Posted on 04/05/2006 4:31:52 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
THE Pentagon said today a review launched after revelations that it had collected data on US 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.
Mr Whitman said "less than two per cent" 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".
Mr 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 were classified.
Mr Whitman said that to be properly placed in the database, a threat must have a suspected link to international terrorism.
Under the Talon system, Defence 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 defence for intelligence, after revelations that the database included information on US citizens including peace activists and others who did not represent a genuine security threat.
NBC News and defence analyst William Arkin disclosed at the time a sample of the database containing reports of 1519 "suspicious incidents" between July 2004 and May 2005, including activities by anti-war and anti-military protesters.
This included a military intelligence unit monitoring a Quaker meeting in Lake Worth, Florida, on plans to protest against military recruiting in high schools.
The Pentagon is legally restricted in the type of information it can gather about activities and individuals inside the United States.
A memo from Deputy Defence Secretary Gordon England said the Talon system "has detected international terrorist interest in specific military bases and has led to and supported counter-terrorism investigations".
It called the data "unfiltered and non-validated potential threat information".
Mr 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.
Mr 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 Centre for National Security Studies, a civil liberties group interested in government surveillance.
I guess we're okay with a few agencies spying on us, but not all of them.
Safeguards and oversight of 900 tax returns?
Cause that way we can whine and bitch and cry and file a lawsuit about why the Govt did NOT protect us when the Terrorists sneak up an wack some of our family. It's so much easier to grandstand and bloviate and have a hysteric hissy fit then actually FIGHT the enemy.
Just 200 peace pukes? If tens of thousands can show up in Washington, why are we concerned about a pervasive attempts by the government spying on normal wrong-minded Americans. Two hundred sounds closer to a good number if you consider that the most organized anti-war, anti-American, anti-Israeli groups are funded by Communist North Korea. 200 is a very small number indeed.
Just the ones created by a GOP congress, or signed by a GOP president. I must go fetch popcorn and a beverage..
No hissy fits here. Simply demanding oversight and accoutability. To prevent abuse by either party that comes into power. Now pardon me while I go look for black helicopters, and discover the truth about the Bildeburgers and tri-lateral commission ;)
By the way, good tagline. We agree more than we disagree.
The restrictions were mostly passed into law and signed by a Rat president. They didn't want the government looking into domestic commie groups, etc.
People who the police would normally be dealing with, much less the FBI, are not a national security threat, no. The pentagon needs to stay out of politics. If you want a military that involves itself in politics, move to China or Moscow.
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