JAG
12-18-2005, 08:12 PM
More proof the government is abusing its power to spy on Americans! The NSA has nothing on the Pentagon!
Pentagon accused of spying on Americans
Officials will say they will review program that collects data on opponents of the war.
By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com
NBC News reported earlier this week that it had obtained a secret US Department of Defense document that shows the department is now monitoring "peaceful anti-war and counter-military recruitment groups." Today, The Washington Post reports that Pentagon officials say they will review the program, since NBC's document shows that information has been collected on "peace protesters and others whose activities posed no threat and should not have been kept on file." Pentagon officials say the information collection was aimed at countering terrorism.
"On the surface, it looks like things in the database that were determined not to be viable threats were never deleted but should have been," [a senior defense department official] said. "You can also make the argument that these things should never have been put in the database in the first place until they were confirmed as threats."
The program is known as "Talon," and is supposed to compile unconfirmed reports of threats to defense facilities. The Post reports that the program is "part of a broader effort by the Pentagon to gather counterterrorism intelligence within the United States," and has raised concerns for civil libertarians and members of Congress recently. Any information that is not considered threatening is supposed to be removed from the Talon database within 90 days.
The Palm Beach Post reports on The Truth Project of Lake Worth, Florida, one of the groups considered a threat according to the Talon database. The group consists of about 20 people, including five Quakers and a 79-year old grandmother. Their original meeting, held in 2004 at the local Quaker meeting house, was one of 1,500 "suspicious" incidents in the database.
"When we saw (the database), our eyes fell out of our heads," said [Evelyn Grachow,], of West Palm Beach. "We really couldn't believe what we were seeing, because all we do is give information to the young people in high schools who have been harassed by recruiters. There is never talk of our doing violence."
Lisa Stewart, a Quaker who attended the Truth Project meeting, said the Quakers investigated the group before allowing them to use the meetinghouse. She said she shares the group's concern that a draft might be instituted during the Iraq war and wanted to find ways to deter students from enlisting. "I just wanted to make sure this group was on the up and up and they weren't a bunch of hotheads," said Stewart, 68, a member of The Truth Project. "They were very much in keeping with (Quaker) principles."
NBC military analyst Bill Arkin says all Americans should be concerned by the Pentagon's actions.
“It means that they’re actually collecting information about who’s at those protests, the descriptions of vehicles at those protests,” says Arkin. “On the domestic level, this is unprecedented,” he says. “I think it's the beginning of enormous problems and enormous mischief for the military.”
Columnist Arianna Huffington, writing in the Los Angeles Times, notes that it's not just the Pentagon that's been watching antiwar demonstrations, as "documents recently obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force has been recording the names and license plate numbers of peaceful antiwar protesters." ............
(follow link for rest of story)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1215/dailyUpdate.html
Pentagon accused of spying on Americans
Officials will say they will review program that collects data on opponents of the war.
By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com
NBC News reported earlier this week that it had obtained a secret US Department of Defense document that shows the department is now monitoring "peaceful anti-war and counter-military recruitment groups." Today, The Washington Post reports that Pentagon officials say they will review the program, since NBC's document shows that information has been collected on "peace protesters and others whose activities posed no threat and should not have been kept on file." Pentagon officials say the information collection was aimed at countering terrorism.
"On the surface, it looks like things in the database that were determined not to be viable threats were never deleted but should have been," [a senior defense department official] said. "You can also make the argument that these things should never have been put in the database in the first place until they were confirmed as threats."
The program is known as "Talon," and is supposed to compile unconfirmed reports of threats to defense facilities. The Post reports that the program is "part of a broader effort by the Pentagon to gather counterterrorism intelligence within the United States," and has raised concerns for civil libertarians and members of Congress recently. Any information that is not considered threatening is supposed to be removed from the Talon database within 90 days.
The Palm Beach Post reports on The Truth Project of Lake Worth, Florida, one of the groups considered a threat according to the Talon database. The group consists of about 20 people, including five Quakers and a 79-year old grandmother. Their original meeting, held in 2004 at the local Quaker meeting house, was one of 1,500 "suspicious" incidents in the database.
"When we saw (the database), our eyes fell out of our heads," said [Evelyn Grachow,], of West Palm Beach. "We really couldn't believe what we were seeing, because all we do is give information to the young people in high schools who have been harassed by recruiters. There is never talk of our doing violence."
Lisa Stewart, a Quaker who attended the Truth Project meeting, said the Quakers investigated the group before allowing them to use the meetinghouse. She said she shares the group's concern that a draft might be instituted during the Iraq war and wanted to find ways to deter students from enlisting. "I just wanted to make sure this group was on the up and up and they weren't a bunch of hotheads," said Stewart, 68, a member of The Truth Project. "They were very much in keeping with (Quaker) principles."
NBC military analyst Bill Arkin says all Americans should be concerned by the Pentagon's actions.
“It means that they’re actually collecting information about who’s at those protests, the descriptions of vehicles at those protests,” says Arkin. “On the domestic level, this is unprecedented,” he says. “I think it's the beginning of enormous problems and enormous mischief for the military.”
Columnist Arianna Huffington, writing in the Los Angeles Times, notes that it's not just the Pentagon that's been watching antiwar demonstrations, as "documents recently obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force has been recording the names and license plate numbers of peaceful antiwar protesters." ............
(follow link for rest of story)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1215/dailyUpdate.html