Does the National Security Agency run covert facilities at the University of Maryland or any other U.S. university?

There is information that one such facility may be involved in data mining to gain insight into what people are thinking, among other potentially intrusive programs.

Edward Snowden, the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations, told the London Guardian newspaper that he previously worked as a security guard for what the publication carefully described as “one of the agency’s covert facilities at the University of Maryland.

Some reports clearly indicate a possible covert nature to the NSA’s relationship with the university, with one such program apparently involved in data mining and the use of intrusive, controversial technology, according to reports.

One report came from PBS in January 2009, which described an NSA artificial intelligence program “designed to gain insight into what people are thinking.”

PBS reported the system is so potentially intrusive “that at least one researcher has quit, citing concerns over the dangers in placing such a powerful weapon in the hands of a top-secret agency with little accountability.” According to the PBS report, the data mining system and other secretive surveillance programs were being run out of a 120,000-square-foot building in M Square Research Park in College Park, Md., operated in collaboration with the University of Maryland.

The program above mentioned goes by the name Aquaint (Advanced QUestion Answering for INTelligence)

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