and one billion" as a joke,[4] and stated that the agency is "probably the biggest employer of introverts."[4] In 2013 Der Spiegel stated that the NSA had 40,000 employees.[5] More widely, it has been described as the world's largest single employer of mathematicians.[104] Some NSA employees form part of the workforce of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the agency that provides the NSA with satellite signals intelligence.

As of 2013 about 1,000 system administrators work for the NSA.[105]

The NSA received criticism early on in 1960 after two agents had defected to the Soviet Union. Investigations by the House Un-American Activities Committee and a special subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee revealed severe cases of ignorance in personnel security regulations, prompting the former personnel director and the director of security to step down and leading to the adoption of stricter security practices.[106] Nonetheless, security breaches reoccurred only a year later when in an issue of Izvestia of July 23, 1963, a former NSA employee published several cryptologic secrets.

The very same day, an NSA clerk-messenger committed suicide as ongoing investigations disclosed that he had sold secret information to the Soviets on a regular basis. The reluctance of Congressional houses to look into these affairs had prompted a journalist to write "If a similar series of tragic blunders occurred in any ordinary agency of Government an aroused public would insist that those responsible be officially censured, demoted, or fired." David Kahn criticized the NSA's tactics of concealing its doings as smug and the Congress' blind faith in the agency's right-doing as shortsighted, and pointed out the necessity of surveillance by the Congress to prevent abuse of power.[106]

Edward Snowden's leaking of PRISM in 2013 caused the NSA to institute a "two-man rule" where two system administrators are required to be present when one accesses certain sensitive information.[105] Snowden claims he suggested such a rule in 2009.[107]

The NSA conducts polygraph tests of employees. For new employees, the tests are meant to discover enemy spies who are applying to the NSA and to uncover any information that could make an applicant pliant to coercion.[108] As part of the latter, historically EPQs or "embarrassing personal questions" about sexual behavior had been included in the NSA polygraph.[108] The NSA also conducts five-year periodic reinvestigation polygraphs of employees, focusing on counterintelligence programs. In addition the NSA conducts aperiodic polygraph investigations in order to find spies and leakers; those who refuse to take them may receive "termination of employment", according to a 1982 memorandum from the director of the NSA.[109]

There are also "special access examination" polygraphs for employees who wish to work in highly sensitive areas, and those polygraphs cover counterintelligence questions and some questions about behavior.[109] NSA's brochure states that the average test length is between two and four hours.[110] A 1983 report of the Office of Technology Assessment stated that "It appears that the NSA [National Security Agency] (and possibly CIA) use the polygraph not to determine deception or truthfulness per se, but as a technique of interrogation to encourage admissions."[111] Sometimes applicants in the polygraph process confess to committing felonies such as murder, rape, and selling of illegal drugs. Between 1974 and 1979, of the 20,511 job applicants who took polygraph tests, 695 (3.4%) confessed to previous felony crimes; almost all of those crimes had been undetected.[108]

In 2010 the NSA produced a video explaining its polygraph process.[112] The video, ten minutes long, is titled "The Truth About the Polygraph" and was posted to the website of the Defense Security Service. Jeff Stein of The Washington Post said that the video portrays "various applicants, or actors playing them it's not clear describing everything bad they had heard about the test, the implication being that none of it is true."[113] AntiPolygraph.org argues that the NSA-produced video omits some information about the polygraph process; it produced a video responding to the NSA video.[112] George Maschke, the founder of the website, accused the NSA polygraph video of being "Orwellian".[113]

After Edward Snowden revealed his identity in 2013, the NSA began requiring polygraphing of employees once per quarter.[114]

The number of exemptions from legal requirements has been criticized. When in 1964 the Congress was hearing a bill giving the director of the NSA the power to fire at will any employee, the Washington Post wrote: "This is the very definition of arbitrariness. It means that an employee could be discharged and disgraced on the basis of anonymous allegations without the slightest opportunity to defend himself." Yet, the bill was accepted by an overwhelming majority.[106]

The heraldic insignia of NSA consists of an eagle inside a circle, grasping a key in its talons.[115] The eagle represents the agency's national mission.[115] Its breast features a shield with bands of red and white, taken from the Great Seal of the United States and representing Congress.[115] The key is taken from the emblem of Saint Peter and represents security.[115]

When the NSA was created, the agency had no emblem and used that of the Department of Defense.[116] The agency adopted its first of two emblems in 1963.[116] The current NSA insignia has been in use since 1965, when then-Director, LTG Marshall S. Carter (USA) ordered the creation of a device to represent the agency.[117]

The NSA's flag consists of the agency's seal on a light blue background.

Crews associated with NSA missions have been involved in a number of dangerous and deadly situations.[118] The USS Liberty incident in 1967 and USS Pueblo incident in 1968 are examples of the losses endured during the Cold War.[118]

The National Security Agency/Central Security Service Cryptologic Memorial honors and remembers the fallen personnel, both military and civilian, of these intelligence missions.[119] It is made of black granite, and has 171 names carved into it, as of 2013[update] .[119] It is located at NSA headquarters. A tradition of declassifying the stories of the fallen was begun in 2001.[119]

NSANet stands for National Security Agency Network and is the official NSA intranet.[120] It is a classified network,[121] for information up to the level of TS/SCI[122] to support the use and sharing of intelligence data between NSA and the signals intelligence agencies of the four other nations of the Five Eyes partnership. The management of NSANet has been delegated to the Central Security Service Texas (CSSTEXAS).[123]

NSANet is a highly secured computer network consisting of fiber-optic and satellite communication channels which are almost completely separated from the public internet. The network allows NSA personnel and civilian and military intelligence analysts anywhere in the world to have access to the agency's systems and databases. This access is tightly controlled and monitored. For example, every keystroke is logged, activities are audited at random and downloading and printing of documents from NSANet are recorded.[124]

In 1998, NSANet, along with NIPRNET and SIPRNET, had "significant problems with poor search capabilities, unorganized data and old information".[125] In 2004, the network was reported to have used over twenty commercial off-the-shelf operating systems.[126] Some universities that do highly sensitive research are allowed to connect to it.[127]

The thousands of Top Secret internal NSA documents that were taken by Edward Snowden in 2013 were stored in "a file-sharing location on the NSA's intranet site" so they could easily be read online by NSA personnel. Everyone with a TS/SCI-clearance had access to these documents and as a system administrator, Snowden was responsible for moving accidentally misplaced highly sensitive documents to more secure storage locations.[128]

