Posted on 01/22/2006 12:43:16 PM PST by summer
WASHINGTON - While the White House defended domestic surveillance as a safeguard against terrorism, a Florida peace activist and several Democrats in Congress accused the Bush administration on Friday of spying on Americans who disagree with President Bush's policies.
Richard Hersh, of Boca Raton, Fla., director of Truth Project Inc. of Palm Beach County, told an ad hoc panel of House Democrats that his group and others in South Florida have been infiltrated and spied upon despite having no connections to terrorists.
"Agents rummaged through the trash, snooped into e-mails, packed Web sites and listened in on phone conversations," Hersh charged. "We know that address books and activist meeting lists have disappeared."
The Truth Project gained national attention when NBC News reported last month that it was described as a "credible threat" in a database of suspicious activity compiled by the Pentagon's Talon program. The listing cited the group's gathering a year ago at a Quaker meeting house in Lake Worth, Fla., to talk about ways to counter military recruitment at high schools.
Talon is separate from the controversial domestic-surveillance program conducted by the National Security Agency. Bush has acknowledged signing orders that allow the NSA to eavesdrop without the usual court warrants, prompting an outcry from many in Congress.
Bush plans to tour the NSA on Wednesday as part of a campaign to defend his handling of the program.
"This is a critical tool that helps us save lives and prevent attacks," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said on Friday. "It is limited and targeted to al-Qaida communications, with the focus being on detection and prevention."
The Defense Department's Talon program collects data from a wide variety of sources, including military personnel and private citizens, Pentagon spokesman Greg Hicks said.
"They are unfiltered dots of information about perceived threats," Hicks said. "An analyst will look at that information. And what we are trying to do is connect the dots before the next major attack."
To Hersh and some members of Congress, the warrant-less surveillance and Talon are all a part of domestic-spying operations that threaten civil liberties of average Americans and put dissenters under a cloud of suspicion.
"Neither you nor anybody in that (Quaker) church had anything to do with terrorism," said Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla. "The fact is, the Truth Project may have a philosophy that is adverse to the political philosophy and goals of the president of the United States. And as a result of that different philosophy, the president and the secretary of defense ordered that your group be spied upon.
"There should not be a single American who today remains confident that it couldn't happen to them."
This naivete is and willful denial is not lost on those charged with protecting america. If you sleep with the dogs, you are going to get fleas, and you don't hunt for game birds in a fish tank.
Now -- what is this about, really? I don't know.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1539878/posts
Wait Bob, let me fix that for you!
Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla. "The fact is, the Truth Project may have a philosophy that is adverse to the political philosophy and goals of the United States.
This is nothing more than some professional politicians trying out some of the psychological categories to see if the language of the culture industry will automatically induce voters to think and act paranoid.
LINK TO EXCERPTS FROM SECRET DOD DATABASE, EDITED FOR CLARITY
Department of Defense database listing domestic ‘threats’
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/DODAntiWarProtestDatabaseTracker.pdf
Read the report carefully. Threats against the military do get investigated.
They are sort of right. One would imagine that al-Qaeda, as a matter of course, would sharply disagree with the policies of US President George W. Bush, as there is something like a state of war between the US and the diverse supranational organization under the nominal command of Osama bin Laden.
This is an enemy unlike any that the US has ever engaged in battle before in our history. There is no nation, and no recognized nationality, of the combatants we face. They are united only by two principles, the spread of Islam by militant means, and destruction of the "infidel" economies of the North Atlantic. Massed armies facing each other on a field of battle simply is not a tactic that may be employed.
Technology (of which the listening to phone traffic is only one part) is employed by both sides, but the US has the huge advantage of being able to automate a great deal of the technology, and being the inventors of most of it, also knows how to overcome the temporary advantage the other side uses, and turn it against them. The various manifestations of the militant jihadists who claim to be on a holy mission from Allah have the economic means to purchase a great deal of the technology, but they have only rudimentary means to produce most of the supporting infrastructure for that technology. That is, they can assemble atomic reactors, and produce plutonium and highly enriched uranium, which may be used to create weapons of vast destructive capability, but they lack the means to develop a delivery system that cannot be countered by some of the sophisticated detection devices in use by the Western nations. Essentially, they are bringing a knife to a gun fight, which leaves them at a distinct disadvantage.
Not that in the interests of "fairness", they should also be granted the right to achieve anything like parity with the US in weapons capability.
I watched this on C-Sh*t afew days ago. Hersch was sure his phone was tapped, "they" were watching him and reading his mail.
It was hilarious!
The usual load of hysterical crap without any supporting evidence from the MSM.
Actually, they are right.
And we will continue to spy on them, until their heads explode like Algore's.
Well yes in part. And they made fools of themselves in it the Judge Alito hearings as well. That's going to seel big-time. LOL
Well, I suppose someone could ask Hillary about all those FBI files...
here's how it's done!
http://www.digitalfox.com/digitalfox/johnf-ingkerry/foilhat.htm
Sure. Some nutbag leftist group says they've been "infiltrated and spied upon." The proof? They "know" that meeting lists have disappeared.
The usual load of hysterical crap without any supporting evidence from the MSM.
Isn't it amazing how a guilty conscience preys on the mind? They know they are trying to undermine the country, now they see retibution behind every bush!
Thanks! LOL!
As they should. These people want to damage recruiting efforts. Their representative at the phony "hearing" was one Mr. Hersh and a whinier individual could not be found. These groups can be a danger to our national security or be used by those who are. I have no doubt the DOD had someone attend the entirely open meeting. As for the rest, Hersh had no proof, just allegations.
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