Pentagon Spying on Gays More Widespread
Pentagon Spying on Gays More Widespread
2006-06-28
Copyright by The Windy City Times
By Bob Roehr
Pentagon surveillance of domestic activities is supposed to be illegal, but that hasn’t stopped the Department of Defense from carrying out such activity in the name of the war on terror. Its definition apparently includes gays.
The latest batch of documents, received on June 22, suggests that the program was more widespread than originally believed.
Reports of spying on gays first surfaced in the press last December. They prompted the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network ( SLDN ) to file a Freedom of Information ( FOIA ) request in January. The military hemmed and hawed and eventually coughed up documents relating to what already had appeared in print.
Among those released in April were reports covering three events at college campuses, including a “kiss-in” in protest of recruiters at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
A Feb. 3, 2005 TALON report, conducted by the shadowy spy office, focused on “an Internet posting” on a protest of recruiters on campus and at a symposium at New York University.
“The term ‘OUTlaws’ is not defined in the posting. The ( deleted ) is concerned this is a security issue. Specifically, the term ‘OUTlaws’ is a backhanded way of saying it’s all right to commit possible violence and serve as ‘vigilantes’ during the symposium. Therefore it is possible that physical harm or vandalism could occur at this event.”
Since the source of the information was the Internet, a simply googling of “outlaw” and “NYU” would have revealed that “OUTLaw is an organization for LGBT law students, as well as their supporters and friends.
This latest batch of TALON documents covered a rally at the State University of New York ( SUNY ) at Albany in protest of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that took place in April 2005.
The report noted, “The fact that the protest is in a different location from the recruiters does not mean much. Protester tactics have included using mass text paging by cellular telephone to inform others of the location of the recruiters.”
Similar “intelligence” reports were filed on protest activities at William Paterson University in New Jersey, Southern Connecticut State University, and the University of California at Berkeley at about the same time.
The documents indicated that e-mails from student organizations were intercepted, monitored, and compiled, and at least one protest was observed by an agent working undercover.
“Federal government agencies have no business peeping through the keyholes of Americans who choose to exercise their first amendment rights,” said SLDN executive director C. Dixon Osburn.
“Surveillance of private citizens must stop. It is the suppression of our constitutional rights, and not the practice of them, that undermines national security,” he said. “It is patently absurd that this administration has linked sexual orientation with terrorism.”
2006-06-28
Copyright by The Windy City Times
By Bob Roehr
Pentagon surveillance of domestic activities is supposed to be illegal, but that hasn’t stopped the Department of Defense from carrying out such activity in the name of the war on terror. Its definition apparently includes gays.
The latest batch of documents, received on June 22, suggests that the program was more widespread than originally believed.
Reports of spying on gays first surfaced in the press last December. They prompted the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network ( SLDN ) to file a Freedom of Information ( FOIA ) request in January. The military hemmed and hawed and eventually coughed up documents relating to what already had appeared in print.
Among those released in April were reports covering three events at college campuses, including a “kiss-in” in protest of recruiters at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
A Feb. 3, 2005 TALON report, conducted by the shadowy spy office, focused on “an Internet posting” on a protest of recruiters on campus and at a symposium at New York University.
“The term ‘OUTlaws’ is not defined in the posting. The ( deleted ) is concerned this is a security issue. Specifically, the term ‘OUTlaws’ is a backhanded way of saying it’s all right to commit possible violence and serve as ‘vigilantes’ during the symposium. Therefore it is possible that physical harm or vandalism could occur at this event.”
Since the source of the information was the Internet, a simply googling of “outlaw” and “NYU” would have revealed that “OUTLaw is an organization for LGBT law students, as well as their supporters and friends.
This latest batch of TALON documents covered a rally at the State University of New York ( SUNY ) at Albany in protest of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that took place in April 2005.
The report noted, “The fact that the protest is in a different location from the recruiters does not mean much. Protester tactics have included using mass text paging by cellular telephone to inform others of the location of the recruiters.”
Similar “intelligence” reports were filed on protest activities at William Paterson University in New Jersey, Southern Connecticut State University, and the University of California at Berkeley at about the same time.
The documents indicated that e-mails from student organizations were intercepted, monitored, and compiled, and at least one protest was observed by an agent working undercover.
“Federal government agencies have no business peeping through the keyholes of Americans who choose to exercise their first amendment rights,” said SLDN executive director C. Dixon Osburn.
“Surveillance of private citizens must stop. It is the suppression of our constitutional rights, and not the practice of them, that undermines national security,” he said. “It is patently absurd that this administration has linked sexual orientation with terrorism.”
posted by Carlos T Mock at 10:00 AM
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