Don’t Ask, don’t tell, and don’t raise a fuss over unjustified domestic spying

April 12, 2006

The extent of the government’s domestic spying of law-abiding Americans is still unfolding, but surveillance on critics of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” seems particularly odd.

The Pentagon confirmed Tuesday that the Defense Department surveilled groups opposed to the military’s “[tag]Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell[/tag]” 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 Pentagon’s full release is available here.

Reader M.W. alerted me to this story, which explains that the Pentagon spied on New York University law school’s LGBT advocacy group, called OUTlaw, and gay groups at the State University of New York at Albany and William Patterson College in New Jersey, in large part because the groups are opposed to the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

So why spy on these folks? According to Raw Story’s report, surveillance was conducted at UC Santa Cruz “without any indication that civil disobedience would be used,” and the Pentagon’s own documents acknowledge that “even the source hadn’t verified the tip.”

Not surprisingly, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network is not amused.

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.”

More pre-9/11 thinking from the Constitution-huggers.

Who authorized the surveillance?
Maybe somebody could help with this, but does this in any way violate the Posse Comitatus Act? Or is that legislation irrelevent today? I thought it was still on the books.

  • Nothing is more dangerous, no bigger threat to America than a bunch of gay college students who want to be allowed to serve in the military. I wonder what J Edgar Hoover would say about this?

  • The Pentagon claims that their spying is related to “force protection.”

    As in, they are concerned for the safety of their recruiters, so they monitor for protests.

    What’s that? Is there an actual, credible threat on the military personnel, as opposed to legit free speech and peaceful assembly? What are you, a commie, terrorist sympathizing appeaser? Eh, Frenchie?

  • Clearly, the military figured out that people they won’t let in might get so made at the military that they might (violently?) protest in front of a recruiting office.

    That’s what all this force protection is about. They have conceived that a threat might exist, so they created a military intelligence unit just to spy on anti-war protestors, and decided to extend that spying against gay and lesbian groups protesting “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”.

  • but does this in any way violate the Posse Comitatus Act? Or is that legislation irrelevent today? I thought it was still on the books.
    Comment by 2Manchu

    I wonder the same thing. I think the law is still on the books, but any pot grower in Mendocino County in Northern California will tell you that the feds routinely send in armed helicopter troops to terrify the citizens because they believe that even though the local laws are very pot friendly, the feds believe they still have the right to uphold federal law. So don’t ask/ don’t tell is still a federal law, therefore no community is safe as long as this group is reading the so-called law. God help the diverse populations who see things differntly. That goes for gay rights, medical marijuana, physician assisted suicide, or any number of issues that the right wing feels threatened by. I am certain that many people who have nothing to do with terrorism, and have no connection with the Middle East are targets of this illegal policy.

  • This is so disgusting it’s hard to put into words. Like everyone else in my 1940s third-grade, public-school class, I learned to salute the (48-star) flag, recite the Pledge of Allegiance, sing “America the Beautiful”, etc. Incidentally, no one there, then prayed. I earned spending money by shining shoes for the soldiers at Camp Roberts CA and selling them the daily edition of the “Paso Robles Press” in the bars and card rooms of that tiny cow town. Their bigotry, back then, I could understand (though I couldn’t wait to leave at 17 for unversity in San Francisco). That a bunch of educated, well-off, grown men and women could maintain a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward a large percentage of our citizenry in 2006 makes me, for one, not give a damn anymore what happens to this once-great country.

  • Ed,
    Ahhh, Camp Bob……
    Spent many a days there on the live fire ranges with my mortar platoon.
    And the mindset there did remind me of smalltown Nebraska.

  • I am he as you are he as you are me
    and we are all together…
    One can dream, right?

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