A Glimpse into the Silicon Heart of the CIA's Drone Program

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http://counterpunch.com/mariner10212010.html


Netezza v. IISI



The Suffolk County courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts, is an unlikely place to learn about the CIA's drone program. Yet a contract dispute currently being litigated in Superior Court there offers a rare glimpse into the computer systems and software that are at the heart of the program.

The suit gives worrying indications that the CIA may have knowingly relied on untested and substandard software to operate its drones. It also raises important questions regarding potential civil and criminal liability for civilian casualties that could result from flawed/erroneous drone strikes.

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According to Netezza's complaint, IISI breached an August 2008 contract between the two companies by refusing to adapt its software to run on a data warehouse appliance, called the TwinFin, that Netezza had developed. The complaint also asserted related claims regarding intentional interference with business relations, breach of the implied convenant of good faith, and conversion, among others.

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The counterclaim provided important clues about the uses to which Netazza's government agency client meant to put the computer system. In the fall of 2009, IISI's counterclaim explained, Netezza had began asserting that "an agency of the United States Government needed immediately to purchase and deploy TwinFin to process geospatial data relating to vital military operations." The need for the system was so urgent, apparently, that "the agency was willing to accept an incomplete beta product designed to perform that function."

The counterclaim went on to state that IISI was "incredulous" regarding Netezza's claim that "a U.S. Government agency would seek or use an incomplete beta product for the military purposes in question, where lives could be at stake."

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