Pentagon suspends anti terror database

AP/NY Times:

The Pentagon said Tuesday that it will shut down an anti-terror database that has been criticized for improperly storing information on peace activists and others whose actions posed no threat.

It will be closed on Sept. 17 and information collected subsequently on potential terror or security threats to Defense Department facilities or personnel will be sent by Pentagon officials to an FBI database known as Guardian, according to Army Col. Gary Keck, a Pentagon spokesman.

Keck said the Pentagon database is being shut down because ''the analytical value had declined,'' but not because of public criticism of how it was used. Eventually the Pentagon hopes to create a new system -- not necessarily a database -- to ''streamline such threat reporting,'' according to a brief statement issued Tuesday.

The decision to end the program, which had been recommended in April by the Pentagon's new intelligence chief, James R. Clapper, Jr., was approved by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, Keck said.

The program, known as TALON, was created after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and was designed to maintain a base of information on reported potential threats to military facilities and personnel.

In December 2005 it was disclosed that the system included data on anti-military protests and other peaceful demonstrations.

Anti-war groups and other organizations, including a Quaker group -- the American Friends Service Committee -- protested after it was revealed that the military had monitored anti-war activities, organizations and individuals who attended peace rallies.

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It appears that including the enemy's useful idiots is clogging the process of ferreting out information about serious threats. There is really little reason to keep track of the enemy's useful idiots since they are pretty public about their activities and we really do not need a database of people baring their breast for peace. Google probably has that one under control.