Century Foundation Fellow predicted NSA employed “Network Theory”

May 10, 2006

Authors: admin

Publisher(s): The Century Foundation

CONTACT:
Christy Hicks, hicks@tcf.org, 212-452-7723 or
Michael Schtender-Auerbach, auerbach@tcf.org, 212- 452-7728

New York City—Century Foundation fellow Patrick Radden Keefe says that revelations in USA Today about the NSA collecting the telephone calling information of U.S. citizens should not have caught official Washington by surprise. Over a month ago, Keefe predicted that the National Security Agency (N.S.A.) ignored the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (F.I.S.A.) in an effort to employ a “new paradigm” in pursuing terrorists—“network theory.” On February 12, 2006, Keefe’s “Can Network Theory Thwart Terrorists?” published in the New York Times Magazine, argued that one must look to network theory to “reconcile” the press reports of a vast, warrantless monitoring program and the administration’s response that the N.S.A. is operating a sophisticated “terrorist surveillance program.”

On May 11, USA Today reported that the N.S.A. “has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans” and “using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity.” These revelations have caused a firestorm on Capitol Hill where lawmakers took to the floor and have demanded that the administration come forward in providing information on the controversial eavesdropping program—and to defend why the President feels this type of communication analysis is legal. Keefe’s article suggested that such a program would have “troubling implications for civil liberties” and the N.S.A could be “at risk of being drowned in information.” He argued that a social network program would explain “reports that the overwhelming number of leads generated by the N.S.A. program have been false positives—innocent civilians implicated in an ever-expanding associational web.”

“The revelations in USA Today bear out the suggestion that the administration is employing social network theory to engage in surveillance that is a mile wide and an inch deep,” Keefe said today. “Congress should investigate the use of this kind of pervasive electronic dragnet and establish whether it is legal, whether it infringes on personal privacy, and most important, whether it is even an effective means of identifying and pursuing terrorists.”

Patrick Radden Keefe is the recipient of a 2006 Guggenheim fellowship and the author of the widely acclaimed book, Chatter: Dispatches from the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping (Random House, 2005), Keefe researches and writes about globalization, technology, cross-border security threats, and the legal and ethical dimensions of intelligence and homeland security policy. He earned a J.D. from Yale Law School , an M.Phil. in International Relations from Cambridge University, and an M.Sc. in New Media and Information Systems from the London School of Economics. He also has been the recipient of a Marshall Scholarship and a 2003 fellowship at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. He contributes regularly to the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, Slate, and many other publications.

An expert in intelligence and international security, Keefe is a fellow and program officer at The Century Foundation, an organization that conducts public policy research and analyses of economic, social, and foreign policy issues, including inequality, retirement security, election reform, media studies, homeland security, and international affairs. The foundation produces books, reports, and other publications, convenes task forces and working groups, and operates seven informational Web sites. With offices in New York City and Washington, D.C., The Century Foundation is nonprofit and nonpartisan and was founded in 1919 by Edward A. Filene.