retired admiral john poindexter. i'm 26 years old at the timecomes to my familiarity with john poindexter suffice to say it's probably not as deep as many of my colleagues, but a quick graphical sketch on this rather interesting character who occupies a centerpiece in my book here at john poindexter graduated from the u.s. naval academy in 1958 of the top of his class, had a meteoric rise to the surface, was staffed by bob not merit is one of the illustrious whiz kids of the pentagon brought into the systems thinking on hard problems like how do we fight wars in the new century? of unexpected you would rise to the top of the service, probably become the top of naval operations maybe the chairman of the joint chiefs or dennis ruiz are easily sidetracked in 1981 to become familiar and at the white house national security council. he was specifically brought in by the then national security adviser to revamp the situation room, which despite the image we have of the situation now is this kind of nerve center technology

all without poindexter ever knowing that happened. it suddenly became clear john poindexter the person and the ideas that he expressed were not just a starting point* of the story but the center of the story the animating idea of the narrative. what did tia have? as poindexter post building a system of analysis matching up from events in the world from information with a fine granular type of way and their privacy protection debris in crypt the data. but two things were found that the privacy research was abandoned. all the other analysis and information collection ideas and the stuff that terrified people frankly kept going with that and officials determine the privacy protection was too costly, too cumbersome and too controversial. that some day would find out you're interested in searching high interest then why would you need to do that in the first place? so people would try to abandon it. as far as the sophisticated analysis the cutting edge connecting the dots they did not seem so interested. that analysis or sophistication was

you know, frank poindexter is not alone.e is joining that lawsuit against cash for gold which alleges among other things that the company sometimes melts down the gold before the 12-day return period has ended and sometimes blames the post office for losing items in the mail. >> the class action is meritless. there are three main complainants on the class action suit -- three. >> after numerous complaints about several companies, new york democrat anthony weiner introduced the gold act, pushing for more stringent regulation of the industry on a national scale. >> basically when you put that gold in that envelope, you're sending it off to the wild west. >> now, if that gold act becomes law, it would require consumers accept the offer before their gold is melted down and if they don't do that, then companies would get fined. it would also mandate that companies ensuinsure any jewelr they return to customers for the same value the customer insured it when they mailed it in. right now in florida where we were there are stricter

frank poindexter's not alone. joining that lawsuit against catch4gold which alleges among other things that the company sometimes melts down the gold before the 12-day return period has ended. >>> and sometimes blames the post office for losing things in the mail. >> there were three named complaintants on the class action suit. three. >> reporter: attorneys on the case won't say how much they're seeking in damages. but under a new federal law, all mail in companies must photograph every item they receive. but it is too late for frank poindexter. after numerous complaints about several companies, new york

frank poindexter is not alone. he's join that lawsuit against cash 4 gold which alleges that the company sometimes melts down the gold before the 12-day return period has ended and sometimes blames the post office for losing items in the mail. >> the class action is -- is meritless. there are three main complainants on the class action suit, three. >> reporter: after numerous complaints about several companies, new york democrat introduced the gold act, pushing for more stringent regulation of the industry on a national scale. >> basically when you put that gold in that envelope you're sending it off to the wild west. >> ali, if that gold act becomes law, it would require consumers accept any offer before their gold is melted down. companies would be fined if they don't comply. it would also make sure that companies insure any jewelry they send back to consumers for the same have it was insured at when they sent it in. there this is a big problem. you see stricter regulations in florida but not worldwide. >> poppy,

as an example he cites the national security adviser admiral john poindexter who pushed for more surveillance of the 1983 bombing of a marine barracks in lebanon. this hourlong talk was hosted by the spy museum here in washington. >> it's my pleasure today to introduce shane harris and his book. today is the publication dates of this is the launch, appropriately enough at the international spy museum. i think you picked a fine place to do it. and just a comment or to as we go into this. shane harris has written a very powerful book. i think we have all read privacy versus civil rights and these are issues that have been with us particularly since 9/11 as the whole issue of surveillance of folks both abroad and concern about enemies within. the concern is still there and we read even today with this latest hacking scandal that organized groups like criminals are gaining the same capability to do this as states have had in the past so we are dealing with some extraordinary threats. i think one of the things that struck me about this book plus shane particularly focuses on five people who have b

i must say, and i think the whole admiral poindexter brouhaha sent wrong messages. i thought it may have been because of his personal background. i thought he was asking reasonable questions. they may not have been perfect questions, but he was trying to push the technology to make it maximally helpful to us in our quest to start peep from -- people from doing this. >> yes, sir. there is no question that a human being is not going to be able to go through all that data. >> senator collins? >> i am going to yield to senator brown first because he has a scheduling conflict. >> thank you, senator, and mr. chairman, i appreciate it. i just had one quick question, probably to mr. healy. when you're making that recommendation to the president, and i am not sure in this is the appropriate vehicle to do just that, but do you recommend how the people who are actually caught trying to hurt us, do you make a recommendation as to how they should be treated in terms of prosecution or interrogation? will there be that type of recommendation within what you are doing? >> no, sir.