What would Orwell do? - Putting the Action in Distraction

What would Orwell do? - Putting the Action in Distraction: "The VCs that ARE Interested have strange connections

Take, for example, Jim Breyer, manager of Accel's Investment Team, and the guy working most closely with Facebook. Breyer is the former chair of the National Venture Capital Association (NVAC), where he served with Gilman Louie, CEO of In-Q-Tel. In-Q-Tel is a venture capital firm established by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1999. This firm works in various aspects of information technology and intelligence, particularly in 'tools for the rapid deployment of distributed, economical data collection networks. Systems that are self-organizing or that provide tools for the aggregation and management of data from large numbers...' and other items 'of interest to the CIA.'

Breyer has also served on the board of BBN Technologies, a research and development firm also closely tied to In-Q-Tel. In fact BBN shared board members with In-Q-Tel, such as Anita Jones, former Director of Defense Research and Engineering for the U.S. Department of Defense. Her responsibilities included serving as an advisor to the Secretary of Defense and overseeing the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

In a 2002 NY Times article entitled, 'Many Tools of Big Brother Are Already Up and Running', John Markoff shed light on DARPA as well as it's cousin, the Information Awareness Office, whose purpose was described as

[gathering] as much information as possible about everyone, in a centralized location, for easy perusal by the United States government, including (though not limited to) Internet activity, credit card purchase histories, airline ticket purchases, car rentals, medical records, educational transcripts, driver's licenses, utility bills, tax returns, and any other available data."