75 out of 1131

by emptywheel

I will return to the Libby commutation, I promise. But like Josh, I think this IG report is very very important--perhaps as bad as Nixon on steroids.

To review what I presented yesterday just as the Libby thing was exploding, DOD's IG has released its report on the CIFA and TALON domestic spying program. By far the most disturbing thing is that USNCO, which had a database full of incident reports on the activities of American citizens, seems to have disappeared the entries in that database on November 30, 2005, then disappeared the whole thing in June 2006. The dates are significant because the first date was just two days after Duke Cunningham signed his plea agreement. And the second date was just a month after DOD and HPSCI started investigations into the CIFA/TALON program. Since there is no explanation of how or why the database was destroyed, it sure seems like it may have been hiding data they didn't want discovered in any investigation.

Today, I'd like to highlight how DOD's IG justifies the database and avoid claims that the program illegally spied on American citizens. The report states:

Our detailed review of 1,131 TALON reports removed from the CIFA database showed that 263 reports pertained to protests and demonstrations. Of the 263 reports, 157 reports discussed actual actions or events that occurred. Further, 75 of the 157 reports on actual actions or events resulted in reported arrests, required court appearances, violence, destruction, and police intervention. The 75 TALON reports demonstrate that they are necessary to inform local commanders of protests and demonstrations planned for their vicinity for law enforcement and force protection purposes, and not as intelligence information.

Understand that this database is separate from the USNCO database that got disappeared (I have the sense that it contained fewer entires than the USNCO database, but that's just gut feel; the report doesn't provide that detail). But the IG report states clearly that this database was clearly not treated as it should be, with information on innocent citizens destroyed after 90 days.

So look at how the DOD IG report justifies this database and this program. It says that, of 1131 entries in the database, only 75 were worthwhile pieces of data. The remaining 1056 incidents were not worthwhile. But nevertheless, this data on innocent Americans was retained indefinitely. 93% of the incidents reported were meaningless.

Two more things. First, note the standard they use for meaningful data. So long as they drag your ass into court, they consider it meaningful.

And finally, note the logic here:

The 75 TALON reports demonstrate that they are necessary to inform local commanders of protests and demonstrations planned for their vicinity for law enforcement and force protection purposes, and not as intelligence information.

Because 7% of the database was useful, the report deems the information "necessary to inform local commanders of protests and demonstrations." Why did they need the database? Why not read the frigging newspaper? And why does a base commander need to know about peaceful protest before it starts anyway?

And on that basis, using that tortured logic, the DOD IG declares that this database serves a law enforcement use, and not an intelligence use. 93% of the information in the database--retained indefinitely, remember--didn't even pertain to a real protest that involved in any law enforcement action. But still, DOD's IG insists, that's a law enforcement database, not an intelligence one.

Comments

[jonno]

it's all part of "the math"

[P J Evans]

What is the DOD IG doing with something that they've just declared is 'law enforcement'? Isn't that the job of law enforcement, not defense?

(Being cranky here, between yesterday, the weather, and the computer at work crashing and messing up what I was doing yesterday afternoon.)

[AZ Matt]

They hate our freedoms.

[Gary]

Stated another way,
Republicans hate us for our freedoms.

[Ishmael]

Marcy - agreed, this is just as great an abuse of power as the Libby commutation, and again beyond Nixonian. The databases, no-fly lists, eavesdropping and Total Info Awareness is the new "enemies list", that can never be erased, never be challenged, and in fact, never even known about by the "enemy", who will be fighting ghosts forever at airports, at the DMV, applying for government jobs or contracts, or passports, or anything else in our society where information about one's past activities is relevant, from credit to health insurance. In many ways, the story of the American experiment has been the slow, sometimes bloody, and sometimes tragic efforts needed to expand the definition of "citizen". Beyond property- owning white men, to male suffrage, to Emancipation, to rights for workers, to votes for women, to civil rights for blacks, and now the first stirrings of rights leading to citizenship for the serfs who constitute the millions of undocumented and exploited "illegal" immigrants. I do not think that it is hyperbole anymore to say that there is a systemic attempt not just to rig elections, but also to strip away the privileges and rights of US citizenship by use of the criminal justice system and the other enforecement arms of the government in the ICE, IRS, and DHS.

[Ishmael]

OT - Marcy, I know I have asked you this before, but given your amazingly effective media bow yesterday, is there any way that you could take on Professor Dershowitz, A.I.? He has a post up on HuffPo where he states that Libby's pard...sorry, commutation, (pardon to come later when Scooter keeps his part of the deal and keeps his mouth shut) is just politics, but it's OK, because Bush has the power to act politically, but PF, and the CIA, and Judge Walton, and the DC Appeals have acted politically by prosecuting Scooter and they are only supposed to act judicially. So, now the line isn't that Fitz was "criminalizing politics" - now, the problem is the "politicization of crime" by the judiciary! Please, please school this arrogant AIPACer in a suitably public forum!!!

[chris]

Marcy, are there any Congressional hearings planned with regard to the disappeared databases?

[orionATL]

given what's been reported here, it seems likely to me that one purpose of the talon program and its siblings was to suppress dissent regarding the invasion and occupation of iraq.

in other words, this spying was for the purpose of getting control of anti-war protests before they could become a public relations problem,

e.g., letting base commanders know when protests would be coming.

if so, this spying is of a kind with other public-relations activities undertaken by the bush admin to control opposition to its invasion and occupation of iraq:

- the refusal to allow publicity about soldiers coffins and funerals,

- authorizing cover-up "investigations" like the report of the senate select committee on intelligence and the robb-silberman report,

efforts to manipulate newspaper coverage, e.g., judy miller,

efforts to cajole and intimidate newspaper editors, e.g., the nytimes lag in reporting the nsa surveillance,

tight controls on weblogs and communications from soldiers in iraq,

intimidation of congressmen using the "this is deepest, darkest national security info - discuss publicly and you too will be rendered" tactic.

on another tact,

i would love to know who the 75 were who experienced legal sanctions of one sort or another.

and whether there was any connection between this program and the new york city police investigation of republican party protests around 2004.

[Mary]

Applause EW (and you can multitask pretty darn well).

It's hard bc the Libby thing needs its due, but this is really big stuff and you have it further down the track than anyone else so far, so thanks for keeping it rolling.

[floyd]

DOD: POSSE COMITATIS
Does this not mean "troups" have been set loose on U.S. soil as law enforcement?

[Joseph Burns]

Spying on American Citizens requires a warrant. This is even more imperative in law enforcement than with NatSec. Do you think the cops in your city would love to access information without warrants? Do you think they love going up before a judge to make a showing that surveillence in a given case is justified? Take off those gloves and you've got your own homegrown Gestapo. Not because Americans are bad. It's the nature of the beast. That's why George Washington forbade the torture of captured troops: were it not forbidden, it would occur.
People need to stop saying this is an arguement about whether or not to spy. This is an arguement about who watches the watchers.

[njr]

Ishmael, Hunter over at Kos takes on Dershowitz, with a bit of scorn
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/7/3/181018/2278