Pentagon spying on America

Ben Franklin said that "those who would give up liberty for temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security." The government's Information Awareness Office may have "disappeared" but apparently they or something like them still lurks in the shadows. What kind of disturbed people would think this was a good logo? NBC thinks they are breaking news, it will be breaking news if they stay on the story and continue to report on it. Is the Pentagon spying on Americans? Secret database obtained by NBC News tracks ‘suspicious’ domestic groups By Lisa Myers, Douglas Pasternak, Rich Gardella and the NBC Investigative Unit Updated: 7:51 p.m. ET Dec. 13, 2005 Lisa Myers Senior investigative correspondent 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.” 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. ........................... 'Slippery slope' Bert Tussing, director of Homeland Defense and Security Issues at the U.S. Army War College and a former Marine, says “there is very little that could justify the collection of domestic intelligence by the Unites States military. If we start going down this slippery slope it would be too easy to go back to a place we never want to see again,” he says. Some of the targets of the U.S. military’s recent collection efforts say they have already gone too far. “It's absolute paranoia — at the highest levels of our government,” says Hersh of The Truth Project. “I mean, we're based here at the Quaker Meeting House,” says Truth Project member Marie Zwicker, “and several of us are Quakers.” The Defense Department refused to comment on how it obtained information on the Lake Worth meeting or why it considers a dozen or so anti-war activists a “threat.” Read More: MSNBC FBI put peaceful protesters in terrorism files By Anslee Willett COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The names and license plate numbers of about 30 people who protested three years ago in Colorado Springs were put into FBI domestic-terrorism files, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Colorado says. The Denver-based ACLU obtained federal documents on a 2002 Colorado Springs protest and a 2003 anti-war rally under the Freedom of Information Act. ACLU legal director Mark Silverstein said the documents show the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force wastes resources generating files on "nonviolent protest." "These documents confirm that the names and license plate numbers of several dozen peaceful protesters who committed no crime are now in a JTTF file marked 'counterterrorism,'" he said. "This kind of surveillance of First Amendment activities has serious consequences. Law-abiding Americans may be reluctant to speak out when doing so means that their names will wind up in an FBI file." FBI Special Agent Monique Kelso, the spokeswoman for the agency in Colorado, disputed the claim the task force wastes resources gathering information on protesters. Read More: Colorado Springs Gazette War is Peace Freedom is Slavery Ignorance is Strength .......Orwell 1984