Pentagon to close controversial security database

WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (Reuters) The Pentagon said today it would close a controversial database tracking suspicious activity around US military bases which critics argued had been used to spy on peaceful antiwar activists.

The decision to shut the TALON system on September 17 was not a response to criticism of the programme but had been taken because the information coming into the database had declined in quality and quantity, the Pentagon said.

''The analytical value of it was pretty slim,'' said Army Col.

Gary Keck, a Pentagon spokesman.

''The TALON database was a perfectly legal system, nobodyever said it wasn't, but it just was not meeting our needs any more,'' he told reporters.

Although the Pentagon insisted the move was not a response to criticism, a memo by the department's top intelligence official obtained by Reuters in April said the program should not be continued ''particularly in light of its image in the Congress and the media''.

Military and defense personnel will still report suspicious activities around military bases, the Pentagon said. But that information will go to a Federal Bureau of Investigation database until the Pentagon proposes a longer-term solution.

The TALON programme, which was set up in 2003 and is short for Threat and Local Observation Notices, has been used to store reports about potential threats to Pentagon and US military facilities and personnel.

The American Civil Liberties Union has said it is ''absolutely improper'' for the US military to maintain databases on peaceful protest groups.

The Pentagon said in April last year that a review had found the database included reports on peaceful protests and anti-war demonstrations that should have been deleted.

At that time, the Pentagon said it had introduced safeguards to prevent such information ending up in the database but it stood by the system, saying it was a valuable tool for detecting potential terrorist threats.

In his memo from April this year, US Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence James Clapper said he had assessed the results of TALON over the past year and did not believe they justified continuing the program in its current form.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Pentagon said records would be kept of data previously collected in the TALON system.

REUTERS GT BD2348