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THREATS AND RESPONSES: SURVEILLANCE

THREATS AND RESPONSES: SURVEILLANCE; Senate Rejects Pentagon Plan to Mine Citizens' Personal Data for Clues to Terrorism

The Senate voted today to bar deployment of a Pentagon project to search for terrorists by scanning information in Internet mail and in the commercial databases of health, financial and travel companies here and abroad.

The curbs on the project, called the Total Information Awareness Program, were adopted without debate and by unanimous consent as part of a package of amendments to an omnibus spending bill. House leaders had no immediate comment on the surprise action, which will almost certainly go to a House-Senate conference. Neither did the White House or the Defense Department.

Senator Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat who proposed the amendment, said after the vote that it passed so easily because dismayed Republican senators had told him that ''this is about the most far-reaching government surveillance proposal we have ever heard about.'' He said the amendment means ''there will be concrete checks on the government's ability to snoop on law-abiding Americans.''

Under the legislation passed today, research and development of the system would have to halt within 60 days of enactment of the bill unless the Defense Department submitted a detailed report about the program, including its costs, goals, impact on privacy and civil liberties and prospects for success in stopping terrorists. The research could also continue if President Bush certified to Congress that the report could not be provided or that a halt ''would endanger the national security of the United States.''

The limits on deploying, or using, the system are stricter. While it could be used to support lawful military and foreign intelligence operations, it could not be used in this country until Congress had passed new legislation specifically authorizing its use.

The Wyden amendment also included a statement that Congress believed ''the Total Information Awareness programs should not be used to develop technologies for use in conducting intelligence activities or law enforcement activities against United States persons without appropriate consultation with Congress or without clear adherence to principle to protect civil liberty and privacy.''

The program is being developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a high-tech unit that played a major role in the creation of the Internet. It is headed by John M. Poindexter, a retired rear admiral who was convicted of lying to Congress about the Iran-contra scandal but subsequently cleared on the grounds that he had been granted immunity for his testimony.

Admiral Poindexter described the program's goals in a California speech last year when he said ''we must become much more efficient and more clever in the ways we find new sources of data, mine information from the new and the old, generate information, make it available for analysis, convert it to knowledge and create actionable options.''

As soon as the existence of the project was disclosed last November, it drew intense criticism from civil libertarians on the left and the right, ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union to the Free Congress Foundation and the Eagle Forum.

Tonight Ralph Neas, head of People for the American Way, one of the critical groups, issued a statement hailing the vote. It said: ''Until today, the Bush administration has proceeded unchecked in many aspects of the war on terrorism. I hope that today's action demonstrates Congress' willingness to perform oversight of the executive branch and challenge attempts to undermine constitutional liberties.''

Even without extensive debate, the measure was weighed across the political spectrum of the Senate. No senator sought to block it by withholding the unanimous consent its passage required. So Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, the Republican who heads the Appropriations Committee, almost casually slid it into a package of minor amendments to the spending bill.

The one Republican who had put his name on the measure as a co-sponsor, Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, issued a statement afterwards saying, ''Our amendment should make sure that the T.I.A. program strikes the very careful balance that is needed to protect civil liberties while at the same time protecting a Americans against terrorists.''

A Democratic co-sponsor, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, struck a similar note. She issued a statement saying the measure ''fences in the program to prevent it from being abused to invade Americans' privacy and civil liberties but does so without impeding our military and intelligence efforts.''

Senator Wyden also stressed accountability, saying the vote showed ''the Senate isn't going to let the program just grow without tough oversight.'' He said the reporting requirement ''puts some real pressure on them'' and ''Congress will no longer be in the dark.''

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 12 of the National edition with the headline: THREATS AND RESPONSES: SURVEILLANCE; Senate Rejects Pentagon Plan to Mine Citizens' Personal Data for Clues to Terrorism. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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