• See John M. Poindexter, “Finding the Face of Terror in Data,” New York Times, Sept. 10, 2003.
  

• In a recent report to Congress, the Department of Defense stated:  “[T]he TIA Program is not attempting to create or access a centralized database that will store information gathered from various publicly or privately held databases.”[2]   

• In November 2002, the Toronto Star quoted John Poindexter as saying, “‘The relevant information extracted from this data must be made available in large-scale repositories with enhanced semantic content for easy analysis to accomplish this task.’”[3]

• At a DoD Press Conference with, among others, Joint Staff and Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology Edward C. "Pete" Aldridge, Aldridge stated, “The purpose of TIA would be to determine the feasibility of searching vast quantities of data to determine links and patterns indicative of terrorist activities.”[4]

• The following is taken from the Q&A at that conference:

Q: Can you run over the transactions again? It sounds like every time I would enter or a citizen would enter a credit card, any banking transaction, any medical [information]-- I go see my doctor, any prescription, all of those things become part of this database -- right? -- hypothetically?

Aldridge: Hypothetically they would, although the data that would go along with personal information such as bank accounts, that would all be protected in the Privacy Act just as it is today. Individuals would not be associated with that.

Q: So you need rapid language translation because you are trying to tap into databases of other nations, if they will allow that? Is that --

Aldridge: Or -- yes. Exactly.

• According to Poindexter’s recent Op-Ed in the New York Times: “There is no use of credit-card, banking or other data on United States citizens.”[5]

• The DoD stated in a recent report to Congress that the source data supporting TIA will only come from “data and information that is either (a) foreign intelligence and counter intelligence information legally obtained and usable by the Federal Government under existing law, or (b) wholly synthetic (artificial) data that has been generated, for research purposes only, to resemble and model real-world patterns of behavior.”[6]   

• In November 2002, the Toronto Star quoted Poindexter as saying: “The transactional data will supplement our more conventional intelligence collection.”[7]

• According to Aldridge, also in November:  One element of TIA is to “discover[ ] . . . connections between transactions -- such as passports; visas; work permits; driver's license; credit card; airline tickets; rental cars; gun purchases; chemical purchases -- and events -- such as arrest or suspicious activities and so forth. So again, it try to discover the connections between these things called transactions.”[8]  

• According to Poindexter’s recent Op-Ed in the New York Times: “[I]t is a myth that the Information Awareness Office intends to develop some kind of system to spy on Americans.  The terrorism information program is not and never has been intended for use in surveillance against Americans.”[9]

• This year, the DoD stated in a report to Congress: “TIA has never collected, and has no plan or intent to collect privately held consumer data on U.S. citizens. It is a research program designed to catch terrorists before they strike.”[10]

• In November 2002, the Pittsburg Post-Gazette reported that “Poindexer declined to be interviewed, but at two defense technology conferences in recent month he has outlined how the system would sift through a variety of commercial and government databases in the United States and abroad to identify terrorist plans.”[11]

• That same month, the New York Times reported a Pentagon spokeswoman as saying: “As part of our developments process, we hope to coordinate with a variety of organization, to include the law enforcement community.”[12]

• The following is taken from the DoD Press Conference, mentioned above:

Q: How is this not domestic spying? I don't understand this. You have these vast databases that you're looking for patterns in. Ordinary Americans, who aren't of Middle East origin, are just typical, ordinary Americans, their transactions are going to be perused.

Aldridge: Okay, first of all --

Q: And do you require search warrants? I mean, how does this work?

Aldridge: First of all, we are developing the technology of a system that could be used by the law enforcement officials, if they choose to do so. It is a technology that we're developing. We are not using this for this purpose. It is technology.  Once that technology is transported over to the law enforcement agency, they will use the same process they do today; they protect the individual's identity. We'll have to operate under the same legal conditions as we do today that protects individuals' privacy when this is operated by the law enforcement agency.

• It can be inferred that because the DoD claims no data will be collected on citizens, search warrants are not an issue.

• In November 2002, the New York Times reported: 

As the director of the effort, Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, has described the system in Pentagon documents and in speeches, it will provide intelligence analysts and law enforcement officials with instant access to information from Internet mail and calling records to credit card and banking transactions and travel documents, without a search warrant.[13]

• Yet, in contrast, a few days later, Aldridge responded at a DoD Press Conference, mentioned above:

Q: So they would need a search warrant, then?

Aldridge: They would have to go through whatever legal proceedings they would go through today to protect the individuals' rights, yes.

• In that same press conference, Aldridge also stated:

In order to preserve the sanctity of individual privacy, we're designing this system to ensure complete anonymity of uninvolved citizens, thus focusing the efforts of law enforcement officials on terrorist investigations. The information gathered would then be subject to the same legal projections (sic) currently in place for the other law   enforcement activities.