It would also be able to sift through massive amounts of text and decipher opinions - such as anti-American sentiment - that would otherwise be difficult to do manually.

The program is designed to sift rapidly through huge amounts of data. It has also been described as a sort of "Super Google" researchers such as Eduard Hovy at The University of Southern California, to explain the scope and quickness of the technology.

One of the ideal results would be for Homeland Security officials to be able to "find a suspicious group based on its pre-event communication activity before they act," according to a PowerPoint presentation used by researchers to explain the project.

"If you can identify relations between terrorists, it could be used for other groups who may not want to be identified," Belkin said. "It could be used to identify members of groups who want to form a demonstration or oppose a particular event or government policy."

"Congress has enacted many laws designed to protect personal privacy in the digital environment," said Greg Lastowka, an assistant professor of law at the Rutgers School of Law-Camden. "Whether current laws are sufficient is contested."

"I made the mistake of believing the intelligence, of listening to the president, the vice president and the administration,'' she said. She described the administration's arguments for going to war as "bogus.''
She placed much of the blame for the war's failure on Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld, and repeated her belief that he should lose his job.
"He is stubborn, he is arrogant. He has made mincemeat of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He's been terribly debilitating to the men in uniform,'' she said.
Feinstein Blasts Handling of War
San Francisco Chronicle
October 24, 2006