http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=pentagon+%22cornerstone+database%22&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8Unverified Reports of Terror Threats LingerPentagon officials began reviewing how CIFA managed what are known as Talon reports after revelations that the agency kept in its database information on Americans who were carrying out peaceful demonstrations against the war in Iraq at military bases and recruiting offices.
The Talon system encourages civilians and military personnel to report on activities they consider suspicious. Reports that are determined not to represent a security threat are supposed to be purged from the database within 90 days, but some information on protesters and other innocent Americans has been kept for more than a year.
The Pentagon considers "irregularities" to be reports involving people or groups that have remained in the database too long -- more than 90 days -- without being verified as representing real threats. In some cases, the review has shown they should not have been included in the first place.
Defense officials declined to say how many Talon reports have been placed in the CIFA database, known as Cornerstone, or the number of improperly kept reports identified so far in the ongoing review.
At a May 2004 hearing before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Carol A. Haave, then deputy undersecretary of defense for counterterrorism and security, said that "more than 5,000 Talon reports have been received and shared throughout the government" in the program's first year of operation. At that rate, about 12,500 Talon reports would have been filed during the approximately 2 1/2 years the program has existed.
Pentagon Expanding Its Domestic Surveillance ActivityThe Defense Department has expanded its programs aimed at gathering and analyzing intelligence within the United States, creating new agencies, adding personnel and seeking additional legal authority for domestic security activities in the post-9/11 world.
The moves have taken place on several fronts. The White House is considering expanding the power of a little-known Pentagon agency called the Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, which was created three years ago. The proposal, made by a presidential commission, would transform CIFA from an office that coordinates Pentagon security efforts -- including protecting military facilities from attack -- to one that also has authority to investigate crimes within the United States such as treason, foreign or terrorist sabotage or even economic espionage.
The Pentagon has pushed legislation on Capitol Hill that would create an intelligence exception to the Privacy Act, allowing the FBI and others to share information gathered about U.S. citizens with the Pentagon, CIA and other intelligence agencies, as long as the data is deemed to be related to foreign intelligence. Backers say the measure is needed to strengthen investigations into terrorism or weapons of mass destruction.
The proposals, and other Pentagon steps aimed at improving its ability to analyze counterterrorism intelligence collected inside the United States, have drawn complaints from civil liberties advocates and a few members of Congress, who say the Defense Department's push into domestic collection is proceeding with little scrutiny by the Congress or the public.
"We are deputizing the military to spy on law-abiding Americans in America. This is a huge leap without even a hearing," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a recent interview.
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