Report to Congress
Regarding the
Terrorism Information Awareness Program
Introduction
The DARPA Terrorism (formerly "Total") Information Awareness program (TIA)
is a research and development project. The program is integrating and testing
information technology tools. DARPA affirms that TIA's research and testing
activities are only using 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.
The Department of Defense, which is responsible for DARPA, has expressed its
full commitment to planning, executing, and overseeing the TIA program in a
manner that protects privacy and civil liberties. Safeguarding the privacy
and the civil liberties of Americans is a bedrock principle. DoD intends to
make it a central element in the Department of Defense's management and oversight
of the TIA program.
The Department of Defense fully complies with the laws and regulations governing
intelligence activities and all other laws that protect the privacy and constitutional
rights of U.S. persons.
DoD has expressed its commitment to the rule of law in this endeavor and views
the protection of privacy and civil liberties as an integral and paramount
goal in the development of counterterrorism technologies.
The Secretary of Defense will, as an integral part of oversight of TIA research
and development, continue to assess emerging potential privacy and civil liberties
impacts through an oversight board composed of senior representatives from
DoD and the Intelligence Community, and chaired by the Under Secretary of Defense
(Acquisition, Technology and Logistics). The Secretary of Defense will also
receive advice on legal and policy issues, including privacy, posed by TIA
research and development from a Federal Advisory Committee composed of outside
experts (see http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2003/b02072003_bt060-03.html for
list of members).
Subsection 111(b) of Division M of the Consolidated Appropriations Resolution,
2003 (Public Law 108-7) required the submission of a report concerning the
Terrorism (formerly "Total") Information Awareness program. The report was
jointly submitted to Congress on May 20, 2003 by the Secretary of Defense,
the Attorney General and the Director of Central Intelligence.
(Note: The program's previous name, "Total Information Awareness" program,
created in some minds the impression that TIA was a system to be used for developing
dossiers on U.S. citizens. That is not DoD's intent in pursuing this program.
Rather, DoD's purpose in pursuing these efforts is to protect U.S. citizens
by detecting and defeating foreign terrorist threats before an attack. Therefore,
to make this objective absolutely clear, on May 20, DARPA changed the program
name to Terrorism Information Awareness.)
How to Find the Answers to Commonly Asked Questions: Guide
to the Report
Report to Congress regarding the Terrorism Information Awareness
Program
download
Executive Summary [(6 pages, 30Kb, PDF)]
download Detailed Information [(102
pages, 1.3Mb, PDF)]
download Letters Transmitting the Report
to Congress [(8 pages, 90Kb, PDF)]
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