[Marxism] $2.4 million to find out why they hate us

[Andrew Pollack]

Leave it to Washington -- and their academic flunkies -- to mix the
asinine with the Orwellian.
For less than $8 they could have just bought Chomsky's book to find the
answer.
And yet for all its asininity this is also very scary stuff. It means
thousands (millions?) more put on watchlists around the globe.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/04/us/04monitor.html?ref=us
 The New York Times

October 4, 2006
Software Being Developed to Monitor Opinions of U.S.
By ERIC LIPTON

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 — A consortium of major universities, using Homeland
Security Department money, is developing software that would let the
government monitor negative opinions of the United States or its
leaders in newspapers and other publications overseas.

Such a “sentiment analysis” is intended to identify potential threats
to the nation, security officials said.

Researchers at institutions including Cornell, the University of
Pittsburgh and the University of Utah intend to test the system on
hundreds of articles published in 2001 and 2002 on topics like
President Bush’s use of the term “axis of evil,” the handling of
detainees at Guantánamo Bay, the debate over global warming and the
coup attempt against President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.

A $2.4 million grant will finance the research over three years.

American officials have long relied on newspapers and other news
sources to track events and opinions here and abroad, a goal that has
included the routine translation of articles from many foreign
publications and news services.

The new software would allow much more rapid and comprehensive
monitoring of the global news media, as the Homeland Security
Department and, perhaps, intelligence agencies look “to identify common
patterns from numerous sources of information which might be indicative
of potential threats to the nation,” a statement by the department said.

It could take several years for such a monitoring system to be in
place, said Joe Kielman, coordinator of the research effort. The
monitoring would not extend to United States news, Mr. Kielman said.

“We want to understand the rhetoric that is being published and how
intense it is, such as the difference between dislike and excoriate,”
he said.
[snip]

  
 		
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