[Infowarrior] - Pentagon Says Improper Data in TALON Database

[Richard Forno]

Pentagon Says Improper Data in Security Database

By Will Dunham
Reuters
Wednesday, April 5, 2006; 5:23 PM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/05/AR2006040501
423_pf.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Wednesday a review launched
after revelations that it had collected data on U.S. peace activists found
that roughly 260 entries in a classified database of possible terrorist
threats should not have been kept there.

But the review reaffirmed the value of the so-called Talon reporting system
on potential threats to Pentagon personnel or facilities by international
terrorists, said Bryan Whitman, a senior Pentagon spokesman. He said the
Pentagon was putting in place new safeguards and oversight intended to
prevent improper information from going in the database.

Whitman said "less than 2 percent" of the more than 13,000 database entries
provided through the Talon system "should not have been there or should have
been removed at a certain point in time."

Whitman disputed critics' assertions that the program amounted to Pentagon
domestic spying, although he declined to state the nature of these entries
or the people they involved, saying the database's contents are classified.
Whitman stressed that to be properly placed in the database, a threat must
have a suspected link to international terrorism.

Under the Talon system, Defense Department civilian and military personnel
are asked to report on activities they deem suspicious. These reports go in
the Cornerstone database, handled by a Pentagon agency called the
Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA.

The review was ordered in December by Stephen Cambone, under secretary of
defense for intelligence, after revelations that the database included
information on U.S. citizens including peace activists and others who did
not represent a genuine security threat.

'SUSPICIOUS'

NBC News and defense analyst William Arkin disclosed at the time a sample of
the database containing reports of 1,519 "suspicious incidents" between July
2004 and May 2005, including activities by antiwar and anti-military
protesters.

This included a military intelligence unit monitoring a Quaker meeting in
Lake Worth, Florida, on plans to protest military recruiting in high
schools.

The Pentagon is legally restricted in the types of information it can gather
about activities and individuals inside the United States.

A memo from Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England said the Talon system
"has detected international terrorist interest in specific military bases
and has led to and supported counterterrorism investigations." It called the
data "unfiltered and non-validated potential threat information."

Whitman said data reported through Talon could be turned over the FBI or
local law enforcement.

The Pentagon said it will conduct annual oversight reviews of the Talon
program, designate supervisors to review each Talon report before submission
to the database, and direct CIFA to review submissions to ensure they are
proper.

Whitman said he did not know if the Pentagon had disciplined anyone for
putting improper information in the database, but was "not aware of any
malicious or deliberate attempts" to use the Talon system against a specific
person or group.

Some critics have noted similarities in the Pentagon's activities during the
Iraq War and those of the Vietnam War period, when it spied on antiwar
activists.

"If the Pentagon has been collecting information improperly on Americans, it
should provide a full accounting of what kind of information it collected,
on whom and why, subject only perhaps to protecting the privacy of
individuals," said Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security
Studies, a civil liberties group interested in government surveillance.
© 2006 Reuters