Tracking Down TIA

An interesting account, whose veracity I am not necessarily vouching for (it seems rather thinly sourced for the depth of its accusations), of the afterlife of Total Information Awareness on an Arlington, VA, street. (The publication, Capital Hill Blue, sells itself as a place for old newspaper men to run "the stories their outfits don't have the guts to publish," which could either be a sign of brave truthtelling or reckless taletelling.)

Regardless, some excerpts:

[A] nondescript office building at 3701 Fairfax Drive…houses the Pentagon?s Defense Advanced Research Project Agency?s Total Information Awareness Program, the ?big brother? program Congress thought it killed.
…..
Despite Congressional action cutting funding, and the resignation of the program?s controversial director, retired admiral John Poindexter, DARPA?s TIA program is alive and well and prying into the personal business of Americans 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

?When Congress cut the funding, the Pentagon ? with administration approval ? simply moved the program into a ?black bag? account,? says a security consultant who worked on the DARPA project. ?Black bag programs don?t require Congressional approval and are exempt from traditional oversight.?

DARPA also hired private contractors to fill many of the roles in the program, which helped evade detection by Congressional auditors. Using a private security firm like Cantwell, instead of the Federal Protective Service, helped keep TIA off the radar screen.
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When news of TIA first surfaced in 2002….citizens? watchdog groups and some members of Congress took a second look. The uproar that followed led to the resignation of Poindexter, who had lied to Congress during the Iran-Contra investigation, and the elimination of funding for TIA.

But Congress left the door open by supplying DARPA with research funding to develop data mining alternatives to TIA. Instead, the Bush administration instructed the Pentagon to move TIA into the convert area of black bag operations and Congress was cut out of the loop.
…….
When Congress voted to cut the funded, the operation at 3701 Fairfax Drive should have shut down and Arlington County should have returned the officers assigned there to normal duty. However, the officers remained in place and additional security was added to the detail.

According to construction records on file in the Arlington County building and zoning office, more than 20 high-speed data lines have been installed at the location in the last 18 months. Microwave data antennas are also installed on the roof.

Pentagon spokesmen refuse to discuss what is happening in the building, citing "national security" as the reason.
…..TIA still exists and still watches Americans 24/7 from the office building on Fairfax Drive in Arlington. Although employees who work in the building are supposed to keep their presence there a secret, they regularly sport their DARPA id badges around their necks when eating at restaurants near the building. The straps attached to the badges are printed with ?DARPA? in large letters.

?Yeah, they?re the spooks who work in the building over there,? says Ernie, the counterman at a deli near 3701 Fairfax Drive. ?If this is how they keep secrets, I guess we should really be worried.?