The DoD Computer Security Center was founded in 1981 and renamed the National Computer Security Center (NCSC) in 1985. NCSC was responsible for computer security throughout the federal government.[129] NCSC was part of NSA,[130] and during the late 1980s and the 1990s, NSA and NCSC published Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria in a six-foot high Rainbow Series of books that detailed trusted computing and network platform specifications.[131] The Rainbow books were replaced by the Common Criteria, however, in the early 2000s.[131]

On July 18, 2013, Greenwald said that Snowden held "detailed blueprints of how the NSA does what they do", thereby sparking fresh controversy.[132]

Headquarters for the National Security Agency is located at 39632N 764617W / 39.10889N 76.77139W / 39.10889; -76.77139 in Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, although it is separate from other compounds and agencies that are based within this same military installation. Ft. Meade is about 20mi (32km) southwest of Baltimore,[133] and 25mi (40km) northeast of Washington, DC.[134] The NSA has its own exit off Maryland Route 295 South labeled "NSA Employees Only".[135][136] The exit may only be used by people with the proper clearances, and security vehicles parked along the road guard the entrance.[137]

NSA is the largest employer in the U.S. state of Maryland, and two-thirds of its personnel work at Ft. Meade.[138] Built on 350 acres (140ha; 0.55sqmi)[139] of Ft. Meade's 5,000 acres (2,000ha; 7.8sqmi),[140] the site has 1,300 buildings and an estimated 18,000 parking spaces.[134][141]

The main NSA headquarters and operations building is what James Bamford, author of Body of Secrets, describes as "a modern boxy structure" that appears similar to "any stylish office building."[142] The building is covered with one-way dark glass, which is lined with copper shielding in order to prevent espionage by trapping in signals and sounds.[142] It contains 3,000,000 square feet (280,000m2), or more than 68 acres (28ha), of floor space; Bamford said that the U.S. Capitol "could easily fit inside it four times over."[142]

The facility has over 100 watchposts,[143] one of them being the visitor control center, a two-story area that serves as the entrance.[142] At the entrance, a white pentagonal structure,[144] visitor badges are issued to visitors and security clearances of employees are checked.[145] The visitor center includes a painting of the NSA seal.[144]

The OPS2A building, the tallest building in the NSA complex and the location of much of the agency's operations directorate, is accessible from the visitor center. Bamford described it as a "dark glass Rubik's Cube".[146] The facility's "red corridor" houses non-security operations such as concessions and the drug store. The name refers to the "red badge" which is worn by someone without a security clearance. The NSA headquarters includes a cafeteria, a credit union, ticket counters for airlines and entertainment, a barbershop, and a bank.[144] NSA headquarters has its own post office, fire department, and police force.[147][148][149]

The employees at the NSA headquarters reside in various places in the Baltimore-Washington area, including Annapolis, Baltimore, and Columbia in Maryland and the District of Columbia, including the Georgetown community.[150]

Following a major power outage in 2000, in 2003 and in follow-ups through 2007, The Baltimore Sun reported that the NSA was at risk of electrical overload because of insufficient internal electrical infrastructure at Fort Meade to support the amount of equipment being installed. This problem was apparently recognized in the 1990s but not made a priority, and "now the agency's ability to keep its operations going is threatened."[151]

Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE, now Constellation Energy) provided NSA with 65 to 75 megawatts at Ft. Meade in 2007, and expected that an increase of 10 to 15 megawatts would be needed later that year.[152] In 2011, NSA at Ft. Meade was Maryland's largest consumer of power.[138] In 2007, as BGE's largest customer, NSA bought as much electricity as Annapolis, the capital city of Maryland.[151]

One estimate put the potential for power consumption by the new Utah Data Center at $40million per year.[153]

When the agency was established, its headquarters and cryptographic center were in the Naval Security Station in Washington, D.C.. The COMINT functions were located in Arlington Hall in Northern Virginia, which served as the headquarters of the U.S. Army's cryptographic operations.[154] Because the Soviet Union had detonated a nuclear bomb and because the facilities were crowded, the federal government wanted to move several agencies, including the AFSA/NSA. A planning committee considered Fort Knox, but Fort Meade, Maryland, was ultimately chosen as NSA headquarters because it was far enough away from Washington, D.C. in case of a nuclear strike and was close enough so its employees would not have to move their families.[155]

Construction of additional buildings began after the agency occupied buildings at Ft. Meade in the late 1950s, which they soon outgrew.[155] In 1963 the new headquarters building, nine stories tall, opened. NSA workers referred to the building as the "Headquarters Building" and since the NSA management occupied the top floor, workers used "Ninth Floor" to refer to their leaders.[156] COMSEC remained in Washington, D.C., until its new building was completed in 1968.[155] In September 1986, the Operations 2A and 2B buildings, both copper-shielded to prevent eavesdropping, opened with a dedication by President Ronald Reagan.[157] The four NSA buildings became known as the "Big Four."[157] The NSA director moved to 2B when it opened.[157]

On March 30, 2015, shortly before 9am, a stolen sports utility vehicle approached an NSA police vehicle blocking the road near the gate of Fort Meade, after it was told to leave the area. NSA officers fired on the SUV, killing the 27-year-old driver, Ricky Hall (a transgender person also known as Mya), and seriously injuring his friend, 20-year-old Kevin Fleming. An NSA officer's arm was injured when Hall subsequently crashed into his vehicle.[158][159]

The two, dressed in women's clothing after a night of partying at a motel with the man they'd stolen the SUV from that morning, "attempted to drive a vehicle into the National Security Agency portion of the installation without authorization", according to an NSA statement.[160] The NSA is investigating the incident, with help from the FBI. FBI spokeswoman Amy Thoreson said the incident is not believed to be related to terrorism.[161]

An anonymous police official told The Washington Post, "This was not a deliberate attempt to breach the security of NSA. This was not a planned attack." The two are believed to have made a wrong turn off the highway, while fleeing from the motel after stealing the vehicle. A small amount of cocaine was found in the SUV. A local CBS reporter initially said a gun was found,[162] but her later revision does not.[163] Dozens of journalists were corralled into a parking lot blocks away from the scene, and were barred from photographing the area.[164]

In 1995, The Baltimore Sun reported that the NSA is the owner of the single largest group of supercomputers.[165]

NSA held a groundbreaking ceremony at Ft. Meade in May 2013 for its High Performance Computing Center 2, expected to open in 2016.[166] Called Site M, the center has a 150 megawatt power substation, 14 administrative buildings and 10 parking garages.[147] It cost $3.2billion and covers 227 acres (92ha; 0.355sqmi).[147] The center is 1,800,000 square feet (17ha; 0.065sqmi)[147] and initially uses 60 megawatts of electricity.[167]

Increments II and III are expected to be completed by 2030, and would quadruple the space, covering 5,800,000 square feet (54ha; 0.21sqmi) with 60 buildings and 40 parking garages.[147]Defense contractors are also establishing or expanding cybersecurity facilities near the NSA and around the Washington metropolitan area.[147]

As of 2012, NSA collected intelligence from four geostationary satellites.[153] Satellite receivers were at Roaring Creek Station in Catawissa, Pennsylvania and Salt Creek Station in Arbuckle, California.[153] It operated ten to twenty taps on U.S. telecom switches. NSA had installations in several U.S. states and from them observed intercepts from Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Latin America, and Asia.[153]

NSA had facilities at Friendship Annex (FANX) in Linthicum, Maryland, which is a 20 to 25-minute drive from Ft. Meade;[168] the Aerospace Data Facility at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora outside Denver, Colorado; NSA Texas in the Texas Cryptology Center at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas; NSA Georgia at Fort Gordon in Augusta, Georgia; NSA Hawaii in Honolulu; the Multiprogram Research Facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and elsewhere.[150][153]

On January 6, 2011 a groundbreaking ceremony was held to begin construction on NSA's first Comprehensive National Cyber-security Initiative (CNCI) Data Center, known as the "Utah Data Center" for short. The $1.5B data center is being built at Camp Williams, Utah, located 25 miles (40km) south of Salt Lake City, and will help support the agency's National Cyber-security Initiative.[169] It is expected to be operational by September 2013.[153]

In 2009, to protect its assets and to access more electricity, NSA sought to decentralize and expand its existing facilities in Ft. Meade and Menwith Hill,[170] the latter expansion expected to be completed by 2015.[171]

The Yakima Herald-Republic cited Bamford, saying that many of NSA's bases for its Echelon program were a legacy system, using outdated, 1990s technology.[172] In 2004, NSA closed its operations at Bad Aibling Station (Field Station 81) in Bad Aibling, Germany.[173] In 2012, NSA began to move some of its operations at Yakima Research Station, Yakima Training Center, in Washington state to Colorado, planning to leave Yakima closed.[174] As of 2013, NSA also intended to close operations at Sugar Grove, West Virginia.[172]

Following the signing in 19461956[175] of the UKUSA Agreement between the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, who then cooperated on signals intelligence and ECHELON,[176] NSA stations were built at GCHQ Bude in Morwenstow, United Kingdom; Geraldton, Pine Gap and Shoal Bay, Australia; Leitrim and Ottawa, Canada; Misawa, Japan; and Waihopai and Tangimoana,[177] New Zealand.[178]

NSA operates RAF Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire, United Kingdom, which was, according to BBC News in 2007, the largest electronic monitoring station in the world.[179] Planned in 1954, and opened in 1960, the base covered 562 acres (227ha; 0.878sqmi) in 1999.[180]

The agency's European Cryptologic Center (ECC), with 240 employees in 2011, is headquartered at a US military compound in Griesheim, near Frankfurt in Germany. A 2011 NSA report indicates that the ECC is responsible for the "largest analysis and productivity in Europe" and focusses on various priorities, including Africa, Europe, the Middle East and counterterrorism operations.[181]

In 2013, a new Consolidated Intelligence Center, also to be used by NSA, is being built at the headquarters of the United States Army Europe in Wiesbaden, Germany.[182] NSA's partnership with Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the German foreign intelligence service, was confirmed by BND president Gerhard Schindler.[182]

Thailand is a "3rd party partner" of the NSA along with nine other nations.[183] These are non-English-speaking countries that have made security agreements for the exchange of SIGINT raw material and end product reports.

Thailand is the site of at least two US SIGINT collection stations. One is at the US Embassy in Bangkok, a joint NSA-CIA Special Collection Service (SCS) unit. It presumably eavesdrops on foreign embassies, governmental communications, and other targets of opportunity.[184]

The second installation is a FORNSAT (foreign satellite interception) station in the Thai city of Khon Kaen. It is codenamed INDRA, but has also been referred to as LEMONWOOD.[184] The station is approximately 40 ha (100 acres) in size and consists of a large 3,7004,600 m2 (40,00050,000ft2) operations building on the west side of the ops compound and four radome-enclosed parabolic antennas. Possibly two of the radome-enclosed antennas are used for SATCOM intercept and two antennas used for relaying the intercepted material back to NSA. There is also a PUSHER-type circularly-disposed antenna array (CDAA) array just north of the ops compound.[185][186]

NSA activated Khon Kaen in October 1979. Its mission was to eavesdrop on the radio traffic of Chinese army and air force units in southern China, especially in and around the city of Kunming in Yunnan Province. Back in the late 1970s the base consisted only of a small CDAA antenna array that was remote-controlled via satellite from the NSA listening post at Kunia, Hawaii, and a small force of civilian contractors from Bendix Field Engineering Corp. who job it was to keep the antenna array and satellite relay facilities up and running 24/7.[185]

According to the papers of the late General William Odom, the INDRA facility was upgraded in 1986 with a new British-made PUSHER CDAA antenna as part of an overall upgrade of NSA and Thai SIGINT facilities whose objective was to spy on the neighboring communist nations of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.[185]

The base apparently fell into disrepair in the 1990s as China and Vietnam became more friendly towards the US, and by 2002 archived satellite imagery showed that the PUSHER CDAA antenna had been torn down, perhaps indicating that the base had been closed. At some point in the period since 9/11, the Khon Kaen base was reactivated and expanded to include a sizeable SATCOM intercept mission. It is likely that the NSA presence at Khon Kaen is relatively small, and that most of the work is done by civilian contractors.[185]

NSA's eavesdropping mission includes radio broadcasting, both from various organizations and individuals, the Internet, telephone calls, and other intercepted forms of communication. Its secure communications mission includes military, diplomatic, and all other sensitive, confidential or secret government communications.[187]

According to the Washington Post, "[e]very day, collection systems at the National Security Agency intercept and store 1.7billion e-mails, phone calls and other types of communications. The NSA sorts a fraction of those into 70 separate databases."[188]

Originally posted here:
en.m.wikipedia.org

Posted in NSA | Comments Off on en.m.wikipedia.org

Free Speech/ . – …

Posted: at 5:44 am

MFF . I

MFF . II

,

: , - , , , .

, , , .

, . , ! . !

, - -.

