Researchers Work on Anti - Terror Program

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Reasearchers Work on Anti - Terror Program

February 13, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS




 

Filed at 1:47 a.m. ET

Financed by more than $20 million in government contracts,
researchers are taking the first steps toward developing a
system that could sift through the financial, telephone,
travel and medical records of millions of people in hopes
of identifying terrorists before they strike.

So far, the companies awarded contracts by the Defense
Department are using only fabricated data in their work on
the program, which is called Total Information Awareness.

The Pentagon's technology chief, Pete Aldridge, has said
the department is interested in tying together such
privately held data as credit card records, bank
transactions, car rental receipts and gun purchases, along
with massive quantities of intelligence information already
gathered by the federal government.

The project has met some resistance in Congress because of
privacy concerns. Some lawmakers are pushing an amendment
to a spending bill that would prohibit the system from ever
gathering information on American citizens without a
congressional vote approving it.

Meanwhile, contractors and researchers told The Associated
Press that they have already been developing pieces of TIA.
For example, Doug Lenat, president of Texas-based Cycorp,
said his researchers had already built a system to identify
phone-calling patterns as they might exist among potential
terrorists overseas.

Other TIA contractors include defense giant Raytheon and
Telcordia, a telecommunications company specializing in
research and development. Several other companies have been
waiting to finalize deals.

So far, contractors have worked with fake data, things like
made-up telephone numbers and receipts that look like real
consumer records, but aren't, according to interviews and
public records. 

Aldridge outlined the program in a news conference in
November after questions arose about the choice of John
Poindexter to head TIA.

The former admiral and national security adviser to
President Reagan has been a lightning rod. A figure in the
Iran-Contra scandal, he was convicted on charges of lying
to Congress, destroying official documents and obstructing
a congressional investigation. The verdicts were overturned
on appeal. 

> From the start, the idea of TIA has proven controversial,
pitting national security worries against fears the
government would run roughshod over individual privacy.

``We're talking about the most expansive, far reaching
surveillance program ever proposed. The Congress has got to
take a stand here,'' said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who has
led efforts to restrict TIA.

Pentagon officials declined repeated interview requests by
AP for this story. 

After coming under earlier Senate criticism, the Defense
Department named a TIA oversight panel and issued a news
release denying it is building a gigantic database.

However, a document that was part of the department's bid
solicitation for the TIA said ``the term 'database' is
intended to convey a new kind of extremely large,
omni-media, virtually-centralized and semantically rich
information repository.''

Peter Higgins, a consultant and former CIA chief
information officer, said what officials wanted from TIA
was a system that would use relevant private and
government-compiled information to spot patterns or
convergences. 

For example, a government-collected list of every person
treated for anthrax exposure could help find people
plotting a biological attack. Even more useful: finding
people on that list who also telephone Afghanistan.

Electronic records are already ubiquitous in corporate
America. Businesses keep lists of cardiac patients, BMW
owners, subscribers to porn magazines, even people who tend
to do their grocery shopping about the time they receive
sales circulars, Higgins said.

Privacy laws governing the disclosure of personal
electronic data vary widely, depending on the type of data.


The Fair Credit Reporting Act, for example, forbids credit
bureaus from combining the data they collect about a
customer's on-time payment history with data the bureaus
sell to direct marketers. The Federal Election Commission
allows the Republican and Democratic parties to sell lists
of people who contribute.

The Pentagon began advertising for bids to work on TIA last
March, inviting ideas to exploit ``novel'' information
sources and new electronic research methods.

Overseeing the research is the Defense Advanced Research
Project Agency, or DARPA, the same office that developed
the Internet. According to the published solicitation,
DARPA planned a five-year timeline for TIA: three to
develop ideas and demonstrations, two to build and expand
on the most promising ones.

The TIA budget is $30 million from the current and past
fiscal years. 

In all, 26 bids were received, said DARPA spokeswoman Jan
Walker. Four companies were awarded contracts. According to
the TIA Web site, many other organizations were already
working on pieces Poindexter planned to connect to TIA.

The companies included:

-- Cycorp, based in Austin,
Texas, which was awarded $9.8 million to work on a
prototype database. The company specializes in searching
data. 

-- Telcordia, based in Morristown, N.J., which won a $5.2
million contract to focus on connecting data already
available within different government offices.

-- Hicks Associates, of McLean, Va., which was awarded $3.6
million to study the feasibility of TIA, how it would
develop, and to create a prototype.

-- Booz, Allen & Hamilton, based in Falls Church, Va.,
which won a $1.5 million contract. Its purpose was not
publicly disclosed.

Raytheon Co., based in Lexington, Mass., which confirmed
that it is under contract with DARPA. Spokesman David Shay
declined to outline Raytheon's specific role.

Another research firm, RAND Corp., based in Santa Monica,
Calif., confirmed it was expecting to work on TIA. Neither
the company nor the Pentagon would provide details.

------ 

On the Net: 

DARPA: http://www.darpa.mil/iao


Cycorp: http://www.cyc.com

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Total-Information-Awareness.ht
ml?ex=1046120039&ei=1&en=3b10c405403b6e38



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