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[IP] TIA moves into the shadows of a classified intelligence program




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."

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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>

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