NYT: Military Data (Talon) Reveal Tips on Antiwar Activities

[Patsy Stone]

By ERIC LICHTBLAU and MARK MAZZETTI
Published: November 21, 2006

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/21/washington/21protests.html

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 — An antiterrorist database used by the Defense Department in an effort to prevent attacks against military installations included intelligence tips about antiwar planning meetings held at churches, libraries, college campuses and other locations, newly disclosed documents show.

<snip>

The head of the office that runs the military database, which is known as Talon, said Monday that material on antiwar protests should not have been collected in the first place.

“I don’t want it, we shouldn’t have had it, not interested in it,” said Daniel J. Baur, the acting director of the counterintelligence field activity unit, which runs the Talon program at the Defense Department. “I don’t want to deal with it.”

<snip>

Ben Wizner, a lawyer for the A.C.L.U. in New York, said the new documents suggested that the military’s efforts to glean intelligence on protesters went beyond what was previously known. If intelligence officials “are going to be doing investigations or monitoring in a place where people gather to worship or to study, they should have a pretty clear indication that a crime has occurred,” Mr. Wizner added.

<snip>

[Kagemusha]

1. Well someone sure as hell wanted it.

If the head of the unit doesn't want it, who the hell did, knowing the societal consequences?

[stevedeshazer]

2. OOooooooooooooo....

So, to break this down:

1. The Defense Department treats antiwar activists as terrorists and actively spies on them. Churches, libraries, schools are terrorist havens.

2. A "church service for peace" and "nonviolence training" are suspect.

3. The head of the office that runs the Talon military database (I'm having a 'Talon News' / Jeff Gannon moment), Mr. Baur, now all of a sudden, upon occasion of being caught says he never had anything to do with any of this.

4. Mr. Baur self-incriminatingly goes on to say the following: (bold mine)

<snip>

"I don’t think the policy was as clear as it could have been,” he said. Once the problem was discovered, he said, “we fixed it,” and more than 180 entries in the database related to war protests were deleted from the system last year. Out of 13,000 entries in the database, many of them uncorroborated leads on possible terrorist threats, several thousand others were also purged because he said they had “no continuing relevance.”

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Hmmmm. :eyes:

[Patsy Stone]

4. Where did Baur get the "policy"?

I'll bet that it was "written" way above his head.

[No Exit]

3. Methinks similarity btw "Talon" & "Talon News" (Jeff Gannon) is no coincidence

Just a thought. I always wondered who Gannon was REALLY connected with--besides just the repukelican party, that is.

Did I say Gannon? I meant Jim Guckert.