Bush administration spies on anti-Halliburton activists

[Ian David]

HalliburtonWatch News
<[e-mail]>to news
5:45 am (3½ hours ago)

Bush administration spies on anti-Halliburton activists

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 (HalliburtonWatch.org) -- The U.S. military spies on individuals protesting Halliburton, Newsweek reports today.

In an article titled, "The Other Big Brother," investigative journalist Michael Issikopf reports that a "harmless" anti-Halliburton protest in 2004 by 10 peace activitists outside the company's Houston headquarters "was regarded as a potential threat to national security" by people inside the Bush administration.

The purpose of the 2004 protest "was to call attention to allegations that the company was overcharging on a food contract for troops in Iraq," Issikopf writes. The protest was organized by anti-Halliburton activist Scott Parkin, who was deported by the government of Australia in 2005 for organizing peaceful teach-ins on Halliburton's war contracts.

Issikopf reports that the spying activity was conducted by the ultra-secret Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), created three years ago by the Defense Department to track threats and terrorist plots against military installations and personnel inside the United States.

According to Issikopf, "In May 2003, Paul Wolfowitz, then deputy Defense secretary, authorized a fact-gathering operation code-named TALON—short for Threat and Local Observation Notice—that would collect 'raw information' about 'suspicious incidents.' The data would be fed to CIFA to help the Pentagon's 'terrorism threat warning process,' according to an internal Pentagon memo."

But the article says the leaders of the domestic spying program admit "the outfit may have gone too far."

Issikopf reports that "there are now questions about whether CIFA exceeded its authority and conducted unauthorized spying on innocent people and organizations." A Pentagon memo obtained by Issikopf reveals that the deputy Defense secretary "now acknowledges that some TALON reports may have contained information on U.S. citizens and groups that never should have been retained." The number of citizens named in the TALON reports "could be in the thousands," says a senior Pentagon official quoted by Issikopf.

These revelations are the latest in several recent disclosures showing that the Bush administration is spying on benign peace groups and individuals in the name of national security.

Cheney called the spy program "vital" to the country's defense against al Qaeda. "Either we are serious about fighting this war on terror or not," he said in a speech to the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. Issikopf said the new information about CIFA shows "the scope of the U.S. government's spying on Americans may be far more extensive than the public realizes," adding, "It isn't clear how many groups and individuals were snagged by CIFA's dragnet."

Issikopf's article concludes: "A Pentagon spokesman declined to say why a private company like Halliburton would be deserving of CIFA's protection." But since the military has worked closely with contractors in the past, the Defense Department has included the protection of military contractors in its spy program.

More Information: http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/news/CIFA.html

[Cooley Hurd]

1. K&R - spying on "Islamists" my ASS!

:grr::grr::wtf::grr::grr:

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Wow, those guys are fond of calling things "talon," nicht wahr?

Like Talon News, "Jeff Gannon's" (aka J Guckert) gay pros...I mean, news organization.

Also I note they got the reporter's name spelled wrong, although I can't seem to dredge up the correct spelling through my morning fog. Michael Issikoff?

[Contrary1]

9. Isikoff n/t

[Jackpine Radical]

11. Of course. Thanks.

Morning fog is now lifted.

[Wilber_Stool]

3. I wonder how many of these people

are now on no-fly lists?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. American taxpayers get screwed by a particular corporation,

American public gets screwed by nobid contracts, American people are annoyed that the activities of certain corporations overseas has led to anti-American sentiment, Americans protest this sort of thing... Americans become the target of illegal spying by the government that they have hired to prevent these sorts of things from happening in the first place.

[emulatorloo]

5. Kick and nominating n/t

[Jeffersons Ghost]

6. On another DU board...

I just read a message that we better not do any 1st Amendment things like protesting, because they have guns and will declare Martial Law. All they are waiting for is a "reason."

Please take the time to read my reply:

Your right, let's not give them even a peaceful 1st Amendment Assembly "reason" to declare Martial Law. We must become VERY afraid. Let's hide... Here's some good guidelines for hiding out:

It reminds my of a story I read long ago about a cautious lamb and a vicious wolf. The lamb being constantly frighted, never gave the wolf any "reason" to attack. In fact, it hid much of the time and gave the wolf very few opportunities to take away a lifestyle the lamb held dear.

One day, however, the lamb got thirsty and went to a stream for a quick sip of water before returning to a hidden sanctuary. You see, all living creatures must creep out of hiding eventually or they cannot survive.

Just as one might expect, as the lamb quickly stole a few sips of precious water from the bank of a stream, the wolf came upon it but for some odd reason the wolf felt a need to justify it's actions.

First, the wolf accused the lamb of muddying water that wolves need but the lamb respectfully replied that she was always careful to drink far downstream of wolf territory. Then, the lamb was told it might drink to much water during its life and clean water was for wolves only, so the lamb agreed to drink only from muddy puddles after a rainstorm while it was young and drink from even more polluted puddles in old age.

