WashingtonPost.com Article
A Senate vote to cut off funding is the latest setback for a controversial computer surveillance program the Pentagon wants, to enable authorities to search vast networks of personal records to look for possible terrorist activity.
The vote late Thursday to deny any funds being spent on what is now called the Terrorism Information Awareness program was part of a $369 billion military spending bill that passed unanimously. The Bush administration, which requested $54 million for the program over three years, had urged the Senate to remove the provision cutting off funding, saying in a statement Monday, "This provision would deny an important tool in the war on terrorism."
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The $54 million initiative seeks to develop a database of public and private records that could be combed for patterns that may reveal terrorist activity. Authorities could search credit card bills and airline records, as well as health, education and other personal information, the Pentagon told Congress in May. Other elements of the proposed program included developing long-distance surveillance technology that could identify people by their gaits, or, from closer in, by the irises of their eyes.
The research project, originally known as the Total Information Awareness initiative, began in 2002 under the direction of former national security adviser John M. Poindexter. Fearing the Orwellian overtones of the office logo -- an all-seeing eye with the slogan "knowledge is power" in Latin -- bipartisan support grew in Congress and among privacy coalitions for checking the program's development.
...
A Senate vote to cut off funding is the latest setback for a controversial computer surveillance program the Pentagon wants, to enable authorities to search vast networks of personal records to look for possible terrorist activity.
The vote late Thursday to deny any funds being spent on what is now called the Terrorism Information Awareness program was part of a $369 billion military spending bill that passed unanimously. The Bush administration, which requested $54 million for the program over three years, had urged the Senate to remove the provision cutting off funding, saying in a statement Monday, "This provision would deny an important tool in the war on terrorism."
...
The $54 million initiative seeks to develop a database of public and private records that could be combed for patterns that may reveal terrorist activity. Authorities could search credit card bills and airline records, as well as health, education and other personal information, the Pentagon told Congress in May. Other elements of the proposed program included developing long-distance surveillance technology that could identify people by their gaits, or, from closer in, by the irises of their eyes.
The research project, originally known as the Total Information Awareness initiative, began in 2002 under the direction of former national security adviser John M. Poindexter. Fearing the Orwellian overtones of the office logo -- an all-seeing eye with the slogan "knowledge is power" in Latin -- bipartisan support grew in Congress and among privacy coalitions for checking the program's development.
...
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