WASHINGTON, Sept 25: A controversial Pentagon “big brother” programme that called for monitoring computer databases containing data on millions of Americans for signs of terrorist activity has been hit with a “delete” key, a Democratic US lawmaker announced on Wednesday.

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon said House and Senate negotiators hashing out details of the defence appropriations bill had decided to withhold all the funds from the Terrorism Information Awareness (TIA) programme, all but guaranteeing its demise.

The decision will become final when President George Bush signs the measure, which he is largely expected to do.

The Defence Department had no comment on the move. But Wyden, who has tirelessly campaigned against the surveillance programme, was elated, calling the decision by the conferees wise.

“I’ve always said I believe that you can fight terrorism vigorously without cannibalizing civil liberties, and TIA did not meet that test,” the senator said in a statement. “Time and time again, the Defence Department sought to cross the line on privacy and civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism.”

The programme conceived by retired admiral Join Poindexter of Iran-contra fame has been in the crosshairs of numerous civil liberties groups for months.

It called for developing a pattern of terrorist behaviour and keeping track of individuals and find out whether they fit the model.

More specifically, the Pentagon’s TIA office was proposing to integrate databases that already track people’s daily activities — like bank records, online purchases and travel reservations, according to defence and congressional officials.

Once integrated, these databases were supposed to serve as a repository of information on most or all individual computer transactions — and allow the Pentagon to see who fit the terrorist profile.

“This technology would let federal agencies develop risk profiles for millions of Americans as they look for questionable conduct,” warned Wyden in one of his earlier speeches.

Criticism of the project reached a fever pitch earlier this year, when Poindexter came up with an even more sophisticated brainchild — a online futures market.

Traders on this market were supposed to bet on anticipated developments in the Middle East such as coups, terrorist attacks and assassinations.

The eight-million-dollar project, which was touted as promising to yield valuable intelligence, raised eyebrows even at the top echelons of the Defence Department and was nipped in the bud at the first sign of trouble, precipitating Poindexter’s hasty resignation last month.

“I regret we have not been able to make our case clear and reassure the public that we do not intend to spy on them,” Poindexter wrote in his resignation letter.

But the information awareness programme will is not completely defunct.

According to Wyden, the conferees did not restrict US intelligence agencies from using Poindexter’s technologies in their operations against foreigners. —AFP