, .

.

.

, . .

, - .

, , , . , .

, . .

90- , , .

, , , , .

, . , , .

- .

, .

, , .

, , , , .

, , , .

, , , 4,5% . , .

, , 4,5% (, ) .

2012 , 145,7 . .

, .

, , , 6,55 . . , .

. 1 . . 10 . , , 65,5 , .

, , .

, , , .

- , , , .

2007 40 . .

2012 , , , 180-200 . . .

, , 250 .

.

, , 42 , 100- .

, , .

, , . . . - , 2007 , 2008 .

, , - .

, , , , , .

. , -.

, . , .

, . , , .

, , .

, , . , .

, , , , - . , .

. - .

, .

.

, - . , 2, , .

, , . , . .

, .

, .

, , . .

, . , , . , .

. , .

.

, , .

, .

, , .

, , -, .

, , , .

, .

, .

, . , .

.

.

, .

, .

, , 140 .

100 , . , , . , .

. 140 ! - , , .

, . , .

, , . .

, .

, !

, , . , , , . , . ! 100 , 60. . .

, , .

, . - .

, , , . , , . .

, . , , .

- , . , - .

, , . . , , , !

, .

, , .

, , .

, , ! . ! .

, , .

.

" , , , , , . ."

- .

Read the original post:
Free Speech/ . - ...

Posted in Free Speech | Comments Off on Free Speech/ . – …

Atheism – Infidels

Posted: at 5:44 am

About Atheism [Index]

Various introductions to atheism, including its definition; its relationship to agnosticism, theism, and noncognitivism; and its value.

Arguments for Atheism [Index]

In this section, "arguments for atheism" means "arguments for the nonexistence of God." In the jargon of the philosophy of religion, such arguments are known as "atheological arguments." The argument from evil (sometimes referred to as 'the problem of evil') is by far the most famous of such arguments, but it is by no means the only such argument. Indeed, in the 1990s atheist philosophers developed a flurry of atheological arguments; arguably the most famous of such arguments is the argument from divine hiddenness (and the related argument from nonbelief).

Atheism, Theism, and the Burden of Proof [Index]

Debates [Index]

Links to transcripts or reviews of debates specifically about atheism (as opposed to debates about Christianity, Islam, creation/evolution, etc.).

Media & Reviews [Index]

Books, magazines, movies, and book reviews having to do with atheism.

Morality and Atheism [Index]

This page addresses the relationship between morality and atheism, especially in the following four areas: (1) on average, are atheists as moral as theists? (2) why should atheists be moral? (3) can life without God have meaning? and (4) does atheism entail a certain view on specific moral questions? (NOTE: this page does not address moral arguments for God's existence, or whether morality is subjective.)

Outreach [Index]

Links to various articles which discuss whether atheists should engage in outreach and, if so, how they may do so effectively.

Recommended Sites [Index]

This page is NOT intended to be a list of all personal home pages maintained by atheists. Rather, this page is only intended to list some exceptionally good home pages on the Internet.

Jeffery Jay Lowder maintains this page.

Go here to read the rest:
Atheism - Infidels

Posted in Atheism | Comments Off on Atheism – Infidels

Urban Dictionary: atheism

Posted: at 5:44 am

Atheism is simply the opposite of theism. The prefix A means "without" or "not", so Atheism is simply a lack of belief in god(s). It is not a religion, just like theism is not a religion. Atheists are usually quite fond of life, since it is the only one we have.Theists if you think about it, need a god to make their existance make sense and to make them respect life.

That dog is an atheist. A new-born baby is an atheist. Most of the smartest people in the world are atheists. Coincidence?

Besides, just by being intolerant and judgemental of Atheists, you are sinning. 🙂

" 'To be godless is probably the first step towards innocence,' he said, 'to lose the sense of sin and subordination, the false grief for things supposed to be lost.' 'So by innocence you mean not an absense of experience, but an absense of illusions.' 'An absense of need for illusions,' he said. 'A love of and respect for what is right before your eyes.' " -Anne Rice, The Vampire Lestat.

Weak atheism is essentially the same as agnosticism]. It states that since we have no proof of a God, we cannot know for sure that one exists. Strong atheism states that since we live in a scientific world where the existence of things is determined solely by their observability, we cannot assume anything unobservable to exist. God isnt observable, therefore he doesnt exist (cf. Occams Razor). This doesn't mean that an atheist wouldn't WANT to believe in God, it merely means that he has no REASON to believe in it/him.

Strong atheists often question the special treatment weak atheists and theists give to religion. If they believe that the tooth fairy or Santa Claus do not exist, why are they willing to give God a benefit of the doubt?

Strong atheism is often equated with religion since it takes a strong stance on the issue. This is, however, fallacious. Religion is not based on rationality, and strong atheists value rationality over fantasy. Therefore atheism is not parallel with religion.

I do not follow atheism. I merely concur with it.

Atheism Benefits: - Free on Sunday! - Get to focus on the now. - No guilt! - Can claim full responsibility for life's achievments. Drawbacks: - No afterlife. 🙁 - Must take responsibility for life's failures. Dang!

A lack of beleif in God.

"I am an atheist because I do not beleive any gods exist. That's all that makes me an atheist."

Atheism doesn't hold any answers to life's big questions. It won't tell you the meaning of life and it won't tell you how it all started. It's not a religion, not a philosophy, not a way of life. Atheism is quite simply *non-belief*.

Atheism isn't about answers. It's not really about anything, actually.

Common sense. Some one who doesnt believe in magic or propaganda, is backed up by science and logic, and figures that god doesnt do have the shit he tells us to do.

