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Commentary on Data Mining and 9/11

From the WSJ online, Seven Clicks Away, by Newton N. Minow, is available here for one week, to those without a subscription. Mr. Minow, Chairman of the Technology and Privacy Advisory Committee (Tapac) to the Department of Defense, refers to the report on data mining and terrorism that his committee delivered to Congress this week.

  • “In seven clicks of a mouse we could have identified 19 men, two of whom are suspected terrorists, all flying on the same day on only three different flights…We also know that law enforcement officials using this technology would have had good cause to look for people related to the two suspected terrorists. Few, if any, Americans would have objected to such a specific, targeted and focused search on suspected terrorists. Advanced information technology exists that would have connected these dots.”
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