A Mysterious Man Provided a Phone Number and Pass Code
It was a typical teen exploit.
Melany Doolittle of Omaha, Nebraska, age 15, told her parents she would be at her friend’s house doing their algebra homework together. When her suspicious parents tracked her, they found Melany in the far corner of a city park smoking a suspicious substance with members of the varsity football team.
Melany is back home, safe and grounded for like… the rest of her life, thanks to the National Security Agency’s new public outreach program, Fear Us Not, Fellow Citizens. Seeking to allay fears of civil liberties activists, the Government’s super-secret spy agency — best known as a stalwart weapon in the War on Terror — is making some of its surveillance technology available to help ordinary citizens with the everyday problems of life.
“I had never heard of the National Security Agency until somebody at work told Bob about how they could help ordinary people like us,” said Melany’s mother, Carol. “Thanks to them, we’re now wise to Mel’s sneaky tricks and our family’s story will have a happy ending.”
Two weeks after the launch of Fear Us Not, Fellow Citizens, the National Security Agency reports that public response to its outreach program has been overwhelmingly positive. “It’s very heart warming to see how quickly we can make a difference in the ordinary lives of our fellow citizens,” said an NSA spokesperson, who said Federal law and the possibility of 30 years in prison precluded her from giving her name.
The outreach program, which startled members of Congress and many in Washington’s national security bureaucracy, makes NSA surveillance technology available to ordinary citizens who have a personal problem. The agency will not say what kind of surveillance technology is available or how someone might apply to gain access to it.
“We will tailor a program that is specific to each citizen’s needs when that citizen’s needs are brought to our attention through appropriate channels,” the NSA spokesperson said.
In the Doolittle family’s case, Bob Doolittle is an actuary at an Omaha life insurance company, whose name he declined to reveal for national security reasons. He said he was approached by a fellow worker who had heard Bob complain during a coffee break about troubles with Melany.
“This man at work gave Bob a phone number to call and a pass code to use the next time Mel was going out and we had concerns about where she might be,” Carol said. “So when Mel said she was going to a friend’s house to do algebra homework, we said, ‘Let’s try it.’”
When they called the toll-free number and used the pass code, the Doolittle’s were given an Internet address for a Web page. Using the family computer, up came a map of Omaha, with a photo of Melany in one corner.
“It was obvious that the Web page was tracking her movements in real time,” Carol said. “We saw her icon on the map enter Wilson Park and walk to a far corner. Then she stopped moving.”
The Doolittles jumped in their car, raced to the park and caught their daughter smoking “funny looking cigarettes” with several members of the Douglas MacArthur High School varsity football team, including the team’s All-State quarterback from the 2006 season.
“We yanked Melany home and you know the rest,” Carol said.
The Doolittles say they are at a loss to explain who the mysterious man was who approached Bob during the coffee break. “It’s not someone Bob knew or has seen again, but it’s a big company,” Carol said.
Nor do they know how Melany was tagged electronically so that unknown surveillance technology could track her in real time. Was it a satellite? An unmanned aerial drone? Street robots?
“We decided not to ask too many questions,” Bob said. “We’re just grateful that ordinary citizens can get help like this from the NSA. They must be a great organization.”
And how did the Doolittles, among all the deserving Omaha parents with problem children, come to be picked?
“We wondered that, too,” Carol said. “All we can come up with is that we are both registered Republicans and we try to find time to vote in every election.”