Tuesday, April 24, 2007

The State Department Using google.com

The U.S. State Department recently asked the CIA for names of Iranians who could be sanctioned for their involvement in a nuclear program but the CIA refuses because of inaccuracy of the Iraq pre-war intelligence. State Department being frustrated because of U.N. deadlines for sanctions on Iran decides to act on its own to get the names out. The department decides to use a search engine seeking Iran intelligence, those with the most hits under search terms such as "Iran and nuclear." This might sound like an incompetent plan to get intelligent information about another country, but the names State Department got in an initial Internet search yielded over 100 names, including dozens of Iranian diplomats who have publicly defended their country's efforts as intended to produce energy, not bombs. The list also included names of Iranians who have spoken with U.N. inspectors or have traveled to Vienna to attend International Atomic Energy Agency meetings about Iran. (Washington Post) These name were consistence with the names the European Union came up with for U.N. sanctions.

1 comment:

htmstudent2007 said...

I think Google is a great tool for the Dept of Security. Everyone uses Google and they might not get accurate facts all of the time, but they would probably get some leads. Yes we are more vunerable because the Internet allows for a "no return" address for terrorists, but the Internet will eventually make the terrorists themselves more vunerable.