Leahy Hails Pentagon's Decision to Pull the Plug on the Quaker Spying, 'Talon' Database Program

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News Item: 'Pentagon To End Talon Data-Gathering Program,' Washington Post,

WASHINGTON, April 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Sen. Patrick Leahy
(D-Vt.) Wednesday welcomed the decision by the Pentagon's new leadership to
end a costly and controversial four-year-old database program that swept up
information on peace organizations in Vermont and other states, supposedly
to monitor threats to defense facilities and personnel.

After NBC's Lisa Myers reported in 2005 that the Pentagon was
collecting information on Quakers and other peace groups, Leahy pressed
former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for answers about how the database
was being used. After repeated requests from Leahy, Rumsfeld finally
confirmed to Leahy in March 2006 that two Vermont groups were included in
Talon's database, and he disclosed other controversial information about
Talon's activities. Rumsfeld acknowledged problems in how the database was
being managed, and he promised Leahy that DOD would take several steps --
including a new training regimen and purging old or incorrect data -- to
correct those problems.

Earlier this year when Leahy again became chairman of the Senate
Judiciary Committee, he announced that oversight of government databases
and data mining activities will be a high priority for the panel. Leahy
already has convened a hearing on federal databases and earlier this month
won committee approval of a bipartisan bill that he has cosponsored to
require federal agencies to inform Congress of their data mining
activities. Leahy has also put at the top of the panel's agenda the
Leahy-Specter Data Privacy and Security Act (S.495), which would better
protect the privacy of consumers' personal information in the face of
persistent data security breaches across the country.

Talon, which stands for Threat And Local Observation Notices, was
established in 2002 by then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz.
Talon's size and budget are classified but news accounts have pegged its
spending at more than a billion dollars through last October and its staff
size as running into the hundreds.

The decision to end Talon was confirmed Tuesday by the new
undersecretary of defense for intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr. Leahy
complimented Clapper and Defense Secretary Robert Gates for the decision.

"There are ways to protect defense facilities and military personnel
without this kind of overreaching," said Leahy. "Compiling dossiers on
Quakers is emblematic of the folly of this approach. If the Bush
Administration wants video of a Vermonter speaking out against the war in
Iraq, all they need to do is tape one of my floor speeches on CSPAN. Talon
was another costly, controversial and poorly focused venture that did not
make us any safer, while taking a hefty toll in Americans' privacy and
Americans' tax dollars. Without clear rules and close oversight, databases
like this can easily be abused to violate the public's constitutional and
privacy rights."


http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=ind_focus.story&STORY=/www/story/04-25-2007/0004573722&EDATE=WED+Apr+25+2007,+12:18+PM

[hobbit709]

1. How do we know that they really will?

The bushies have said all sorts of things and done the exact opposite.

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4. we don't

that's what our continuing congressional oversight is meant to be used for

[Blackhatjack]

2. It will get a new name and a new funding source from within the Defense Intel Budget and go right on

Anybody that believes they will 'pull' this program voluntarily is seriously naive.

THis is typical S.O.P. for dealing with Congress.

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3. Just to make your point, you would call Leahy 'naive'?

The spying might well continue, just not under this program with the money officially allocated to the effort now ended. It makes no sense at all to oppose a program like this and not hail it's dismantling when it happens. Your nitpicking criticism of the success in the effort is duly noted, though.

[Blackhatjack]

5. I did not call Leahy naive, and Leahy would agree with my comment...

The Total Information Awareness program was supposedly shut down and defunded, only to pop back up under a different name and funding from another defense intelligence budget account.

It is a continuous fight, and Leahy knows that and is doing a good job following up --but if you or anyone else thinks that the announcement that it is being voluntarily pulled and will go away, then yes that is naive.

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6. If you believe this . . .

or that . . .

Leahy is continuing his oversight. His re-elevation to the chairmanship of his committee forced the change, whatever it eventually entails. He promises continuing oversight.

Leahy:

"Without clear rules and close oversight, databases like this can easily be abused to violate the public's constitutional and privacy rights."