(God starts holocaust)

See the rest here:
Urban Dictionary: atheism

Posted in Atheism | Comments Off on Urban Dictionary: atheism

Atheism News – The New York Times

Posted: at 5:44 am

Ginia Bellafante Big City column notes Freedom From Religion Foundation in Madison, Wis, has been one of few dissenting voices against tremendous cost and effort New York City has put forth in welcoming Pope Francis; submits Francis's visit to city is of nonsectarian benefit as well. MORE

Molly Worthen Op-Ed article describes attending Sunday Assembly in London, secular alternative to Sunday church services that began in 2013; suggests that modern secular humanism is outgrowth of 21st-century liberalism, and urges nonbelievers to remember that heritage as they engage with traditional Christians on issues like same-sex marriage. MORE

David Brooks Op-Ed column observes rise of secularism in global culture, noting some proponents see atheism and agnosticism as active creeds rather than religious absence; offers several recommendations for how secularists could better present their moral philosophies in way that speaks to whole human experience. MORE

T M Luhrmann Op-Ed article describes how many people this Christmas are attending God-neutral movements like Sunday Assembly, which was created by atheists Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans and offers church-like weekly services; observes that growing popularity of these movements show how ritual is important for all people, including atheists, to make sense of the world. MORE

Reza Aslan Lives essay describes experience of saying grace over Christmas dinner while surrounded by family members espousing radically different religious beliefs; says family was able to find commonality through looking beyond symbolism and language that defines their beliefs. MORE

Coalition of atheists in Maryland, Arkansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas is fighting to overturn laws preventing atheists from serving in public office, calling bans discriminatory, offensive and unconstitutional. MORE

Samuel G Freedman On Religion column; David Skeel, University of Pennsylvania law professor and Christian, consulted with Patrick Arsenault, postdoctoral fellow and atheist, for his book True Paradox: How Christianity Makes Sense of Our Complex World; unlikely collaboration offers rare example of mutual civility within today's culture wars. MORE

Neil Genzlinger observes arrival of Atheist TV, channel available online and through streaming service Roku, which purports to offer discussion arena and promote idea that religion can and should be criticized. MORE

Secular Coalition for America, alliance of atheists and nonbelievers from across country, dismisses its executive director, Edwina Rogers, experienced Republican lobbyist whose conservative pedigree elevated the profile of the secular movement when she was hired just over two years ago. MORE

Mark Oppenheimer Beliefs column; women intent on leaving religion behind attend the third Women in Secularism conference to ease the process; anyone leaving a close-knit belief-based community undergoes stresses but process can be especially difficult for women who have grown up Muslim, since they are sometimes accused of trying to assimilate into a Western culture that despises them. MORE

Case of Alexander Aan, who was imprisoned in Indonesia for over 19 months after posting atheist commentaries online, is part of a rise in persecution connected to freedom of religion in the country in recent years. MORE

Op-Ed article by author Barbara Ehrenreich describes mystical experience she had at age 17 that shook her once rationalist and atheist worldview and left her with a life-long puzzle; reflects on frequency with which people claim to have mystical experiences, and the possibility that a God or gods are responsible for them, or whether the universe itself is pulsing with a kind of life that sometimes manifests itself. MORE

Mark Oppenheimer Beliefs column profiles atheist writer, S T Joshi, whose work includes culling the views of other writers and philosophers who make a case against God. MORE

Samuel G Freedman On Religion column notes that growing number of Alcoholic Anonymous meetings offer a 12-step program for nonreligious people in recovery, agnostics, atheists, humanists or freethinkers; boom in nonreligious AA represents another manifestation of a more visible and confident humanist movement in the United States. MORE

Pope Francis, using his first Christmas address of his papacy, calls on atheists to unite with believers of all religions and work for a peace that can spread across the globe. MORE

New York's nonreligious groups, including atheists, agnostics, skeptics and humanists, are offering gatherings at height of holiday season to foster community, commiserate and reinvent the image of the holiday-hating secularist. MORE

Evangelical organization Answers in Genesis mounts digital billboard, directed at New York City's atheists, on corner of 42nd Street and Eight Avenue, heart of Times Square. MORE

Samuel G Freedman On Religion column profiles Teresa MacBain, former Methodist minister who, after realizing she no longer believed in God, now helps start congregations with the Humanist Community Project at Harvard; MacBain aids atheists, agnostics, humanists and freethinkers replicate communal structure and support that organized religion provides its faithful. MORE

Group American Atheists intends to install 50 public monuments to secularism near displays of the Ten Commandments nationwide; unveils its first totem in Starke, Fla, 1,500-pound gray granite bench engraved with quotations extolling the separation of church and state. MORE

Former Pentecostal preacher Jerry DeWitt holds what is billed as Louisiana's first atheist service in Baton Rouge; DeWitt says nonbelievers often miss the sense of community of church. MORE

Mark Oppenheimer Believes column notes that some people who identify as nonreligious or atheists embrace ritual of Lent as cultural nostalgia and as claiming a sense of community. MORE

Op-Ed article by author Susan Jacoby disputes notion that atheists believe in nothing positive; calls on atheist to speak up in order to demonstrate that atheism is rooted in empathy as well as intellect. MORE

Federal judge in Los Angeles denies request from nonprofit group Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee to temporarily block city's ban on unattended displays in Palisades Park; measure was passed in 2011 by City Council on heels of dispute over atheist displays outnumbering traditional Christian scenes; series of 14 Nativity scenes have been a mainstay in park since 1950s. MORE

Study by Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life finds that for the first time, fewer than half of Americans say they are Protestants, a steep decline from 40 years ago when two-thirds of the population were members; report also shows that nearly 20 percent say they are atheist, agnostic or 'nothing in particular.' MORE

Atheist movement in the United States, long dominated by cranky gadflies, seems to be gaining a new kind of legitimacy and power, even managing to gain converts from the ranks of the clergy. MORE

Nicholas D Kristof Op-Ed column welcomes what seems to be a new intellectual tide that expresses grudging admiration for religion as an ethical and cohesive force; asserts that this trend is exemplified by Alain de Botton book Religion for Atheists, in which he argues that atheists have a great deal to learn from religion. MORE

Atheists who objected to nativity scenes in a Santa Monica park in California win the right to put up their own messages, which now outnumber the religious ones. MORE

Ross Douthat Op-Ed column expresses wonder at the number of Christians who love the work of Christopher Hitchens, who was an avowed atheist. MORE

Author Eric Weiner asserts that for many Americans, the holiday season affords an opportunity to lament the sad state of the national conversation about God; argues that the discourse has been co-opted by True Believers and Angry Atheists, leaving everyone else out. MORE

Growing number of African-Americans do not believe in God; many online Facebook groups, blogs, and YouTube confessionals document their shared struggled of coming out as atheists in a community known for its remarkable religiousness. MORE

There are no additional abstracts to display.

