WASHINGTON - A year ago, at a Quaker Meeting House in Lake Worth, Fla., a small group of activists met to plan a protest of military recruiting at local high schools. What they didn't know was that their meeting had come to the attention of the U.S. military.
A secret 400-page Defense Department document obtained by NBC News lists the Lake Worth meeting as a "“threat" and one of more than 1,500 "“suspicious incidents" across the country over a recent 10-month period.
"“This peaceful, educationally oriented group being a threat is incredible,"” says Evy Grachow, a member of the Florida group called The Truth Project.
"“This is incredible,"” adds group member Rich Hersh. "“It's an example of paranoia by our government,"” he says. "“We're not doing anything illegal.Â"
The Defense Department document is the first inside look at how the U.S. military has stepped up intelligence collection inside this country since 9/11, which now includes the monitoring of peaceful anti-war and counter-military recruitment groups.
"“I think Americans should be concerned that the military, in fact, has reached too far,"” says NBC News military analyst Bill Arkin.
The Department of Defense declined repeated requests by NBC News for an interview. A spokesman said that all domestic intelligence information is "“properly collected" and involves "“protection of Defense Department installations, interests and personnel."” The military has always had a legitimate “force protection” mission inside the U.S. to protect its personnel and facilities from potential violence. But the Pentagon now collects domestic intelligence that goes beyond legitimate concerns about terrorism or protecting U.S. military installations, say critics.
Four dozen anti-war meetings
The DOD database obtained by NBC News includes nearly four dozen anti-war meetings or protests, including some that have taken place far from any military installation, post or recruitment center. One "“incident"” included in the database is a large anti-war protest at Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles last March that included effigies of President Bush and anti-war protest banners. Another incident mentions a planned protest against military recruiters last December in Boston and a planned protest last April at McDonald'’s National Salute to America'’s Heroes' a military air and sea show in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Still, the DOD database includes at least 20 references to U.S. citizens or U.S. persons. Other documents obtained by NBC News show that the Defense Department is clearly increasing its domestic monitoring activities. One DOD briefing document stamped "“secretÂ" concludes: "“[W]e have noted increased communication and encouragement between protest groups using the [I]nternet," but no "“significant connectionÂ" between incidents, such as "“reoccurring instigators at protests" or "“vehicle descriptions."
The Pentagon is spying on Americans and anti-war groups, claiming they may be a "terrorist" threat. History is repeating itself. Not only are we bogged down in another Vietnam-style war in Iraq, but the Defense Department is back to spying on anti-war groups--just as they were doing back in the 1970s. What angers me is have any of these anti-war groups even attacked military installations or recruitment offices? I haven't heard of any press reports claiming anti-war demonstrators trashing recruiting offices or attacking bases. So why the hell is the military domestically spying on its own citizens?
It gets worst. Continuing on:
The increased monitoring disturbs some military observers.
"“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,Â" he says. "“I think it's the beginning of enormous problems and enormous mischief for the military."
Some former senior DOD intelligence officials share his concern. George Lotz, a 30-year career DOD official and former U.S. Air Force colonel, held the post of Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Oversight from 1998 until his retirement last May. Lotz, who recently began a consulting business to help train and educate intelligence agencies and improve oversight of their collection process, believes some of the information the DOD has been collecting is not justified.
Make sure they are not just going crazy
"“Somebody needs to be monitoring to make sure they are just not going crazy and reporting things on U.S. citizens without any kind of reasoning or rationale," says Lotz. "“I demonstrated with Martin Luther King in 1963 in Washington," he says, "“and I certainly didn'’t want anybody putting my name on any kind of list. I wasn'’t any threat to the government,"” he adds.
So tell me. If you're an anti-war demonstrator trying to exercise your constitutional right to protest, and the military decides to place your name in a database of possible threats and anti-war activities, what is to stop the military or government from moving your name to the no-fly list? Or any other list that they make up, deeming you as anti-American since you do not support a war? What is to stop the military from kidnapping you and holding you prisoner, claiming you're anunprecedentedtant," with no legal rights? This is unprecidented. It is disgusting.
