The Department of Defense released documents confirming that the U.S. government conducted surveillance on gay groups, the military advocacy group Servicemembers Legal Defense Network announced Tuesday.

The surveillance documents, called TALON reports, were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by SLDN in January and revealed that the Pentagon carried out surveillance of gay and lesbian groups that conducted protests at New York University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. The campus protests denounced the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which bars gay, lesbian, and bisexual military personnel from serving openly.

The Department of Defense admitted it "inappropriately" collected information on protesters in a letter to the Senate Armed Services Committee, according to a February report from United Press International.

"That [inappropriate] information should be destroyed, and no similar surveillance should be authorized in the future," Osburn said. "Free expression is not a threat to our national security."

The TALON reports may not represent a complete list of gay groups spied on by the Pentagon, according to SLDN. (The Advocate)