GRRR. Pete Williams of NBC News just re-defined "chatter."

[DemoTex]

Message "chatter," according to Williams' just-finished report, is "threatening conversations." I don't think so.

As a former ASA (Army Security Agency) spook, "chatter" to me always connoted quantity of message traffic, with no significant qualitative implications. Anyone know any more about the current COMINT/ELINT/SIGINT definitions of "chatter?"

[grasswire]

1. from Slate magazine's "Explainer" column

"When intelligence agencies monitor chatter, they examine not the content of communications intercepts, but the volume. Intelligence agencies won't define the term publicly because, they say, any disclosure might help the enemy deconstruct their methods and devise a defense. But those with knowledge of the agencies' tactics say that operatives pay attention to fluctuations in the number of messages sent and received over networks used by known and suspected terrorists. By itself, a volume increase isn't very meaningful. But when spies notice volume spikes on several networks and compare them with the content of recent communications intercepts, satellite observations, and information passed to spies on the ground, patterns emerge. In May, such patterns helped U.S. spooks zero in on Saudi Arabia as a planned target just before suicide bombers set off three blasts in Riyadh that killed 25 people and injured 200."


http://slate.msn.com/id/2088261/

[grasswire]

2. so....

...Pete Williams is full of crap. If you find an email addy for him, I'll write to tell him so.

[DemoTex]

3. Thanks, Grasswire. Just what I thought.

Yes, Pete Williams is full of crap and I am looking for an email addy. I'll pass it on if I find it.

The "threatening conversations" comment was such a gratuitous interjection that I feel Williams must have been "had" in a briefing by the regime. It just confirms what we already know about Bu$hco's scare campaign.

[Mika]

4. Chatter means..

.. that sound your teeth make when you're shittin' yer pants in fear. Y'know.. what this misadmin is seeking to achieve here at home.

Mission accomplished yet?

[DemoTex]

5. Psy-Ops Mission Accomplished

The sheeple are shitting their pants.