Finally the wolf accusations became absurd. The vicious creature began to berate the weaker animal for frolicking when it should be working toward making wolf life better and doing other free-spirited things that one might expect from young animals. The lamb quickly replied, "I stay in hiding most of the time and never indulge in the rights our Creator gave to all young creatures.

Ultimately, the wolf grew tired of its self-indulgent games and attacked the lamb for no "reason" at all. As other forest creatures hid themselves better they began to whisper, "the tyrannical wolf needs no 'reason' to attack."

All dumb animals know; ANY EXCUSE WILL SERVE A TYRANT!

Aesop

[lostnfound]

7. A Kick for the anti-Halliburton protesters!

Creative and wonderful.

[IndianaGreen]

8. Bush is a dictator and this is more evidence of his Fascism

Clearly we are beyond anything that can be repaired by elections. Bush and Cheney must be impeached before they are able to lock up people for just saying the "I" word.

[struggle4progress]

10. The Other Big Brother (Newsweek link)

The Pentagon has its own domestic spying program. Even its leaders say the outfit may have gone too far.

By Michael Isikoff
Newsweek

... It isn't clear how many groups and individuals were snagged by CIFA's dragnet. Details about the program, including its size and budget, are classified. In December, NBC News obtained a 400-page compilation of reports that detailed a portion of TALON's surveillance efforts. It showed the unit had collected information on nearly four dozen antiwar meetings or protests, including one at a Quaker meetinghouse in Lake Worth, Fla., and a Students Against War demonstration at a military recruiting fair at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A Pentagon spokesman declined to say why a private company like Halliburton would be deserving of CIFA's protection. But in the past, Defense Department officials have said that the "force protection" mission includes military contractors since soldiers and Defense employees work closely with them and therefore could be in danger ...

Four months later, on Oct. 25, the TALON team reported another possible threat to national security. The source: a Miami antiwar Web page. "Website advertises protest planned at local military recruitment facility," the internal report warns. The database entry refers to plans by a south Florida group called the Broward Anti-War Coalition to protest outside a strip-mall recruiting office in Lauderhill, Fla. The TALON entry lists the upcoming protest as a "credible" threat. As it turned out, the entire event consisted of 15 to 20 activists waving a giant BUSH LIED sign. No one was arrested. "It's very interesting that the U.S. military sees a domestic peace group as a threat," says Paul Lefrak, a librarian who organized the protest.

Arkin says a close reading of internal CIFA documents suggests the agency may be expanding its Internet monitoring, and wants to be as surreptitious as possible. CIFA has contracted to buy "identity masking" software that would allow the agency to create phony Web identities and let them appear to be located in foreign countries, according to a copy of the contract with Computer Sciences Corp. (The firm declined to comment.)

Pentagon officials have broadly defended CIFA as a legitimate response to the domestic terror threat. But at the same time, they acknowledge that an internal Pentagon review has found that CIFA's database contained some information that may have violated regulations. The department is not allowed to retain information about U.S. citizens for more than 90 days—unless they are "reasonably believed" to have some link to terrorism, criminal wrongdoing or foreign intelligence. There was information that was "improperly stored," says a Pentagon spokesman who was authorized to talk about the program (but not to give his name). "It was an oversight." In a memo last week, obtained by NEWSWEEK, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England ordered CIFA to purge such information from its files—and directed that all Defense Department intelligence personnel receive "refresher training" on department policies ...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10965509/site/newsweek/

So here's a heads-up on the RW talkiung point for the CIFA scandal: some data were improperly stored and not deleted after 90 days ...

[gratuitous]

12. So, holding no-bid contractors to account is a threat to national security

Or, what do you suppose these anti-Halliburton protestors will morph into in the coming week?

[TreeMonkey]

13. Happens all the time

I remember even the local police in Denver were keeping all sorts of info on an anti-something protest... forgot what, but it was a big broohaha...

I just expect that when you attend any environmental meeting, you licence plate # is taken down and put somewhere, espacially for earth first, or what have you... it just a given...

The question is are they keeping records of onliners in the DU boards,? You bet they are... any info that rocks the big boat, they keep track of...No worries, there are millions of us online....

As America put Halibutton in the whitehouse, what would you expact?

A no-bid contract in Iraq?

You got it!

[thebigidea]

14. kind of out of character for Issikopf to even pursue this sort of thing.

maybe he's bitter about being burned on that Koran story by his friendly Republican associates.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

15. The more peaceful activists there are in the US...

The more it distracts the spin-tyrant from covering up evidence of the money laundering and bribes of the Abramoff scandal. Anyone as focused on "security" as this petty dictator is basically an insecure individual. If a few protesters make him so nervous that he allows them media attention to scare others out of exercising their 1st Am. what does it tell us? i wonder how a few thousand will make him feel?