There's an important developing line of research into the NSA private contracting world.
NeuStar has been implicated as a "scapegoat" for the Telcom giants -- AT&T, Verizon, Bell South -- in the warrantless NSA domestic surveillance scandal.
It appears that NeuStar, spun off in 1999 by giant Lockheed Martin, does much more than just sell telcom data to the NSA. It also operates the entire .us and .biz domain name registries, and coordinates the internet and cell phone traffic in 210 countries, including the Cingular and T-Mobile systems. In effect, NeuStar -- a private company -- is the NSA's NET operations conduit.
When you combine NeuStar's data with computers that can analyse content, you have a powerful tool for tracking all significant political, social, and economic developments in real-time.
The KGB never had it so good.
Imagine a private company that controls the global common directory for cellphone calls in 210 countries, collects all the information about .us and .biz domain name registrations, and controls how all those sites link into the Web. That's NeuStar, a little-known Sterling, VA IT company that in its mere seven years of existence has aggregated more sheer power over the Internet than any other entity on the planet, other than VeriSign-Verint and the NSA (see, Part 2 of this series).
Last week, several large telcoms, facing lawsuits from angry Americans for having shared massive amounts of data about domestic calling, revealed that they have contracted with a subsidiary of NeuStar to sell that data to the NSA.
Did Telcos Hire "Scapegoat" To Give NSA Phone Records?
By Paul Kiel and Justin Rood - May 19, 2006, 3:42 PM
A new Business Week article may help explain how AT&T and BellSouth can say they didn't help the NSA, despite the spy agency having millions of their records showing the call details of Americans using their networks.
The magazine reveals a hidden corner of the telecommunications world: a small group of companies who specialize in granting the government access to telecommunications records, conversations and real-time data on behalf of the telecom giants.
That's right: the government now makes so many requests for wiretaps, phone records and call information that an industry has sprung up to handle the load.
Rather than respond themselves to requests from the FBI and others, a telco can sign up with one of these companies, give them access to their call records and equipment, and let that third party do all the hard work.
more at:
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/...
and:
NeuStar has developed a lucrative niche in the routing of millions of phone calls a day from one carrier to the next. "Nearly every telephone call placed is routed using NeuStar's system, and every telecommunications service provider is one of NeuStar's customers," the company's Web site states. NeuStar doesn't keep records of the calls it handles, a spokeswoman says.
Now NeuStar is seeking to profit from increased post-September 11 government pressure on telecoms to turn over data. Last year it acquired Fiducianet Inc., which helps phone company clients comply with "subpoenas, court orders, and law enforcement agency requests under electronic surveillance laws," according to a February, 2005, NeuStar press release.
http://www.businessweek.com/...
and:
thanks again to kpete at DU - http://www.democraticunderground.com/...
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Give you a dollar for a dime, that makes NeuStar a private sector front for the NSA.
Before an Internet site can be launched, and a domain name and URL registered, one must provide extensive information about who owns and administers the site. NeuStar keeps that information, and has a map of how every site is hooked into the Internet, along with a description of all servers, and a potential porthole into every computer linked into the net. He who controls the map, and the order of battle, wins the war. The ICANN system, operated by NeuStar, is really the map -- and order of battle (the list of the commanding officers) -- of the Internet.
How could the NSA resist the opportunity to exploit such an extrordinarily situation that one, obscure privately-owned company has access to so much information? Consider this. Within weeks after 9/11, the FTC completed an emergency transfer of control over the .us domain registry to NeuStar:
Redelegation of .us Country-Code Top-Level Domain
After a long governmental procurement process, on Friday, 26 October 2001, the United States Government entered an agreement with NeuStar, Inc. to provide registry services for the .us country-code top-level domain (ccTLD), replacing VeriSign, Inc. Consistent with this change in contracted operators, on Friday, 16 November 2001, the .us ccTLD was redelegated from VeriSign to NeuStar.
