Outsourcing Big Brother

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"The Total Information Awareness System (TIA), the controversial Pentagon research program that aims to gather and analyze a vast array of information on Americans, has hired at least eight private companies to work on the effort," reports the Center for Public Integrity. Those companies, including Booz Allen & Hamilton, Lockheed Martin and Syntek Technologies (John Poindexter's former employer), have won $88 million in contracts from the Defense Department agency that oversees the program. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) recently filed a legal action to force public disclosure of information about TIA, but unfortunately the judge in charge is John Bates -- the same guy who recently helped block public access to records of Dick Cheney's energy task force.