By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 17, 2007; Page A08
A Defense Department database devoted to gathering information
on potential threats to military facilities and personnel,
known as Talon, had 13,000 entries as of a year ago -- including
2,821 reports involving American citizens, according to an
internal Pentagon memo to be released today by the American
Civil Liberties Union.
The Pentagon memo says an examination of the system led to
the deletion of 1,131 reports involving Americans, 186 of which
dealt with "anti-military protests or demonstrations in
the U.S."
Titled "Review of the TALON Reporting System," the
four-page memo produced in February 2006 summarizes some interim
results from an inquiry ordered by then-Defense Secretary Donald
H. Rumsfeld after disclosure in December 2005 that the system
had collected and circulated data on anti-military protests
and other peaceful demonstrations.
The released memo, one of a series of Talon documents made
public over the past year by the ACLU under a Freedom of Information
Act lawsuit, said that the deleted reports did not meet a 2003
Defense Department requirement that they have some foreign
terrorist connection or relate to what was believed to be "a
force protection threat."
The number of deleted reports far exceeds the estimate provided
to The Washington Post just over a year ago by senior officials
of Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), the Defense Department
agency that manages the Talon program. At that time, then-CIFA
Director David A. Burtt II said the review had disclosed that
only 1 percent of the then 12,500 Talon reports appeared to
be problematic.
The ACLU said in its own report that past disclosures about
Talon "cried out for congressional oversight yet Congress
was silent." It said the new memo indicated there "may
be even more disturbing" information to discover and declared "it
is time for Congress to act."
The ACLU noted the memo showed that Talon reports had a much
wider circulation than previously disclosed, with about 28
organizations and 3,589 individuals authorized to submit reports
or have access to the database. The organizations with access
include various military agencies as well as state, federal
and local law enforcement officials.
In early 2006, Burtt also said CIFA had not devised a formal
way to notify its users when it decided to delete a Talon report
on American citizens. The newly released memo says that a software
enhancement was being initiated to permit users to edit and
delete entries from the database and that it was scheduled
for completion in April 2006.
A Pentagon spokesman said there are 7,700 reports in the Talon
database. Some involve U.S. citizens, but the spokesman declined
to say how many. Over the past year the program has instituted
multiple layers of review for screening which reports should
go into the database, the spokesman said.
CIFA has begun a process for analysts to review materials
to make sure they fit the program's criteria before being uploaded
and made available to Talon users. CIFA was established in
2002 in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,
originally to coordinate the counterterrorism and counterintelligence
operations of the various branches and agencies of the Defense
Department. It has grown rapidly over the past four years,
but not without problems. Along with discovery of the Talon
data collection, CIFA was linked to the lobbying and earmarking
activities that led to the conviction of former congressman
Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.). Burtt and his
top deputy retired in August 2006, and federal investigators
are still looking at CIFA contracting activities.
Last week, the New York Times disclosed that CIFA had been
using national security letters to gather financial data on
U.S. citizens, but a Pentagon spokesman said yesterday that
such information was for particular investigations and not
made part of the Talon database.
Talon was started in May 2003 to capture raw, non-validated
information about suspicious activity or potential terrorist
threats to military personnel or facilities at home and abroad.
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