Pentagon Admits Spying On 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Protests

The Pentagon confirmed Tuesday that the Defense Department surveilled groups opposed to the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law banning openly lesbian, gay and bisexual service members, RAW STORY has learned. The confirmation came in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by Servicemembers Legal Defense Network in January.
The revelation comes amidst a rash of reports that the Defense Department has spied on anti-war groups. It confirms that surveillance of protests at New York University, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of California at Santa Cruz was conducted by US agents.
Last December, RAW STORY was the first to report that gay protesters had been monitored.
The Supreme Court recently ruled that colleges are required to allow military recruiters on campus; many large universities have sought to bar recruiters, saying the policy is discriminatory.
According to the documents, surveillance was conducted of a UC Santa Cruz without any indication that civil disobedience would be used, acknowledging that even the source hadn't verified the tip.
After receiving a tip that "several homosexual and pro-gay groups are planning to 'protest hate & recruiters on NYU campus (NYC),'" the name of one such group, OUTLaws, was used to justify spying on the demonstrations. "The term 'OUTlaws' is a backhanded way of saying it's all right to commit possible violence and serve as 'vigilantes' during the symposium," one memo speculates. The document later acknowledges that the name "may refer to members of the gay community that are now 'out' in the open and studying at law school." Noting that there was little information about the group available through an Internet search, the report concludes that there was still a "potential for confrontation."
Reasons given to monitor the Berkeley protest are even less specific. "There is a strong potential for a confrontation at this protest given the strong support for anti-war protests and movements in the past," it argues. "The fact that the protests is in a different location from the recruiters does not mean anything."
A report back claims that civil disobedience was called off at the Berkeley event after students learned of an administration plan for a "police attack against the protesters."
According to SLDN, "The release of the documents follows media reports indicating government surveillance of civilian groups at several universities across the country. The Department of Defense acknowledged that it had 'inappropriately' collected information on protestors in a letter to the Senate Armed Services Committee, according to a February report by United Press International."
"The Department of Defense has now confirmed the existence of a surveillance program monitoring LGBT groups," said C. Dixon Osburn, SLDN's executive director. "Pentagon leaders have also acknowledged inappropriately collecting some of the information in the TALON database. That information should be destroyed and no similar surveillance should be authorized in the future. Free expression is not a threat to our national security."
from The Raw Story