[tor-talk] Questions about NSA monitoring of Tor users.

[Eugen Leitl]

----- Forwarded message from Mirimir <mirimir at riseup.net> -----

Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 20:01:10 -0600
From: Mirimir <mirimir at riseup.net>
To: tor-talk at lists.torproject.org
Subject: Re: [tor-talk] Questions about NSA monitoring of Tor users.
Message-ID: <53C339E6.3060205 at riseup.net>
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On 07/13/2014 06:57 PM, z9wahqvh wrote:
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: Mark McCarron <mark.mccarron at live.co.uk>
>> Date: Sun, Jul 13, 2014 at 9:27 AM
>> Subject: Re: [tor-talk] Questions about NSA monitoring of Tor users.
>> To: "tor-talk at lists.torproject.org" <tor-talk at lists.torproject.org>

<SNIP>

>>    Did no one notice trillions are being drained from the US economy
>> into some unidentified military project for the last decade or more???
>>
>> It would seem to indicate that there is a Manhatten-style project underway.
>>
>> do you have any links or additional info about this? beyond the vague
> sense of large black budgets, I'm not sure exactly what you might be
> referring to.

Well, the modern NSA _is_ a Manhattan-scale project. According to
Wikipedia[1]:

| The Manhattan Project began modestly in 1939, but grew to employ
| more than 130,000 people and cost nearly US$2 billion (about $26
| billion in 2014 dollars).

A Snowden leak reveals that NSA's budget has grown from about 7e+9 USD
per year in 2004 to about 11e+9 USD per year in 2014[2]. The 2004-2014
total is about 91e+9 USD, well over three times the stated total for the
Manhattan Project.

But that doesn't count cleanup costs. For the Hanford site alone,
Wikipedia reports[3]:

| Citing the 2014 Hanford Lifecycle Scope Schedule and Cost report,
| the 2014 estimated cost of the remaining Hanford clean up is $113.6
| billion - more than $3 billion per year for the next six years,
| with a lower cost projection of approximately $2 billion per year
| until 2046.

So, even counting cleanup costs, they're comparable.

Perhaps Mark can add some specifics that haven't come out yet.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project
[2]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/29/your-cheat-sheet-to-americas-secret-intelligence-budget/
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site
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