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New ACLU Report on Government Spying on Protesters

The ACLU has released a new report (available here) documenting that "the Pentagon monitored at least 186 anti-military protests in the United States and collected more than 2,800 reports involving Americans in an anti-terrorist threat database."

“It cannot be an accident or coincidence that nearly 200 anti-war protests ended up in a Pentagon threat database,” said Ann Beeson, Associate Legal Director of the ACLU. “This unchecked surveillance is part of a broad pattern of the Bush administration using ‘national security’ as an excuse to run roughshod over the privacy and free speech rights of Americans.”

The ACLU report reviews hundreds of pages of Defense Department documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed last year. The documents revealed that the surveillance of peace groups and anti-war activists was more widespread than previously known.

The Pentagon document released in conjunction with the report is here.

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  • Display: Sort:
    Hard to get worked up about. (none / 0) (#1)
    by Gabriel Malor on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 10:31:39 AM EST
    A few points about protests:

    (1) Generally, they are done in the public where anyone--government employee or not--can take note of them.
    (2) The point of a protest is to get attention for a particular group or issue.

    Congratulations, protest groups, it worked! However, calling observation of public protests "spying" is a little hyperbolic. If no super-secret decoder rings were needed to watch protesters wave signs and chant, it's not spying.

    And about the government program:

    (1) DoD programs should be required to follow the DoD's own rules and regulations concerning retention of information.

    If the program was required to delete those obvservations that were deemed "not credible" threats then they need to delete them.

    Is this really something to get worked up about? Not unless you like thinking of yourself as standing up to the jack-booted Man: (whisper) "The government is spying on me..." Cue the drama. Right here. Now. Yo. Like. Drama... Thankyou.

    PS. The link to the Pentagon report is broken.

    Wow. (none / 0) (#2)
    by Gabriel Malor on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 10:39:23 AM EST
    And having read over my first two comments of the day here, I've realized that I am really grouchy and not in the right frame of mind to comment. I will be absenting myself for today.

    Sorry for the snark above, Jeralyn.

    Parent

    Gabriel (none / 0) (#3)
    by aw on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 10:40:56 AM EST
    Correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand that you are a law student.  Is there anything that this administration does that gets you "worked up?"

    Parent
    I'm guessing (none / 0) (#5)
    by scarshapedstar on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 10:53:05 AM EST
    He hopes to be a Texas state prosecutor.

    Parent
    Really? (none / 0) (#7)
    by Edger on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 12:10:02 PM EST
    I though he was hoping George would give him Abu's job. If not he could aways start his own law firm...

    Let's see...

    Malor, Malor, and Mo Malor
    Tagline: "Yoo Ain't Seen Nuthin' Yet."

    Parent

    That would be (none / 0) (#8)
    by Edger on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 12:14:56 PM EST
    Yoo, as in Yoo.

    Parent
    Question (none / 0) (#4)
    by scarshapedstar on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 10:49:33 AM EST
    If you go to the supermarket, do you expect this to end up in a government dossier? Of course not; you have every right to go to the supermarket.

    If you go to a protest, do you expect this to end up in a government dossier? Of course not; you have every right to go to a protest.

    Parent

    Thats the answer! Well said. (none / 0) (#10)
    by kdog on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 05:12:22 PM EST
    Oh, yeah, no need to be concerned about... (none / 0) (#9)
    by Bill Arnett on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 12:46:12 PM EST
    ...secret databases, secret dossiers, and all a person's personal, private, and sensitive records of all kinds being collected, stored, analyzed, subjected to great scrutiny AND keeping most of what they have collected in databases which cannot be seen, contested, or reviewed for accuracy and correction hidden and, therefore, beyond the reach of any citizen.

    Move along, nothing to see here...move along.

    Parent

    Corrected link (none / 0) (#6)
    by roy on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 12:03:27 PM EST
    The Pentagon doc can be found here.

    anti-terrorist database (none / 0) (#11)
    by zaitztheunconvicted on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 05:14:42 PM EST
    and some people wonder why people like the congresswoman named Gonzalez have trouble getting on their airplane with their ticket.  Her name is on a terrorist watch list, according to the NSA, as if a lot of recent terrorism was done by persons with the last name Gonzalez or Gonzales.