The Government Watches More Peace Activists…
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in The War On TerrorismAnd this time it’s not the NSA. It’s the Pentagon.
Why? It’s not clear yet…
It isn’t clear how many groups and individuals were snagged by CIFA’s dragnet. Details about the program, including its size and budget, are classified. In December, NBC News obtained a 400-page compilation of reports that detailed a portion of TALON’s surveillance efforts. It showed the unit had collected information on nearly four dozen antiwar meetings or protests, including one at a Quaker meetinghouse in Lake Worth, Fla., and a Students Against War demonstration at a military recruiting fair at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A Pentagon spokesman declined to say why a private company like Halliburton would be deserving of CIFA’s protection. But in the past, Defense Department officials have said that the “force protection” mission includes military contractors since soldiers and Defense employees work closely with them and therefore could be in danger.
And something tells me it won’t be clear anytime soon. But where does it stop? That’s all I want to know.
This entry was posted on Monday, January 23rd, 2006 and is filed under The War On Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 24th, 2006 at 12:25 am
I think we are a ways away from the gulags & concentration camps –it polls poorly and it’s very difficult to get zoned. The anti-war protesters need to flatter themselves less with the idea that the gov’t is soooo interested in their precious lives.
Doesn’t it make a little sense to spy on domestic anti-war groups? Terrorists might be attracted to organizations against current U.S. policies. I don’t see how anyone can honestly argue that anti-war organizations do not pose a threat to the country greater than say, the Boy Scouts of America.
How could the organization be used? As a logical platform for displaced terrorists and splinter cells to network, organize, plot and continually fail to kill Bond, James Bond. Which brings me to my real point: How many resources do you think the intelligence community uses to keep track of 62 yrs. old Moonbeam Kightrider and her Peace Posse from Pasadena?
The irony — No terrorist will go to anti-war protest or Anti-War dens (which are generally located in public library or near Starbucks.) It will be common knowledge that such places are festering with federal agents.
Where does it stop? At the ballot box or a big dirty car bomb.
January 24th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
“Well you never can tell just how militant those pesky Quakers are going to get. Y’never know that they might control the San Joaquim fault line yet – whatever that is.
‘Sides, whatever, I am just plain interested in what people think.”
Paranoia reigns supreme…