????谷歌（Google）和雅虎（Yahoo）以及其它近期因?yàn)閰⑴c了政府監(jiān)視項(xiàng)目陷入輿論風(fēng)波的科技巨頭們正在發(fā)起一場(chǎng)公關(guān)保衛(wèi)戰(zhàn)，以挽救突然間急轉(zhuǎn)直下的名聲。

????它們紛紛做出令人同情的表態(tài)，堅(jiān)稱自己和許多美國(guó)人一樣，對(duì)傳聞中聯(lián)邦政府如此大范圍的監(jiān)視感到困惑和擔(dān)憂。《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》（New York Times）等不少媒體報(bào)道稱，這些公司至少數(shù)次拒絕了政府查看用戶信息的要求。

????谷歌和雅虎自稱對(duì)“911”恐怖襲擊后大幅擴(kuò)展的監(jiān)視體系感到失望，但至少在這個(gè)體系剛推出的時(shí)候，它們就已經(jīng)先人一步知道內(nèi)情了。2001年，“911”恐怖襲擊剛過(guò)去兩個(gè)月，谷歌聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人拉里?佩奇和謝爾蓋?布林，以及雅虎聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人大衛(wèi)?費(fèi)羅——以及風(fēng)投家馬克?安德森和一幫硅谷大佬——就集體飛往華盛頓，在當(dāng)時(shí)遭到襲擊后還露著窟窿的五角大樓里召開(kāi)會(huì)議。

????這個(gè)會(huì)議開(kāi)了整整一天，其中專門(mén)用一段時(shí)間討論了政府參與網(wǎng)絡(luò)監(jiān)控的問(wèn)題，技術(shù)巨頭們對(duì)此發(fā)表了自己的看法。丹?法默是當(dāng)時(shí)與會(huì)的網(wǎng)絡(luò)安全先驅(qū)。他在業(yè)內(nèi)頗有名氣是因?yàn)榘l(fā)明了首臺(tái)用于評(píng)估網(wǎng)絡(luò)安全隱患的掃描儀——“網(wǎng)絡(luò)分析安全管理工具”（Security Administrator Tool for Analyzing Networks），簡(jiǎn)稱為SATAN。他表示，會(huì)上有一個(gè)演示提供了五角大樓的網(wǎng)絡(luò)遭到黑客攻擊的具體次數(shù)，他當(dāng)時(shí)就坦誠(chéng)地表達(dá)了觀點(diǎn)。他說(shuō)：“這個(gè)演示很荒唐。不可能這么確定，尤其對(duì)國(guó)防部來(lái)說(shuō)。認(rèn)為國(guó)防部能夠做到如此精確的監(jiān)控是很可笑的。”

????法默說(shuō)，為了解決這個(gè)難題，谷歌的兩位聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人“開(kāi)始兜售自己的新設(shè)備。那是一臺(tái)能放在特定網(wǎng)絡(luò)中的服務(wù)器，已內(nèi)置了谷歌的應(yīng)用。他們認(rèn)為，如果政府更了解最新網(wǎng)絡(luò)動(dòng)態(tài)，以及了解哪些信息更容易獲取，就能更好地把握外界情況。”

????五角大樓的這次“盛會(huì)”是約翰?凱西克和馬克?科瓦姆聯(lián)袂推動(dòng)的。前者曾是共和黨眾議員，當(dāng)時(shí)效力于雷曼兄弟公司（Lehman Brothers），后者是一位風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資家，當(dāng)時(shí)是紅杉資本（Sequoia Capital）的合伙人【《財(cái)富》雜志（Fortune）去年夏天在一份關(guān)于科瓦姆的簡(jiǎn)介中首次提到了這次會(huì)議。科瓦姆曾到俄亥俄州幫助現(xiàn)任該州州長(zhǎng)的凱西克成功地振興了該州經(jīng)濟(jì)】。為了確保這次會(huì)議順利召開(kāi)，科瓦姆負(fù)責(zé)召集科技公司的領(lǐng)軍人物，而凱西克則負(fù)責(zé)向軍方高層推廣其理念。

????科瓦姆是硅谷傳奇人物弗洛伊德?科瓦姆的兒子。據(jù)他回憶，會(huì)議當(dāng)天他正好坐在時(shí)任國(guó)防部部長(zhǎng)唐納德?拉姆斯菲爾德對(duì)面。他向拉姆斯菲爾德解釋說(shuō)：“我父親是國(guó)家半導(dǎo)體公司（National Semiconductor）的創(chuàng)始人，我永遠(yuǎn)忘不了孩提時(shí)代，硅谷與政府及美國(guó)航空航天局（NASA）通力合作，把人類送上月球的歷史。然而今天，我們卻想方設(shè)法避開(kāi)政府，不愿意與政府合作，因?yàn)檫@種合作沒(méi)什么好果子吃。”拉姆斯菲爾德回應(yīng)道：“那我們現(xiàn)在開(kāi)始改變這種局面吧。”

????Google and Yahoo -- and the other tech giants stung by the recent news of their participation in government surveillance programs -- are in the midst of a public-relations offensive to steady suddenly wobbly reputations.

????They're sounding a commiserating note, insisting they're just as confounded and concerned as many Americans by the reported extent of the feds' reach. And indeed, the New York Times, among others, has reported that the companies resisted government requests for information on their users on at least a few occasions.

????But if Google (GOOG) and Yahoo (YHOO) are as frustrated as they sound with the sprawl of the post-9/11 surveillance regime, at least they can say they got front-row seats to its launch. Two months after the 2001 attacks, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Yahoo co-founder David Filo -- along with venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and a handful of other Silicon Valley heavyweights -- jetted to Washington for a meeting at the still-gaping Pentagon.

????The all-day session focused partly on the government's own exposure to cyber-snoops, with the tech luminaries offering their assessments. Dan Farmer, a cyber-security pioneer in attendance, says he was frank after hearing a presentation that put hard numbers to detected breaches of the Pentagon's network. "It was an absurd presentation," says Farmer, whose claim to fame at the time was having created one of the first scanners to assess a network's vulnerability -- called the Security Administrator Tool for Analyzing Networks, or SATAN. "You can't have that much certainty, particularly with the Defense Department. The idea that they had these precise metrics was laughable."

????To meet that challenge, Farmer says, the Google cofounders were "flogging their new appliance. It was a little server you could put in your network and Google inside it. They thought if the government knew more about what was out there, and what was more easily accessible, they could get a better sense of what was going on."

????The Pentagon huddle was a collaborative effort by John Kasich, a former Republican congressman then working for Lehman Brothers, and venture capitalist Mark Kvamme, then a partner at Sequoia Capital. (Fortune first mentioned the meeting last summer in a profile of Kvamme, who moved to Ohio to help Kasich, now governor of that state, engineer an economic turnaround.) To make the meeting happen, Kvamme recruited the tech leaders, and Kasich pitched the idea to top military brass.

????Kvamme, the son of Silicon Valley icon Floyd Kvamme, recalled sitting across from then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and explaining, "My father was a founder of National Semiconductor, and I'll never forget when I was a kid how Silicon Valley and the government, NASA, worked together to put a man on the moon. In today's world, we do everything possible to stay away from the government. We don't want to work with you guys, because it's terrible." Rumsfeld responded, "Let's go change that."