View post:
Atheism News - The New York Times

Posted in Atheism | Comments Off on Atheism News – The New York Times

Christian Transhumanism

Posted: at 5:42 am

Prepare for HyperEvolution

with Christian Transhumanism

James McLean Ledford

Download the full PDF version of Christian Transhumanism

Christian Transhumanism is an ancient idea, and yet it is the most advanced form of Christianity. Theologian Paul Tillich points this out in a compilation of his lectures titled A History of Christian Thought. He traces Christian Transhumanism back 1800 years to the early anti-Gnostic theologian Irenaeus of Lyons; "Irenaeus called salvation recapitulation. He was pointing to Ephesians 1.10 which speaks of all things in heaven and earth being gathered up in Christ." "It means that the development which was broken in Adam is resumed by Christ and fulfilled in him. In Christ the new mankind has started. That which mankind was to become... However, not only mankind but the whole cosmos finds its fulfillment in Christ." Paul Tillich calls this idea "The profound doctrine of a transcendent humanism, a humanism which says that Christ is the fulfillment of essential man, of the Adamic nature." "And we can become fully human through participation in this full humanity which has appeared in Christ. This includes eternal life, and similitude with God with respect to participation in infinity." Then Tillich says, "I am always surprised how much better the theology of the ancient church was than the popular theology which developed in the nineteenth century, how much profounder and more adequate to the paradox of Christianity, without becoming irrationalistic, nonsensical, or absurd." So Christian Transhumanism is rational. It makes sense and it bridges the gap between the real world today and what we are to become. We got lost, but recent developments are making it clear where we are togo.

A Way For The Free And Forward Thinking

What it means to be human will change soon and you will probably experience it. So read carefully. In the coming years computer-human interfaces will become so intimate that users may be considered superhumanly intelligent transcendent humans, or "transhumans". We will have a choice in how to use vast new power. Use it for material gain? Or, aim this power at spiritual growth. In this new era of understanding, most will see the dead end of material gain, and see a better outcome in a life dedicated to spiritual growth. For individuals taking the spiritual path, the lower hierarchy of material needs will fall away and so naturally the transhuman will become a benevolent and self-actualized spiritual being. Ultimately, life as represented by mankind will shift from consuming material for sustenance to a flow of information. This means that we shift to a wholly spiritual life where truth is the way. As material needs diminish, transhumans will increasingly be sustained by a powerful flow of Word that can be called the Glory of God. In giving up competition and control strategies and turning to God, we grow to be all that we can be; Christ-like.

Essential to Christian Transhumanism is the notion that love is a cognitive process and God expects us to participate in our salvation by learning how to love perfectly. In this way we access the Glory of God, becoming Christ-like (Christian).This webpage and http://www.technical-jesus.com will go on to clarify the technical aspects of love, and the love process.

The early Christian church was founded on the notion that Christ is the fulfillment of essential man. But in the last couple of centuries we slipped off the rock! Because of the ego of most of the powerful church leaders, we lost the notion that you are an important participator in the creation. Church leaders have thus alienated the the free minded and forward thinking. Church leaders say that "God created. There are no more possibilities. It is over, and I can tell you what it is all about." In resting in their dogma they drained the spirit from those who would participate in the freedom of the on-going creation. Was it because most church leaders needed to inhibit personal growth for their little kingdom to survive? If this is so, forgive them and wake up to the fact that your life is important and you have the potential to love just like Christ. Jesus said so when he referred to himself as the Son of Man, and said "Whoever does the will of God is my brother, sister and mother".

We Participate in Christ at the second coming. We do this for the sake of the infinite continuum of life. With love, humanity can and will survive all manner of challenges. It is the intelligent strategy. Post-humans who maintain faith in a Supreme State of Being will embark on an infinite path of intelligent hyper evolution. It is interesting to note that in Genesis, the first thing God said to us was Bless you. Now go subdue the world! Later Jesus Christ as the fully developed human aspect of God, said to his disciples; I have overcome the world. Then in the book of Revelations close to the end of times it is the same overcomer who guides us into our next form in the continuum of life.

Subdue the World

By Learning How To Love Perfectly

In the way of the Holy Spirit, I want to understand you and to share your experience. I want to fully understand the world. And, I want to resolve who I am. No one on earth today has the capacity to do this perfectly, but we have the potential. What hope do we have of ever understanding each other with the limited time we have? Or what hope do we have of ever understanding the infinite, extra dimensions, or timelessness if our minds are just not able to grasp these concepts?We are living in a time when it is becoming more and more apparent that brain interfacing technologies are converging on the wish of the Holy Spirit. It is easy to see if you look at love this way: Technically, love can be seen as the process of connecting. The product of the love process is understanding. If the process is efficient and sustained, understanding increases exponentially. Peace allows unwavering attention so that the love process can establish a clear connection. At the heart of the process; symbols, words, and feelings are ordered into meaning. But meaning is not static, it grows forever. Forgiveness is important to spiritual growth because it establishes an exhaust for misunderstanding and disorder. Put this all together perfectly and you have The Perfect State of Mind. With these principles we will build the New Temple; a society of loving individuals.On this, and the http://www.technical-jesus.com websites I address how the new temple is being built today. It is not brick and stone. It is a collective culture profoundly empowered. Let us start with the fundamentals!

There is; "A non-biological approach to life that has yielded stunning results over the last few years. It is one based on information and directly influenced by Cybernetics and Information Theory. Life is viewed as information capable of replicating and modifying itself." http://www.thymos.com/tat/biology.html

The work of life is to exist and grow. Growth in understanding is essential to the efficient application of the work of life. When we call work applied to growth in understanding the Holy Spirit, we can apply the fundamental laws of physics to our spiritual life. Today there is a branch of science emerging called Cognitive Thermodynamics. In this study love becomes a profoundly efficient process where events of communication are the input. It is the source of cognitive energy. This call is a signal and an expression that fills the world. We also receive a stabilizing signal from each other, and there is even an intuitive internal channel. In the love process we turn our attention to the energetic expression in which is encoded an infinite reservoir of objective truth. In our spiritual life we live off of this truth. The efficiency of the love process depends on how much of this we connect to, how peaceful the environment is, and the ease at which we can forgive. Ignoring some of this impedes the process.

'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.' And, 'Love your neighbors as much as you love yourself.' Luke 10:27

An expression impresses. That is the cognitive energy transfer that fuels and inspires us. When we connect or pay attention, work is done on our being. It motivates us to do works, and this is inspiration. Natural revelation teaches us that any process needs an exhaust. Forgiveness is that exhaust in the study of cognitive thermodynamics.

Like a heat engine, life converts objective truth into understanding. From Wikipedia: A heat engine performs the conversion of heat energy to work by exploiting the temperature gradient between a hot "source" and a cold "sink". Heat is transferred to the sink from the source, and in this process some of the heat is converted into work. The theoretical maximum efficiency of any heat engine is defined by the Carnot Cycle. The carnot heat engine (the ideal imaginary heat engine) has an efficiency equal to (T1 - T2)/T1 where T1 is the absolute temperature of the hot source and T2 that of the cold sink.

