Did DPS hand over data about open investigations to a private company (Northrop Grunman)?
"Yes" was the answer.
Noriega then asked whether Mayer knew if information given to Northrop Grunman was either destroyed or received back by the agency?
"No sir," came the answer, not to his knowledge.
That's an important revelation, since the Observer reported that Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw, who authorized the contract on behalf of the Governor's Division of Emergency Management,
insists that the data DPS gave Northrop Grumman were eventually returned. Extensive public records requests have not revealed any documentation to that effect.What's more, McCraw told the committee earlier in the day that only information from closed cases was given to the company. That wasn't true. So Noriega successfully nailed down two key claims by the Governor's Homeland Security Director that appear demonstrably false - the information DID include open criminal case information, and DPS has NOT received either the data back nor evidence that it was destroyed.
UPDATE: See related MSM and blog coverage:
- Houston Chronicle: Got a ticket? You might be in Perry's terror database
- Dallas News: Perry aide has data on Texans
- Austin Statesman: Lawmakers concerned about governor's database, who has oversight
- Fort Worth Star Telegram: Database prompts reaction
- Amarillo Globe-News: David Swinford's really bad day
- In the Pink Texas: Kentucky Fried Surveillance
- Texas Politics: Email campaign backs Governor's border power grab
- Capitol Annex: In Nixonian twist, Governor's administration supervising massive illegal database
- Somervell County Salon: Wake up Texans, our civil right are being threatened
- Musings: Rick Perry Knows Too Much About You
- Dvorak Uncensored: The Governor's Database
- Off the Kuff: Big Governor is watching you
- Isghamachine: Governor Perry, Dataminer
- Texas Observer blog: TDEX Exposed
- Wired blog: A Texas "TIA"?
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4 comments:
Grea information...I love reading your legislative compilation too.
You might not know, but I'm wondering....Did TDEX start under McGraw or Kimbrough as Homeland Security Director?
Good question, I don't know. From the discussion yesterday it sounded like it was probably McCraw.
It did occur to me that if DPS gave TDEX information about all its OPEN cases last year, that McCraw would have had access to the unpursued TYC investigations through that system. I wonder what the 7,000 people using it are doing with the information? Obviously not looking out for stuff like the TYC scandal.
Somehow the idea of Rick Perry as my "Big Brother" only adds to my sense of existential ennui.
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