Promis, Main Core Documentation
Promis, Main Core Documentation
How Does It Work? - A former military operative regularly briefed by members of the
intelligence community will be told that the program utilizes software that makes predictive
judgments of targets’ behavior and tracks their circle of associations using “social network
analysis” and artificial intelligence modeling tools. “The more data you have on a particular
target, the better [the software] can predict what the target will do, where the target will
go, who it will turn to for help,” he will say. “Main Core is the table of contents for all the
illegal information that the US government has [compiled] on specific targets.”
Origin of Data - In 2008, sources will reportedly tell Radar magazine that a “host of publicly
disclosed programs… now supply data to Main Core,” in particular the NSA’s domestic
surveillance programs initiated after 9/11. (Ketcham 5/2008)
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Loss of US Civil Liberties: PROMIS / Main Core Strona 3 z 11
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Loss of US Civil Liberties: PROMIS / Main Core Strona 4 z 11
contingency plan called REX 84. In the event of an emergency, the plan calls “for suspension
of the Constitution, turning control of the United States over to FEMA [the Federal Emergency
Management Agency], [and the] appointment of military commanders to run state and local
governments.” The plan, initially revealed in the Miami Herald in 1987, also reportedly calls
for the detention of upwards of 400,000 illegal aliens and an undisclosed number of American
citizens in at least 10 military facilities maintained as potential holding camps. North operates
the program from a secure White House site, allegedly using a software program known as
PROMIS. PROMIS was designed to track individuals, such as prisoners, by pulling together
information from disparate databases into a single record. According to Wired magazine:
“Using the computers in his command center, North tracked dissidents and potential
troublemakers within the United States. Compared to PROMIS, Richard Nixon’s enemies list or
Senator Joe McCarthy’s blacklist look downright crude.” (Ketcham 5/2008)
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Loss of US Civil Liberties: PROMIS / Main Core Strona 7 z 11
Hamilton is a former NSA official who helped developed PROMIS, but is now involved in a
series of disputes with the government over money he says it owes his company, Inslaw. Main
Core is a database that is said to collect sensitive information, including about US persons.
The specific type of connection is not certain. This is one of three times officials will tell
Hamilton about the link (see 1995 and July 2001). (Shorrock 7/23/2008)
Street Journal will say that this is part of a project by intelligence agencies “to change
traditional definitions of how to balance privacy rights against investigative needs.” (Kerr
10/23/2007 ; Gorman 3/10/2008) According to some accounts, the prime repository of
information about US citizens that the government has is a database known as Main Core, so if
the government collected more information about citizens, the information would be placed
in or accessed through this database (see 1980s or Before).
“[t]he rise of the ‘surveillance state’ driven by new technologies and the demands of counter-
terrorism did not begin with this administration.” However, the author later says in interviews
that the scope of abuse under George W. Bush would likely be an order of magnitude greater
than under preceding presidents.
'Imagine What We Don't Know' - Some of the people involved in the discussions comment on
the rationale. “If we know this much about torture, rendition, secret prisons, and warrantless
wiretapping despite the administration’s attempts to stonewall, then imagine what we don’t
know,” says a senior Democratic congressional aide who is familiar with the proposal.
Steinhardt says: “You have to go back to the McCarthy era to find this level of abuse. Because
the Bush administration has been so opaque, we don’t know [the extent of] what laws have
been violated.” “It’s not just the ‘Terrorist Surveillance Program,’” says Gregory Nojeim from
the Center for Democracy and Technology. “We need a broad investigation on the way all the
moving parts fit together. It seems like we’re always looking at little chunks and missing the
big picture.”
Effect on Presidential Race Unknown - It is unknown how the 2008 presidential race may
affect whether the investigation ever begins, although some think that Democratic candidate
Barack Obama (D-IL), said to favor open government, might be more cooperative with
Congress than his Republican opponent John McCain (R-AZ). However, a participant in the
discussions casts doubt on this: “It may be the last thing a new president would want to
do.” (Shorrock 7/23/2008)
NSA
Former national security official Norman Bailey admits publicly and on the record that the
PROMIS database and search application has been given to the NSA. As Salon magazine points
out: “His admission is the first public acknowledgement by a former US intelligence official
that the NSA used the PROMIS software.” Bailey also says that the application was given to the
Treasury Department for a financial tracking project in the early 1980s that also involved the
National Security Council (see 1982-1984). Bailey worked for US governments from the Ronald
Reagan era until the George W. Bush administration and, in addition to the 1980s tracking
program, he headed a special unit within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence
focused on financial intelligence on Cuba and Venezuela in 2006 and 2007. (Shorrock
7/23/2008)
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