[Kosh]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10454316/

[WMCoolmon]

What can I say, people seem to want the increased security..this is part of the cost.

[Grey Wolf]

Patrick Henry must be rolling in his grave.

[neo_hermes]

spinning more likely and spewing something smelly.

[Knight Templar]

O RLY?

[Grey Wolf]

YA RLY!

[Knight Templar]

NO KIDDING.

[an0n]

Pfff. The CIA has been doing that since the ****ing 40's. Germans, Japs, communists, hippies - any US citizen whose affiliations were counter to the regime.

And if I gave a **** about the US, I'd be more scared if they weren't spying on anti-war groups. They've got to try and keep recruitment figures up and the best way to do that is develop effective counter-strategies against the anti-war groups propaganda campaigns.

At worst, it's equivelant to corporate espionage.

[Flipside]

Gotta agree with An0n on this one, I can't believe this would come as a surprise to anyone, absolutely every government does something along these lines.

Of course, getting caught doing it is another matter, and I find it somewhat amusing

[aldo_14]

In other news:
Shock as Pope declares 'I am Catholic'.   
Scientists declare after 5 years study; Bears do, indeed, **** in woods.



Just insert that good old Benjamin Franklin quote here about liberty security something something.  Anyways, haven't you people heard of the PATRIOT act?   And the ensuing record numbers of wiretaps?

[Flipside]

Patrick Henry must be rolling in his grave.

And McCarthy must be laughing in his.

[redmenace]

For the record, elements of the DoD, such as able danger, knew about terrorist cells in the US prior to 9/11 and the Clinton Administration, because of the exact sentiment displayed here, told them to STFU. Even funnier, members of the 9/11 Commission had direct involvement in this catastrophe. 

[redmenace]

I know I am quite biased in this regaurd but, I wouldn't exactly put all "peace activists" in the same basket. There are your garden variety peace activists that are peaceful. Then you have these nut job fringe communist groups which are anarchists of the bad variety. Point is that maybe monitoring the these groups isn't all that bad. Everyone has their biases one way or another. Many of you, I think, assume that all anti-war groups are completely harmless.

[Sigma957]

I think there are fringe elements or people that are borderline in just about every group.

[Flipside]

No more than we are certain that all pro-war groups are interested only in returning Democracy to Iraq, I can assure you.

As I said earlier, I'm not surprised or offended in the least by it, it would be foolish for a government not to monitor it's own dissent, ignoring it certainly won't change anything and can, when extreme elements are involved, be dangerous.

Personally, I can't see any situation where this kind of action wouldn't be required, but I suppose it depends to what level they are doing it. The example given is of a group of anti-war Quakers. Maybe these come under the blanket of religious extremists to the Pentagon, I'm not sure.

[Kosh]

For the record, elements of the DoD, such as able danger, knew about terrorist cells in the US prior to 9/11 and the Clinton Administration, because of the exact sentiment displayed here, told them to STFU. Even funnier, members of the 9/11 Commission had direct involvement in this catastrophe. 

As always, you have no idea what you are talking about. Yeah, why not blame hurricane Katrina on Clinton too while you are at it?

[redmenace]

I think there are fringe elements or people that are borderline in just about every group.

I am sure there are. There is the KKK example. The government strictly monitors their activities along with many other arian organizations in the US. Are their Civil Liberties being infringed upon, absolutly not. They are allowed to say what they want, and meet as they please. But, I am sure the intelligence officers at the Pentagon are just being thorough. They take their job very seriously.

[redmenace]

For the record, elements of the DoD, such as able danger, knew about terrorist cells in the US prior to 9/11 and the Clinton Administration, because of the exact sentiment displayed here, told them to STFU. Even funnier, members of the 9/11 Commission had direct involvement in this catastrophe.

As always, you have no idea what you are talking about. Yeah, why not blame hurricane Katrina on Clinton too while you are at it?

As always you don't back up your obviously inflamatory comment. In response, I conjecture that you are the one that has "no idea" what he is talking about.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Able_Danger

I am certain it would be possible to blame Clinton Administration for some of what happened, but the whole response issue resides with the flagrantly irresponsible Bush administration. And in regaurds to 9/11, there are of organizations that ****ed up. I am sure plenny of blame can be brought to bear on the Bush Administration.

[aldo_14]

I think there are fringe elements or people that are borderline in just about every group.

I am sure there are. There is the KKK example. The government strictly monitors their activities along with many other arian organizations in the US. Are their Civil Liberties being infringed upon, absolutly not. They are allowed to say what they want, and meet as they please. But, I am sure the intelligence officers at the Pentagon are just being thorough. They take their job very seriously.

Is there not a fundamental issue of who this investigation is directed against, though.  It's one thing to assess an anti-governmental (either anti-party political, anti governmental system, etc) group, it's another to decide upon a prolonged surveillance and classify them as a threat, or store their data after they have been determined as peaceful.  To be recording and storing simple peaceful political dissidence at protests, would raise a lot of questions as to why this information is being held.

[redmenace]

Well, it might be a simple issue of policy or law. They probably are not allow to simply destroy investigation material. For example, in the Acquisition and Procruement Office of the Pentagon, we have to keep the simplest contract for a total of 3 years after it has been closed. I suggest the same thing is at issue here with keeping data long after they are determined to be a non-threat.

I suggest, maybe they record the protests to see if they are peaceful. But then again, I haven't fully read the article.