WP: (military) Recruitment Tool Targeted (by 100-group coalition)

[DeepModem Mom]

Recruitment Tool Targeted
Privacy-Minded Coalition Seeks to Quash Pentagon Database

By Jonathan Krim
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 18, 2005; Page D05


A national coalition of parents groups, privacy advocates and community organizations is launching a campaign today to dismantle a database of high school and college students built by the Pentagon to help target potential military recruits.

In a letter being sent today to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, more than 100 groups charge that the database violates federal privacy laws and is collecting demographic and other personal information on young Americans that could be misused by the government and the marketing firms handling the program.

"We are not in opposition to those who choose to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces," said a draft of the letter asking that the program be shut down. But "the creation of the . . . database is in conflict with the Privacy Act, which was passed by Congress to reduce the government's collection of personal information on Americans."

The military, which is struggling to meet recruiting goals, argues that the effort is grounded in law and is essential to maintaining strong, all-volunteer armed forces.

The Pentagon is on track to spend $342.9 million on the controversial Joint Advertising, Market Research and Studies program....(which) seeks to help recruiters discover and reach more potential enlistees and to develop advertising aimed at those who typically influence young people, including parents, coaches and teachers....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/17/AR2005101701529.html?sub=AR

[izzie]

1. My daughter's step son is in the middle of a fire storm

He tells me they are at him all the time. He has just started a college program.They do seem to know who to go after. One grandson, they do not go for but he has an illness. So I guess they have records from some place.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Thanks, izzie -- that would indicate they do have some info...

on these young people.

[Angry Girl]

3. They probably got it from his high school - Opt Out Now and links...

Bush's "No Child Left Behind" Act makes all public high schools give personal student information to local military recruiters or risk losing federal education funding.

Here are some sites to check out:

Opt Out Now!
http://www.leavemychildalone.org/index.cfm?event=tellAFriend&tcid=1?mktcode=09265

Military Free Zone
http://militaryfreezone.org/

Military Out of Our Schools Campaign
Upcoming Counter-Recruitment Conference
October 21-23, 2005 in Berkeley, CA
http://www.objector.org/recruiting.html

Channel One
Military Recruiting on Channel One
Geometry 101, Brought to You by the US Navy
http://www.counterpunch.org/whitehurst02212005.html

More about Channel One
http://www.ibiblio.org/commercialfree/channelonetext.html

And some Anti-Draft/Recruiting sites:

Mothers Against the Draft
http://mothersagainstthedraft.org/

NO DRAFT, NO WAY!
http://nodraftnoway.org/about.shtml

Before you Enlist....
http://www.objector.org/before-you-enlist.html

[Akoto]

4. My older brother had the same problem.

I can remember, when he'd just graduated from high school, the recruiters started calling our house. I don't mean every once in a while, I mean every single day. This was many years before the current war, too (he is now 28).

I have anxiety/panic/various health issues, so I doubt they'll pursue me. I've never received a call, anyhow, and I do my very best to remain under the radar.

[maddezmom]

5. kick

[Judi Lynn]

6. US military's recruiting methods challenged

Last Update: Wednesday, October 19, 2005. 7:23am (AEST)
US military's recruiting methods challenged

More than 100 US organisations have petitioned Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in a bid to get the Pentagon to stop targeting high schoolers and college-age youths in its military recruitment campaigns.

"Because of the potential for abuse and the threat to the personal privacy rights of a generation of American youth, we request that the JAMRS project be immediately ended," the groups wrote in their letter.

The Pentagon has been faced with increasing recruitment difficulties.

It tasked a private firm several months ago with creating a direct-marketing tool that would pinpoint people between the ages of 16 and 25 in a database, in order to better target potential recruits.
(snip/...)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200510/s1485362.htm

[Earth_First]

7. Counter-recruitment volunteers needed!

PLEASE check with your local progressive-based community action organizations for information and training!!!

[Kolesar]

8. I had a dream last night that I was hanging around an Army job fair

I was contemplating enlisting, which is pretty funny because I was born in the 1950s. The recruiting sergeants were pretending like it did not matter that I was a decade too old, and I could sign up anyway. There were lots of young men milling about and they turned to the old guy for some knowledge of what to expect. I remember telling them that they will be put through deprivations like cold, no food and no sleep to get them used to what the Army is like.