ACK IN 2003, JOHN POINDEXTER got a call from Richard Perle, an old friend from their days serving together in the Reagan administration. Perle, one of the architects of the Iraq War, which started that year, wanted to introduce Poindexter to a couple of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who were starting a software company. The firm, Palantir Technologies, was hoping to pull together data collected by a wide range of spy agencies—everything from human intelligence and cell-phone calls to travel records and financial transactions— to help identify and stop terrorists planning attacks on the United States. One of the central claims 26 new york | september 28–october 11, 2020