Central

Intelligence
Agency

hite noise
(slang)

Central
Intelligence
Agency

hite noise
(slang)

[\V]

o White noise {slang)

The term white noise, the 'sh' noise p roduced by

a signal conta ini ng all aud ible frequencies of
vibration, is sometimes used as slang (or a
neolog ism) to describe a meaning less commotion
or chatter that masks or ob literates underlying
information. The information itself may have
characteristics that achieve this effect without
the need to introducing a masking layer. A
common example of this usage is a pol it ician
including more information than needed to mask
a point he doesn't want noticed. In music the
term is used for music that is discordant with no
melody ; d isagreeable, harsh or dissonant. On the
January
11
2005
broadcast
of
ABC's
Good Morning America, Claire Shipman claimed
"the pol it ical rhetoric on Social Security is
white noise" to most Americans. The novel
Whit e Noise by Don Delillo explores several
themes that emerged during the m id-to-late
twent iet h century. The title is a metaphor
pointing to the confluence of all the sympt oms of
postmodern culture that in their comi ng-t ogether
make it very d ifficult for an individual to actual ize
his or her ideas and personal ity.

Central
Intelligence
Agency

hite noise
(slang)

Don Delillo (born November 20, 1936) is an

award-winning American author, playwright, and
essayist. His works have covered subjects as
diverse as television , nuclear war, sports, the
comp lexities of language, perform ance art, the
Cold War, mathematics, the advent of the digital
age, and global terrorism . He currently lives near
New York City in the suburb of Bronxvi lle. Delil lo
was born on November 20, 1936 and grew up in
a working-class Italian Catholic fam ily in an
Italian-American neighborhood of the Bronx in
New York City, not far from Arthur Avenue.
1 Reflecting on his ch ild hood in The Bron x, Deli llo
lat er described how he was " .. .always out in t he
street. As a little boy I whiled away most of my
time pretending to be a baseball announcer on
the radio. I could th ink up games for hours at a
t ime. There were eleven of us in a small house,
but the close quarters were never a problem . I
didn 't know things any other way. We always
spoke English and Italian all mixed up together .
My grandmother, who lived in America for fifty
years, never learned Engl ish. " As a teenager,
Delillo wasn't interested in writ ing until taking a
summer job as a parking attendant, where hours
spent waiting and watching over vehicles led to a
reading habit. In a 2010 interview with T he
Austral ian, Deli llo reflected on th is period by
saying "I had a personal golden age of reading ,
in my 20s and my early 30s, and then my
writing began to take up so much t ime".

Central
Intelligence
Agency

hite noise
(slang)

[\V]

li(Q:

The Airborne Toxic Event

~~ -..

The Airborne Toxic Event is an American ind ie

rock band from Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California.
It consists of Mikel Jollett (vocals, guitar,
keyboards), Steven Chen (guitar, keyboards),
Noah Harmon (electric bass, upright bass,
backing vocals), Daren Taylor (drums) and Anna
Bulbrook (viola, keyboards, tambourine, backing
vocals). The b and released its debut self-t itled
album in 2008 and released its follow-up album,
All at Once, on April 26, 2011. Named after a
section of the book White Noise, by Don Delillo,
the group is known for its blend of rock music
and orchestral arrangements, having performed
frequently with the Calder Quartet, a string
quartet based in Los Angeles. T he group has also
played concerts with the Louisville Orchestra and
the Colorado Symphony Orchestra . Initially a
writer and essayist, Jollett began seriously
writing songs with an acoustic guitar following a
week in March 2006, during which he underwent
a break-up, learned his mother had been
diagnosed with cancer, and was himself
diagnosed with a genetic autoimmune disease
that led to the development of two cosmetic
conditions: Alopecia areata and Vitiligo. This
quick succession of traumatic events spurred a
period of intense songwriting, and it was around
this time that he first met Taylor through a
mutual friend in Silver Lake, Los Angeles.

