Briefs

CNet (02/27/03); McCullagh, Declan

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) on Thursday forced John Poindexter of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to disclose a hefty document detailing some 26 grants awarded to academic and private-sector research projects related to the controversial Total Information Awareness (TIA) program last fall. The documents indicate that almost 200 companies and universities submitted proposals to DARPA. Among those that received grants were Veridian, which proposed a project involving "Human augmentation of reasoning through patterning;" Texas-based CycCorp and 21st Century Technologies, for a "terrorism knowledge base" and Automated Detection, Identification, and Tracking of Deceptive Terrorist Activity (AUDIT), respectively; the University of Southern California, for its Just-In-Case Just-In-Time Intelligence Analysis (JIST) system; and Evolving Logic for "Confronting Surprise: Robust Adaptive Planning for Effective Total Information Awareness." The documents show "the breadth and impact of this program, which its defenders have tried to describe as being on the drawing board or in the research stages," noted EPIC director Marc Rotenberg. "This is a Defense-funded project for domestic surveillance, and it's very important not to lose sight of that." In late February, Congress approved an omnibus spending bill that called for more detailed study of TIA research and development. The mandate will permit full funding of the Pentagon-approved grants if Poindexter submits a "schedule for proposed research and development" to Congress, or if President Bush vouches that TIA is a vital national security component.

See http://news.com.com/2100-1028-990497.html