There's so much junk out there and conflicting information it is hard to keep anything straight; one source says Nass was an intern or part time staffer at the University of Massachusetts Med School and some other students asked her to look into a professor doing work for the defense department.
Evidently the students were part of some organized group and I figure she was a member of that group too. Problem is, I don't know what that group was, but I'm betting it wasn't the Young Republicans or the ROTC unit.
I think you are on the right track, piasa! It looks like their "research" is more a self-fulfilling prophecy.