Jan. 6, 2006 – Alarmed over reports that the Pentagon has been spying on United States citizens, fourteen lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender associations are demanding that the Department of Defense make public all records it has or generated relating to the surveillance of meetings and communications by or about the groups.
- ACLU: ?Surveillance-industrial Complex? Expands Gov?t Spying Power (Aug 13, 2004)
- California National Guard Surveillance Controversy Deepens (Jul 12, 2005)
Yesterday, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), an advocate for queers in the military, filed a Freedom of Information Act request on behalf of thirteen other groups in response to media reports last month revealing that the Pentagon maintains a database of its observation of a wide variety of domestic groups. The database contained references to several LGBT college student groups opposed to campus military recruitment because of the Pentagon?s "don?t-ask, don?t-tell" policy.
Announcing the FOIA request in a statement yesterday, SLDN noted that the Pentagon reportedly spied on LGBT student groups at New York University Law School, the State University of New York at Albany and William Patterson College.
The database, which was first reported by NBC News, lists a number of anti-war and anti-military protests as "credible" terrorist threats, including a "gay kiss-in." Following the NBC report, the Pentagon began a review of its database program but has yet to disclose the findings or admit to any wrongdoing.
As 2005 closed, the nation was faced with a spate of revelations that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Pentagon and the National Security Agency were all engaged in forms of legally dubious domestic spying. Believing the practice to be much more widespread than so-far uncovered, the American Civil Liberties Union and a number of other organizations have been busily filing lawsuits and FOIA requests to uncover the extent and depth of such programs.
In many of the revealed instances, most notably the recent NSA revelations, the Bush administration has maintained that what it is doing is both legal and necessary for the nation?s security.
