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Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Continued Documentation of Antiwar Groups

OMB Watch has reported on the Threat and Local Observation Notice (TALON) database before and now the New York Times is revealing that the database continues to hold information on peaceful, antiwar groups, such as simple antiwar planning meetings. TALON is used by the Defense Department to prevent attacks against the military. The head of the office that runs the database, Daniel J. Baur, commented that this information was never intended to be collected and,

"those operating the database had misinterpreted their mandate and that what was intended as an antiterrorist database became, in some respects, a catch-all for leads on possible disruptions and threats against military installations in the United States, including protests against the military presence in Iraq."

Yet new documents from the Pentagon released by the ACLU suggest that the collection of antiwar groups continues. The ACLU is asking that Congress investigate the surveillance of political and religious groups.

So far Congress has failed to investigate how the Pentagon collected the information on innocent Americans, and which other agencies received these reports. In addition, Congress has yet to act on the hundreds of FBI documents previously obtained by the ACLU that show widespread surveillance by Joint Terrorism Task Forces of peace activists, religious groups, environmental groups and animal rights activists.