Apr 11, 2025
Palantir Is Helping DOGE With a Massive IRS Data Project
For
the past three days, DOGE and a handful of Palantir representatives,
along with dozens of career IRS engineers, have been collaborating to
build a “mega API,” WIRED has learned.
Palantir, the software company cofounded by Peter Thiel, is part of an
effort by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency
(DOGE) to build a new “mega API” for accessing Internal Revenue Service
records, IRS sources tell WIRED.
For
the past three days, DOGE and a handful of Palantir representatives,
along with dozens of career IRS engineers, have been collaborating to
build a single API layer above all IRS databases at an event previously
characterized to WIRED as a “hackathon,”
sources tell WIRED. Palantir representatives have been onsite at the
event this week, a source with direct knowledge tells WIRED.
APIs
are application programming interfaces, which enable different
applications to exchange data and could be used to move IRS data to the
cloud and access it there. DOGE has expressed an interest in the API
project possibly touching all IRS data, which includes taxpayer names,
addresses, social security numbers, tax returns, and employment data.
The IRS API layer could also allow someone to compare IRS data against
interoperable datasets from other agencies.
Should
this project move forward to completion, DOGE wants Palantir’s Foundry
software to become the “read center of all IRS systems,” a source with
direct knowledge tells WIRED, meaning anyone with access could view and
have the ability to possibly alter all IRS data in one place. It’s not
currently clear who would have access to this system.
Foundry
is a Palantir platform that can organize, build apps, or run AI models
on the underlying data. Once the data is organized and structured,
Foundry’s “ontology” layer can generate APIs for faster connections and
machine learning models. This would allow users to quickly query the
software using artificial intelligence to sort through agency data,
which would require the AI system to have access to this sensitive
information.
Engineers
tasked with finishing the API project are confident they can complete
it in 30 days, a source with direct knowledge tells WIRED.
Palantir has made billions
in government contracts. The company develops and maintains a variety
of software tools for enterprise businesses and government, including
Foundry and Gotham, a data-analytics tool primarily used in defense and
intelligence. Palantir CEO Alex Karp recently referenced the
“disruption” of DOGE’s cost-cutting initiatives and said, “Whatever is
good for America will be good for Americans and very good for Palantir.”
Former Palantir workers have also taken over key government IT and DOGE roles in recent months.
WIRED was the first to report that the IRS’s DOGE team was staging a “hackathon”
in Washington, DC, this week to kick off the API project. The event
started Tuesday morning and ended Thursday afternoon. A source in the
room this week explained that the event was “very unstructured.” On
Tuesday, engineers wandered around the room discussing how to accomplish
DOGE’s goal.
The Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment confirming Palantir’s role in the project.
“The
Treasury Department is pleased to have gathered a team of long-time IRS
engineers who have been identified as the most talented technical
personnel. Through this coalition, they will streamline IRS systems to
create the most efficient service for the American taxpayer," a Treasury
spokesperson tells WIRED. "This week, the team participated in the IRS
Roadmapping Kickoff, a seminar of various strategy sessions, as they
work diligently to create efficient systems. This new leadership and
direction will maximize their capabilities and serve as the tech-enabled
force multiplier that the IRS has needed for decades.”
The
project is being led by Sam Corcos, a health-tech CEO and a former
SpaceX engineer, with the goal of making IRS systems more “efficient,”
IRS sources say. In meetings with IRS employees over the past few weeks,
Corcos has discussed pausing all engineering work and canceling current
contracts to modernize the agency’s computer systems, sources with
direct knowledge tell WIRED. Corcos has also spoken about some aspects
of these cuts publicly: “We've so far stopped work and cut about $1.5
billion from the modernization budget. Mostly projects that were going
to continue to put us down the death spiral of complexity in our code
base,” Corcos told Laura Ingraham on Fox News in March. Corcos is also a special adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Palantir and Corcos did not immediately respond to requests for comment
The consolidation effort aligns with a recent executive order
from President Donald Trump directing government agencies to eliminate
“information silos.” Purportedly, the order’s goal is to fight fraud and
waste, but it could also put sensitive personal data at risk by centralizing it in one place.
The Government Accountability Office is currently probing DOGE’s
handling of sensitive data at the Treasury, as well as the Departments
of Labor, Education, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services, WIRED reported Wednesday.
