Reuters.com: Pentagon says improper data in security database
Funny how news of this got quiet so fast…
Politics News Article | Reuters.com
Pentagon says improper data in security database
Wed Apr 5, 2006 1:36 PM ETBy Will Dunham
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) – The Pentagon said on Wednesday an internal review launched
after revelations that it had collected data on U.S. peace activists
found that some information stored in a database of possible terrorist
threats should not have been kept there.Pentagon spokesman Bryan
Whitman said that “less than 2 percent” of the more than 13,000 entries
in the database provided through the so-called Talon reporting system
“should not have been there or should have been removed at a certain
point in time.”Whitman declined to state the nature of these
entries or the people they involved, noting that the contents of the
database were classified.In disclosing results of the internal
review, Whitman also said the Pentagon was putting in place new
safeguards and oversight intended to prevent data from being improperly
stored in the database.The review was announced in December
after revelations that the database, a repository of data on potential
terrorist threats to Pentagon personnel or facilities, included
information on American citizens including peace activists and others
who did not represent a genuine security threat.The Pentagon is
legally restricted in the types of information it can gather about
activities and individuals inside the United States.Under the
Talon system, Defense Department personnel, both civilian and military,
are asked to report on activities they deem suspicious. These reports
are placed in the Cornerstone database, handled by a Pentagon agency
called the Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA.Some
critics have pointed to 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 Center for National Security Studies, a
civil liberties advocacy organization interested in government
surveillance.“It’s only with that kind of full accounting that
you can have any assurance that the practice has stopped and will be
prevented,” Martin added.
Related posts:
- Halliburton, Bechtel could be factors in border security plan – Top Stories – MSNBC.com
- Protect your kids from exploitative military recruiting
- Stan Lee gives Disney-Marvel his blessing – Reuters
- Comcast to monitor and inform subscribers when their PC is infected – Tech Products & Geek News | Geek.com
- Reuters – Virgin Comics gets new Perspective on multimedia
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