Central
Intelligence
Agency

hite noise
(slang)

o Gravity's Rainbow

~~ ..-

Gravity' s Rainbow is a postmodern novel written

by
omas
ncho
and first published on
February 28, 1973. The narrative is set primarily
in Europe at the end of World War II and centers
on the design, prod uct ion and dispatch of V-2
rockets by the German military, and, in
particular, the quest undertaken by several
characters to uncover the secret of a mysterious
device named the "Schwarzgerat" ("black
device") that is to be installed in a rocket with
the serial number "00000." Gravity's Rainbow is
transgressive, as it questions and inverts social
disgust and
standards of deviance and
transgresses boundaries of Western culture and
reason. Frequently digressive, the novel subverts
many of the traditional elements of plot and
character development, and traverses detailed,
specialist knowledge drawn from a wide range of
disciplines. The novel has been praised for its
innovation and complexity, but criticized by
others. In 1974, the three-member Pulitzer Prize
jury on fiction supported Gravity's Rainbow for
the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction . The other eleven
members of the board overturned this decision
and no award was given for fiction that year. The
novel was nominated for the 1973 Nebula Award
for Best Novel and shared the 1974 U.S. National
Book Award for Fiction with A Crown of Feathers
and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer.
Since its publication, Gravity's Rainbow has
spawned an enormous amount of literary
criticism and commentary, including two readers'
gu ides and several on line concordances, and it is
frequently cited as Pynchon's magnum opus.

Central
Intelligence
Agency

Sensory overload (sometimes abbreviated to

SO), related to Cog nitive load in general, is a
cond it ion where one or m ore of the senses are
strained and it becomes difficult to focus on t he
t ask at hand. The term is commonly (but not
exclusively)
used
in
the
context
of
autistic/spectrum disorders, though it may
appear in neurotyp ical children. It may be
necessary for only one sense to be bombarded by
stimuli to affect that sense as well as the other
senses and the thinking process. The most
common type occurs when more than one sense
is stimulated. For example, a person might be
watching television when someone comes in and
asks a question; the watcher might fail to
respond because he or she simply does not
register it, or realizes the question has been
asked but gets confused and doesn't know
whether to answer the question or concentrate
on the television.

Central
Intelligence
Agency

hite noise
(slang)

Neo-Luddism is a personal world view opposing

many forms of modern technology. Its nam e is
based on the historica l legacy of t he Bri t ish
Ludd ites, who were active between 1811 and
1816.
Neo-Ludd ism
includes
the
critical
examination of the effects technology has on
individuals and commun it ies. Reform Ludd ism is
an offshoot of neo-Luddism and represents a
personal world view skeptical of m odern
technology and crit ical of its many purported
benefi ts. Opposition
to the adoption
of
technology and challenges to the notion of
supposed technological progress are sentiments
that are echoed across history. In Gulliver's
Travels (1726) Jonathan Swift ridiculed the Royal
Society, the oldest scientific society in Britain,
and both Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo
Emerson extolled the virtue of unaltered nature.
Neo-Luddism conjures pre-technological life as
the best post-technological prospect (see also
primitivism), or as Robin and Webster put it, "a
return to nature and what are imagined as more
natural communities". Industrial Society and Its
Future (1995) is a recent expression of
Neo-Luddism by Theodore Kaczynski, also known
as the Unabomber. The manifesto states : "The
industrial revolution and its consequences have
been a disaster for the human race.

Central
Intelligence
Agency

hite noise
(slang)

I\VI

a Cognitive load

~~ ...,.

The term cognitive load is used in cognitive

psychology to illustrate the load related to t he
executive control of working memory (WM).
Theories contend that during comp lex learning
activities the amount of information and
that
must
be
processed
interactions
simultaneously can either under-load, or overload
the finite amount of working memory one
possesses. All elements must be processed
before meaningful learning can
continue.
Instruction may be aimed at teaching learners
problem solving skills, thinking and reasoning
skills (including perception, memory, language,
etc.). Many would agree that people learn better
when they can build on what they already
understand (known as existing schemas), but t he
more a person has to learn in a shorter amount
of t ime, the more difficult it is to process that
information in working memory. Consider t he
difference between having to study a subject in
one's native language versus t rying to study a
subject in a foreign language. The cognitive load
is much higher in the second instance because
the brain must work to translate the language
while simultaneously trying to understand t he
new information . Another aspect of cognitive load
theory involves understanding how many discrete
units of information can be retained in shortterm memory before information loss occurs. An
example of this principle that seems to be
commonly cited is the use of 7-digit phone
numbers, based on the theory that most people
can only retain seven "chunks" of information in
thei r short-term memory.

