美国家安全局是最大间谍中心?

Utah sprung to media attention when the Camp Williams military base near the town of Bluffdale sprouted a vast construction-- the Utah Data Center. The construction is the first Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cyber-security Initiative data center. It is designed to monitor, strengthen and protect the US. Jim Spellman has more.

In a field in Utah about a half-hour south of Salt Lake City a massive construction project is wrapping up. When it is completed in a few months it will be the world’s largest repository of digital information. It’s owners: The U-S National Security Agency or N-S-A. James Bamford has been writing about the N-S-A for more than 30 years.

"All the information will be stored there then people at NSA headquarters or different listening posts around the world can dip into it." said James Bamford, NSA expert.

It’s called the Utah Data Center: sprawling more than 450-thousand square meters with Its own power plant, water pumping system to cool the servers, and intense security. It is a key part of the N-S-A’s strategy: Gather as much information as possible from as many sources as possible, and use it to stop terrorist attacks and create strategic advantages over rival countries.
"What this is really about is the ability to take a lot of data and learn things that we otherwise can’t. To do that you need to throw mountains of information at very powerful computers."said Alan Friedman from Brookings Institution.

HERE that data is coming from is what concerns privacy advocates.

Jim---"If I make a phone call, send a text message, do a Google search on my phone that information that could end up at this data center in Utah "
James---"Definitely. Any kind of communication."

The N-S-A declined to provide an on-camera interview but in a statement says: "Many unfounded allegations have been made about the planned activities of the data center...One of the biggest misconceptions about NSA is that we are unlawfully listening in on, or reading e-mails of, U.S. citizens. This is simply not the case."
 

"Right. This is the same agency that said they weren’t doing it when they were doing the illegal warrantless wiretaps for two-and-a-half years. They were lying to the American public then, they are lying to the American people now."said James Bamford, NSA expert.
Once collected the fear is that data stored here COULD be hacked from outside or leaked by people on the inside.

"The only real policy solution is to try to bind ourselves, in advance, and limit how much data we are collecting and how it’s going to be used."said Alan Friedman from Brookings Institution.

But the N-S-A is one of the most secretive agencies in the U-S government with little oversight from Congress. Even its budget is not publicly released -- so what data is stored here -- and where it came from -- will likely never be fully known.

"Critics of the N-S-A say collecting this much data not only has the potential to invade people’s privacy but could be ineffective at stopping terrorist attacks. Intelligence work is about finding a needle in a haystack they say, and collecting this much information is simply throwing more hay on the stack." said Jim Spellman from Utah Data Center.

"If you keep adding more electronic hay onto the electronic hay stack you’re never going to find that electronic needle and that’s what’s needed."said James Bamford, NSA expert.

But there is no sign the N-S-A or intelligence agencies in other countries are slowing down this hunt for data and information.

Jim- "Is this an arms race for data "
JAMES-- an arms race for data."

And this data center in Utah is soon to be the United States’ biggest weapon in its information arsenal.