At 02:34 PM 4/27/2006, R.A. Hettinga wrote:
According to documents seen by The Wall Street Journal, the Pentagon has monitored more than 20 antiwar groups' activities around the country over the past three years. It has reviewed photographs and records of vehicles and protesters at marches to see if different activities were being organized by the same instigators. Cmdr. Hicks says the point of this monitoring is to keep military personnel away from places where they might provoke demonstrators, not to interfere with anyone's right to protest.
The peace activists don't like being watched. About 300 activists gathered at Akron's public library this February to complain to elected representatives at a public hearing. They had watched an NBC News report in December that said the Pentagon included peace group activities in a database of potential terrorist threats. Documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal show that, as the activists suspected, their Quaker-organized rally in March 2005 was on the Pentagon's watch list. Those documents show a broader effort to gather information for databases and analyze it.
If people want to protect these rights they need to join forces like the mask-wearing crowds in 'V for Vengence'. One way might be to adopt an identical street ware dress (like school uniforms) and (during the day) the sunshades now popular on the west coast by Asian women that are similar to motorcycle helmet face plates (that is the cover the entire face). Steve