UNITED STATES: Pentagon uses spy network on activists

Documents released under freedom of information laws show that queer activists at universities have been monitored by an intelligence system set up for surveillance of suspected terrorists. The official role of the secretive Counter-Intelligence Field Activity (CIFA) is to analyse information in relation to events that "may be linked to possible foreign terrorist activities". Such information is then passed on to the police, intelligence agencies and local military command officials. However, it seems that CIFA regularly spies on protesters. Scott Parkin, the peace activist who was expelled from Australia last year following a negative security assessment, had earlier come to the attention of CIFA following a peanut butter and jelly sandwich protest outside of Halliburton. The Department of Defense has also confirmed the existence of a surveillance program monitoring gay and lesbian rights groups, who were targeted because they opposed discrimination on the basis of sexuality in the military. There was no suggestion of a terrorist threat from the protest groups.

From Green Left Weekly, April 26, 2006.

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From GLW issue 665