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)]