Leahy Hails Pentagon’s Decision To Pull The Plug
On The Controversial “Talon” Database Program

News Item:
“Pentagon To End Talon Data-Gathering Program,”
Washington Post, Wednesday, April 25, 2007

WASHINGTON (Wednesday, April 25) – 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.”

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