Sign-on Letter to Defense Secretary Rumsfeld Urging the Defense Department Report on the Total Information Awareness Program be Available to the Public

The Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld
Secretary of Defense
The Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301

Dear Secretary Rumsfeld,

On January 23, 2003, the United States Senate acted unanimously to require the Department of Defense to halt deployment of the Total Information Awareness (TIA) program until Congress gives its explicit approval for the program. In so doing, the Senate also unanimously mandated that the Defense Department present a report to Congress detailing the program's objectives, methods, costs, and likely impact on personal privacy, as well as an assessment of its potential effectiveness and recommendations for how to minimize the program's effect on civil liberties. The House of Representatives promptly concurred.

The report is due soon, and we, the undersigned, respectfully request that the report be made available not only to Congress, but to all Americans by posting the report on the Defense Department's website on that same day.

This would be consistent with the expressed intention of members of Congress to keep their constituents fully informed about this crucial matter and an invaluable signal from the Department that it is committed both to ensuring our nation's security and to honoring our tradition of liberty without sacrificing either.

The members of our organizations share deep concerns over the form and function of the TIA program, and all are agreed that such reservations should be addressed openly and freely, with all parties actively engaged. Making the TIA report publicly available on the Internet would be a huge step in the right direction, and is one we urge you to take.

Sincerely,

American Civil Liberties Union
Americans for Tax Reform
Center for Democracy and Technology
Eagle Forum
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Free Congress Foundation
People for the American Way

cc:

The Honorable Ron Wyden
The Honorable Charles Grassley
Dr. Anthony J. Tether, Director of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency