Way back in December 2005, we learned about a secret Pentagon database that included “intelligence” obtained by spying on anti-war protestors, who were monitored at meetings and/or events no where near military installations, posts or recruitment centers. In all, Pentagon officials kept information about four dozen protests in their “Talon” database.
What’s more, even after hundreds of protests had been deemed to be harmless and/or unconnected to the Department of Defense, they “all remained in the database.” And while the Pentagon is strictly limited in its ability to collect and retain information on American citizens, the database included “at least 20 references to U.S. citizens or U.S. persons.”
Today, the qualified good news is Talon is going to be shut down.
The Pentagon said Tuesday that it will shut down an anti-terror database that has been criticized for improperly storing information on peace activists and others whose actions posed no threat.
It will be closed on Sept. 17 and information collected subsequently on potential terror or security threats to Defense Department facilities or personnel will be sent by Pentagon officials to an FBI database known as Guardian, according to Army Col. Gary Keck, a Pentagon spokesman.
Keck said the Pentagon database is being shut down because “the analytical value had declined,” but not because of public criticism of how it was used. Eventually the Pentagon hopes to create a new system — not necessarily a database — to “streamline such threat reporting,” according to a brief statement issued Tuesday.
It’s an interesting justification for the shutdown, isn’t it? It would have been entirely reasonable if the Pentagon did say, “There were some abuses and public outcry, and we’ve responded accordingly.” Indeed, as recently as April, Defense intelligence chief James Clapper said that the Pentagon needed to “lay to rest the distrust and concern about the department’s commitment to civil rights.”
But not today. Officials are shutting down Talon next month, but only because the database has outlived its usefulness. I feel better already.
There are, of course, still some questions about what’s going to replace it.
Spencer Ackerman explains.
Notably, DOD announced today that the agency overseeing Talon, known as the Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), will “maintain a record copy of the collected data in accordance with intelligence oversight requirements.” In other words, CIFA will keep records both of what Talon possesses and what information it deleted, in order to demonstrate that it wasn’t covering up for improper or illegal intelligence collection.
CIFA has a reputation as a hive of corruption. Thanks to corrupt congressman Duke Cunningham, CIFA channeled millions of dollars in contracts to MZM, whose chief, Mitchell Wade, bribed Cunningham and larded CIFA with his cronies.
According to the Pentagon, the assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense, Pete Verga, will come up with an alternative program “to document and assess potential threats to DoD resources.” It remains to be seen whether Talon will essentially live on under a different name.
Stay tuned.