U.S. surveillance moves rile LGBT groups

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Christopher Curtis, PlanetOut Network
Tuesday, December 20, 2005 / 03:37 PM

Several groups are criticizing the Pentagon after press reports claimed it has been spying on civilian groups, including student groups opposed to the military's "don't ask, don't tell" ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual personnel.
Last week Lisa Myers of NBC News reported Pentagon investigators had records citing a February protest at New York University, with the law school's LGBT advocacy group OUTlaw classified as "possibly violent" by the Pentagon. The news report also uncovered surveillance of military-ban protests at the State University of New York at Albany and William Patterson College in New Jersey during April.
In addition, a "don't ask, don't tell" protest at the University of California at Santa Cruz that featured a gay kiss-in was labeled by the Pentagon as a "credible threat" of terrorism.
"To suggest that a gay kiss-in is a 'credible threat' is absurd, homophobic and irrational," said C. Dixon Osburn, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN). "The Pentagon is supposed to defend the Constitution, not turn it upside down."
"Every high school civics class is taught that the United States does not spy on its own citizens," said John Marble, spokesman for the National Stonewall Democrats. "The fact that gay student groups are being spied on shows just how loopy the Bush administration is. They are acting like the Nixon administration."
The new reports of civilian surveillance come right after the New York Times revealed last week the president personally approved spying on American civilians without a court order. The president admitted to approving the spy measures and, on Monday, added he had nothing to be sorry about.
"Do I have the legal authority to do this? And the answer is, absolutely," said President Bush.
"I've reauthorized this program more than 30 times since the September the 11th attacks, and I intend to do so for so long as the nation faces the continuing threat of an enemy that wants to kill our American citizens," he added.
But Marble is not convinced with the president's reasoning. "That was a key reason why we fought a cold war for 50 years: Spying on our citizens is something that communist countries do. It is not something the Bush administration should be doing."
"If what is described is true, it's outrageous. It raises various legal and constitutional questions," said Michael Adams, director of education and public affairs for Lambda Legal, about the reports that the Pentagon has been spying on civilian organizations. "There needs to be an investigation to find out who's behind this and those people need to be held accountable."
"The Pentagon, by its own rules, cannot be keeping information about people that are not threats to the military," Ben Wizner, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) national legal department, told the PlanetOut Network.
While Wizner would not predict the next steps Congress would take with the president regarding an investigation, he added, "If the claims that President Bush authorized spying on civilians without a court order are substantiated, it could possibly be an impeachable offense."

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