Central
Intelligence
Agency

hite noise
(slang)

Gotthard Gunther (also Gunther, Guenther; June

15, 1900 in Arnsdorf, landkreis Hirschberg im
Riesengebirge, Prussian Silesia (modern day
Jelenia G6ra, Poland) - November 29, 1984,
Hamburg), was a German (Prussian) ph ilosopher.
From 1921 to 1933, Gunther studied sinology
and philosophy at the universities of Heidelberg
and Berlin, and wrote his doctor' s thesis on Hegel
in 1933 under the guidance of Eduard Spranger.
From 1935 to 1937, he worked at the institute of
Arnold Geh l~ at the University of leipzig,
publishing "Christliche Metaphysik und das
Schicksal
des
modernen
Bewusstseins"
("Christian metaphysics and the fate of modern
consciousness", together with Helmut Schelsky in
1937). He was a member of the leipzig School.
In the same year, following his wife, the Jewish
psychologist Dr. Marie Gunther-Hendel, he
emigrated from Germany first to Italy,
afterwards to Stellenbosch University in South
Africa and, in 1940, to the United States. There
he completed his system of place-valued log ics
and morphogrammatics. His great study "Die
philosophische Idee einer nicht-Aristotelischen
logik" ("The philosophical concept of a nonAristotelian logic") went to p rint in 1957
(Hamburg, Meiner). As a research professor, he
joined the department of electrical engineering
at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
in 1960, working together with Warren Stu rgis
McCulloch, Heinz von Foerster, Humberto
Maturana and others. In 1962, he publ ished
Cybernetic
ontology
and
transj unctional
operations. later he lectured at the University of
Hamburg, until he died, in 1984.

Central
Intelligence
Agency

hite noise
(slang)

Arnold Gehlen (29 January 1904, Leipzig - 30

January 1976, Hamburg) was an influential
conservative German philosopher and sociologist.
His major influences while studying philosophy
were Hans Driesch, Nicolai Hartmann and
especially Max Scheler. He joined the Nazi Party
in 1933 and had a sh ining career as a member of
the 'Leipzig School' under Hans Freyer. He
replaced Paul Tillich, who emigrated to the U.S. ,
at the University of Frankfurt. In 1938 he
accepted a teaching position at the University of
Konigsberg (today's Ka liningrad) and then
taught at the University of Vienna in 1940 until
he was drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1943.
After his 'denazification' he taught at the
administrative college in Speyer. He went on to
teach at the Aachen University of Technology
between 1962 and 1969. Gehlen became a sharp
critic of the protest movements that developed in
the late 1960s. Gehlen's philosophy has been
influential
for
many
contemporary
neoconservative German thinkers. Many terms
from
his
work,
like
Reizuberflutung
("Sensory overload"), deinstitutionalization or
post-history, have gained popular currency in
Germany. Der Mensch. Seine Natur und seine
Stellung in der Welt. (1940) (Translated as "Man ,
his nature and place in the world") Urmensch
und Spatkultur. Philosophische Ergebnisse und
Aussagen. (1956) Die Seele im technischen
Zeitalter. (1957) (Translated as "Man in the age
of technology") Moral und Hypermoral. Eine
pluralistische Ethik.

Central
Intelligence
Agency

hite noise
(slang)

lwl

o Automatic speech

Automatic speech (also known as embolalia)

refers to the verbalization of different words or
phrases that occur without the conscious effort of
the individual. This type of speech component
often serves as verbal filler during the middle of
a presentation or conversation. It consists of
words not directly under the control of a person's
conscious mind, and are spoken without thought.
Such speech includes false starts, hesitations,
repetitions that accompany words that speakers
plan and utter coherent sentences, and fi ller
words (such as "Like", "Er" and "Uhm"). The word
embolalia comes from the Greek word emboles
wh ich means 'something thrown in', from the
word emballo- meaning 'to throw in', and -lalia
meaning 'speech, chatteri ng and babbling;
abnormal or disordered form of speech .
Automatic speech has sparked research in m any
different fi elds since a long time ago. Modern
linguists led by Leonard Bloomfi eld in 1933 call
these "hesitation forms" -- the sounds of
stammering (uh), stuttering (urn, urn), throatclearing (ahem !), stalling (well, urn, that is),
interjected when the speaker is groping for words
or at a loss for the next thoug ht . French
psychiatrist Jules Seglas, on the other hand,
referred to the term embolalia, as "the regular
addition of prefixes or suffixes to words", and
mentioned that the behavior is sometimes used
by normal individuals to demonstrate to their
interlocutor that they are paying attention to the
conversation.

