More Funny Business with Record-Keeping?

/in /by

Holy Shit. Remember TALON and CIFA? Here’s a description I wrote in April:

It was designed to gather intelligence on threats to defense installments in the United States–to try to collect information (in the TALON database) on threatening people scoping out domestic bases. But it ended up focusing on peace activists and the lefty blogosphere’s ownJesus’ General.

Well, here are the three conclusions of a DOD IG report just released on the program:

  • TALON reports were generated for law enforcement and force protection purposes as permitted by DoD Directive 5200.27,1 and not as a result of an intelligence collection operation; therefore, no violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act occurred.
  • The Counterintelligence Field Activity did not comply with the 90 day retention review policy required by DoD Directive 5200.27. We could not determine whether the U.S. Northern Command complied with the policy requirement because all TALON reports were deleted from their database in June 2006 with no archives.
  • The Cornerstone database that the Counterintelligence Field Activity used to maintain TALON reports did not have the capability to identify TALON reports with U.S. person information, to identify reports requiring a 90-day retention review, or to allow analysts to edit or delete the TALON reports.

To explain why this is so fucking crazy, let me back up. 70% of CIFA’s staffers (the ones keeping the database on the quakers). One of the companies that got a chunk of that business is MZM. You remember: the company for which Mitch Wade was bribing Duke Cunningham to give big contracts?

Well, I’m still reading the report (I wanted to get this out there to see what others found). But these conclusions appear to say:

  • DOD says the domestic spying program was legal because–in spite of the fact that the organization is a spying/law enforcement hybrid–they consider it law enforcement activity and not spying (even though the Quakers on whom it collected data had not broken any laws).
  • DOD admits that CIFA–run by all those contractors who got their work through bribes–did not destroy the information they collected when they were supposed to.
  • The database they were using did not have the capabilities it needed to cross-check the data-collection.

And this is a doozy:

  • USNCO deleted the whole database in June 2006.

For an idea of why that is so fuckedinthehead, here’s a little chronology I put together a while back:

  • September 2002, then Deputy Secretary of Defense for Counter-Intelligence Burtt (the guy who resigned yesterday) establishes CIFA to oversee counterintelligence units of the armed services; consulting on the new agency was James King, recently retired director of National Imagery and Mapping Agency and MZM vice president
  • Late 2002, Cunningham got Mitchell Wade a data storage contract worth $6 million, of which $5.4 was profit
  • January 2004, Cunningham added $16.5 million to defense authorization for a “collaboration center” that appears to include business for Wade’s company
  • December 2005, Pincus reveals a CIFA database contains raw intelligence data on peace activists (and, presumably, Jesus’ General)
  • March 2006, prosecutors in the Cunningham case announce they’re reviewing CIFA contracts to MZM
  • March 2006, Stephen Cambone announces an investigation of CIFA’s contracting–the investigation is (like the investigation into Dougie Feith) “ongoing”
  • May 2006, Porter Goss resigns under allegations of ties to the Wilkes/Wade bribery ring
  • May 2006, House Intelligence Committee (Peter Hoekstra‘s Committee) first moves to exercise oversight on CIFA
  • August 2006, CIFA director and deputy director resign

Let’s look at the key time frame, with this new datapoint inserted, shall we:

  • March 2006, prosecutors in the Cunningham case announce they’re reviewing CIFA contracts to MZM
  • March 2006, Stephen Cambone announces an investigation of CIFA’s contracting–the investigation is (like the investigation into Dougie Feith) “ongoing”
  • May 2006, Porter Goss resigns under allegations of ties to the Wilkes/Wade bribery ring
  • May 2006, House Intelligence Committee (Peter Hoekstra‘s Committee) first moves to exercise oversight on CIFA
  • June 2006, USNCO destroys all the TALON reports
  • August 2006, CIFA director and deputy director resign

Get it? Carol Lam is closing in on MZM and its contracting. Two very compromised Republicans announce they’re going to review this stuff. And then one month later … POOF!!! All the records of this domestic spying program disappear, like magic!! And then two months later the guys running the program resign, suddenly.

Now, honestly, I need to review the whole report–I’ll either update this or do a new post. But I wanted to put this up here to get people reading the report.

Update:

Here’s the sole explanation they offer for the incredible disappearing USNCO database:

We could not determine whether USNORTHCOM complied with the DoD 90-day retention review policy because all TALON reports were deleted from JPEN on November 30, 2005, without being archived, and the system was turned off in June 2006.

Notice how they change the date, November 2005 for June 2006? Know what happened just two days before these reports were deleted, on November 28, 2005? Duke Cunningham made his plea deal. There. That makes you feel better, doesn’t it?

Though it appears that some of the records remained on the CIFA database.

And here’s their explanation for why CIFA wasn’t deleting info on Americans:

Only CIFA information technology personnel had the ability to delete TALON reports. As a result, CIFA maintained TALON reports without determining whether information on organizations and individuals should be retained for law enforcement and force protection purposes.

Want to bet these IT folks are contractors? Contractors who owe their jobs to earmarks and occasionally bribes?

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  1. P J Evans says:

    AP is reporting that Shrub has commuted Scooter’s sentence. I hope we get real outrage from Congress.

  2. Ishmael says:

    Marcy – OT but too important. Will Pat Fitzgerald do anything now that Bush has commuted the sentence? Will Leahy? Has Shrub gone too far?

  4. Anonymous says:

    Motherf@cker! My wife called me from the car to tell me Bush commuted, I didn’t believe it, yet there it is. Fred Hiatt is pleasuring himself as we speak.

