Predictive Policing

Why The Internet Is Becoming A Surveillance Machine | Whitney Webb

7 26 PALANTIR POINDEXTER SURVEILL TOTAL INFO AWARENESS --> TERROR

ARPA-h

IN Q TEL

CIA ONLY CLIENT OF PALANTIR 1ST 6 YRS RICHARD PEARL --> POIN PVTIZE TO QUELLE OUTRAGE; OROG PUBLIC-PVT WITHIN DARPA

EHUD BARACK

PAYPAL ORIG CODE ALAN WADE TIA

Jul 15, 2026 #WhitneyWebb #Palantir #AISurveillance

Every search, click, location, and online habit leaves behind a digital trail. Whitney Webb explains how AI, Palantir, and modern surveillance systems are reshaping privacy—and why she believes the internet is becoming a powerful tool for large-scale data collection. In this documentary-style breakdown, Whitney Webb traces the evolution of surveillance from DARPA's Total Information Awareness program to predictive policing, AI-driven profiling, Palantir, and the expanding role of Silicon Valley in government technology. Rather than focusing on isolated events, this conversation explores how data, algorithms, and digital infrastructure increasingly influence modern society.

Topics Covered

• Whitney Webb interview • Palantir explained • Peter Thiel • AI surveillance • Total Information Awareness (TIA) • DARPA history • Predictive policing • Facial recognition technology • Digital identity • AI risk scoring • Government surveillance • Silicon Valley and national security • Privacy and civil liberties

PREDPOL UCLA? LAPD ERRORS

0:35

35 seconds

dictates of the Trump White House. What is being targeted is not the deep state, but the laws, resolutions, regulations,

0:42

42 seconds

protocols, and rules, and the government, civil servants who enforce them, which hinder absolute dictatorial control.

0:55

55 seconds

Yeah, it's definitely I would argue one of the best starting points and also thanks so much for having me on Chris.

1:00

1 minute

Um so John Po Dexter uh as of course you know was one of um the national security adviserss to Reagan and was the highest

1:08

1 minute, 8 seconds

ranking member of his administration that was indicted as part of Iran Contra. But he is also uh remembered as

1:15

1 minute, 15 seconds

the quote unquote godfather of modern surveillance. Um and this is in part because of his efforts in the immediate

1:23

1 minute, 23 seconds

post 911 era um pioneering the off uh in office within DARPA that housed a program called total information

1:30

1 minute, 30 seconds

awareness. Um so right after uh the Reagan administration um Po Dexter was sort of um in various roles throughout

1:39

1 minute, 39 seconds

these tech companies that were sort of a a prototype to what Palunteer and total information awareness would later do uh

1:47

1 minute, 47 seconds

like Saffron Technology, Cintech Technologies that were defense contractors and trying to basically create uh use uh sort of um you know

1:56

1 minute, 56 seconds

predictive analytics um to determine uh what terrorists would do next all before 9/11 even happened and of course there

2:04

2 minutes, 4 seconds

was a renewed demand for that type of technology and these sort of innovative solutions in the immediate post 911 era

2:12

2 minutes, 12 seconds

um and uh when this information you know uh was reported on total information awareness there was a huge outcry um

2:20

2 minutes, 20 seconds

throughout uh you know US mainstream media um a lot of organizations including the ACLU and organizations like that uh rightly noted that it would

2:29

2 minutes, 29 seconds

eliminate uh the constitutional right to privacy uh and create this uh very disturbing era um of of mass

2:37

2 minutes, 37 seconds

surveillance uh by you know it b I think one of the mainstream media reports on it said that it would uh fight terrorism

2:44

2 minutes, 44 seconds

by terrifying US citizens basically and making everyone a suspect um in under this this type of um this paradigm he

2:53

2 minutes, 53 seconds

was seeking to usher in. And so it was eventually you know under pressure. It was I think first announced in February 2003 and by May they attempted to change

3:02

3 minutes, 2 seconds

the name to terrorism information awareness uh trying to move away from uh the idea that it would uh be total it

3:10

3 minutes, 10 seconds

would surveil absolutely everyone uh through a name change but obviously it didn't change how the program actually worked. It would still uh be focused on

3:18

3 minutes, 18 seconds

everyday Americans um you know a total drag net really. Um and in that same month where that name change happened uh

3:25

3 minutes, 25 seconds

Peter Teal incorporated uh Palunteer and as Palunteer uh was developing as a company uh they you uh Peter Teal and

3:34

3 minutes, 34 seconds

Alex Karp the Palunteer co-founders uh reached out to Point Dexter directly through Richard Pearl who's a well-known neoconservative figure and was also one

3:43

3 minutes, 43 seconds

of the architects of the Iraq war at the uh Bush era Pentagon.