Central
Intelligence
Agency

hite noise
(slang)

Committee for Liquidation and Subversion of

Computers
(CLODO)
(in
French:
Comite
Liquidant ou Detournant les Ordinateurs, 'Ciodo'
being a slang word for the homeless) was a neoLuddite French anarchist organization, act ive
during the 1980s, that targeted computer
companies. In 1980, after a series of attacks in
the Toulouse area, they released a statement to
the French media in which they explained their
motivations. It read, "We are workers in the field
of data processing and consequently well placed
to know the current and future dangers of data
The
processing
and
telecommunications.
computer is the favorite tool of the dominant. It
is used to exploit, to put on file, to control, and
to repress." Their major attack was in 1983,
when they firebombed the Sperry Univac
Company, in Toulouse. At the time, French pol ice
were convinced that CLODO was simply an
outgrowth of Act ion Directe, a libertarian
communist group. Although CLODO is no longer
classified as 'active' by the National Consortium
for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to
Terrorism, there has been some debate among
technology critics and cultural theorists such as
Arthur Kroker and Peter Lamborn Wilson as to
whether or not the
roup still exists in an
atomized state. In CLODO's 1983 man ifesto
disguised as an interview the group reveals that
although their future projects are intended to be
less spectacular than the firebombing of SperryUnivac they plan to carry out actions geared
towards an impending telecommunications
explosion.

Central
Intelligence
Agency

hite noise
(slang)

Theodore John "Ted " Kaczynski ( , or ; Polish:

Kaczynski, pronounced ; born May 22, 1942),
also known as the "Unabomber" (a portmant eau
of UNiversity and Airline BOMBER), is an
America n mathematician, social critic, and NeoLuddite who engaged in a mail bombing
campaign that spanned nearly 20 years, killing
th ree people and inj uring 23 others. Kaczynski
was born in Chicago, I llinois, where, as an
intellectual
ch ild
prod igy,
he
excelled
academically from an early age. Kaczynski was
accepted into Harvard Un iversity at the age of
16, where he earned an undergraduate degree,
and later earned a PhD in m athematics from t he
Un iversity of Michigan. He became an assistant
professor at t he University of California, Berkeley
at age 25, but resigned two years later. I n 1971,
he moved to a remote cabi n without electricit y or
ru nning water, in Lincoln, Montana, where he
lived as a recluse while learni ng su rvival ski lls in
an attempt to become self-suffi cient. He decided
to start a bombing campaign after watchi ng the
wilderness around his home being destroyed by
development.

Central
Intelligence
Agency

hite noise
(slang)

Central
Intelligence
Agency

hite noise
(slang)

o ABC News

~~ ""'

ABC News is the news gathering

and
of
the
American
broadcasting
division
Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of The Walt
Disney Company. Its flagship program is World
News with Diane Sawyer; other programs include
morning show Good Morning America, Ni htline,
television news magazine shows Primetime &
20/20, and Sunday morning political affairs
program This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
ABC began news broadcasts early in its
independent existence as a radio network after
the Federal Communications Commission ordered
the former NBC Blue Network to be spun off as
an independent company in 1943. This was done
to keep single or a few companies such as NBC
and CBS from dominating radio broadcasting in
the U.S., and in particular, from dominating
news and political broadcasting and projecting
narrow points-of-view. Television broadcasting
was suspended however, during World War II.
Regular ABC television news broadcasts began
soon after ABC started transmitting from its
initial New York City television station and
production center in late summer 1948. ABC-TV
news broadcasts have continued as the ABC
television network spread across the country, a
process that took many years, from that
beginning in 1948 through today, but they have
not always had the same level of success that
they enjoy now. Th roughout the 1950s, the
1960s, and the early 1970s, ABC News
consistently ranked third in viewership behind
CBS News and NBC News.

Central
Intelligence
Agency

hite noise
(slang)

o Social Security (United States) ~~ ...,.

