After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz authorized TALON—Threat and Local Observation Notice—in 2002 to collect and assess possible threats to U.S. service members and civilian personnel at home and overseas military installations. Reports were submitted by Defense Department law-enforcement, intelligence, counterintelligence, and security agencies, then analyzed by the Pentagon’s Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), an organization that had existed since 2004 and whose budget and size were classified.
The database became controversial because it reportedly included anti-war organizations and people who attended anti-war rallies, despite the absence of a credible security threat. The episode illustrated how a force-protection system could absorb political and protest activity into military intelligence files. On August 21, 2007, the Defense Department announced that it would shut down TALON after criticism over the collection of information about peace and political activists. A replacement system was planned, while force-protection reports were temporarily routed through the FBI’s Guardian reporting system; the lasting consequence was heightened scrutiny of military databases that monitor domestic political activity.
