Source: Question
15 in the IAO Frequently Asked Questions
document dated February, 2003 which can be accessed
at http://www.darpa.mil/iao/TIA_FAQs.pdf
IAO FAQ -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 15: What does the IAO logo mean? Why has it disappeared from
the web site?
Answer; DARPA offices have traditionally designed and adopted logos. However.
because the IAO logo has become a lightning rod and is needlessly diverting
time and attention from the critical tasks of executing that office's
mission effectively and openly, we have decided to discontinue the use
of the original logo.
For the record, the IAO logo was designed to convey the mission of that
office; i.e., to imagine, develop, apply, integrate, demonstrate, and
transition information technologies, components, and prototype, closed-loop
information systems that will counter asymmetric threats by achieving
total information awareness useful for preemption, national security warning,
and national security decision making. On an elemental level, the logo
is the representation of the office acronym (IAO) the eye above the pyramid
represents "I" the pyramid represents "A," and the
globe represents "O." In the detail, the eye scans the globe
for evidence of terrorist planning and is focused on the part of the world
that was the source of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
"Scientia est polentia" means "Knowledge is power."
With the enabling technologies being developed by the office, the United
States will be empowered to implement operational systems to thwart terrorist
attacks like those of September 11, 2001.
The unfinished pyramid and the eye depicted in the logo were taken directly
from the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States of America
(for a history of the seal, see http://www.heraldica.org/topics/usa/usheroff.htm).
Both sides of the seal also appear on the back of the U.S. $1 bill.
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