In the United States, Social Security refers to the

Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance
(OASDI)
federal
program.
The
original
Social Securit Act{1935) and the current version
of the Act, as amended encompass several social
welfare
and
social
insurance
programs.
Social Security is primarily funded through
dedicated payroll taxes called Federal Insurance
Contributions Act tax {FICA). Tax deposits are
formally entrusted to the Federal Old-Age and
Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, the Federal
Disability Insurance Trust Fund, the Federal
Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, or the Federal
Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund
which comprise the Social Security. Trust Fund.
By dollars paid, the U.S. Social Security program
is the largest government program in the world
and the single greatest expenditure in the
federal budget, with 20.8% for Social Security,
compared to 20.5% for discretionary defense and
20.1% for Medicare/ Medicaid. In 2003 the
combined spending for all social insurance
programs constituted 37% of government
expenditure and 7% of the gross domestic
product. ocial Securit is currently estimated to
keep roughly 40 percent of all Americans a e 65
or older out of poverty. The ocial Sec i
Administration is headquartered in Woodlawn ,
Maryland, just to the west of Baltimore.
Proposals to privatize
ocial Securit became
part of the oeial Securi ~ debate during the Bill
Clinton and George W. Bush presidencies.

o Social security ~~ ..-

Social securit~ is a concept enshrined in Article

22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
which states that Everyone, as a member of
society, has the right to ocia sec t and is
entitled to realization, through national effort
and international co-operation and in accordance
with the organization and resources of each
State, of the economic, social and cultural rights
indispensable for his dignity and the free
development of his personality. In simple term,
this means that the signatories agree that
society in which a person lives should help them
to develop and to make the most of all the
advantages (culture, work, social welfare) which
to
them
in
the
country.
are
offered
s
it may also refer to the action
programs of government intended to promote
the welfare of the population through assistance
measures guaranteeing access to sufficient
resources for food and shelter and to promote
health and wellbeing for the population at large
and potentially vulnerable segments such as
children, the elderly, the sick and the
unemployed. Terminology in this area in the
United States is somewhat different to that in
the rest of the English speaking world. The
general term for an action program in support of
the well being of the population in the United
States is welfare program and the general term
for all such programs is simply welfare. In other
countries the word welfare on its own simply
means wellbeing. In American society, which
tends to promote individualism and competition
over solidarity and co-operation, the term welfare
has therefore developed into one which has
negative connotations, and seen by some as unAmerican. In the rest of the English speaking
world, welfare where still retains its original
meaning of well being it is thus generally
perceived as having positive connotations. The
term oca ecu t in the United States refers
to a specific social insurance program for the
retired and the disabled. In most other countries,
Social securit has the general meaning of being
secure in society and free from the insecurities of
poverty, disease, etc. ocial securit may refer
to: social insurance, where people receive
benefits
or
services
in
recognition
of
contributions to an insurance program. These
services typically include provision for retirement
pensions, disability insurance, survivor benefits
and unemployment insurance. services provided
by
government
or
desig nated
agencies
responsible for
ocial securit~ provision. In
different countries this may include medical care,
financial
support
during
unemployment,
sickness, or retirement, health and safety at
work, aspects of social work and even industrial
relations.
basic
security
irrespective
of
participation in specific insurance programs
where eligibility may otherwise be an issue. For
instance assistance given to newly arrived
refugees for basic necessities such as food,
clothing, housing, education, money, and
medical care ..

ISe

pecial Activities
Division

I'WI

~(Q]~~Ii' ll1lli'il~~(Q] ~~~~~~ ~~

a~ rna~ienai social insurance pmgramv

adlminos~e~re((jl ~Y \l:he
fedle~ral Qi~vernmen\l: on
1965v that rgJuaran~tees a~ccess t(Q) !health insull"ance
fro>r Ameri~Cans a~QJes 65 antd ro>ltder a~rnd yro>urn~QJter

Medicare is

u.s.

