Delivered-To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2003 17:22:29 -0400
From: Steven Cherry <s.cherry@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: TIA moves into the shadows of a classified intelligence program
X-Sender: steven@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Dave,
Our take on Congress "killing" TIA/IAO. The executive summary: Not exactly.
Steven
<http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/wonews/sep03/tia0903.html>
Controversial Pentagon Program Scuttled, But Its Work Will Live On
Total Information Awareness moves into the shadows of a classified
intelligence program
26 September 2003-Terrorism Information Awareness (TIA), a U.S. defense
department program to mine credit card, medical, travel, police, and other
governmental data, is being disbanded. Originally called Total Information
Awareness, TIA got nothing but bad press, because of its Orwellian name,
mission, and origin as the brainchild of Admiral John Poindexter, a
prominent figure in the "Irangate" scandal that tarnished Ronald Reagan's
second term.
A joint House-Senate appropriations conference committee voted on 24
September to defund TIA through 2004, along with its bureaucratic parent,
the Information Awareness Office (IAO), a branch of the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (Darpa) that Poindexter had headed. But the
committee allowed some programs to continue under different offices and
agencies. The effect, ironically, will be to make some TIA programs less
visible and less accountable. "Killing the Information Awareness Office is
a positive first step," says David Sobel, general counsel of the
Electronic Privacy Information Center (Washington, D.C.), "but it doesn't
eliminate the government's datamining initiatives. It drives them underground."
The bill, already passed by the House and the Senate, allows eight
information office programs to be continued elsewhere in Darpa. In
addition, related research will be carried on by an obscure
counterintelligence program known as the National Foreign Intelligence
Program (NFIP), accordingto a statement prepared by the joint conference
committee.
NFIP is jointly managed by an assortment of intelligence agencies,
including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, and the National Security Agency. The budget for NFIP is
classified, as is the full definition of the work it is now authorized to
develop-the committee report refers only to "processing, analysis, and
collaboration tools for counterterrorism foreign intelligence."
<etc.>
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Steven Cherry, +1 212-419-7566
Senior Associate Editor
IEEE Spectrum, 3 Park Ave, New York, NY 10016
<s.cherry@xxxxxxxx> <http://www.spectrum.ieee.org>