Sacramento anti-war leader accuses federal government of withholding surveillance information

[sabra]

http://www.kget.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=42DAD4EF-23D1-4DC7-B064-99EF95BF882D

Sacramento anti-war leader accuses federal government of withholding surveillance information of his group


BAKERSFIELD - The leader of an anti-war protest group in Sacramento accused the federal government of withholding surveillance information of his group.
The Pentagon issued a report on its surveillance following a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The report confirms the National Security Agency collected information on the Sacramento chapter of Veterans for Peace for five months in 2005.

The information was collected in an anti-terrorist database called Talon.

“They gleaned everything they could from public information and I don’t know about any, if there was any, surveillance by any physical agents and humans, but I can’t speak to that because I haven’t seen the full release,” said Veterans for Peace President George Main.

[Peace Patriot]

1. Why should the Veterans for Peace be of any interest to the police...

...whatsoever--let alone the Pentagon?

I'll tell you why.

It's because the Veterans for Peace counter the propaganda and lies of military recruiters. They ask to speak, and get invited to speak, at schools and other youth and counseling forums, and tell the truth about war.

It's because they were among the first to get New Orleans with food, water and other supplies, when the chickenhawks were buying expensive shoes in New York and eating birthday cake with John McCain.

It's because they march against the war.

It's because they're good people who want to spare others the horrors of war.

It's because their voices are especially compelling in criticizing the pigsty of war profiteers that our nation's capitol has become.

And these are seditious activities in BushWorld.

[dubykc]

2. Exactly!!

[Crayson]

3. Beware of the radical Pacifist

Damn pacifists!
They're a radical bunch.
You never know when and where they'll get their hands on a WMD!

[maryallen]

6. You got it ...

Yep, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly:
Out the window with this bunch in power.

[Orrin_73]

4. Talon????

Does this have anything to do with Talon-News, the rightwing news site where Jeff Gannon worked? :shrug:

[BrotherBuzz]

5. Talon is the domestic arm of Eschelon

Two years ago, the Defense Department directed a little known agency, Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, to establish and "maintain a domestic law enforcement database that includes information related to potential terrorist threats directed against the Department of Defense." Then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz also established a new reporting mechanism known as a TALON or Threat and Local Observation Notice report. TALONs now provide "non-validated domestic threat information" from military units throughout the United States that are collected and retained in a CIFA database. The reports include details on potential surveillance of military bases, stolen vehicles, bomb threats and planned anti-war protests. In the program's first year, the agency received more than 5,000 TALON reports. The database obtained by NBC News is generated by Counterintelligence Field Activity.

CIFA is becoming the superpower of data mining within the U.S. national security community. Its "operational and analytical records" include "reports of investigation, collection reports, statements of individuals, affidavits, correspondence, and other documentation pertaining to investigative or analytical efforts" by the DOD and other U.S. government agencies to identify terrorist and other threats. Since March 2004, CIFA has awarded at least $33 million in contracts to corporate giants Lockheed Martin, Unisys Corporation, Computer Sciences Corporation and Northrop Grumman to develop databases that comb through classified and unclassified government data, commercial information and Internet chatter to help sniff out terrorists, saboteurs and spies.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10454316/

So who has oversight on these activities? Are our elected representatives aware of what is going on in our government? Or has the cloak of secrecy been spread so far and wide -- and pulled so tight -- by this administration, that it has obscured these activities from the oversight of the legislative branch?