people with disabilities as well as people with endl

e renal disease. As a social insurance
program,
edicar spreads the financial risk
associated with illness across society to protect
everyone, and thus has a somewhat different
social role from private insurers, which must
manage their risk portfolio to guarantee their
own solvency. Medicare :ffers a~ll enrollees a
defirnedl benef~t. IH!ro>spita~l lbaJil"e is C(i)Velied UJrn(\jlell"
!Part A and! tOlUJtpatient medical services are
cro>vere((jl urn<der !Part B. T(j) :ro>ver the IP'art A and!
!?art B bernefitsv Medicare effrers a ch!Olicre between
an @pen-rnetwrk sin Ire lOlaJyer heaJIU~ ~Care plaJn
(tra~((jlitinal
Medicare) alilrdl a netwro>rk pla~n
(Medicare Aldlva~n~a~Q~ev (l)r Medicare Part C)p wtbell"e
U~e feldleral IQ]IOlVemment
a S fro>r private health
rcOlverage. A maOlrity Olf Medicare enmllees have
tra((jlitiro>nal Medicare (76 ~en:erAt ro>ver a Medicare
Advanta~ge plan (24 ~errcent).
edicare !?art ID
cvers ~t:UtlOlaJtient prescrilOltiro>n <dru~QJs e)(CIUJsivelv
thmu9Jh
private p~ai'lsv either starndaliili!!
pres~Crnp~in dlru~Q~ plans r U~mu~QJh Medicare
A<dvanta e lans that ffer prescripUtn ((jlru~QJS rrn
2010lv Medicare prvildleldl hea~iUl insur3Jnce to 48
millnn Americans-40 millin pep~e a~QJe 65 and!
:lldiell" anldl eioht millitOJn ytOJUJrn~QJer people with
disa~bilities. Medicare serves a1 lar~QJe populatin f
oldlp sick, a~nd ltOlw-inctOlme peop~ev ma~ny tOlf whom
wul<dl be ~na~le t Q1ffrd heal~h :are ~themise.
s~a

o Medicaid ~~ ...,.

Med icaid is the United States health program for

certain people and families with low incomes and
resources. It is a means-tested program that is
jointly funded by the state and federal
governments, and is managed by the states.
People served by Medicaid are U.S. citizens or
legal permanent residents, including low-income
adults, their children, and people with certain
disabilities. Poverty alone does not necessarily
qualify someone for Medicaid. Medicaid is the
largest source of funding for medical and healthrelated services for people with limited income in
the United States. Beginning in the 1990s, many
states received waivers from the federal
government to create Medicaid managed care
programs. Under managed care, Med icaid
recipients are enrolled in a private health plan,
which receives a fixed monthly premium from
the state. The health plan is then responsible for
providing for all or most of the recipient' s
healthcare needs. Today, all but a few states use
managed care to provide coverage to a
significant proportion of Medicaid enrollees.
Nationwide, roughly 60% of enrollees are
enrolled in managed care plans. Core eligibility
groups of poor children and parents are most
likely to be enrolled in managed care, while the
aged and disabled eligibility groups more often
remain in trad itional "fee for service" Med icaid.
Some states operate a program known as the
Health Insurance Premium Payment Program
(HIPP). This program allows a Medicaid recipient
to have private health insurance paid for by
Med icaid.

hite noise
(slang)

edicare (United
States)
a Deficit reduction In the United States
Deficit reduction in the United States refers to
taxation, spending, and economic policy debates
and proposals designed to reduce the Federal
budget deficit and move the United States to a
sustainable fiscal path. Government agencies
including the Government Accountability Office
(GAO), Congressional Budget Office, the Office of
Management and Budget {OMB) and the U.S.
Treasury Department have reported that the
federal government is facing a series of
important financing challenges. In the short-run,
tax revenues have declined significantly due to a
severe recession and tax policy choices, while
expenditures
have
expanded
for
wars,
unemployment insurance and other safety net
spending . In the long-run, expenditures related
to healthcare programs such as
edicar~ and
Medicaid are projected to grow faster than the
economy overall as the population matures. A
budget deficit refers to expenditures that exceed
tax collections during a given period, requiring
borrowing to fund the difference. The U.S.
federal government has run annual deficits in 36
of the past 40 fiscal years, with surpluses from
1998-2001.
Tax
revenues
averaged
approximately 18% GDP from 1971-2010, with
expenditures around 21% GDP, resulting in an
average annual deficit of around 3% GDP. For
example, in 2010 revenues were $2.16 trillion
and outlays were $3.46 trillion, resu lting in a
deficit of $1.3 trillion or 9.4% GDP.

