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GUESTS: Ben Wizner, Attorney with the ACLU’s National Legal Department, Koy Hordynski, UCSC Students Against War

Organizers are applauding Tuesday’s announcement by the Department of Defense that it will shut down its controversial domestic spying database. TALON, or the Threat and Local Observation, Notice, was created in 2002 by then-Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. The official rationale for its existence was that various Defense Department agencies would use the data collected by TALON to evaluate the information about supposed domestic threats to U.S. military targets. Over the past five years TALON has created records on the activities of individuals and groups working on issues as diverse as campus activism, anti-war, and LGBT Rights. While the database is scheduled to be closed on September 17th, the information contained in TALON will nevertheless continue to be stored. It will be sent to the FBI until the Pentagon can establish a new program. Pentagon officials maintain that the decision to shut the database down was based on its infrequent use, and not on the public outcry on the way in which it was compiled.

For more information, visit www.aclu.org