TALON is a database maintained by the United States Air Force

United States Air Force

The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

 after the September 11th terrorist attacks. It was authorised for creation in 2002 by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, in order to collect and evaluate information about possible threats to U.S. servicemembers and civilian workers in the US and at overseas military installations. The database included lists of anti-war

Anti-war

An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many...

 groups and people who have attended anti-war rallies. TALON reports are collected by various US Defense Department agencies including law enforcement, intelligence, counterintelligence and security, and are analyzed by a Pentagon agency, the Counterintelligence Field Activity

Counterintelligence Field Activity

Counterintelligence Field Activity was a United States Department of Defense agency whose size and budget were classified. The CIFA was created by a directive from the Secretary of Defense on February 19, 2002...

. CIFA has existed since 2004, and its size and budget are secret.

On August 21, 2007, the US Defense Department announced that it would shut down the database, as the database had been criticized for gathering information on peace activists and other political activists who posed no credible threat, but who had been one topic of this database due to their political views. The department is working on a new system which would replace TALON, but for the time being, information on force protection threats will be handled by the FBI’s Guardian

Guardian (database)

The Guardian Threat Tracking System is a reporting system used by the FBI to track threats and other intelligence information. It was established to collect data on terrorist threats and suspicious incidents, at seaports and other locations, and to manage action on various threats and incidents...

 reporting system.

See also

• Surveillance
  Surveillance
  Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...
  
  
• ADVISE
  ADVISE
  ADVISE is a research and development program within the United States Department of Homeland Security Threat and Vulnerability Testing and Assessment portfolio...
  
  
• Fusion center
  Fusion center
  A fusion center is a terrorism prevention and response center, many of which were created under a joint project between the Department of Homeland Security and the US Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs between 2003 and 2007....
  
  
• War on Terror
  War on Terror
  The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
  
  
• Patriot Act
• Civil Liberties
  Civil liberties
  Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right...