State Department Uses Google In Cracking Down On Terrorists

Dec 12, 2006 at 9:10am ET by Barry Schwartz

Techdirt comments on a Washington Post article named Seeking Iran Intelligence, U.S. Tries Google. The article shows how when the CIA turned down the State Departments request for information on who to put on their banned list of Iranians, the State Department turned to Google for the information. From the article:

Those with the most hits under search terms such as “Iran and nuclear,” three officials said, became targets for international rebuke Friday when a sanctions resolution circulated at the United Nations.

Techdirt said it “seems bizarre to think that the best way to determine dangerous people is to do a simple Google search.”

Did the CIA’s list match the State Department’s Google searches? No…

None of the 12 Iranians that the State Department eventually singled out for potential bans on international travel and business dealings is believed by the CIA to be directly connected to Iran’s most suspicious nuclear activities.

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.

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2 COMMENTS ON State Department Uses Google In Cracking Down On Terrorists

seBADoh, December 12th, 2006 at 9:39 am ET:

Very interesting, yet somewhat unsuprising. A ex-CIA agent is claiming Google took seed money during their startup. Full article here: http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/december2006/061206seedmoney.htm

Mikkel deMib Svendsen, December 12th, 2006 at 10:23 am ET:

> Techdirt said it “seems bizarre to think that the best way to determine dangerous people is to do a simple Google search.”

I think it’s even more bizzare to think just how much sensitive material people leave on webservers totally unprotected

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