The Pentagon has announced it will shut down its controversial domestic spying database known as TALON in mid-September. The Pentagon had used the database to include reports on nonviolent demonstrations and antiwar rallies. The American Civil Liberties Union applauded the decision. Anthony Romero of the ACLU said, “There should have been no place in a free democratic society for the military to be accumulating secret data on peaceful demonstrators exercising their First Amendment rights.”