You gotta get 'em while they're young. NSA site for kids:
http://www.nsa.gov/kids/
Now go spy on daddy and mommy!
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Hey, Kids: Spying Is Fun!
By Simon Maxwell Apter, TheNation.com
Posted on February 11, 2006, Printed on February 12, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/31929/
Move over, McGruff. The trench-coated canine mascot of the National
Crime Prevention Council has some youthful competition in the battle for
the hearts and minds of America's children. Now in virtual training on
the website of the National Security Agency are the CryptoKids, the
code-makers and code-breakers of America's future.
The NSA, based at Fort Meade, Maryland, has seven CryptoKids in its
trademarked menagerie, including Crypto Cat, versed in Navajo, the
language of the storied code talkers of World War II; Decipher Dog, a
cryptanalyst who learned the fine points of broadband networking from
his stepmother, an NSA network engineer; T. Top, a turtle who knows how
to design and build computers; and a language analyst named Rosetta
Stone.
This Toys 'R' Us approach to spying is nothing new for the fifteen
agencies that comprise the "intelligence community" of the US
government, including the CIA, the NSA and the National Reconnaissance
Office. In 1997 President Bill Clinton mandated that all government
agencies set aside virtual space on their websites for child-friendly
material. Today, these sites serve as recruiting portals for America's
youth.
The CryptoKids were born in February 2004 within the bowels of Fort
Meade and, according to Kwanza Gipson of the NSA public affairs office,
were designed "strictly" to reflect only the official information
contained within the main website. Of course, since the official stance
of the agency concerning the recent warrantless wiretapping scandal has
been to deny the program's illegality and to treat domestic spying as
business as usual, this strict adherence to the office line conveniently
recuses the CryptoKids from having to discuss the issue with children.
After all, if General Michael Hayden insists that the program is not
"domestic spying," as he did at the Washington Press Club recently, then
what more could Sergeant Sam possibly add to the debate?
Moreover, as Gipson points out, "The site offers parents a safe, online
environment in which their children can learn and play." Parents can be
sure that, of all the voices on the Internet, at least the CryptoKids
won't offer underage visitors any controversial information that could
lead to a warrantless wiretap. A similar mentality prevails at other
kid-friendly government sites.
At the National Reconnaissance Office's NRO Junior site, for example, an
animated extra-terrestrial named Whirly Lizard shares
stories--first-person accounts ostensibly written by anonymous children
but eerily recited by adult voices. With all the sophistication of a
Saturday-morning cartoon, these simplistic anecdotes are designed to
boost patriotism and an interest in outer space. In a cyber-chapter
titled "Proud to Be an American," an unidentified young author explains,
"I have my teachers, my friends, my pet, my toys, my home, and my
family. I have God to watch me. I love America. I love being me." Corey
Corona, an NRO character named for the Eisenhower-era spy satellite,
hosts a series of games including Catch, in which the player pilots a
cargo plane and tries to intercept various robotic figures falling from
outer space.
Cathy Bowers, a spokeswoman for the NRO, based just south of
Washington-Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Virginia, hearkens
back to the educational push of the Sputnik era to explain the purpose
of the NRO kids' site. "We need to have children understand the
importance of space," she says, "to get them interested in careers in
space, intelligence and government. We call space the 'Ultimate Vantage
Point.'"
Sparking an interest in the cosmos for a target audience of
kindergarteners, first- and second graders shouldn't be difficult. As
Bowers points out, kids are already excited by outer space, especially
by aliens. The twist here is translating that purely exploratory
interest into a desire to spy on friends and neighbors. And ultimately,
Bowers says, the website is about security. "It's all about protection,"
she says.
When asked about the warrantless surveillance that NRO-designed and
-operated satellites enable, Bowers toes the intelligence community's
line. "We stand behind the President," she says. "Everyone's trying to
protect everyone else. Some degree of secrecy is required."
Back at CryptoKids virtual HQ, with a toothy, sugar-cube smile and a
nineteenth-century electro-transmitter, an eagle named CSS Sam presides
over Operation: Dit-Dah, one of the NSA's games for aspiring young
snoops and narcs. Sam teaches Morse code and challenges players to
decrypt various words and phrases. For those skeptical about the
applicability of 160-year-old Morse code in the Internet age, Sam
reminds them in a "fun fact" that "in the movie Independence Day, when
all other ways of communicating had been destroyed, the survivors of the
alien attack used Morse code to collaborate a counter-attack plan."
It's not just government snoop organizations that blur fiction and fact,
imagination and reality on their child-friendly sites. The Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms website, for example, features the essay
"I'm a Bomb Dog Now!"--a first-canine account by Truman, an
explosives-sniffing Labrador retriever who works with ATF Special Agent
Joe Harrington in New England. Truman's job is essential to national
security, he says, because "sometimes people do bad things to try to
hurt others. I can help stop that from happening, or, if it has already
happened, I can find evidence to help law enforcement officers find out
who did it so that the person can never do it again."
With cartoons, games and anthropomorphic animals, America's intelligence
community is ensuring security for the next generation. How safe do you
feel?
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http://www.alternet.org/rights/31929/
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FEMA (yes FEMA) has a site for kids too:
http://www.fema.gov/kids/dizkid1.htm
--
John Hachmann aa #1782
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"
-Voltaire
Contact - Throw a .net over the .com
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