Central
Intelligence
Agency

hite noise
(slang)

hite noise
(slang)

Central
Intelligence
Agency

o Central Intelligence Agency ~~ """'

The Central Intelligence A en~ (CIA) is a civilian

intelligence agency of the United States
government. It is an executive agency and
reports directly to the Director of National
Intelligence, with responsibility for providing
national security intelligence assessment to
senior United States policymakers. Intelligence
gathering
is
performed
by
non-military
commissioned civi lian intelligence agents, many
of whom are trained to avoid tactical situat ions.
The CIA also oversees and sometimes engages in
tactical and covert activities at the request of the
President of the United States. Often, when such
field operations are organized, the US military or
other warfare tacticians carry these tactical
operations out on behalf of the agency whi le the
CIA oversees them. Although intelligencegathering is the agency's main agenda, tactical
divisions were established in the agency to carry
out emergency field operations that require
immediate suppression or dismantling of a threat
or weapon. The CIA is often used for intelligencegathering instead of the U.S m ilitary to avoid a
declaration of war. The CIA succeeded the Office
of Strategic Services (OSS), formed during World
War II to coordinate espionage activities against
the Axis Powers for the branches of the United
States Armed Forces. The National Security Act
of 1947 established the CIA, affording it "no
police or law enforcement functions, either at
home
or
abroad ".
Through
interagency
cooperation, the CIA has Cooperative Security
Locations at its disposal. These locations are
called "lily pads" by the Ai r Force.

Special Activities Division

~~ ...,.

The Special Activities Division (SAD) is a division

in
the
United
Stat es
Cent a
telli e ce
ge ~s (CIA) National
Clandestine Service (NCS) responsible for covert
operations known as "special activities". Within
SAD there are two separate groups, one for
tactical a
ta operations and another for
covert political action. The Political Action Group
within SAD is responsible for covert activities
related to political influence, psychological and
economic warfare. The rapid development of
technology has added cyberwarfare to their
mission . A large covert operation usually has
components that involve man ~ or all, of these
categories, as well as
r mill
operations.
Special Operations Group (SOG) is the element
within
SAD
responsible
for
aramllltaQ1
operations. These operations include the
collection of intelligence in hostile countries and
regions, and all high threat m ilitary or
intelligence operations with which the U.S.
government does not wish to be overtly
associated. As such, members of the unit (cal led
a t ~ Operations Officers and Specialized
Skills Officers) normally do not carry any objects
or clothing (e.g ., military uniforms) that would
with
the United
Stat es
associate them
government. If they are compromised during a
mission, the government of the United Stat es
may deny all knowledge. The SAD/SOG is
generally considered the most secretive special
operations force in the United States. The group
selects operatives from Delta Force, DEVGRU,
24th STS and other special operations forces
from within the U.S. military.

Central
Intelligence
Agency

hite noise
(slang)
amzi Youse (...;.....Y- ~:.,...J, ; born May 20, 1967)
was one of the main perpetrators of the 1993
World Trade Center bombing and a coconspirator in the Bojinka plot . In 1995, he was
arrested at a guest house in Islamabad, by the
Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence and United
States Diplomatic Security Service, then
extrad ited to the United States. He was tried in
New York City in the U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York and along with two
co-conspirators was convicted of planning the
Bojinka plot. Yousef stated: "Yes, I am a
terrorist, and proud of it as long as it is against
the U.S. government and against Israel, because
you are more than terrorists; you are the one
who invented terrorism and using it every day.
You are butchers, liars and hypocrites." He was
sentenced to two life sentences for his part in the
World Trade Center bombing and Bojinka plot.
Yousef's uncle is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a
senior ai-Qaeda member accused of being the
principal architect of the September 11 attacks.
He is also in United States custody. Yousef was
born in Kuwait to Pakistani family of labourers,
who were originally from Balochistan, Pakistan.
While the rest of the family returned to Pakistan
in the mid 1980s, Yousef was sent to England to
continue his education. In 1986, he enrolled at
Swansea Institute in Wales where he studied
electrical engineering, graduating four years
later. He also stud ied at the Oxford College of
Further Education to improve his English. Yousef
attended an AI-Qaeda training camp and became
an expert in bomb making.