Source: Al Jazeera http://aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service... ID=10263 Pentagon spying on anti-war groups - Report 12/17/2005 A Pentagon document shows that the U.S. army is monitoring and collecting information on anti-war activists across the United States, NBC reported. The network obtained a classified Pentagon document which lists four dozen anti-war meetings or demonstrations that took place in the U.S. over a 10-month period. The document also included anti-nuclear protests staged in Nebraska on the 50th anniversary of the U.S. nuclear bombing of Nagasaki. The Pentagon describes all of these events as threats, says William Arkin, the former Army intelligence officer, who obtained the secret documents. According to NBC, the document says that the U.S. military is even monitoring Internet traffic. The network quoted one Pentagon briefing document, stamped "secret", as saying: "We have noted increased communication and encouragement between protest groups using the Internet." Correspondents say the revelation shows how Washington stepped up intelligence collection since the September 11, 2001 attacks. American citizens have been wary of any monitoring of anti-war groups since the Vietnam war when the Pentagon spied on anti-war and civil rights organizations. In the 1970s, the Congress recommended tough restrictions on military spying inside the United States. Following the NBC report, the Pentagon said it ordered a review of the military intelligence program, indicating, but not admitting, that some of the gathered information had been handled improperly. A Pentagon spokesman said that "the Department of Defense uses counterintelligence and law enforcement information properly collected by law enforcement agencies. "The use of this information is subject to strict limitations, particularly the information must be related to missions relating to protection of DoD installations, interests and personnel," he said, according to Reuters. The Pentagon has already acknowledged the existence of a counterintelligence program known as the "Threat and Local Observation Notice" (TALON) reporting system, which the military says is aimed at gathering "non-validated threat information and security anomalies indicative of possible terrorist pre-attack activity." * "Psychological war" USAToday reported that the Pentagon has a $400 million psychological warfare campaign that includes plans to plant pro-American stories in global media outlets. One of the army officials involved in the program was quoted as saying that the operation is aimed at altering foreign audiences' perceptions to back American policies. The program, run by psychological warfare experts at the U.S. Special Operations Command, would operate throughout the world, the report said. According to Reuters, one of the three firms handling the campaign include the Lincoln Group, a company under investigation by the Pentagon for paying Iraqi newspapers to run pro-American stories. Pentagon officials involved in the program say that they don't plan to secretly plant false stories in foreign media outlets. But Mike Furlong, deputy director of the Joint Psychological Operations Support Element, told USAToday that the army would not always reveal its role in distributing pro-American messages. "While the product may not carry the label, 'Made in the USA,' we will respond truthfully if asked" by reporters, he said. USAToday said Furlong refused to give examples of specific products, which he said would include articles, advertisements and public service announcements. Copyright 2005 Al Jazeera Publishing Limited ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature which had a name of signature.asc]