WP: Protesters Found in Database

[Pirate Smile]

Protesters Found in Database
ACLU Is Questioning Entries in Defense Dept. System

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 17, 2007; Page A08

A Defense Department database devoted to gathering information on potential threats to military facilities and personnel, known as Talon, had 13,000 entries as of a year ago -- including 2,821 reports involving American citizens, according to an internal Pentagon memo to be released today by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The Pentagon memo says an examination of the system led to the deletion of 1,131 reports involving Americans, 186 of which dealt with "anti-military protests or demonstrations in the U.S."

Titled "Review of the TALON Reporting System," the four-page memo produced in February 2006 summarizes some interim results from an inquiry ordered by then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld after disclosure in December 2005 that the system had collected and circulated data on anti-military protests and other peaceful demonstrations.

The released memo, one of a series of Talon documents made public over the past year by the ACLU under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, said that the deleted reports did not meet a 2003 Defense Department requirement that they have some foreign terrorist connection or relate to what was believed to be "a force protection threat."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/16/AR2007011601731.html

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. I hope I am in it

I hope my activities have wasted enough of their time so they don't do something to someone else.

[madmax]

2. Wonder if I'm in it

My husand and I had our photos in the News Tribune in NJ. My big mouth is wide open and I'm hold a large poster of bush with Illegitmate across his chest. I was chaning Ill ... ill ... illigit....illligitimate. lol It was great. Newspaper printed our names. pfffft!

[Nostradammit]

16. My thoughts exactly -

What a great honor to be chronicled as having opposed this gluttonous, bloodthirsty regime.

True heros, every single person on that list.

[Auntie Bush]

28. Just my name should alert them and be a red light.. My rhetoric

should also be another signal. I'm dangerous and need to be incarcerated for the safety of the USA. To ignore me is dangerous!

[tavalon]

3. Actually one of my partners just pointed out that we all have a file

It's called the internet and the government accesses through a database management tool called Google. Lol. He ain't wrong!

[ShockediSay]

9. & so the PhoneCo dragnet, the net dragnet, all the eavesdropping

dragnets, probably have most of us in there

If we're agin' BushCo, WE ARE ENEMIES, the way they think, and we are

subject to nonreviewable rendition, of course.

See y'all at Gitmo (or Poland, or Syria, or ....).

[tavalon]

13. They don't call me the gitmo girl for nothing n/t

[rodeodance]

4. 1984 is with us.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. These guys really love to call things "Talon" don't they?

'Member Jeff Gannon/Guckert/Whatever & Talon News?

[rusty charly]

7. you mean

retired male prostitute James Guckert?

[beltanefauve]

10. Beat me to it! n/t

[grasswire]

15. beat me to it, too

That was my first thought. Talon News.

[cascadiance]

6. It's also worth noting that David Burtt and his deputy both quietly resigned...

... a few months back without much publicity about it.

Note the following lines in this article:

It has grown rapidly over the past four years, but not without problems. Along with discovery of the Talon data collection, CIFA was linked to the lobbying and earmarking activities that led to the conviction of former congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.). Burtt and his top deputy retired in August 2006, and federal investigators are still looking at CIFA contracting activities.

This is probably what Carol Lam is looking at. You know, the U.S. prosecutor that just resigned a little while ago today after being pressured by Bushco to step down after she successfully prosecuted Duke Cunningham?

Here's another article from the Sunday's Post that talks about this as well, and how they may be linked to MZM, etc. too, since some of the CIFA contracts went to MZM:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/13/AR2007011301486.html

[donkeyotay]

27. According to your WaPo link, CIFA is investigating itself

"Burtt and his top deputy retired in August 2006, and federal investigators are still looking at CIFA contracting activities."

It is not enough for people to retire. Lots of them have, but investigations have gone nowhere, no one is being prosecuted, no remedies are being made to ensure this doesn't happen again, no disgorgement of ill-gotten profits, no improvement of our defense, no justice, no confidence in our government.

[BrightKnight]

8. Anti-war is not necessarily anti-military.

People protest for many reasons. It is possible to be anti-war and pro-military. Many people are only against the Iraq war. Some people just oppose it because it was botched and there is no accountability. Some people just hate Bush for any of a number of very good reasons.

Aside from exercising free speech, how could even a full flaming pacifist be a threat to the DoD?

A picture of someone taken at a demonstration means nothing.

Domestic political activists do not belong in any database. The DoD and any other agencies involved need to delete their KGB files and focus on doing what the citizens of this Country are paying them to do.

[EVDebs]

11. Wasn't Jeff Gannon a Talon news guy ? If that's the kind of security clearanced dudes spying on us

all I can say is this country needs to get its act together pronto !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Gannon

I've also heard of satanists in the 'intelligence community', guys like Michael Aquino, having access to everyday citizen's information. What the hell are Republicans thinking ?

A group called 'The Finders' created a stir some years back but nothing came of the investigation. Wonder why.

