THE ANONYMOUS, WINDOWLESS NYC SKYSCRAPER EVERYONE KNOWS IS AN NSA SURVEILLANCE HUB
It’s been more than a few NY minutes since I remember joking about a weird, totally windowless building in Manhattan’s Tribeca. Truly, I can’t remember if I was driving with people or walking down the street somewhere in line of sight of it. But as you can clearly see, the only thing to see about this building, 33 Thomas Street, is that it’s there. No windows, no reflections, no lights glowing from within. It’s just… there. And really, just with that it’s not much of a stride in banter to joke about how it’s an NSA or CIA building doing deep, secret things. In fact, it’s the gorilla in the room for anyone with an ounce of sense who isn’t blind. Because this skyscraper really, truly is an NSA mass surveillance hub.
EDWARD SNOWDEN BLEW THE WHISTLE ON NOT-SO-SECRET NSA HUB LITERALLY YEARS AGO
So how do we know this? Besides the obviousness of a 550-foot tall windowless building and stark, forbidding design lines? Well, we’ve actually known for a decade, since The Intercept wrote an article about it based on the Edward Snowden disclosures. It really is the gorilla in the room, in plain sight, not so secretly recording us all. And according to Wikipedia, the walls of 33 Thomas Street are “entirely covered with precast concrete panels clad with flame-treated textured Swedish granite.” If that doesn’t make you wonder, how about how this building was initially built for AT&T back in 1969-1974, with the goal of being self sufficient, and “protected from nuclear fallout for up to two weeks after a nuclear blast”?
Related:
TITANPOINTE IS STILL THERE, STILL SECRET, AND MUST STILL BE OPERATIONAL TODAY
So yes, this mass surveillance beast, a 550-foot windowless skyscraper in Tribeca does, of course, have a codename: TITANPOINTE. A codename we also know because of Edward Snowden. And according to the now decade old reporting from The Intercept, TITANPOINTE’s rooftop equipment is (or was) connected to an NSA satellite intelligence system as well as a nearby FBI building. Ten years ago, that is. Now? Technology has moved apace in the last 10 years. I’m guessing the advent of AI analysis systems has changed the game of mass surveillance buildings like this windowless behemoth.
But what I’m not guessing about? This thing is still there, and it’s still plugged in. To everything. Including all the data that represents your existence. Oh, and I’m also not guessing that Snowden isn’t enjoying living in Moscow so much these days.