3:48

3 minutes, 48 seconds

And uh you know basically they hatched this plan to privata to privatize this program rightly calculating that if they

3:56

3 minutes, 56 seconds

turned it into a entirely private sector enterprise uh the outrage uh would uh

4:03

4 minutes, 3 seconds

you know essentially dissipate which it uh remarkably did because um you know originally it was a public private partnership housed within DARPA and then

4:12

4 minutes, 12 seconds

by making it this private sector uh enterprise um you know a lot of the concerns about it uh disappeared. And

4:20

4 minutes, 20 seconds

bec and this is arguably because by moving into the private sector uh they were able to accomplish a lot more than they than they could have uh by being

4:28

4 minutes, 28 seconds

affiliated directly with the public sector even though they contract uh with the public sector. And so Palunteer uh

4:36

4 minutes, 36 seconds

funding wise was set up with money from Peter Teal um himself and that the algorithm for it had originally been

4:43

4 minutes, 43 seconds

developed at PayPal and um uh the other funding source was the CIA's Inqell. Um

4:50

4 minutes, 50 seconds

and one of the figures that helped create uh that helped made that funding decision uh was the CIA's chief information officer at the time named

4:58

4 minutes, 58 seconds

Alan Wade. and Allan Wade had been one of the top allies of the total information awareness with Po Dexter um

5:06

5 minutes, 6 seconds

you know in the immediate post 911 um era and so um the CIA was the was Palanteer's exclusive company sorry

5:15

5 minutes, 15 seconds

exclusive client for I believe the first six years of its existence as a company um and its its engineers went to Langley uh you know CIA headquarters in Virginia

5:24

5 minutes, 24 seconds

every two weeks for several years as well where the CIA was um developing their algorithm with them, you know, in

5:31

5 minutes, 31 seconds

a very direct partnership. And Alex Karp has even said that the CIA was always the intended client um of Palunteer. So,

5 minutes, 39 seconds

I guess I'll I'll pause there and I'm happy to go in other any other direction.

5:43

5 minutes, 43 seconds

Explain what it does, what what the what the goal, what PO Dexter's goal was and and what they were able to establish. I

5:51

5 minutes, 51 seconds

mean the mechanics of it, the way it was initially sold to the public was this is a way to stop terrorism attacks before they happen um

5:59

5 minutes, 59 seconds

by coalating so much um data um from all different sources and then using an in

6:06

6 minutes, 6 seconds

some sort of analytic or AI to determine um you know if u certain data points are flagging that a terrorist attack will take place here um here or there.

6:17

6 minutes, 17 seconds

There's various different aspects of this program that didn't really get enough coverage at the time. Uh so one is that they attempted to use uh free

6:25

6 minutes, 25 seconds

market forces to determine if a terrorism attack would happen. Before it happened, they created basically what's referred to as a terrorism futures

6:34

6 minutes, 34 seconds

market. It was really like a forerunner to poly market and some of these predictive markets uh where people bet on things online. And it was basically

6:42

6 minutes, 42 seconds

that but about whether a terrorist attack uh will happen in the Middle East or if there will be turmoil in the Middle East if someone like Yaser Arafat

6:50

6 minutes, 50 seconds

would be overthrown. You know, these were the kinds of things they were going to have these unnamed uh investors bet on. Um another one was focused entirely

6:58

6 minutes, 58 seconds

on health um under this program called bioveurveillance um which actually a lot of it Palunteer

7:05

7 minutes, 5 seconds

uh helped launch with HHS during the COVID era. uh things like um analyzing American wastewater to determine if

7:13

7 minutes, 13 seconds

there is going to be an outbreak of a disease before it happens uh with um again with an algorithm or basically you

7:21

7 minutes, 21 seconds

know surveilling Americans uh health data uh and uh to determine if there will be a pandemic before it happens or

7:29

7 minutes, 29 seconds

if there will be a bioteterror attack because remember this was also in the aftermath um of the of the anthrax attacks. Um and so a lot of that

....

TESTED IN LOW INCOME POC HOODS

CARBINE PRED POL