COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: War Protests: General
Pentagon Singles Out Schools as Security Threats
Meg Rafferty, The Daily Free Press (Boston U)
January 24, 2006
(U-WIRE) BOSTON -- According to the Pentagon, several universities in
the U.S. may pose a danger to national security.
On-campus protests against military recruitment landed eight national
universities, including New York University and University of
California-Berkeley, on a Pentagon watch list for being threats to
national security.
In mid-December, MSNBC released the list from the Department of
Defense database that cited various domestic "threats" -- including
the college campus demonstrations.
The list, which was part of a 400-page document, recorded more than
1,500 domestic occurrences over the past 10 months, ranking them as
either "credible" or "not credible".
According to the document, all of the campus protests were aimed at
campus recruiters and were held at the New York University, the State
University of New York at Albany, Southern Connecticut State
University, City College of the City University of New York,
UC-Berkeley and UC-Santa Cruz, an unspecified campus of the University
of Wisconsin and "a New Jersey university."
"We were surprised, to say the least, that our university was on the
list," said Josh Taylor, a New York University spokesperson. "We were
a bit concerned, understandably, because we are not entirely clear how
we wound up on it."
Taylor said the Solomon Amendment, which deals with military
recruitment on college campuses, was the main reason for the NYU
protests that were cited.
"It's hardly top secret information that was being discussed," he
said. "The first amendment is pretty important so we're certainly not
going to discourage our students from speaking out about issues that
concern them."
The Solomon Amendment was brought to the national stage in the U.S.
Supreme Court case FAIR vs. Rumsfeld.
In the case, the Forum for Academic and Constitutional Rights contends
that the Solomon amendment violates First Amendment rights by
allotting federal funding only to schools that permit military
recruitment on campus -- recruitment that excludes openly gay, lesbian
and bisexual students.
NYU protesters' opposition to the Solomon Amendment and various
campuses anti-war demonstrations are two of many global activities
that the Pentagon monitors in the name of national security, according
to a Pentagon Spokesperson.
"This counterterrorism and surveillance are across the board," said a
Pentagon spokesperson. "This is not just about antiwar protests and it
is not targeted against one type of threat -- this is a broad issue."
Compiled by the Pentagon's Counterintelligence Field Activity, the
record contains "dots of information" provided by worldwide law
enforcers, intelligence groups, security agencies and citizens who
report "suspicious activity," the spokesman said. "These dots are put
in to try to 'connect the dots' before another major terrorist attack
occurs."
After Sept. 11th, 2001, the Department of Defense developed a database
of "unfiltered" threat information called the Threat and Local
Observation Notice, or TALON.
This system was designed to assemble process and analyze suspicious
activity reports to identify invisible terrorist activity.
"While the concerns are evident, we do have strict regulations as to
what kind of information we are allowed to put into this database,"
said the spokesperson. "It is a method of protection and an attempt to
interrupt the cycle before the next terrorist attack."
According to an unclassified Pentagon document, the TALON report is a
web-based entry form that lists reportable events, or "non-specific
threats to DoD interests."
These threats include: suspected surveillance of DoD facilities and
personnel, threats of security, bomb threats and unusual repetitive
activity.
The only university to be deemed as a "credible" threat in the
expansive DoD document was the UCSC.
The targeted event, a non-violent Students Against War protest at
UCSC, was held on April 5 and drew more than 250 students and some
faculty who were opposed to military recruiting at an on-campus
college career fair.
"We hoped that it would make a statement and to show that recruiters
weren't welcome on campus," said second year UCSC student and
participant Kot Hordynski. "We weren't thinking it would be deemed a
credible threat to national security."
Hordynski, who is from Berkley, Calif., has been a member of Students
Against War campus group since it began in January of 2005. He said he
was disturbed but not surprised but the Pentagon's surveillance.
"Honestly, when we learned about that we were pretty astounded,"
Hordynski said. "What we feel we do is just a demonstration of our
first amendment right and what we set out to do is non-violent."
He said since MSNBC released information about the Pentagon's list,
the student group has received increasing support on campus -- even
from those who do not completely agree with the group's philosophy.
"We want to stick to our message to end occupation abroad and to
oppose recruitment on campus," he said. "But we want to get the
message out that the government wastes their money -It's a complete
abomination that we should be spied on."
After the report was released, UCSC made a statement that they were
opposed to the spying but Hordynski said, "We have our doubt about how
true that is, so we've been trying to talk to them and get more
information."
In one of the two official statements released by UCSC Chancellor
Denice Denton, she said the University had not provided any federal
agency with information about the event in April and did not receive a
request for such information.
"Statements that UCSC Campus Police surreptitiously gather information
about campus activities are incorrect. This is not the case," Denton
said. "We do not know the method by which information was obtained and
subsequently included in the Pentagon database."
Denton's letter was sent to all UCSC colleagues and stated that the
UCSC administration asked local Congress members to, "request a
definition of "credible threat;" to determine why the April 5
demonstration was classified as one; to learn how the information was
gathered; and to address our concern that future monitoring could have
a chilling effect on the exercise of free speech on our campus."
U.S. Congress members Anna Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren both issued
statements about the importance of freedom and made pledges to find
information about the DoD surveillance and allegations.
"We do not tolerate violence," Denton said in the letter. "We do
insist upon the rights of peaceful assembly as integral to the
political freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. We will do
everything in our power to protect those rights for all."
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