We learned in May that the National Security Agency may be managing the “largest database ever assembled in the world,” used to register billions of domestic phone calls. Since then, there’s been considerable debate about whether to pull the plug on the database. As it turns out, pulling the plug may become a practical necessity.
The National Security Agency is running out of juice.
The demand for electricity to operate its expanding intelligence systems has left the high-tech eavesdropping agency on the verge of exceeding its power supply, the lifeblood of its sprawling 350-acre Fort Meade headquarters, according to current and former intelligence officials.
Agency officials anticipated the problem nearly a decade ago as they looked ahead at the technology needs of the agency, sources said, but it was never made a priority, and now the agency’s ability to keep its operations going is threatened. The NSA is already unable to install some costly and sophisticated new equipment, including two new supercomputers, for fear of blowing out the electrical infrastructure, they said.
The Baltimore Sun reported that, at a minimum, the problem could produce “outages and power surges” that could interfere with intelligence analysts’ work while damaging equipment and backup systems. These problems could become more apparent as quickly as the next few months.
As one person cleverly put it, the situation “could bring a whole new meaning to ‘dark ops.'”
The power problem has a certain symbolic significance, doesn’t it? It’s a story that touches on much of what we’ve come to expect from the executive branch of late.
* Energy policy — Dick Cheney’s task-force took care of Enron and oil companies, but can’t provide enough energy for the NSA?
* Rising temperatures — Triple-digit temperatures in the DC area are becoming increasingly common, pushing an overtaxed system, but the administration refuses to take climate change seriously.
* Ignore problems until there’s a crisis — As Sun reported, “The NSA’s problem was identified in the late 1990s and could have been fixed by now — and for much less money — had keeping the lights on been a priority, current and former officials said. ‘It fits into a long, long pattern of crisis-of-the-day management as opposed to investing in the future,’ said one former government official familiar with the NSA’s electricity shortfall.”
It’d funny if it weren’t so sad.