On Sat, Apr 12, 2025 at 12:46 PM Chas Freeman <cwfresidence@gmail.com> wrote:
On Sat, Apr 12, 2025 at 12:32 PM Don KEYSER <dwkeyser@gmail.com> wrote:Witkoff Says U.S. Open to Compromise Ahead of Iran Nuclear Talks
Preventing ‘weaponization’ by Tehran is White House’s ’red line,’ says Trump’s special envoy to Middle East
April 11, 2025 2:37 pm ETAn Iranian nuclear-research reactor in Tehran. Photo: Vahid Salemi/Associated PressWASHINGTON—U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said the Trump administration’s “red line” with Iran is to stop it from being able to produce a nuclear weapon, a potential overture to Tehran ahead of high-stakes talks this weekend.Any deal that allows the Iranian nuclear program to continue in some form would amount to a retreat for the administration and fall short of Israel’s insistence that a credible agreement must include U.S.-supervised destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities.Witkoff, who will lead the talks Saturday in Oman for the U.S., told The Wall Street Journal that the administration’s opening demand would be that Tehran eliminate its nuclear program, but he conceded that compromises might be needed to reach a deal.“I think our position begins with dismantlement of your program. That is our position today,” Witkoff said, summing up his message to Iranian officials. “That doesn’t mean, by the way, that at the margin we’re not going to find other ways to find compromise between the two countries.”“Where our red line will be, there can’t be weaponization of your nuclear capability,” Witkoff added.The envoy’s comments open a window into top-level thinking within the Trump administration and highlight the difficult choices it is likely to face in the coming months as it considers whether military force will be needed to rein in Iran’s nuclear program or if diplomacy will suffice.If Iran refuses to eliminate its nuclear program, Witkoff said, he would take the issue to President Trump to determine how to proceed, potentially confronting the White House with a hard choice about how much of Iran’s nuclear activities it could tolerate.Steve Witkoff, special envoy to the Middle East Photo: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg NewsSome analysts say that pressing for the total elimination of Iran’s program is a prescription for a deadlock and potentially a military conflict.“The Trump administration is in a good position to negotiate a strong deal, one that can verifiably prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons for a significant period of time,” said Robert Einhorn, a former State Department nonproliferation official. “But it shouldn’t overplay its hand.”Iran has long balked at demands that it completely dismantle its nuclear program, which it claims is for peaceful purposes and not aimed at producing a nuclear device. A compromise that enabled it to enrich uranium with international inspections was central to the 2015 accord Tehran reached with the U.S. and other world powers.Trump pulled out of the 2015 agreement during his first term and imposed punishing sanctions, insisting that Iran stop all uranium enrichment and development of missiles that could carry nuclear warheads. Iran endured the sanctions and has expanded its nuclear work and missile production.Iranian officials say they want an easing of economic sanctions and the restoration of business ties with the U.S. But they have warned that U.S. military action would prompt Iran to stop cooperating with international inspectors and move nuclear material to hidden sites.“We neither prejudge nor predict,” Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Friday ahead of the talks. “We plan to assess the intentions and seriousness of the other side on Saturday and adjust our next moves accordingly.”Witkoff said the initial meeting “is about trust building. It is about talking about why it is so important for us to get to a deal, not the exact terms of the deal.”Any agreement, Witkoff has said, would require substantial verification measures to ensure Iran isn’t working on a bomb.Trump has said that the face-to-face negotiations are necessary for sealing a deal. Iranian officials have said the initial talks would be indirect, with Omani officials mediating between the two sides. Witkoff said he hopes to resolve that issue and “set the parameters” for future talks.U.S. officials say Iran could produce some kind of nuclear weapon in a few months. But American intelligence officials told Congress last month that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, hasn’t made a decision to build a bomb.To do so, Iran needs an enrichment program for producing fissile material, which it has already developed. Iran would also need to produce a warhead using that material, a technically complicated process.Iran is the only nonnuclear weapons country that produces 60% highly enriched uranium, which can be easily converted into weapons-grade fissile material to make a nuclear bomb.Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, has said that nothing less than “full dismantlement” of Iran’s nuclear program and its separate effort to produce missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads would satisfy Trump.“Iran has to give up its program in a way that the entire world can see,” Waltz said on CBS’s “Face The Nation” last month. “That is enrichment. That is weaponization, and that is its strategic missile program…Give it up or there will be consequences.”Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who met with Trump on Monday and has warned that a “military option” might be required with Iran, said a deal should include the elimination of its enrichment sites under American supervision.But Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, a veteran of past nuclear negotiations who will be leading the Iranian team, has rejected the idea of completely eliminating its program. “The United States can only dream,” he said Sunday in an interview with Iran’s state-run parliamentary news agency.Iran has suffered repeated blows to its security over the past two years, with the defeat of its allies and militia proxies in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza. Israeli strikes last year on air-defense sites and other targets have left Iran more vulnerable to direct attacks.Its economy is under pressure from sanctions, a message the Trump administration has sought to drive home in recent days by imposing new sanctions on Iran’s nuclear program and foreign companies involved in shipping Iranian oil.The battering that Iran-backed proxies have suffered in the region might also have strengthened Tehran’s resolve to preserve much of its nuclear program.Ali Shamkhani, a top aide to Khamenei, said on X Thursday that if Iran’s foes continue to threaten military action, Tehran might take what he called deterrence measures, possibly including moving its uranium stockpiles to “secure locations.”Write to Josh Dawsey at Joshua.Dawsey@WSJ.com, Michael R. Gordon at michael.gordon@wsj.com and Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@wsj.comCopyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
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