But wait, it gets better. A little history lesson here:
The military'’s penchant for collecting domestic intelligence is disturbing "but familiar"— to Christopher Pyle, a former Army intelligence officer.
"“Some people never learn," he says. During the Vietnam War, Pyle blew the whistle on the Defense Department for monitoring and infiltrating anti-war and civil rights protests when he published an article in the Washington Monthly in January 1970.
The public was outraged and a lengthy congressional investigation followed that revealed that the military had conducted investigations on at least 100,000 American citizens. Pyle got more than 100 military agents to testify that they had been ordered to spy on U.S. citizens, many of them anti-war protestors and civil rights advocates. In the wake of the investigations, Pyle helped Congress write a law placing new limits on military spying inside the U.S.
But Pyle, now a professor at Mt. Holyoke College in Massachusetts, says some of the information in the database suggests the military may be dangerously close to repeating its past mistakes.
"“The documents tell me that military intelligence is back conducting investigations and maintaining records on civilian political activity. The military made promises that it would not do this again,"” he says.
Now for the folks in the government who don't seem to read history:
Two years ago, the Defense Department directed a little known agency, Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, to establish and "“maintain a domestic law enforcement database that includes information related to potential terrorist threats directed against the Department of Defense." Then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz also established a new reporting mechanism known as a TALON or Threat and Local Observation Notice report. TALONs now provide "“non-validated domestic threat information"” from military units throughout the United States that are collected and retained in a CIFA database. The reports include details on potential surveillance of military bases, stolen vehicles, bomb threats and planned anti-war protests. In the programÂ’s first year, the agency received more than 5,000 TALON reports. The database obtained by NBC News is generated by Counterintelligence Field Activity.
CIFA is becoming the superpower of data mining within the U.S. national security community. Its "“operational and analytical records"” include "“reports of investigation, collection reports, statements of individuals, affidavits, correspondence, and other documentation pertaining to investigative or analytical efforts"” by the DOD and other U.S. government agencies to identify terrorist and other threats. Since March 2004, CIFA has awarded at least $33 million in contracts to corporate giants Lockheed Martin, Unisys Corporation, Computer Sciences Corporation and Northrop Grumman to develop databases that comb through classified and unclassified government data, commercial information and Internet chatter to help sniff out terrorists, saboteurs and spies.
Yes, the Paul Wolfowitz, who is also a member of the Project for a New American Century that helped push the Bush White House into its war in Iraq. The neocons are not only involved in cooking up intelligence to market their war in Iraq to the American people, are not only involved in enacting their PNAC Doctrine of making the U.S. into an imperial power, but also involved in spying on American citizens who do not support their neocon ideology--spying on Americans in their own backyard! Of course, big defense corporations are just too happy to oblige with creating these new domestic spying databases, so they can get their big Pentagon contracts.
Finally:
One of the CIFA-funded database projects being developed by Northrop Grumman and dubbed "“Person Search,"” is designed "“to provide comprehensive information about people of interest."” It will include the ability to search government as well as commercial databases. Another project, "“The Insider Threat Initiative," intends to "“develop systems able to detect, mitigate and investigate insider threats," as well as the ability to "“identify and document normal and abnormal activities and '‘behaviors,'"” according to the Computer Sciences Corp. contract. "separate CIFA contract with a small Virginia-based defense contractor seeks to develop methods “to track and monitor activities of suspect individuals."
"“The military has the right to protect its installations, and to protect its recruiting services,"” says Pyle. "“It does not have the right to maintain extensive files on lawful protests of their recruiting activities, or of their base activities,"” he argues.
There's our personal database of individuals who engage in anti-American demonstrations, as per the neocon ideology. Guess what America, you're no longer living in a democracy. You're starting to live in a facist state, controlled by the Republican Party and the PNAC neocons. The Republican Party has become a facist party--it no longer holds any republican or conservative values anymore. President Bush is becoming more like a facist dictator. We now have our own Gestapo, within the Pentagon. Are you happy with this new state? Do you feel safe now? Or should we start building concentration camps to hold those who oppose the war, or hold "anti-American" views?
Are you happy now?
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