I know my phones and my mothers phones were tapped for almost 8 months last year. When your phone clicks all the time and the phone company tells you there is nothing wrong with your line - and then all the sudden it stops. I am very outspoken about this war the PNAC has started to make themselves rich and rulers of the world. I'm just wondering when they will round us all up and put us in their prisons they are building all over the place. I will never give up on fighting for human life. No one person is better than the next. We're all the same...we are human beings not animals but you couldn't tell by all the death we cause for our so called protection.
May peace be inside all of us,
Cindy
From ACLU Online Oct 20, 2006 E-Mailing:
May peace be inside all of us,
Cindy
From ACLU Online Oct 20, 2006 E-Mailing:
New Documents Detail Military Surveillance of Peace Activists
This month the ACLU released new details about military surveillance of Americans opposed to the Iraq war, including Quakers and student groups. The documents show that the Pentagon was keeping tabs on non-violent protesters, amassing information and storing it in a military anti-terrorism database.
The documents were produced in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the ACLU after evidence surfaced that the Pentagon was secretly conducting surveillance of protest activities, anti-war organizations and groups opposed to military recruitment policies. The Pentagon shared the information with other government agencies through the Threat and Local Observation Notice database.
Among the documents are reports on protest activities across the country organized or supported by the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker peace group. One document, which is labeled "potential terrorist activity," lists events such as a "Stop the War NOW!" rally in Akron, Ohio on March 19, 2005. The source noted that the rally "will have a March and Reading of Names of War Dead" and that marchers would pass a military recruitment station and the local FBI office along the way.
"When information about non-violent protest activity is included in a military anti-terrorism database, all Americans should be concerned about the unchecked authority this administration has seized in the name of fighting terrorism," said ACLU attorney Ben Wizner.
For more information on government surveillance of Americans, go to: www.aclu.org/spyfiles.
This month the ACLU released new details about military surveillance of Americans opposed to the Iraq war, including Quakers and student groups. The documents show that the Pentagon was keeping tabs on non-violent protesters, amassing information and storing it in a military anti-terrorism database.
The documents were produced in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the ACLU after evidence surfaced that the Pentagon was secretly conducting surveillance of protest activities, anti-war organizations and groups opposed to military recruitment policies. The Pentagon shared the information with other government agencies through the Threat and Local Observation Notice database.
Among the documents are reports on protest activities across the country organized or supported by the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker peace group. One document, which is labeled "potential terrorist activity," lists events such as a "Stop the War NOW!" rally in Akron, Ohio on March 19, 2005. The source noted that the rally "will have a March and Reading of Names of War Dead" and that marchers would pass a military recruitment station and the local FBI office along the way.
"When information about non-violent protest activity is included in a military anti-terrorism database, all Americans should be concerned about the unchecked authority this administration has seized in the name of fighting terrorism," said ACLU attorney Ben Wizner.
For more information on government surveillance of Americans, go to: www.aclu.org/spyfiles.
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Pentagon Monitoring Peace Activists' E-Mails
More information keeps coming out, thanks to the ACLU, about the Bush Administration's equation of protest with terrorism -- and the snooping it then engages in.
Homeland Security is monitoring peace groups and even peering at their e-mails. "This information is being provided only to alert commanders and staff to potential terrorist activity or apprise them of other force protection issues."
It then shares that information with Joint Terrorism Task Forces, which include the FBI and state and local law enforcement, as well as with the Pentagon's notorious Talon (Threat and Local Observation Notice) program.
For instance, an April 12, 2005, Talon document, just released by the ACLU, shows that the Pentagon was concerned about "suspicious activity" at an upcoming event sponsored by the Broward Anti-War Coalition in Florida.
This peace group, according to the document, was planning -- hold your breath here -- "guerrilla theater and other forms of subversive propaganda" at the Fort Lauderdale Air and Sea Show.
The source of the information was the Miami-Dade Police Department, and members of Army Recruiting and the Miami Joint Terrorism Task Force were briefed on it, the document states.
Another Talon document, dated March 1, 2005, released by the ACLU, reveals that Homeland Security agents are monitoring e-mails of such scary groups as the Quakers.
"The source received an e-mail on 25 Feb 05, subject: upcoming peace/anti-war events. The e-mail was from the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in Northeast Ohio," the document states. And that source is identified as "a special agent of the Federal Protective Service, US Department of Homeland Security." The document adds, "Source is reliable."
The Joint Terrorism Task Force of Dayton, Ohio, was briefed on this one.
The planned activity of the Quakers that so concerned the Pentagon, Homeland Security, and the Joint Terrorism Task Force was this: "On 19 Mar 05, there will be a 'Stop the War NOW!' rally in commemoration of the second anniversary of the U.S. Invasion/Occupation of Iraq. The Akron rally will have a march and reading of names of war dead. ... The Akron march begins at noon and goes past a local military recruiting station and the FBI office. The march will end at the Federal Building in Akron, for a rally, followed by reading of names of U.S. and Iraqi war dead."
A third Talon document, dated March 7, 2005, also relies on an e-mail from the Quakers. "Source received an e-mail from the American Friends Service Committee" about "actions at military recruitment offices with the goals to include: raising awareness, education, visibility." The source is again identified as "a special agent of the Federal Protective Service, U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Source is reliable."
All three Talon documents state at the top: "This information is being provided only to alert commanders and staff to potential terrorist activity or apprise them of other force protection issues."
"Potential terrorist activity." Isn't that delightful?
Word to the wise: If you're a peace activist, the government may be watching you and reading your e-mails.
Something just to keep in mind.
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