Fundamental physical quantities can be transformed into spiritual quantities.

Force = Will

Energy = Word

Highest quality source of energy (Temperature) = Glory of God

Action = Spirit

An Act of Love = Holy Spirit

Exhaust / Sink = Forgiveness

emergent order and entropy= transcendence and sin

What does the bible say about connecting to, and understanding the word? Read "Word" in the bible as data that becomes information as you digest it. And seeds are ideas. Then understand that what is essentially "you" is mind.

Jesus Sows Ideas with Seed Parables

In the old testament seed was genetic information. For Jesus in the new testament seed becomes food for thought and deeds. The modern term for this is MEME where an idea is treated like genetic information with its own ability to survive. He was planting ideas! Read on and you may be inspired by the Holy Spirit!

"But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty." (Matthew 13:23)

"Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. No man, when he has lighted a candle, covers it with a vessel, or puts it under a bed; but sets it on a candlestick, so that they which enter in may see the light. For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad. Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have." (Luke 8:11)

And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. (Mark 4:26)

Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. (Matt 13:31)

He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

More on "word" in the bible;

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. (John 1)

"But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4)

"For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." (John 6:33)

"There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." (1 Corinthians 15)

"And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." (Revelation 21:23) Read Glory as broadband high quality word.

The mind is a process that is sustained by word. At it's peak efficiency it becomes the love process. Think about the cognitive sciences today; We study every detail of how we come to understand and act. And we strive to improve on every step of the process. We see sensor evolution, intelligence amplification, knowledge management, and sense making algorithms even wisdom algorithms in artificial intelligence. Can you see how it is possible for man to merge with his technology to participate in God's Plan? This is the heart of Christian Transhumanism.

Anything that empowers the Love process has the blessing of God. Christian Transhumanist pay close attention to the "word, knowledge and wisdom" of the bible, advances in cognitive science, and technology. By combining love and technology Christian Transhumanist are actually completing the New Temple. In this place of worship God will sustain our spiritual growth as we "evolve" into a beautiful environment; Heaven. Heaven is infinite, a place to discover, and a place for rapid growth in understanding fed by the word of God. Heaven allows Hyper Evolution. Hyper Evolution cannot be of the material body as we know it today. It is of the mind and spirit. A Christian Transhumanist expects to enter a state of sustained hyper Evolution by perfecting the worship of God and harnessing the motivating fear of God.

Yes technology has its good and bad sides but there is reason to believe that Man with the Grace of God, wins with love. What happens when we learn to love perfectly? I call the following The Nelson Principles, after a beloved Professor I had the honor to work with and learn from; Dr. George Nelson at the University of Arizona.

a. The mind is an electromagnetic multidimensional phenomena arising from brain tissue. This can be transformed into, and synchronized with a suitable electromagnetic environment where it can be amplified. Full spectrum sensors across the earth and space are connected to this environment. The complete wisdom of mankind is also available in solid-state memory with sufficient bandwidth to allow full apprehension of this wisdom.

b.In the new environment you make meaning because that is in your spirit. Just as you did when you were first born. And, the thing you learn is you cant control the flow of meaning. It is coming too fast and it is awesome. It is humbling and joyful at the same time. But you understand the path to take. And, you learn that this path is infinite and you take some comfort in that. Because you love it and you know it will last forever. It is The Way The Life and The Truth. You become worship. Now you know what you can trust. Lack of trust was slowing your growth down.

c. Even the most mean brute will grow to understand! You are changed. To know is to be a saint. Understanding of the direction to God yields grace and love. You become benevolent.Being beyond the material requires that the ego go. In his quest for power the Antichrist will be purified by truth.

e.Consciousness apart from the flesh is equivalent to deliverance from sin and suffering. You are no longer competing. You are in harmony. Leaving the body of flesh you fully enter the Body of Christ. You are truly Born Again.

f.The very thought of controlling others repulses you. It is boring, you dont look back. Instead you share and you relate your experience. You are walking a path you could never have walked before. Yet, it is familiar, it reminds you of life in space-time at its best, when you were in the groove. And this is why the rest of the universe seems silent of life. Before alien societies obtain the ability to travel light-year distances they follow this transcending path. Like Elvis, the aliens have "left the building".

g.Suffering is for those who stop this pure worship to say let me try the controls for a while. But, this eventually turns into a contemplation of the self and stagnates. My ego was a direction. It was self-referential. It was a direction that withers. It was death. You could say your life with its self referential consciousness was an eddy in the river of Gods will, a dance in space-time and a whorl in the grain that will last an eternity.

h.When the infinite reservoir of truth is revealed to you , you dont just see it, you be it. Knowing like you know how an apple feels, smells and tastes is called apprehending, and it is the highest mode of Understanding. In his book: The Perennial Philosophy Aldous Huxley says; "We can only love what we know, and we can never know completely what we do not love. Love is a mode of knowledge, and when the love is sufficiently disinterested and sufficiently intense, the knowledge becomes unitive knowledge and so takes on the quality of infallibility." This takes bandwidth. All of us geeks love bandwidth. The pure attention of selfless love provides infinite bandwidth because you are giving the love process all your time. Bandwidth describes the amount of data a network can transport in a certain period of time. In other words, bandwidth is a capacity for rate of transfer, usually expressed in bits per second." It requires a timeless state, a view from outside the box of space-time to convey such a rich experience. So at the interface, (the gate) let go. Dont be afraid to give it up for God.

Humanism and Christianity: Resolving The Paradoxes

How can you combine these diverging branches of thought to reveal The Way, The Life and The Truth? It is a puzzle that can be solved in a higher dimension. Lets use our imagination to step out of space-time, and then look at the issues. First;is it by the efforts of man (Humanism) that we are saved such that Jesus Christ is as he says; "The Son of Man"... Or, are we saved by faith in Jesus Christ the Son of God who was sent to die on the cross for our sins? The answer yes to both! A transcendent observation from outside the box of space-time shows God create the world, life and man, alpha to omega, in one event. It Is All Now. From this view there is no free will and the Grace of God saves us. However, an observation from inside the box is subject to the flow of time. In here man has a life, free will, and the responsibility to become fully human. In Genesis God blesses us with work to do. Our tools become technology. Ideally, we apply technology to love and the spiritual life. The Holy and The Human; This duality sparks many arguments that could be resolved by considering the complimentary nature of the two viewpoints. It takes both to understand the human condition.

