There is a risk from terrorism. It is less than 1% of the risk that comes with government overreaction to terrorism. Usama bin Laden knew that — it’s why he participated in the 9/11 attacks. But what are the overall risks of overreaction? we need a commission to sort these things out.

Here is a simple petition at the White House web site. Please, have a go at registering and signing to have an unclassified analysis of the risks published for us all.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – –

We petition the obama administration to:

Appoint a FBI and NSA Risk Analysis Commission to report most likely impacts of criminal misuse of personal information

A quantitative risk assessment of the FBI-NSA information technology environment should be prepared over a one year period. This report will be released to the public with no redactions. The prime focus is to identify long-term criminal threats.

This is routine work for commercial IT departments. “What damage can a System Administrator do? Or a Vice-President of Security?” These are critical questions.

FBI UPSTREAM and NSA PRISM systems warrant independent downside analysis. We know that millions of these phone records were copied to an FBI employee’s laptop. Similar crimes range from politically motivated cell phone taps to the Watergate “Plumbers” conspiracy.

Assuming the future replicates known “dirty trick” crime patterns, what new hazards for theft or blackmail are now at hand?

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Look to the #2 signer. She was the F.B.I. whistleblower who made the one honest, full effort to stop the 9/11 attacks. They had Zacarias Moussaoui in custody and his laptop in hand — surely enough to put World Trade Center and The Pentagon on a wartime defensive footing. The first airliner suicide-hijacking had come at Christmas of 1994, so there weren’t any mysteries to where the risks fell.

Now we need a solid look at long-term risks from running the UPSTREAM and PRISM systems.

Imagine a President Aaron Burr. Or a home grown President Henry Kissinger. Or how do you like a President J. Edgar Hoover or President Dick Cheney? What are the most likely misuses, the risks of having these systems in place?