Documents from a recent ACLU Freedom of Information Act detail the monitoring of peaceful antiwar activities in the DOD TALON database. The documents paint a picture of these activities through paranoid eyes where any disagreement can be seen as subversion.
The New York Times article Military Documents Hold Tips on Antiwar Activities provides the following quotes from Daniel J. Baur, the acting director of the counterintelligence field activity unit which clearly illustrate that he does not understand the problem:
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Mr. Baur said that those operating the database had misinterpreted their mandate and that what was intended as an antiterrorist database became, in some respects, a catch-all ...
“I don’t think the policy was as clear as it could have been,” he said. Once the problem was discovered, he said, “we fixed it,” ...
The problem that Mr. Baur demonstrates that he does not comprehend is that misinterpretation of the policy and the resulting abuse of the system is a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself.
The system and its lack of oversight is the problem.
Policy by its very nature is subject to interpetation. In the DOD, subordinate organizations often issue local policies or instructions that interpret and provide direction on how the overarching policy will be enacted.
Since policy is subject to interpretation any system that relies solely on policy for control will be abused. Yes, I said, "will be" not, "might be" because it is a matter of when not if.
More often than not the abuse is the result of misinterpretation or overzealousness rather than organized efforts to abuse the system.
It doesn't matter as since the system is not designed to prevent abuse both will occur. Often serious intentional abuse is preceded by accidental abuses of the system that were dismissed as cases of misinterpretation, overzealousness, or "a few bad apples" that were dismissed as being unintentional.
Misinterpretation is offered as the excuse in this case. Ignored is the fact is that if you put people in a place to collect information on others, pay and reward them to be suspicious, interpret the motivations of others in the darkest light, you create a system that will select and promote the paranoid and then give them unchecked power to pursue their agenda or delusions.
Policy is important. It provides direction for a system, outlines the boundaries. It is not a control though.
For policy to be a control it has to be coupled with rigorous and independent oversight which measures the system againsts its policies.
This is the underlying problem with the TALON system as well as it big brother in the NSA. This is the problem that Mr. Baur and worse, his superiors at the DOD and in the Administration do not understand. Remember that the TALON information can be used to trigger NSA monitoring. Deleting the subjects from the TALON system does not mean that they are not still being monitored in other system.
Policy is not a control. Policy can be part of a control when coupled with independent oversight.
Given that the TALON and NSA Domestic Surveilance program operate without adequate controls the systems will be abused. It is a matter of when not, if and, the when is now.