Congress supposedly killed Total Information Awareness, Darpa's far-flung effort to comb databases in search of terrorists. But that doesn't mean the authorities are finished sorting through the records of Americans to expose evildoers. Many analysts think bits of TIA still exist on the covert, "black" side of the Pentagon's ledger. This month's Wired magazine has my rundown of the unclassified efforts, with straight out of government and corporate documents.
THERE'S MORE: Former Utah Governor Mike Leavitt signed his state up to the notorious MATRIX (Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange) data mining effort, according to the Deseret News. That's the TIA-esque project run by former drug smugglers for eight state governments.
AND MORE: According to the Deseret News, Utah's current governor, Olene Walker, "has pulled the plug on the state's participation in the controversial MATRIX database at least until a joint governor- legislative oversight committee can hold public hearings about the program that collects comprehensive dossiers on every resident."
AND MORE: Nice! Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue "ordered the GBI [Georgia Bureau of Investigation] on Friday to sever all ties with the controversial Matrix crime-fighting database," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
This is the second time Perdue has made such a declaration. After the first one, the Georgia authorities continued to "pump information into the database," the Associated Press notes.
AND MORE: Despite all this, many state governments are still showing an interest in jacking into MATRIX, according to the AP:
Mark Zadra, chief investigator for Florida state police, which runs the Matrix project, said organizers have given presentations to more than 10 Northeastern and Midwestern states in recent weeks, arguing at each stop that the database is an invaluable law enforcement tool.
Officials in Iowa and North Carolina said Friday that they are exploring the system. And documents obtained through a public-records request in Florida indicate Arizona and Arkansas also may have interest in the quick-access information repository, which combines state records with 20 billion pieces of data held by a private company.
