unravelling-the-disposition-matrix

The very Orwellian-sounding ‘disposition matrix’ is designed to fit in with the current US strategy of permanent war (another term emanating from George Orwell’s ‘Nineteen-Eight-Four’). However, it is known that the disposition matrix is not only directed against terrorism suspects and ‘enemies of the state’ outside of the USA but was designed by the NCTC, the same agency empowered to spy on millions of Americans. Unravelling the matrix is no easy feat, but Darker Net is attempting this and has identified the particular surveillance resources, templates (and named targets) deployed by the NCTC and extrapolated their likely application for wider, domestic usage. See here for more.

Introduction

It is fairly well known that strikes against al-Qaeda are carried out under secret programs involving the CIA and JSOC. One such program is known as the ‘disposition matrix’, which combines the use of drone technology, satellite surveillance and massive databases to target and/or kill persons of interest, depending on the perceived threat. It is known that the program includes “a single, continually evolving database” which stores “biographies, locations, known associates and affiliated organizations” as well as identifying “strategies for taking targets down, including extradition requests, capture operations and drone patrols”. The disposition matrix database contains the names of terrorism suspects, data-matched against those resources made available to track them down, including any sealed indictments and with reference to clandestine ops.

How the matrix works:

1. Names are submitted to a panel of officials with the NSC (National Security Council), which is chaired by presidential counter terrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, and includes the deputy directors of the CIA and the FBI, as well as top officials from the State Department, the Pentagon and the NCTC.
2. The names are filtered before NCTC takes over.
3. Names identified as being of interest are matched against surveillance, intelligence, policing and other resources available, and prioritised (e.g. low threat, high threat)
4. Appropriate action is taken.
5. Information is retained.

NCTC resources available:

The following resources are directed against non-US terrorists, but could easily be adapted and used as template for the NCTC’s domestic surveillance program:
A. The Worldwide Incidents Tracking System database: this specialises in recording terrorist attacks, including suicide bombings, globally. Note: it is believed this database was subsumed into a much larger one last year. Here is a detailed analysis of the database.
B. A list of terrorist organisations monitored by NCTC.
C. An a-z listing of targetted individuals (NCTC ascribed terrorists, plus ‘most wanted’)
D. A listing of terrorist technologies and methodologies
E. An interactive map of terrorists targeted around the world.
F. A list of agencies that the NCTC shares it’s database information with.
G. The NCTC is also the keeper of the TIDE (Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment) database, which by January 2009 contained the identities of some 550,000 people suspected of terrorist ties. (It is believed that TIDE has been amalgamated with domestic databases and now consists of several million entries – Americans.)
Note: the NCTC guidelines can be downloaded here.

Extrapolation re. domestic matrix

With reference to the above processes and resources, it is likely, if not inconceivable, that a disposition matrix for domestic targetting would involve the following:
a) data-mining of targets by trawling multi-agency databases (see next section below),
b) data filtering based on key identifiers,
c) matching of prioritised targets against capture/kill resources,
d) updating of NCTC database.
(In other words, a typical feedback loop scenario.)

Data-matching for a domestic matrix is likely to be from three types of agencies:
1. Agencies currently used by NCTC as part of its foreign terrorism targetting remit and which additionally have a domestic remit – i.e.
Department of the Treasury, Army Intelligence, Department of Energy, Drug Enforcement Administration, Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Coast Guard Intelligence, Department of State.
2. Government agencies and departments that provide contextual information – e.g.
Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Justice, Department of Education, Department of the Interior, Department of Labor, and Census,
3. Further data matching may also include resources from specialist surveillance agencies:
Fusion Centers, Tartan, Mutualink, the Nationwide SAR Initiative and the National Clandestine Service.

Comments

According to Privacy SOS, “From the start, the NCTC has been a mega-fusion center by design in search of an identity. And now it has emerged as the nation’s leading practitioner of ‘Total Information Awareness’.”

Final comment from journalist, Glenn Greenwald, on the NCTC…
“What has been created here – permanently institutionalized – is a highly secretive, executive branch agency that simultaneously engages in two functions:
(1) it collects and analyzes massive amounts of surveillance data about all Americans without any judicial review, let alone search warrants, and
(2) creates and implements a “matrix” that determines the “disposition” of suspects, up to and including execution, without a whiff of due process or oversight.
It is simultaneously a surveillance state and a secretive, unaccountable judicial body that analyzes who you are and then decrees what should be done with you, how you should be “disposed” of, beyond the reach of any minimal accountability or transparency.”

For more, see:

https://privacysos.org/node/863
http://truth-out.org/news/item/8067-total-information-awareness-sweeping-new-surveillance-measures-approved-in-the-us
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2012/03/23/nctcs-expanded-guidelines-expect-more-fishing-expeditions-against-innocent-us-citizens/
http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security-technology-and-liberty/biggest-new-spying-program-youve-probably-never-heard
http://www.aclu.org/national-security/aclu-factsheet-information-collection-national-counterterrorism-center-nctc

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