Pentagon to Close Disputed Database
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 (AP) — The Pentagon said Tuesday that it would shut down a database that had been criticized for including information on antiwar protesters and others whose actions posed no threat to military facilities and personnel.
A Pentagon spokesman, Col. Gary Keck of the Army, said the database was being shut down Sept. 17 because “the analytical value had declined,” but not because of public criticism.
Last year, a Pentagon review found that as many as 260 reports in the database, known as Talon, were improperly collected or kept there. At the time, the Pentagon said that the database included about 13,000 entries, and that fewer than 2 percent either were wrongly added or were not purged later when they were determined not to have involved real threats.
Eventually the Pentagon hopes to create a system — not necessarily a database — to “streamline such threat reporting,” a brief statement issued Tuesday said. Until then, Colonel Keck said, information about potential security or terror threats would be sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The American Civil Liberties Union, a chief critic of the program, applauded the Pentagon’s announcement.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 (AP) — The Pentagon said Tuesday that it would shut down a database that had been criticized for including information on antiwar protesters and others whose actions posed no threat to military facilities and personnel.
A Pentagon spokesman, Col. Gary Keck of the Army, said the database was being shut down Sept. 17 because “the analytical value had declined,” but not because of public criticism.
Last year, a Pentagon review found that as many as 260 reports in the database, known as Talon, were improperly collected or kept there. At the time, the Pentagon said that the database included about 13,000 entries, and that fewer than 2 percent either were wrongly added or were not purged later when they were determined not to have involved real threats.
Eventually the Pentagon hopes to create a system — not necessarily a database — to “streamline such threat reporting,” a brief statement issued Tuesday said. Until then, Colonel Keck said, information about potential security or terror threats would be sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The American Civil Liberties Union, a chief critic of the program, applauded the Pentagon’s announcement.
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