The PIR NameBase
Public Information Research

NameBase, a software product by Public Information Research in Palo Alto, California, USA is a very good example to demonstrate the reach of intelligence activities.

Used by "journalists" and "researchers", NameBase - after installation on a PC - offers fast access to a database of over 100,000 names of groups and individuals, compiled from over 600 investigative books published since 1962, and thousands of periodicals since 1973. Areas covered include the international intelligence community, political elites from the Left and the Right, the U.S. foreign policy establishment, assassination theory, big business and organized crime. Each name is linked to up to 200 sources and quotations.

If a name found is of particular interest, other names may be extracted which share the similar background. NameBase features something called "multidimensional scaling": this is a data visualization technique to place up to a hundred names in a "social network diagram". This allows the reconstruction of social or business relationships of a certain group or individual. Colored lines serve to indicate the relation's density.

Interesting names to start:
Duncan Campbell
Nicky Hager
James Bamford
Jeffrey Richelson
Michael Hayden
Philip Agee
Bobby Ray Inman
Echelon
Monroe Institute
Mitre Corporation

http://www.pir.org


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Source: http://world-information.org/wio/program/objects/993050068