Pentagon surveillance of antiwar groups extends to Madison

The Daily Page
Dec. 15, 2005

Last night, NBC reported that the U.S. Defense Department is conducting ongoing surveillance of American peace activists. A 400 page department document acquired by the network lists more than 1,500 "suspicious incidents" by a variety of anti-war and counter-recruitment organizations over the last ten months, while an eight page document (available on MSNBC as a PDF file) lists 43 anti-war meetings across the nation. This database lists the date of occurrence, date of report, threat status, and other information on each of the surveillance instances. While most of the listed events are in larger states such as California, New York, and Texas, one details a planned protest in Madison last spring.

Specifically, the event is listed as a "Protest Planned Against ROTC Recruiter at University of Wisconsin," which was organized for April 30, 2005. As noted on the document, this planned protest was reported to the Defense Department on April 26, and is listed as "U/FOUO," which is shorthand for "Unclassified / For Official Use Only." The incident type is listed as "Anti-DOD Vandalism," which is only one of three potential options, the others being "Threat" and "Suspicious Activity." The disposition of this case is recorded as "Open/Unresolved" (as opposed to "Closed/Resolved"), is coded as "Not Credible" in a heading titled "Bi-weekly Y/N," and is marked with an "N" under the heading of "Researched Y/N." Finally, under a "Reason Discounted" heading, this planned event is notated as "NFI," which is undefined.

As noted by the Defense Department, the pleanned event was a counter-recruitment protest at an Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) annual information day to be held at Union South on April 30. It was organized by University of Wisconsin-Madison Stop the War, which is a chapter of the Campus Antiwar Network. The Air Force ROTC info day was cancelled, however, and responsibility for such claimed by UW Stop the War. As introduced in a May 1, 2005 press release titled Student Protest Prevents Annual ROTC Information Day at UW-Madison:

The Air Force Reverse [sic] Officer Training Corps (ROTC) annual information day on April 30 was cancelled. At the information day, students were "to learn about Air Force scholarship opportunities and Air Force careers" and receive free lunch, according to an e-mail sent out to the student body. According to Air Force ROTC representatives on campus, the event was cancelled due to the threat of a protest called by the University of Wisconsin-Madison group Stop the War.

The press release went on to describe the springtime efforts by the anti-war organization to prohibit military recruitment at the university. Though the campaign is in part motivated by opposition to the war in Iraq, the primary administrative argument made by activists contends the U.S. military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy regarding homosexual servicepersons violates university anti-discrimination policies for on-campus job recruiters.

During the spring of 2005, one major element of campus antiwar activism across the nation revolved around counter-recruitment, which was the primary focus at the UW as well. For example, in an earlier counter-recruitment event on Feb. 16, one protester was arrested at the Multicultural Career Fair at the UW Memorial Union as described in this account looking to drop the charges. This campaign at the UW culminated over a week long period that included an Apr. 14 student protest and an Apr. 20 forum with UW Chancellor Paul Wiley regarding the issue. The Chancellor has repeatedly spoken for recruitment policies as they currently exist on campus.

The UW Stop the War May 1 press release closed with reference to the April 30 event:

On Saturday at Union South, the building on campus where the event was scheduled to take place, about 20 protesters showed up to celebrate the cancellation of the recruiting session and build on this success by developing a movement that can get the military off UW’s campus for good.

The Defense Department did not address any of the specific instances of surveillance noted in the document in response to queries by NBC. As reported by the network:

The Department of Defense declined repeated requests by NBC News for an interview. A spokesman said that all domestic intelligence information is "properly collected" and involves "protection of Defense Department installations, interests and personnel." The military has always had a legitimate "force protection" mission inside the U.S. to protect its personnel and facilities from potential violence. But the Pentagon now collects domestic intelligence that goes beyond legitimate concerns about terrorism or protecting U.S. military installations, say critics.

U.S. military and other national department surveillance is not new, and was conducted regularly amid protests against the Vietnam War. Following a series of revelations of such in the '70s, programs conducting surveillance of American citizens expressing political speech were ostensibly dismantled. With the policies implemented by the Bush Administration following 9/11, however, newer surveillance programs are being uncovered.

The documents obtained by NBC are the product of a two year old project that collects on intelligence on identified threats to the Defense Department, one category of which are instances of political speech. As reported by the network:

Two years ago, the Defense Department directed a little known agency, Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, to establish and "maintain a domestic law enforcement database that includes information related to potential terrorist threats directed against the Department of Defense." Then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz also established a new reporting mechanism known as a TALON or Threat and Local Observation Notice report. TALONs now provide "non-validated domestic threat information" from military units throughout the United States that are collected and retained in a CIFA database. The reports include details on potential surveillance of military bases, stolen vehicles, bomb threats and planned anti-war protests. In the program's first year, the agency received more than 5,000 TALON reports. The database obtained by NBC News is generated by Counterintelligence Field Activity.

CIFA is becoming the superpower of data mining within the U.S. national security community. Its "operational and analytical records" include "reports of investigation, collection reports, statements of individuals, affidavits, correspondence, and other documentation pertaining to investigative or analytical efforts" by the DOD and other U.S. government agencies to identify terrorist and other threats. Since March 2004, CIFA has awarded at least $33 million in contracts to corporate giants Lockheed Martin, Unisys Corporation, Computer Sciences Corporation and Northrop Grumman to develop databases that comb through classified and unclassified government data, commercial information and Internet chatter to help sniff out terrorists, saboteurs and spies.

The counter-recruitment campaign by the UW antiwar organization continued into this autumn, during which tensions escalated between the university, the UW Police Department, and the protesters. As described in a Sep. 30 first-person report by one of the activists, members of the organization were ejected from a Sep. 28 career fair at the Kohl Center on the grounds of university administrative code; these grounds were rejected by the antiwar activists. In response to the outcome of the Sep. 28 protest and other events over this fall at the UW, one member of the UW Stop the War filed a complaint with the ACLU (which was published online here in late Nov.) seeking assistance for legal redress.

Interestingly, the Sep. 30 account also references Chancellor Wiley's membership on the FBI National Security Higher Education Advisory Board amid criticism of his position regarding on-campus recruitment. As announced by the bureau on Sep. 15, the board is "designed to foster outreach and to promote understanding between higher education and the Federal Bureau of Investigation," through the development of curriculum related to national security and the establishment of "lines of communication on national priorities pertaining to terrorism, counterintelligence, and homeland security," all with an eye towards the collaborative and open "culture of higher education."

The coming spring is certain to bring another round of antiwar protests at both the UW and the city, likely to have a higher profile due to the planned 'Bring the Troops Home Now" referendum on the April 2006 Madison ballot, not to mention increasing disagreement over the war among national-level politicians. As these protests continue, including here in Madison, will the Defense Department be watching?