Secret Pentagon Documents Classify Central Coast Group as a "Threat"

KSBY ^ | 11/24/06 | Matt Cota

[TexKat]

New details tonight about a secret Pentagon database used to monitor anti-war protests and activists. Recently-disclosed documents reveal that some of the surveillance targets include an organization with ties to the Central Coast.

Secret Pentagon documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union provide details of how the organization called "Veterans for Peace" was considered a threat.

Every Sunday for the past three years, members of the Santa Barbara Chapter of Veterans for Peace place a cross in the sand near Stearns Wharf for every American soldier killed in Iraq.

First started in Santa Barbara, the "Arlington West" display has been copied by other chapters of Veterans for Peace in communities all across the country. It's intended to honor and acknowledge those who have lost their lives and to reflect upon the costs of war.

The actions of this veterans organization have not gone unnoticed at the Pentagon. A previously secret intelligence report calls the group a "threat to military installations." The report lists the group's upcoming events and warns that while it's a "peaceful organization," "there is potential that future protests could become violent."

"As to attacking any base or anything else, that is ridiculous," says Veterans for Peace group member Ron Dexter. "We support the troops one hundred percent."

Ron Dexter isn't surprised by the revelations that the Department of Homeland Security is checking up on his organization.

"If we aren't investigated by the government, we probably aren't doing our job," says Dexter. "That is pretty radical, but anybody who has been a real threat to what government wants to do, they are going to check on them and try to stop them."

The documents also suggest for the first time that agents of the Department of Homeland Security played a role in monitoring anti-war activities.

The Pentagon admits it made a mistake in collecting information on anti-war protests, but claims the problem has been fixed.

At least one Senate Democrat wants to investigate not just what data was collected by the Pentagon, but why and how it was used.

[piasa]

SEPTEMBER 14, 2001 : (VFP ALREADY GEARING up FOR ANTIWAR EFFORT JUST THREE DAYS AFTER 9/11 ATTACKS ON THE USA) The Veterans for Peace are about as left wing extremist as one can get. In the linked article, 3 days after 911, they were already calling for no retaliation and instead retrospection to be more "inclusive" of the rest of the world, i.e. the "we-made-em-do-it" mindset. --------17 posted on 11/13/2003 12:09:19 PM PST by Alamo-Girl

[albyjimc2]

I went to the link, and all I can say is.... What? I find it rather sad, yet at the same time amusing that there are people that actually go online and brag about doing these kinds of things. I threw rocks and slit tires, therefore I am opposing the big bad government. Oh, sorry, they also put glue in the locks. Someone call Zarqawi, er, Chavez and let him know how to defeat the great satan!

[trooprally]

And better yet, nothing in the newspapers even though they were alerted to the vandalism. But that is normal.

The Raging Grannies is the organized group that really protests at recruitment centers and calls for "civil disobedience".

I'm just glad there is FR and talk radio that is doing the MSM's job.

[Mr] T

[FairOpinion]

"VVAW (Vietnam Veterans Against the War). Both of these organizations HAVE DIRECT CONNECTIONS TO THE KERRY CAMPAIGN."
"Veterans For Peace is an official Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) represented at the UN. "



We keep finding out these distrubing tid-bits, but the MSM keeps ignoring them.

Someone should do research, compile them into a book and publish them.

More and more reasons that we should pull out of the UN, stop funding them and start ignoring them.

[Fedora]

Some more on the original VFP and their role in the creation of VVAW here. Note that the current Veterans For Peace is incorporated under a more recent charter than the original, though there seem to be personnel and ideological links between the two.

Guide to Contents, Abbreviations, and Names in the 8/25/1972 FBI Information Digest Special Report on VVAW

Veterans for Peace aka Veterans for Peace in Vietnam (VFP): Veterans antiwar group founded in Chicago in 1966 by Leroy Wolins, a CP member and leader of the New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. Modeled on American Veterans for Peace (AVP), a CP front formed in 1951 to protest the Korean War. Headquartered in Chicago at 431 South Dearborn, Room 813, apparently with another branch at 7127 South Chicago Avenue. Wolins worked with New York CP, SWP, and VFP members, the New York Fifth Avenue Peace Parade Committee, and Vietnam veteran Jan Barry Crumb to attract Vietnam veterans to the antiwar movement through a May 30, 1967 VFP Memorial Day demonstration. During this demonstration Crumb recruited five veterans, who joined him to convene the first meeting of the VVAW on June 1, 1967. VFP continued to support the VVAW as it grew and expanded, and remained particularly close to the VVAW in certain regional branches such as the Chicago VVAW. NOTE: There is also a present-day group called Veterans for Peace that was formally founded in 1985.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for remembering that post!