This redelegation occurred before the completion of the normal IANA requirements. The United States Government informed ICANN on 16 November 2001 that, because of complexities of U.S. procurement laws, it was not able to extend the existing arrangements with VeriSign nor complete the necessary three-way set of communications among itself, ICANN, and NeuStar.
http://www.icann.org/...
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Also, consider this. NeuStar was awarded the contract to manage the global common directory for most of the cell phone users in the world.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/....
NeuStar to Oversee Global Database Contract
Management Deal May Link Mobile-Phone Users in 210 Countries, Territories
By Arshad Mohammed
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 28, 2005; Page D05
NeuStar Inc. of Sterling won a contract to manage a database that may eventually allow more than 1.5 billion people around the world to send each other e-mail, pictures and video on their mobile phones. The deal, which NeuStar officials said is to be announced in Singapore today, positions the company to move into what is expected to be the high-growth area of exchanging data over wireless devices.
Under an agreement with the GSM Association, a trade group, NeuStar will operate the address databases that direct the flow of content for more than 680 GSM mobile-phone operators in about 210 countries and territories. GSM, the Global System for Mobile Communications, is the most popular mobile-phone technology abroad and is used by U.S. carriers Cingular Wireless and T-Mobile.
At its simplest, the database would help identify the mobile phones on a GSM network that are sending or receiving video, e-mail or photos and route the data to and from the intended devices.
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Who runs NeuStar? It's CEO is a former Lockheed Martin executive. L-M was the prime contractor for the privatization of the NSA's IT backbone that has occurred under Director Hayden. Neustar's roster includes an interesting assortment: the ex-head of the FBI's information law compliance division, an exiled former television executive for the Shah of Iran, and the former IT Director for George Bush's White House, likely the same guy who was in charge of the White House servers at the time that the Plame e-mails went missing. See, ;http://www.neustar.biz/...
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And then there's this piece of research over at DU that Neustar hired the White House CIO: http://www.democraticunderground.com/...
drm604 (1000+ posts) Fri May-19-06 10:51 PM
Response to Original message
14. Neustar... Velly Intelesting...
Edited on Fri May-19-06 10:52 PM by drm604
Neustar's home page neustar.biz
Whois of the domain neustar.biz
Registrant Name: NeuStar, Inc.
Registrant Organization: NeuStar, Inc.
Registrant Address1: Loudoun Tech Center
Registrant Address2: 45980 Center Oak Plaza
Registrant City: Sterling
Registrant State/Province: Virginia
Registrant Postal Code: 20166
Registrant Country: United States
Registrant Country Code: US
Registrant Phone Number: +1.5714345757
Registrant Facsimile Number: +1.5714345758
Sterling, Virginia? Hmm... Doing some Googling, I discovered this post which claims that Neustar has registered the domain whitehouse.us.
Going to http://whitehouse.us we see
This .US domain name was recently registered with NeuStar, Inc. This site is currently under construction. Please try back at a later date.
which would seem to confirm it.
A Whois of whitehouse.us proves it. It shows the administrative, billing, and technical contacts all as being "Neustar" and at the same address etc. as the neustar.biz Whois record above. But... the "Registrant" info is different!
Domain Name: WHITEHOUSE.US
Domain ID: D665758-US
Sponsoring Registrar: .US RESERVE
Domain Status: serverTransferProhibited
Domain Status: inactive
Registrant ID: 10092-FEDEOP
Registrant Name: Carlos Solari
Registrant Organization: Whitehouse - Executive Office of the President
Registrant Address1: 1800 G Street
Registrant Address2: 10th Floor
Registrant City: Washington
Registrant State/Province: DC
Registrant Postal Code: 20502
Registrant Country: United States
Registrant Country Code: US
Registrant Phone Number: +1.2023950960
Registrant Facsimile Number: +1.2023956436
The registrant organization is "Whitehouse - Executive Office of the President"??? Is this some joker trying to masquarade as the Whitehouse? The registrant name is "Carlos Solari".
A little Googling came up with this. http://magazine.wlu.edu/...
