Last month, NBC News broke the story that the meeting of Quakers in Lake Worth, Fla., was one of about 1,500 allegedly suspicious incidents included in the Defense Department's secret TALON (Threat and Local Observation Notice) reporting system. Recent reports have said Quaker activities in Ohio and Vermont also may have been scrutinized under the program.

The database obtained by NBC showed that the Pentagon also had labeled as "threats" counter-military recruiting protests and other planned demonstrations around the country, including one at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven.

A Defense Department spokesman said last week that the TALON program is intended to deal with suspicious activity and threats to national security before an attack occurs. "Unfiltered" information in the database can come from law enforcement, counter-intelligence or even concerned citizens, he said. The information then becomes a "dot" that could later be connected to other "dots" to identify a possible terrorist attack plot in its early stages. The information is shared with law enforcement, intelligence and other government security agencies and analyzed.

The spokesman, who declined to be identified by name, said information that does not belong in the database is not deleted but is instead placed in an oversight file after a period of time.

Peter Goselin, an attorney for the Connecticut chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, said Thursday that a number of peace organizations are considering joining together to file mass Freedom of Information requests of the state and federal government to determine if lawful political protest is under surveillance here.

"Over the last couple of months, there have been a number of disclosures concerning improper and illegal surveillance actions by everything from the [National Security Agency] and the [Defense Department] to the New York Police Department," Goselin said. "These activities would be a violation of political or religious freedom."

Michael McConnell, regional director of the American Friends Service Committee in the Midwest, says that documents the AFSC has received over the years through Freedom of Information requests reveal that the social-action Quaker organization was the target of FBI surveillance and infiltration dating to the 1970s under a government effort to "neutralize" political dissidents.

"Given the history, I'm not surprised [about the recent surveillance of Quakers], but it is outrageous," McConnell says, noting that the Chicago office where he works has evidence that over the years Chicago police and the FBI have spied on and infiltrated his organization's protests at presidential inaugurations and military recruiting offices. "There are real threats out there," he says, "but it does not come from groups engaged in lawful public protest whose goals are publicly stated."

John Humphries, a Hartford resident and Quaker activist who traveled to Iraq before the war in defiance of U.S. sanctions, says that as citizens and people of faith, Quakers are called on to follow a higher law and to take personal responsibility when their government violates international law, which he believes has occurred with the Iraq war.

"What we do comes from moral and deep spiritual conviction. We have a long pacifist history," says Humphries, a member of Reclaiming the Prophetic Voice, a faith-based peace group. "Under the current situation, this is an administration that finds that threatening, and it goes into attack mode against people upholding their rights and responsibilities as citizens."

Local Quakers say they do not plan to change or stop their activities, even though they could someday wind up in the Defense Department's files.

Emily Chasse has done counter-military recruiting at Conard High School in West Hartford for the past three years. "I think it helps parents and kids to know they can have their names taken off the list so they won't be called by recruiters, and that there are other options out there," says Chasse. "I'm sure the Department of Defense doesn't like that we do that."

Abigail E. Adams, a member of the Storrs Friends Meeting, says that for a peace activity to be seen as a threat "is a very sad thing," but that public awareness about the reported surveillance could prompt people to ask more questions.

"I'm hoping that this will heighten people's awareness that concerns over security [are] trumping the foundations of our country and the Constitution," Adams says. "I would hope that this will start what Quakers call a query - an open-ended question that starts you on the road to a broader perspective."

Jim Cason, a spokesman for the Friends Committee for National Legislation, based in Washington, called for an investigation of both the Florida surveillance case and reports that the National Security Agency has conducted warrant-less wiretaps on thousands of Americans.

Cason says members of the Florida group were upset to learn they had been targets of federal government surveillance, and that if Pentagon representatives wanted to come talk to them in an open meeting about their activities, they would have been welcomed.

John Stamm, 86, a West Hartford resident, called the new round of surveillance "no surprise at all." Stamm, a Quaker, is a regular at the weekly Saturday morning peace vigil in West Hartford and also participated in anti-war protests during the Vietnam War.

Stamm came to this country as a German refugee, and during his 1947 citizenship hearing, he recalls being asked about his membership in an interfaith peace group founded by an English Quaker and a German Lutheran during World War I.

"I didn't tell them about it; they asked me about it, which was totally unexpected," he says. "I believe a lot of Quakers have been under individual surveillance over the years."

In the wake of reports that an anti-war protest sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee in Vermont was monitored by the Defense Department, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wrote Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld a letter dated Dec. 21 asking him to "describe the Department's efforts to collect intelligence in Vermont ... and the basis for determining that the target was a threat to Defense Department installations, interests and personnel." David Carle, a spokesman for Leahy, said the senator still has not received a reply.

Joseph Gainza, field secretary of the AFSC in Vermont, says the group learned that its activities were described in a March 7, 2005, report that noted a counter-military recruitment activity would take place about a week later. "People have been very supportive of us and angered that the U.S. government would spend American tax dollars on something like this," Gainza says. "Frankly, I wasn't surprised, but I did wonder why they didn't have better things to do."

QUAKER ORGANIZATION SEEKS PENTAGON SURVEILLANCE FILES

American Friends Service Committee Says Government Spying on Peaceful Protesters Undermines Principles of Democracy

For more information, contact: Janis D. Shields, Director Media and Public Relations, (215) 241-7060 AFTER HOURS 302-545-6569

Philadelphia -- February 1 -- The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) today joined in a series of Freedom of Information Act requests filed across the country to uncover exactly who the Pentagon is spying on and why.

The FOIA requests, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and its affiliates, come in the wake of new evidence revealing the Defense Department has been secretly conducting surveillance of peace groups and protest activities.

