Not that it's really any big surprise but...
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15742403.htmACLU documents: Pentagon kept tabs on Broward antiwar group
Miami Herald Staff Report
The Pentagon kept tabs on nonviolent protesters of the Iraq war -- including a Broward County group that planned a protest for the annual Fort Lauderdale Air and Sea Show -- by collecting information and storing it in a military antiterrorism database, according to documents released today by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The documents, which the ACLU posted today at its website,
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/spyfiles/index.html, were obtained from the Department of Defense under the federal Freedom of Information Act, the civil-liberties group said.
The documents indicate that the Miami-Dade Police Department sent information to the Pentagon in April 2005, reporting on a planned protest by the Broward Anti-War Coalition.
''The Broward Anti-War Coalition (BAWC), with support from other local groups . . . is planning to conduct a large-scale protest at the Fort Lauderdale Air and Sea Show,'' says the report, dated April 12, 2005. One section of the document says, ``Incident type: suspicious activities/incidents.''
'BAWC plans to counter military recruitment and the `pro-war' message with guerrilla theater and other forms of subversive propaganda,'' the report says.
The report was made part of the Department of Defense's Threat and Local Observation Notice database, or TALON, the ACLU said.
''It is clear that many people have become alarmed at how the Bush Administration has run roughshod over the Constitution in its response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11,'' said Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, in a news release. ``The ACLU plays a vital role in challenging many of these excesses, including the warrantless spying on Americans.''
The ACLU said that the documents it had obtained from the Pentagon show that the TALON database, which was intended to track groups or individuals with links to terrorism, was being used to store information on antiwar protesters gleaned by the Department of Homeland Security, local police departments and the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Forces.
Representatives of the Miami-Dade Police Department could not be reached for immediate comment. Rather than comment immediately, the Pentagon asked that questions be submitted in writing.
The ACLU's news release cites other examples of information gathering on antiwar groups from around the country:
? One document, labeled ''potential terrorist activity,'' lists events such as a ''Stop the War NOW!'' rally in Akron, Ohio on March 19, 2005 by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). The source of the report notes that the rally ''will have a March and Reading of Names of War Dead'' and that marchers would pass a military recruitment station and the local FBI office along the way.
? Other documents contain information on a series of protests mistakenly identified as taking place in Springfield, Ill., when they really occurred in Springfield, Mass.
? In a document listing upcoming Atlanta area protests by the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition, the Pentagon -- citing the Department of Homeland Security as its source -- states that the Students for Peace and Justice network poses a threat to DOD personnel.
To support that claim, the TALON report cites previous acts of civil disobedience in California and Texas, including sit-ins, disruptions at recruitment offices and street theater. Describing one protest in Austin, Texas, the document notes: 'The protesters blocked the entrance to the recruitment office with two coffins, one draped with an American flag and the other covered with an Iraqi flag, taped posters on the window of the office and chanted, `No more war and occupation. You don't have to die for an education.' ''
