Pentagon admits errors in spying on protesters

[kpete]

Pentagon admits errors in spying on protesters
NBC: Official says peaceful demonstrators’ names erased from database

The Department of Defense admitted in a letter obtained by NBC News on Thursday that it had wrongly added peaceful demonstrators to a database of possible domestic terrorist threats. The letter followed an NBC report focusing on the Defense Department’s Threat and Local Observation Notice, or TALON, report.

Acting Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Roger W. Rogalski’s letter came in reply to a memo from Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who had demanded answers about the process of identifying domestic protesters as suspicious and removing their names when they are wrongly listed.

“The recent review of the TALON Reporting System ... identified a small number of reports that did not meet the TALON reporting criteria. Those reports dealt with domestic anti-military protests or demonstrations potentially impacting DoD facilities or personnel,” Rogalski wrote on Wednesday.

“While the information was of value to military commanders, it should not have been retained in the Cornerstone database.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11751418/

[babylonsister]

1. An 'apology' isn't good enough. nt

[EFerrari]

2. Oh, I feel SO much better now.

Thank you, Unka Don. :sarcasm:

[rodeodance]

3. How many other groups have been spyed upon that we do know of?

[wordpix2]

12. ACLU and environmetnal groups

[Warpy]

4. "Errors" my pasty flabby ass

They've been spying on anyone to the left of Mussolini since the 50s. They never stopped, not even when Nixon got caught doing it. FISA is window dressing for Democrats.

They sure hate every bit of power residing with the people, don't they?

[wordpix2]

13. "We didn't know we did anything wrong"---BushCo mantra

[proud patriot]

5. Errors , yeah I believe that aha

:sarcasm:

[acmejack]

6. They have about as much credibility as they do political capital

very little!

[fishwax]

7. it was an isolated incident, i'm sure,

and it will never happen again.

:grr:

[FreedomAngel82]

8. How was the information of value to military commanders??

They're protestors.

[lvx35]

9. Its so transparently corrupt.

Peace protesters advocate policies that would cut defense spending...pentagon spying on them...

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[EVDebs]

11. Martin Luther King got an apology too, after 1968. The MIGs

Military Intelligence Groups, operating domestically, are using illegal spying methods to squelch lawful legal political dissent. Viewpoints unfavorable to the current administration's propaganda catapulters are harassed and abused. Just ask the Quakers in FL, who posted the information about the '14 Enduring Bases' on their website, which resulted in them being spied upon

If the U.S. is ultimately leaving Iraq, why is the military building 'permanent' bases?
http://www.fcnl.org/iraq/bases.htm

[gratuitous]

14. Yep, just an error

You know, an error, like in baseball. Hey, Spring Training has begun! Look at some steroid-juiced freaks hit a baseball 400 feet! Don't worry about domestic spying. We probably weren't spying on you. Or too many people you know. It was just an error, like booting a ground ball.

[SeattleGirl]

15. Notice how everything is always an "error" or an "oversight" or

the product of "bad" or "inadequate information."

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. I doubt there is anybody here who will believe this was an accident.

[progressoid]

17. "wrongly added peaceful demonstrators" Yeah, right!

KISS MY ASS!

[LisaLynne]

18. The only error they think they made was in getting caught.

"While the information was of value to military commanders"? Excuse me? How, exactly? So they'd know where to shoot?

[Gman]

19. DOD has no business doing anything domestic

This is all part of the instituting of their police state.