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Pentagon Caught Spying on U.S. Anti-War and Anti-Nuclear
Activists
Anti-War Protesters Under Pentagon Surveillance Speak Out
FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force Collected Intelligence on
Peaceful Protesters in Colorado
New York Activist Faces Life in Prison; Feds Accuse Him of
Eco-Terrorism
Pentagon Caught Spying on U.S. Anti-War and Anti-Nuclear
Activists
Newly leaked Pentagon documents have confirmed the military
has been monitoring and collecting intelligence on anti-war
groups across the country. Peace protests are being described
as threats and the military is collecting data on who is attending
demonstrations. We speak with William Arkin, the former Army
intelligence officer, who obtained the secret Pentagon documents.
[includes rush
transcript]
Earlier this week NBC
News exposed the existence of a secret Pentagon database
to track intelligence gathered inside the United States. The
database including information on dozens of anti-war protests
and rallies particularly actions targeting military recruiting.
The list included: counter-military recruiting meetings held
at a Quaker Meeting House in Lake Forth, Florida. Anti-nuclear
protests staged in Nebraska on the 50th anniversary of the
U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki. An anti-war protest organized
by military families outside Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
And a rally in San Diego to support war resister Pablo Parades.
The Pentagon database described all of these events as threats.
The documents obtained by NBC also indicate the Pentagon
is now conducting surveillance at protests and possibly monitoring
Internet traffic. One Pentagon briefing document stamped "secret"
concluded: "[W]e have noted increased communication and
encouragement between protest groups using the [I]nternet."
The same document indicated the military is tracking who is
attending protests in part by keeping records on cars seen
at protests.
The Washington Post is reporting
today that the Pentagon has ordered a review of the military
intelligence program following the NBC News report.
The Pentagon's domestic intelligence gathering has been done
through a secretive program called TALON which allows military
bases and other defense installations to file reports of suspicious
activity into a consolidated database.
The TALON program is so secret that even the number of reports
in the database is classified. Also classified is the size
and budget of the agency overseeing the database - the Counterintelligence
Field Activity. The agency was created three years ago following
the Sept. 11 attacks.
The Pentagon also now has a toll-free number for citizens
to report suspicious activity directly to the military. The
number of the hotline is 1-800-CALL-SPY.
- 1-800-CALL-SPY - recorded message.
Just Last week Richard Ben-Veniste of the Sept. 11 commission
expressed concern that Congress has paid too little attention
to the TALON program. He said "I am particularly apprehensive
about the expansion of our military's role in domestic intelligence
gathering."
Anti-War Protesters Under Pentagon Surveillance Speak
Out
We speak to anti-war activists in New York, Florida, California,
Iowa and Ohio who organized protests listed as threats by
the Pentagon. [includes rush
transcript]
The Pentagon conducting domestic surveillance on peaceful
protests and meetings has sent tremors though the country's
anti-war movement.
Some fear a repeat of the Vietnam War era when it was revealed
that the military had conducted investigations on at least
100,000 American citizens.
The domestic surveillance was so extensive that Congress
placed new laws on military spying inside the United States.
On Wednesday we contacted other anti-war and anti-nuclear
activists around the county to get their reaction to the news
about the Pentagon's surveillance of peaceful protesters.
This is what they had to say.
Chuck Fager, Quaker
House Fayetteville, NC.
Snehal Shingavi, University of California-Berkeley.
Kristin Anderson, Campus
Anti-War Network
Will Klatt, High School Student Organizer.
Frank Cordaro, Des
Moines Catholic Worker
- Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, student at New York University
and member of the national coordinating committee of the
Campus Antiwar Network.
She helped organize a protest at NYU in February that was
mentioned in the Pentagon intelligence papers.
- Marie Zwicker, organizer with the counter-recruiter group
Truth Project in Lake Worth, Florida. The group's November
2004 meeting at a Quaker Meeting House was described as
a "threat" in the Pentagon intelligence documents.
FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force Collected Intelligence
on Peaceful Protesters in Colorado
The Colorado ACLU obtained the documents that the FBI collected
the names and license plates of several dozen activists involved
in non-violent protests against a 2002 convention of the North
American Wholesale Lumber Association. [includes rush
transcript]
We look at a story about the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force
conducting surveillance of protesters in Colorado.
Last week the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado
released once secret FBI documents that show the agency's
Joint Terrorism Task Force monitored environmental activists
involved in non-violent protests against a 2002 convention
of the North American Wholesale Lumber Association.
The documents confirm that the names and license plates of
several dozen activists are in a FBI file marked "counterterrorism".
The Colorado ACLU has also played a leading role in exposing
the Denver police spy file controversy. In 2002 residents
of Denver learned the city's police department had been monitoring
lawful political activities and keeping files on the political
associations of city residents.
New York Activist Faces Life in Prison; Feds Accuse
Him of Eco-Terrorism
Daniel McGowan was one of six environmental activists arrested
last week in a series of coordinated raids across four states.
He is accused of setting a pair of arsons in Oregon in 2001
and is being held without bail. [includes rush
transcript]
Bail has been denied to all six environmental activists arrested
last week in a series of coordinated raids in New York, Virginia,
Arizona and Oregon.
The activists have been accused of setting a series of arsons
in the Pacific Northwest between 1998 and 2001.
Daniel McGowan of New York and Stanislas Meyerhoff of Virginia
are facing up to life in prison. They are accused of setting
fires in 2001 at a lumber company and an experimental tree
farm in Oregon. No one was injured in the blazes.
They are facing the most serious charges ever filed against
environmental activists for allegedly taking part in such
a direct action.
The four others arrested face between 20 and 25 years in
prison for allegedly setting other fires. They are Chelsea
Gerlach of Portland, Oregon. Kevin Tubbs of Oregon, Bill Rodgers
of Prescott Arizona and Sarah Harvey of Flagstaff Arizona.
Earlier this year a top FBI official called groups such as
the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front the
nation's top domestic terrorism threat.
The FBI however has been accused of overzealously prosecuting
alleged members of the movement. Last month the FBI agreed
to pay an environmental activist named Josh Cannole $100,000
for mistakenly jailing him as a suspect in a string of arsons
and vandalism at SUV dealerships in California.
- Martin Stolar, president of the New York chapter of the
National Lawyers Guild.
He is representing Daniel McGowan.
Additional
coverage at NYC Inymedia
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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