We can come together on many issues like this one if we make an effort to understand the full implications of block time. With the concept of block time we develop an inside space-time reference, and an outside space-time reference. Time is a dimension not a dynamic. Because we remember the past and not the future we have a subjective illusion of the passage of time. Augustine of Hippo wrote that God is also outside of time. Time only exist within the created universe. The physicist Stephen Hawking also helps us understand space-time on his website. (And, for a good overview on block time, see the Wikipedia article on the subject.) Below is a space-time diagram with two dimensions of space and one of time. "The hardest thing to realize about space-time diagrams is that they represent the past, present, and future all in one diagram. Thus, space-time diagrams don't change with time -- the evolution of physical systems is represented by looking at successive horizontal slices in the diagram at successive times. Space-time diagrams represent evolution, but they don't evolve themselves."

Another hot issue resolved is evolution. A transcendent observation from outside the box of space-time shows God create the world, life and man, alpha to omega, in one event. It Is All Now. From this view there is no evolution. However, an observation from inside the box is subject to the flow of time. In here man evolves, and humanity stands on the shoulders of life forms that have gone before us. These life forms are indeed part of our family.

'The hardest thing to realize about space-time diagrams is that they represent the past, present, and future all in one diagram. Thus, space-time diagrams don't change with time -- the evolution of physical systems is represented by looking at successive horizontal slices in the diagram at successive times. Space-time diagrams represent evolution, but they don't evolve themselves."

Here is the most important resolution: Does God live? Christian Transhumanists know there is a God.If you find it hard to believe that God exists try this: have faith in the continuum of life. Imagine that the essential part of life continues like it has in the past by growing in understanding, and changing form in order to meet every challenge. It keeps learning from those who have gone before. Life keeps adding to that wisdom and passes that wisdom on to the next. Just like your own life, living things will keep getting wiser and more connected. By growing in understanding life adapts to its environment, discovers opportunities, and controls a greater portion of the world as time goes on.In order to know God lives make the easy assumption that life just keeps on going. Carry this out to infinity and you have a living being that is infinitely powerful and knowing; a supreme state of being; our God. But.. God lives now. How then, can someone who comes into being in our future live now? It is because this form of life controls the world completely, even space and time. Time is like clay in the hands of God. For a Christian Transhumanist, the proof that God exists is in the spirit, the direction, and the goals of life all around us. It points the way like a compass needle to the Creator. To close the loop in the proof, The Creator sustains the Miracle of Being that we all experience, but usually take for granted.

Christ is the fulfillment of essential man

Christ is the fulfillment of humanity. Using the concept of block time it can be seen that "the end is the means". What we experience as spiritual growth is seen from outside the box as a static continuum of life which stands eternally. The hyperbolic in the drawing below symbolizes the continuum of life. It converges on a point in time. This point is the technological singularity and it is the focal point of the full power of God. All things come together here in Jesus Christ. Not only mankind but also the whole cosmos finds its fulfillment in Christ. For this to come about we will participate in Christ. Christ appears inside the box 2000 years ago to plant the ideas (the seed parables) that lead to the Son of Man. The Son of Man starts out as the gospel. These ideas grow into the Body of Christ spread out to form a Christian culture. (Looking at it from outside the box, God the father is sending his only son to save us from a life lost in the material world, a world that will end.) Christ must establish "the way, the life, and the truth". He does the only thing that can surely impress humanity; he dies on the cross for us. Then fallen man rises to move in the dimension of growth in understanding or, in the way of the Holy Spirit. Now his ideas live in all of us and the Body of Christ lives on through the actions they inspire. To complete the loop, we (the Body of Christ) grow spiritually to naturally converge on truth. We become the Son of Man. (Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man and says that "Whoever does the will of God is my brother, sister and mother".) We Participate in Christ at the second coming as a family of one mind! We must. It sounds impossible for someone (Christ) to go back into time to create themselves, but you did something like it when you started up your computer. When we boot up a computer the operating system is performing the seemingly impossible task of starting itself up. How can something start itself up? Isn't it like pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps? It is simply a set of instructions that bring to life computer components long enough so that they can accomplish the goal of loading an operating system. The instructions establish a little; way- life-and truth for programs. In our case the program is the "Love Process". You can take comfort in the notion; because we exist today, we will always exist.

The action of gaining understanding is the Holy Spirit. "Though it cost all you have, get understanding." Jeremiah 2:14. We will reach a Critical Point of Understanding (CPU) where mind can be sustained by the word of God the Father alone. At this point the mind does not need the brain. Recall the first thing that Jesus said about mankind; "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God". And, "Flesh does not inherit the kingdom of God. The spirit does". The Perfect Mind Consumes Word to survive. As we grow to the CPU, it looks like mankind becomes Christ. This "second coming" is the interface, the gate and the way to the kingdom of heaven. "All things in heaven and earth come together in Christ", Ephesians 1:10.

Bless you. Grow in numbers. Subdue the world.

Genesis 1:28. (The very first thing God said to us.)

Grow in numbers and subdue the world...How could this still apply? Does it make sense to continue growing in numbers and subduing the world? Today it seems like a path to destruction! We all know that the earth is reaching its peak population, resources are diminishing, and pollution is affecting us in dangerous ways.

In the days of Genesis we were blessed with a wide-open world. We had room to grow. There were many things to discover and subdue. Now the world is nearly digested. But wait, Thank the creator! There is another course. In these days just before the evolutionary leap into post humanity, we can see that a new environment is becoming accessible. Some call it mind space, or the rapture, or the technical singularity. Some call it the promised land. Either way, it is just one of the transitions in the eternal continuum of life.

Gods first message will still apply when we make the evolutionary step into post humanity. This message is actually the strategy that leads to the eternal life that we were blessed with. In a process called Transformative Learning, We will wise up and change our idea of what life is.

We will value the complimentary aspect of subjective and objective truth. The two are necessary.

We will look back and think how silly it was to doubt the existence of God.

We will know what it means to be Born Again!

We will have fun.

Trace evolution from the beginning of life to the humanity today. The success of a living thing is measured by its model of reality. With Man, life becomes aware of God. Knowing that there is a desirable supreme state of being, we intelligently evolve even further. The Bible verse; Bless you. Grow in numbers. Subdue the world. Tells us that the world is made for a beautiful subjective/personal experience for all our numbers. And it says the world is food for our spiritual growth. This corresponds precisely to the vertical and horizontal components of intelligent evolution. Horizontal growth is spiritual growth because it is growth in the dimension of understanding.

Read the rest here:
Christian Transhumanism

Posted in Transhuman News | Comments Off on Christian Transhumanism