NSA tested privacy-friendly system - Scrapped after 9/11

By Siobhan Gorman
Tribune Newspapers
Published May 18, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The National Security Agency developed a pilot program in the late 1990s that would have enabled it to gather and analyze massive amounts of communications data without running afoul of privacy laws. But after the Sept. 11 attacks, it shelved the project--not because it failed to work--but because of bureaucratic infighting and a sudden expansion in the agency's surveillance powers that was granted by the White House, according to several intelligence officials.

The agency opted instead to adopt only one component of the program, which produced a far less capable and rigorous program. It remains the backbone of the NSA's warrantless surveillance efforts, tracking domestic and overseas communications from a vast databank of information, and monitoring selected calls.

Four intelligence officials knowledgeable about the program agreed to discuss it with The Baltimore Sun only if granted anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

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But there are huge holes in the agency's information filter. As a result, a congressional report on Sept. 11 intelligence failures found, "potentially vital" information is lost, particularly with regard to terrorist groups.

That is what Trailblazer, launched in November 1999 by then-NSA Director Michael Hayden, was designed to address.

NSA officials wanted to change how they handled the deluge of digital data and spent a year developing a broad concept.

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A classified report from the Pentagon in 2004 found that Thinthread was more promising than Trailblazer and could be implemented faster, said an intelligence expert who was briefed on its contents.