[lies and propaganda]

32. damn you! you beat me!

and tahnks for reminding me of the Finders...

[Hardrada]

12. The FBI got actual movies of us rads years ago, in 1968.

They had these clumsy old movie cameras and could not have been more obvious as we urged people to oppose the VN war etc. I suppose those films are all in some dank archive somewhere. Yeah, I know the feeling...but nothing ever came of it but some hearty profanity on our part at the time!

[Jeanette in FL]

23. Oh, but how we have aged since 1968

I don't think they would recognize us from those old movies.

[0007]

30. I couldn be recognized from that 'Love In' at Golden State Park

in San Francisco in the sixties. One hundred and twenty eight of us were hauled off to jail stark ass naked.

[Hardrada]

33. I would be recognizable since I haven't grayed that much

but maybe not since I have grown a mustache since! And am, of course, heavier.

[GreenZoneLT]

14. Seriously, this is a nothing

I just about laughed my head off when they came out with some TV or movie recently called "Threat Matrix." A threat matrix is a spreadsheet, kept up to date by staff weasels like me.

Somebody sees something in the news about a demonstration, or they get a tip, or whatever, and they enter it in the matrix. You check it out, find out it's nothing, just a peaceful demonstration, and you enter THAT in the matrix. but it's still in the database. Nobody actually ever looks at it again.

Demonstrations get checked out, because they're not all peaceful, and even the peaceful ones often attract violent groups and people on the fringes (like those black-bloc anarchist bungholes). At the very least, plenty of anti-military demonstrations have resulted in damage to military property, which is something to keep track of and figure out a defense against (even if the defense is "take the day off.")

[Nostradammit]

17. And sometimes the government sends in their own goons

to make sure there's violence.

[ClintonTyree]

21. I don't call the government keeping files on innocent citizens....

nothing. I call that another chip off The Bill of Rights and the Constitution. All of these little things may not seem important to you but added together they become a gross infringement on our rights. Our government has no business spying on and keeping records of people exercising their basic rights as citizens of this country.

Sorry, LT. I can't agree with you on this one. :hi:

[gratuitous]

29. And what if someone decides it's not nothing?

Remember, this administration has a rather unsavory track record of tossing people in the can for years on end without charge, access to an attorney, or trial, and they claim it's all nice and legal. Sure, an anti-war protest is not treason; you and I can both agree on that. But can we both agree that for some low level factotum in some govenrment office somewhere is going to hold the same opinion? Forever? Because that's about how long those records hang around. And while one person might think it's "nothing" today, what might someone else think five years from now?

[Kolesar]

31. Wake up already. It is so that they can frame and/or blackmail their enemies

You sure do a good job of arguing the republican position. Would YOU like people keeping track of where YOU go and who YOU meet with??

[noel adamson]

18. DOD PDF file here;

I have had this PDF file on my computer for a few months now. It was fairly widely shared across the internet and I can't vouch for it's authenticity but it sure looks legitimate. Demonstrations against the recruiting station here brought about more severe reactions than others with rather http://www.humboldtrevolution.org/wordpress/?p=32">bizarre allegations (which were never substantiated)against those arrested. Another link is here; http://www.humboldtsentinel.com/060106h.htm

You won't find your name in this particular file but you may find your demonstration on it; http://www.humboldtrevolution.org/DODAntiWarProtestDatabaseTracker.pdf

[meuniermr]

19. Wow, that is a lot less people then I expected.

With the "Talon" angle here there has got to be a "probe" joke in here somewhere.

[The Wizard]

20. Every day

the junta is in power is one day's liberty down the rat hole. The road to empire is paved with failed republics.

[llmart]

22. I'd be proud to have my name on their list....

I'm antiwar and proud of it!

[maxrandb]

24. Any way to find out if your on the list?

I'd like to see if they have my name, or DU profile on file!

When I finally leave the military, I'm going to demand they give me all the crap they've collected over the years. Don't know how I'll get my urine back, but I'm sure it's saved somewhere ;o)

[EVDebs]

25. Too bad DoD types haven't read Kevin Phillip's Wealth and Democracy

...they'll discover that countries establishing economic empires have said empires collapse due to the concentration of wealth to just a few (mostly war profiteers etc.)

BTW, Dr K used to joke about the military as 'cannonfodder' during Vietnam (read Price of Power by Sy Hersh); seems they don't read much in those intelligence closets.

[Massachusetts]

26. Quis costodiet ipsos custodies?

[EVDebs]

35. Who will watch the watchers ? If our Constitution was working right, Congress might...

The Roman poet Juvenal first asked, “Quis custodiet ipsos custodies?”, which translates as - “But who is to guard the guards?”

ashishpuliyel.trybalink.net/theGuards.pdf

[2QT2BSTR8]

34. And in the US - we are still arresting those that dispute the war.

http://www.newswithviews.com/BreakingNews/breaking49.htm">OREGON STATE TROOPER SUSPENDS FIRST AMENDMENT

Absolutely despicable!