COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: War Protests: General
Pentagon erred in domestic security database-official
Charles Aldinger, msnbc.msn.com
Dec. 14, 2005
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has built a massive security database tohelp protect U.S. military bases and troops that includes unwarranted
information on Iraq war opponents and peace activists in the United
States, a defense official said on Wednesday.
The official said the database included police reports and law
enforcement tips in a legitimate domestic security effort, but that
it had mistakenly swept up and kept information on people who were
not threats to launch terror attacks.
"We held onto things that should have been expunged because they
weren't a threat," the official, who asked not to be identified, told
Reuters.
Defense Undersecretary for Intelligence Stephen Cambone planned to
send a letter to Congress explaining the error and promising to clean
up the database and protect the privacy of innocent persons, the
official added.
NBC television reported on Tuesday that it had obtained a database
that indicated the military might be collecting information on
Americans who oppose the war and may be also monitoring peace
demonstrations.
The database, obtained by the network, lists 1,500 "suspicious
incidents" across the United States over a 10-month period and
includes four dozen anti-war meetings or protests, some aimed at
military recruiting, NBC's Nightly News said.
Such a document would be the first inside look at how the Pentagon
has stepped up intelligence collection in the United States since the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
AMERICANS WARY SINCE VIETNAM
Americans have been wary of any monitoring of anti-war activities
since the Vietnam era when it was learned that the Pentagon spied on
anti-war and civil rights groups and individuals.
Congress held hearings in the 1970s and recommended strict limits on
military spying inside the United States.
The Defense Department has already acknowledged the existence of a
counterintelligence program known as the "Threat and Local
Observation Notice" (TALON) reporting system.
The system, the department said earlier, is designed to gather "non-
validated threat information and security anomalies indicative of
possible terrorist pre-attack activity."
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters on Wednesday that the
department had a right to get information from the police to help
protect troops and bases. But he did not confirm the building of a
major database.
"The Defense Department does have legitimate interests in protecting
its installations, in protecting its people," Whitman said.
"And to the extent that they use information collected by law
enforcement agencies to do that, that's an appropriate activity of
the United States military," he added in response to questions on the
NBC report.
Whitman stressed that any collection of civilian law enforcement
information was "within very narrow parameters of force protection"
under the law.
Whitman declined to comment on specifics of the broadcast report,
which quoted what NBC said was a secret briefing document as
concluding: "We have noted increased communication between protest
groups using the Internet," but not a "significant connection"
between incidents.
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