Carlos Solari '79 had one of the most sensitive and fascinating positions in the White House--but he can't say much about it. Not because he's modest, although he is; not because he's shy, because he's a friendly sort. Rather, it's because he was the chief information officer in charge of computer security for the past two and a half years, and, well, discretion comes with the job. A biology major, he's a prime example of how a scientific education can prepare a student for just about anything--such as careers in the military, the FBI and a presidential administration.
According to the Whois, the domain "whitehouse.us" was registered Mon Nov 15, 2004 (for 99 years!). So the question is, was Solari working for the White House when the domain was registered? The article at magazine.wlu.edu isn't dated so that "two and a half years" statement doesn't help much, but this page http://www.gcn.com/... is dated 02/21/05 and states
Carlos Solari, who spent the last 2 1⁄2 years as White House CIO, left last week to return to industry.
The registration date of Nov 2004 fits withing the 2 1/2 year period before 2/21/05 so it looks like Solari worked for the White House when he and Neustar registered whitehouse.us.
Why was Neustar registered as the administrative, billing, and technical contact for a domain registered by a White House employee?
It appears that, at the very least, Neustar is a government contractor that specifically is involved with White House information systems. Hmm...
###
At minimum, NeuStar is a government contractor that operates as legal cover for private telcos to escape the direct consequences of illegal NSA spying. It is also apparent that the company has been set up by various U.S. Government agencies and defense contractors as a perfect vehicle for domestic and worldwide surveillance.
So, who's monitoring these guys? Why shouldn't they take their carte blanche, and just run with it? What would you do if you were them, and had their mindset, politics and ethics?
First thing I would do is assure myself that I can stay in business. That means, they have to keep BushCo in office, and prevent a Democratic victory in November, no matter what.
Take that thought one step further. If you were planning on taking and keeping power in the United States, you would have to control NSA. You'd have to find a way to evade Congressional oversight, and get rid of the career military and DoD people with some scruples.
Privatization is your ticket, and Operation Groundbreaker was the vehicle. The contractors have no oaths or alliegance to any principles other than punching their meal tickets. There's practically no legal or Administrative oversight for contractors, and even less for information vendors. No federal law enforcement agency has the technology to oversee what they're doing. See, www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0605/S00125.htm
No checks or balances.
And, on top of everything, the company is enormously profitable:http://dallas.bizjournals.com/...
NeuStar profits triple
Washington Business Journal - February 6, 2006 by Jeff Clabaugh Staff Reporter
NeuStar, which manages telephone-number databases and runs the ".biz" Internet domain, reported fourth-quarter net income three times year-ago earnings and raised its forecast for 2006 sales.
The Sterling-based company, which went public in June, had fourth-quarter earnings of $13.8 million, or 18 cents per share, compared with $4.2 million or 5 cents per share in the final quarter of 2004.
NeuStar had full-year 2005 revenue of $242.5 million, up from $165 million in 2004.
AND, finally:
A Stock Worth Spying On
http://www.forbes.com/....
WASHINGTON, D.C. -
Surveillance of domestic telephone call records from millions of Americans may put a strain on the White House press staff and the confirmation of CIA director nominee Gen. Michael Hayden, but not necessarily for a fast-growth technology company that handles law-enforcement requests for customer calling.
NeuStar (nyse: NSR - news - people ), a Sterling, Va.-based company that raised $605 million in a June 2005 initial public offering, holds the exclusive contract through 2011 to keep electronic records of nearly 200 million phone numbers in North America. AT&T (nyse: T - news - people ), Verizon (nyse: VZ - news - people ), and BellSouth (nyse: BLS - news - people )--the three companies at the core of the domestic eavesdropping saga involving the National Security Agency--are all customers of NeuStar.
Verisign, the communications company that manages the Internet's dot-com and dot-net domain name suffixes, also assists Internet companies with information requests from law enforcement agencies.
Large international telecom companies, frequently the target of requests by the NSA, for customer data, can call on NeuStar for crucial information, such as identifying which local network a phone call originates from--a simple task made difficult by the de-regulation of phone service. Every time the company dips into its registry of phone numbers, it collects an estimated $1 fee.
_______________
2006. Mark G. Levey