Holy Shit. Remember TALON and CIFA? Here’s a description I wrote in April:
It was designed to gather intelligence on threats to defense installments in the United States–to try to collect information (in the TALON database) on threatening people scoping out domestic bases. But it ended up focusing on peace activists and the lefty blogosphere’s ownJesus’ General.
Well, here are the three conclusions of a DOD IG report just released on the program:
- TALON reports were generated for law enforcement and force protection purposes as permitted by DoD Directive 5200.27,1 and not as a result of an intelligence collection operation; therefore, no violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act occurred.
- The Counterintelligence Field Activity did not comply with the 90 day retention review policy required by DoD Directive 5200.27. We could not determine whether the U.S. Northern Command complied with the policy requirement because all TALON reports were deleted from their database in June 2006 with no archives.
- The Cornerstone database that the Counterintelligence Field Activity used to maintain TALON reports did not have the capability to identify TALON reports with U.S. person information, to identify reports requiring a 90-day retention review, or to allow analysts to edit or delete the TALON reports.
To explain why this is so fucking crazy, let me back up. 70% of CIFA’s staffers (the ones keeping the database on the quakers). One of the companies that got a chunk of that business is MZM. You remember: the company for which Mitch Wade was bribing Duke Cunningham to give big contracts?
Well, I’m still reading the report (I wanted to get this out there to see what others found). But these conclusions appear to say:
- DOD says the domestic spying program was legal because–in spite of the fact that the organization is a spying/law enforcement hybrid–they consider it law enforcement activity and not spying (even though the Quakers on whom it collected data had not broken any laws).
- DOD admits that CIFA–run by all those contractors who got their work through bribes–did not destroy the information they collected when they were supposed to.
- The database they were using did not have the capabilities it needed to cross-check the data-collection.
And this is a doozy:
- USNCO deleted the whole database in June 2006.
For an idea of why that is so fuckedinthehead, here’s a little chronology I put together a while back:
- September 2002, then Deputy Secretary of Defense for Counter-Intelligence Burtt (the guy who resigned yesterday) establishes CIFA to oversee counterintelligence units of the armed services; consulting on the new agency was James King, recently retired director of National Imagery and Mapping Agency and MZM vice president
- Late 2002, Cunningham got Mitchell Wade a data storage contract worth $6 million, of which $5.4 was profit
- January 2004, Cunningham added $16.5 million to defense authorization for a “collaboration center” that appears to include business for Wade’s company
- December 2005, Pincus reveals a CIFA database contains raw intelligence data on peace activists (and, presumably, Jesus’ General)
- March 2006, prosecutors in the Cunningham case announce they’re reviewing CIFA contracts to MZM
- March 2006, Stephen Cambone announces an investigation of CIFA’s contracting–the investigation is (like the investigation into Dougie Feith) “ongoing”
- May 2006, Porter Goss resigns under allegations of ties to the Wilkes/Wade bribery ring
- May 2006, House Intelligence Committee (Peter Hoekstra‘s Committee) first moves to exercise oversight on CIFA
- August 2006, CIFA director and deputy director resign
Let’s look at the key time frame, with this new datapoint inserted, shall we:
- March 2006, prosecutors in the Cunningham case announce they’re reviewing CIFA contracts to MZM
- March 2006, Stephen Cambone announces an investigation of CIFA’s contracting–the investigation is (like the investigation into Dougie Feith) “ongoing”
- May 2006, Porter Goss resigns under allegations of ties to the Wilkes/Wade bribery ring
- May 2006, House Intelligence Committee (Peter Hoekstra‘s Committee) first moves to exercise oversight on CIFA
- June 2006, USNCO destroys all the TALON reports
- August 2006, CIFA director and deputy director resign
Get it? Carol Lam is closing in on MZM and its contracting. Two very compromised Republicans announce they’re going to review this stuff. And then one month later … POOF!!! All the records of this domestic spying program disappear, like magic!! And then two months later the guys running the program resign, suddenly.
Now, honestly, I need to review the whole report–I’ll either update this or do a new post. But I wanted to put this up here to get people reading the report.
Update:
Here’s the sole explanation they offer for the incredible disappearing USNCO database:
We could not determine whether USNORTHCOM complied with the DoD 90-day retention review policy because all TALON reports were deleted from JPEN on November 30, 2005, without being archived, and the system was turned off in June 2006.
Notice how they change the date, November 2005 for June 2006? Know what happened just two days before these reports were deleted, on November 28, 2005? Duke Cunningham made his plea deal. There. That makes you feel better, doesn’t it?
Though it appears that some of the records remained on the CIFA database.
And here’s their explanation for why CIFA wasn’t deleting info on Americans:
Only CIFA information technology personnel had the ability to delete TALON reports. As a result, CIFA maintained TALON reports without determining whether information on organizations and individuals should be retained for law enforcement and force protection purposes.
Want to bet these IT folks are contractors? Contractors who owe their jobs to earmarks and occasionally bribes?