In 1999, the CIA created its own venture capital investment firm, In-Q-Tel, to fund promising start-ups that might create technologies useful for intelligence agencies. In-Q-Tel’s budget started off at $28 million its first year and has been somewhat hazy ever since. IQT (short for In-Q-Tel) areas of interest include cyber security, biotechnology, commercial space, and advanced data analytics. The firm continues to fund start-ups in the tech world ranging from skin care lines, to novel drone technology, but much of its investment goes into data mining. These tools collect, store and analyze data to create profiles on individuals, groups, and events that are of interest to the CIA, law enforcement, and corporations. Often these programs mine platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to monitor activist protests, influential “decision-makers,” and trends. One day these algorithms surveil our personal data and activity, and the next they’re being sold to corporations for advertising.
In-Q-Tel also uses a company called SAIC, the U.S. defense firm Science Applications International Corporation, which changed its name to Leidos in 2013, now operating SAIC as a subsidiary. SAIC/Leidos is among the top 100 largest defense contractors in the U..S, and works closely with the U.S. intelligence community, especially the NSA. The agency is the company’s largest single customer and SAIC is the NSA’s largest contractor.
In-Q-Tel is headed by Gilman Louie, a former video game designer, turned venture capitalist. Some have made note of Louie’s connections with board members of the venture capital firms that gave Facebook the funding to become the social media juggernaut it is today. One connection is with James Breyer, a partner and board member of Accel, the company that invested $12.7 million in Facebook’s Series A funding. Louie and Breyer sat together on the board of military defense contractor, BBN, known for essentially helping to create email and the internet. Facebook’s second round of funding came from a company called Greylock Venture Capital, headed by Howard Cox, who also sat on In-Q-Tel’s board.
Another interesting connection that has been made with Louie is his role with Niantic, the mobile gaming company that created Pokèmon Go. Louie was added to the board of the company for his strategic insight in both gaming and venture capital investment. The augmented reality technology for Pokèmon Go was also a product of Keyhole, Inc., the In-Q-Tel funded start-up that became Google Earth. Users of the game are required to allow the program to access personal data ranging from geolocation services, to camera access, and it even has the capability to remotely read, modify, or delete files on a user’s phone. The program can track where users are, where they’ve been, what they look like, and a multitude of personal information that could be used to create profiles and spy on individuals. Which begs the question; is this a beta test for a larger CIA-sponsored program?
While this may seem overly paranoid, it falls in line with other In-Q-Tel tech investments. Dataminr is one such blatantly named startup that uses Twitter data to spot trends that can be used to benefit law enforcement, ostensibly monitoring for terrorist threats. But what else can this data be used for and what are the ethical concerns with the profiles that are being built with this information? Edward Snowden’s exposé of the NSA intelligence agencies’ ability to use metadata to paint a very intrusive image of innocent civilians. This technology could be easily manipulated with a deluge of false tweets sent to intentionally cause a panic, considering the tweets aren’t verified. An attack of this nature could be carried out by hackers or even the government itself in a false flag operation.
Other companies In-Q-Tel has invested in that monitor and analyze social media data include GeoFeedia, Pathar and TransVoyant. But one of the more invasive projects, Palantir, is as unsettling as its name. Palantír, in Lord of the Rings, is an omniscient crystal ball that can see anything, anywhere, including into the past and future. The company was created by Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal and former board member of Facebook with other In-Q-Tel venture capitalists. Palantir created a system, much like the premise of the movie, Minority Report, where law enforcement can predict crime before it happens. It has been touted for its success in military applications and is being implemented in law enforcement with “predictive policing” efforts. The prescience of Tom Cruise’s dystopian police state is uncanny. Some believe this to already be a factor in the recent disparities in police shootings and as an instigating force in growing police militarization.
In-Q-Tel’s business model made it highly successful in a number of ways. It has essentially become an indicator of success in the venture capital world, with every $1 of investment from In-Q-Tel drawing more than $9 from private investors. So, if In-Q-Tel decides it likes a startup’s idea, its investment will draw significant attention from other venture capitalists, letting the private sector fund technology that benefits the CIA’s clandestine programs.
In-Q-Tel also only answers to the CIA instead of traditional investors, despite the CIA’s funding coming from taxpayer dollars. It is considered a non-profit that is unconcerned with monetary earnings, but rather tech capital – again easy to do when you don’t have to answer to investors. A contract with the CIA is now like gold for tech startups looking for seed funding, given the success, influence and amount of money In-Q-Tel has, but where should we draw the line for government access and transparency? If this technology is being used to spy on us, perpetuate the militarization of law enforcement, and potentially create a more aggressive police state, shouldn’t we have a say in these things?
The technology behind the Google Earth software was originally developed by Keyhole Inc., a company funded by In-Q-Tel. Google acquired Keyhole Inc. in 2004. The same base technology is currently employed by U.S. military and intelligence systems in their quest, in their own words, for “full-spectrum dominance” of the planet. Moreover, Google’s connection with the CIA and its venture capital firm extends to sharing at least one key member of personnel. In 2004, the Director of Technology Assessment at In-Q-Tel, Rob Painter, moved from his old job directly serving the CIA to become ‘Senior Federal Manager’ at Google. As Robert Steele, a former CIA case officer has put it: Google is “in bed with” the CIA.
Given Google’s supposed concern with ‘human rights’ and with user-privacy, it’s worth noting that Wired magazine reported some time ago that Google’s friends at In-Q-Tel invested in Visible Technologies, a software firm specialized in ‘monitoring social media’.
The ‘Visible’ technology can automatically examine more than a million discussions and posts on blogs, online forums, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, Amazon, and so forth each day. The technology also ‘scores’ each online item, assigning it a positive, negative or mixed or neutral status, based on parameters and terms set by the technology operators. The information, thus boiled down, can then be more effectively scanned and read by human operators.
Sources:
- https://www.gaia.com/lp/content/what-is-cia-in-q-tel/
- https://www.infowars.com/googles-deep-cia-and-nsa-connections/
Chronological History of Events Involving In-Q-Tel
EcoHealth Alliance Whistleblower Exposes Corruption
The German Club of Clear Words Report: Exposes the network of individuals and organizations responsible for the COVID scam
Orwellian Pokemon Go app released
Hacked Hillary emails prove State Dept. Colluded with Obama and Clinton Foundation to give Globalists like IBM, Cisco, Microsoft and Goldman Sachs control of the Internet
Wikileaks: INDECT to Build Automatic Dossiers on Individuals and Organizations from Web, Mobile, & Social Networking Data
Facebook Launches with CIA Front-man Mark Zuckerburg
The Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.) formed In-Q-Tel and hired its first CEO, Gilman Louie
