New information
released by the Department of Defense shows that the
government conducted more extensive surveillance of student
groups protesting "don't ask, don't tell" than
previously indicated. Documents provided earlier this
month to counsel representing the Servicemembers Legal
Defense Network, an advocacy group for gay and lesbian
service personnel, show that e-mails sent by student
organizers were intercepted and monitored by the Pentagon
and that an undercover agent apparently attended a
protest at Southern Connecticut State University.
The other schools at
which protests were surveilled are the
University of California, Berkeley; the State University of
New York at Albany; and New Jersey's William Paterson
University. All the protests were against either the
military's ban on openly gay personnel or the war in Iraq.
"Federal government agencies have no business
peeping through the keyholes of Americans who choose
to exercise their First Amendment rights," said C.
Dixon Osburn, executive director of SLDN. "Americans
are guaranteed a fundamental right to free speech and free
expression, and our country's leaders should never be
allowed to undermine those freedoms. Surveillance of
private citizens must stop."
In a nod to apparent concerns by the Pentagon,
Osburn added, "It is the suppression of our
constitutional rights, and not the practice of them,
that undermines our national security. It is patently absurd
that this administration has linked sexual orientation
with terrorism."
None of the Defense Department documents
indicated any terrorist activity on the parts of the
students who were monitored. Earlier reports of such
surveillance were released by the department only after SLDN
filed a Freedom of Information Act request. (The
Advocate)