"While thousands are dying in Iraq, here at home our government is waging a new war, a 'war on dissent' that threatens to dismantle the constitution and severely challenge our country's basic democratic principles of free speech and peaceful assembly," said Michael McConnell, director of AFSC's Great Lakes region, which recently found itself under Pentagon scrutiny.

"If the government has avowed pacifists under surveillance, then no one is safe," he adds.

Recent reports reveal the Government is spying on its own citizens, and mere attendance at a peace rally could merit placement on a secret Defense Department list of "potential terrorist threats."

The President now admits secretly authorizing an electronic surveillance program to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the U.S. without court-approved warrants or presenting any evidence of wrong-doing. These revelations have caused a bi-partisan outcry in Congress.

In addition to the Service Committee, the ACLU filed national Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests on behalf of Veterans for Peace, United for Peace and Justice and Greenpeace, as well as dozens of local groups in Florida, Georgia, Rhode Island, Maine, Pennsylvania and California. The ACLU is seeking the disclosure of all documents maintained by the Department of Defense on the individual groups. Many of the groups involved in today's action, such as the Rhode Island-based Community Coalition for Peace, have already learned that they are listed in the Pentagon's Threat and Local Observation Notice (TALON) database.

The TALON program was initiated by former Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz in 2003 to track groups and individuals with possible links to terrorism. But according to portions of the database that were leaked to the media in December, the Pentagon has been collecting information on peaceful activists and monitoring anti-war and anti-military recruiting protests throughout the United States. Following public outcry over the domestic spying program, current Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England issued a memorandum on January 13 directing intelligence personnel to receive "refresher training on the policies for collection, retention, dissemination and use of information related to U.S. persons."

At least four of the incidences of surveillance uncovered were activities coordinated or supported by the American Friends Service Committee, a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947. Founded by Quakers in 1917, the Service Committee began as a vehicle for conscientious objectors to the First World War to contribute to binding up the wounds of war: by building houses for war victims, feeding hungry children, and clothing the displaced. AFSC has historically felt called to witness against war and for changing the conditions that cause violent conflict.

"How can we speak of spreading democracy in Iraq while dismantling it here at home?" asks Joyce Miller, AFSC associate general secretary for justice and human rights. "Political dissent is fundamental to a free and democratic society. It should not be equated with crime."

AFSC's work, always open and resolutely nonviolent, has been under government surveillance for decades. The Service Committee secured nearly 1,700 pages of files from the FBI under a Freedom of Information request in 1976. These files show that the FBI kept files on AFSC that dated back to 1921. Ten other federal agencies kept files on AFSC, including the CIA, Air Force, Navy, Internal Revenue Service, Secret Service, and the State Department. The CIA has intercepted overseas mail and cables in the 1950s, and some AFSC offices (and even its staff's homes) have been infiltrated and burglarized in the late 1960s into the 1970s.

Over and over again, AFSC was targeted as a subversive element, followed by investigations that established that it's a "serious pacifist organization," or a "religious, charitable, peace organization."

"We all want to be safe," Miller concludes. "However, trampling upon the Bill of Rights and dismantling our constitution will not make us more safe or secure, nor will it erase the threat of terrorism. Conversely, eroding the safeguards of the Constitution make us less safe and destroy the principles of democracy on which our country was founded."

The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on National Security Agency eavesdropping starting February 6, 2006.

# # #

The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization that includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace and humanitarian service. Its work is based on the belief in the worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice.

QUAKER ORGANIZATION SEEKS PENTAGON SURVEILLANCE FILES

Spokespeople Available:

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) makes these spokespeople available to discuss the dangers of unlawful eavesdropping and surveillance of people in this country.

MARY ELLEN MCNISH

Mary Ellen McNish is general secretary of the American Friends Service Committee -- internationally recognized for its humanitarian work in the aftermath of World Wars I and II. "McNish stresses. McNish regularly attends the annual summit of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates in Rome and has been featured in the Washington Post, CNN News, on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, and quoted in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and USA Today. She is one of thirty-three leading scholars featured in the book The Iraq War and its Consequences. "As Americans, we must recognize that freedom of dissent is one of our greatest legacies. Trampling upon the Bill of Rights is not the answer to stopping terrorism. Let us not erode the very principles and safeguards upon which our country was founded."

JOYCE MILLER

"Across the country the fundamental rights of people to express opposing viewpoints, without fear of attack or unfair scrutiny by local police and federal officials are increasingly in jeopardy," emphasizes Joyce Miller, American Friends Service Committee associate general secretary for justice and human rights. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Joyce has extensive experience as a social activist fighting to uphold civil liberties. "The increased targeting of people simply for participating in protests and other First Amendment protected activities by police and government officials arguably under the guise of a 'war on terror' is chilling."

KEITH HARVEY

Keith Harvey is AFSC New England regional director, where two surveillance incidents identified through the Defense Department database occurred. The FBI infiltrated the New England regional office in the 1950's. "The president of the United States has twice sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States. By spying on legitimate first amendment activities he has not only broken the law, he has broken his word to the American people."

MICHAEL MCCONNELL

"While thousands are dying in Iraq, here at home our government is waging a new war, a "'war on dissent' that threatens to dismantle the constitution and severely challenge our country's basic democratic principles of free speech and peaceful assembly," states Michael McConnell, AFSC Great Lakes regional director and creator, Eyes Wide Open: The Human Cost of War, an exhibit now traveling across the United States to focus attention on the lives lost in the Iraq conflict. "Quakers and AFSC are the miner's canaries of civil liberties," McConnell adds. "If the government has us under surveillance, then no one is safe.""

Quelle: http://www.religionnews.com/press02/PR020106.html