Check out today's Pentagon briefing (video - please send me transcript if you find one).
They trotted out Undersecretary of Defense Aldridge to answer questions about John Pointdexter's Big Brother computer system. At 36:50 he's asked what kind of things the system would be looking for, with the reporter suggesting something like McVeigh renting a truck would trigger it.
Aldridge says the kinds of triggers would be:
"buying a lot of chemicals ... buying a gun ..."
Quick! Call the NRA.
UPDATE. here's the transcript:
Q: Can you make it clear, though, and this seems directed more toward foreign nationals coming into the United States and the visa passports that U.S. citizens --
Aldridge: No. No, it's actions, it's transactions that lead to potential terrorist acts; that's what we're trying to get to.
Q: So it could be like a McVeigh renting a truck --
Aldridge: Could be buying a lot of chemicals; if there's somebody buying a lot of chemicals, it looks unusual; buying a gun; all kinds of potential activities that fall --
Q: Buying a gun? Could you flush that out --
(Cross talk.)
Aldridge: I'm just using examples of things that would go along with -- that would be patterns of an individual potentially conducting a terrorist act.
I'm still scratching the noggin here
Q: So what kind of real data are you using that you just mentioned?
Aldridge: I will have to find -- I don't know the answer to that question, exactly what kind of data. I'm not into the details of the thing. But I don't think there is a
problem with it at all.