    All hell breaks loose tomorrow.

  5. randiego says:

    Chickenshit. 5:45pm, 24 hours before a national holiday.

    Straw that breaks the camel’s back moment here?

  6. Anonymous says:

    I hope PF has a press conference tomorrow to denounce this move for what it is.

    Bush is done. The GOP is done.

  8. Anonymous says:

    And, in the midst of all this carnage, this is also a fine nugget youy’ve uncovered EW. I suggest reposting next week after the Scooter-mania subsides.

  9. Ishmael says:

    Let’s remember too, Bush can still pardon Scooter when he goes out the door (I refuse to say Jan 20, 2009 anymore – it could be earlier). The clemency/pardon power is not an either-or situation. As someone who has had clients denied pardons after sterling efforts to rehabilitate themselves, from offences as minor as marijuana possession as a young adult, this is extraordinary and may indeed be the Sat Night Massacre moment for Bushco.

  12. orionATL says:

    tekel,

    that’s precisely the question.

    pitchforks and torches is all that is going to put an end to the bush admin’s conduct.

  13. orionATL says:

    this may be the most brazen thing the bush boys have done yet –

    well, maybe not. lying the u.s. into war probably tops all others.

    that the records were ordered destroyed though makes clear that the dod/whitehouse understood how damaging these records would be if revealed.

  14. orionATL says:

    wait a minute.

    u.s. northern command?

    didn’t that command feature a general who wanted to have u.s. military (special ops (?)) available in the u.s. to operate on american soil.

    only the cheney/rumsfeld monster would be crazy enough to authorize a program like this.

  15. whenwego says:

    Pl cross-post at dKos as well. This is REALLY crazy. What do they mean â€was deleted in June 2006â€? By whom?

  16. calugg says:

    Bleh….Bush who doesn’t bat an eye with obvious US judicial injustices, pardons his cronies.

    Ptoooey! We need the Dems to start impeachment proeedings. These guys are WASPY Mafiosi without the Italian charm.

  17. Sailmaker says:

    As an infamous criminal once put it ’Delete does not mean delete’. Subpeona the servers, get the logs, and the programs, can be reconstructed. Programs are only gone if they take hammers to the hard drives.

  18. orionATL says:

    e’wheel

    when you get a moment to breath, could you correct or finish the sentence that begins (and ends) :

    â€70% of cifa staffers….â€

    thanks

  19. orionATL says:

    the chronology you have put together brings to mind josh marshall’s comment at the beginning of the u.s attorneys firing scandal,

    that the other usa firings were timed to occur with carol lam’s firing in order to obscure the importance of her firing.

    certainly, the fact that lam was told by â€main justiceâ€, after requesting some more time in office to finish her work on cunningham,

    â€you can’t have one day longer.â€

    suggests that the white house was very, very concerned about what her persistence would uncover.

    in light of recent press reports, i infer that

    â€whitehouse†is equivalent to â€dick cheney†and his merry band of political vandals scooter libby included.

  20. Slothrop says:

    I know a big safe in an office in Washington, a man-sized safe in fact, where all of these secrets sleep at night, comfortably and in the deepest darkness.

  22. Maeme says:

    The two guys running it – resign; are they relevant names that we would recognize?

    TOP NOTCH — on Hardball — envigorating to have David Schuster as an anchor — you had the three pundits dropping their jaws — and stunned with your comments.

  23. cheech says:

    Pincus April 25th

    The agency’s size and budget are classified, but congressional sources have said that CIFA had spent more than $1 billion through last October. One counterintelligence official at that time estimated that CIFA had 400 full-time employees and 800 to 900 contractors working for it.

    Last August, CIFA Director David A. Burtt II and his top deputy, Joseph Hefferon, resigned in the wake of a scandal involving CIFA contracts that went to MZM Inc., a company run by Mitchell J. Wade. Wade pleaded guilty in February 2006 to conspiring to bribe then-Rep. Randy â€Duke†Cunningham (R-Calif).

    In written responses to questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee during his confirmation hearing in December, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates pledged to look â€in greater detail†at CIFA’s activities.

  24. Mary says:

    Don’t let this die under the Libby glare – resurrect it in a couple days. Nice nice job.

  25. anon says:

    In the Intro to the Report it says of 1,100 odd reports examined by the Inspector General, some 334 involved US citizens and of those 75 were connected to to some sort of questionable act including destruction of property, or other potentially criminal behavior. Then it says these 75 cases prove the value of having TALON as a tool. OUt of 1,100 or so cases.

  28. TeeMc says:

    You might want to add in your time-line the search warrant executed in May 2006 for the home and CIA office of Porter’s buddy and 3rd in command, the recently resigned â€Dusty†Foggo… Wasn’t he in logistics and procurement before given that nice promotion?

  29. Anonymous says:

    The string of coincidences that we see with this mutant version of the GOP is nothing short of miraculous, miracuoous, I tells you.

    Thank you, emptywheel for this report (surfed on in from Josh Marshall’s site).

  30. Charles Bowman says:

    From February, 2007 on, I became convinced that the attorney firings were to cover the firing of the one attorney that was giving the Bush machine more than they could cover up. The indignation over this firing should never cease until every stone has been turned to uncover every theif and treasonous operative that threatened the liberty of every American! It may take a mob of protesters to herd these scorpions from their scorpion ranch and into the fire! Until then, this incredible reporting has done the job quite adequately! Thanks!