A Protest, a Spy Program and a Campus in an Uproar (5th most e-mailed story of the day!)
By SARAH KERSHAW
Published: January 14, 2006
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - The protest was carefully orchestrated, planned for weeks by Students Against War during Friday evening meetings in a small classroom on the University of California campus here...
More comments and most of the article (few hundred words) reprinted below...
my thoughts: It doesn't surprise me that a college anti-war group involved in counter-recruitment of the military is being spied on by the Pentagon, especially when military recruitment is becoming increasingly difficult, and especially when there is a growing realization that the death toll on U.S. troops isn't going to drop anytime soon, and when a study shows that many deaths are due to the poor body armor
It was widely reported recently, including in an article by Kos, that the Pentagon was spying on UCSC because of gays. This is NOT accurate.
Spying on Gays? No, spying on counter-military recruitment
Bogus story spreads that Pentagon labeled a gay kiss-in a "credible threat"
Students at Santa Cruz protested military recruiters last April; the demonstration was said to be listed in a Pentagon database.
Josh Sonnenfeld and Jennifer Low, members of the group that planned the protest.
So when the military recruiters arrived for the job fair, held in an old dining hall last April 5 - a now fateful day for a scandalized university - the students had their two-way radios in position, their cyclists checking the traffic as hundreds of demonstrators marched up the hilly roads of this campus on the Central Coast and a dozen moles stationed inside the building, reporting by cellphone to the growing crowd outside.
"Racist, sexist, antigay," the demonstrators recalled shouting. "Hey, recruiters, go away!"
Things got messy. As the building filled, students storming in were blocked from entering. The recruiters left, some finding that the tires of their vehicles had been slashed. (personal comment: there is no proof that those who slashed the tires were involved with Students Against War)The protesters then occupied the recruiters' table and, in what witnesses described as a minor melee, an intern from the campus career center was injured.
Fast forward: The students had left campus for their winter vacation in mid-December when a report by MSNBC said the April protest had appeared on what the network said was a database from a Pentagon surveillance program. The protest was listed as a "credible threat" - to what is not clear to people around here - and was the only campus action among scores of other antimilitary demonstrations to receive the designation.
Over the winter break, Josh Sonnenfeld, 20, a member of Students Against War, or SAW, put out the alert. "Urgent: Pentagon's been spying on SAW, and thousands of other groups," said his e-mail message to the 50 or so students in the group.
Several members spent the rest of their break in a swirl of strategy sessions by telephone and e-mail, and in interviews with the news media. Since classes began on Jan. 5, they have stepped up their effort to figure out whether they are being spied on and if so, why.
Students in the group said they were not entirely surprised to learn that the federal government might be spying on them.
"On the one hand, I was surprised that we made the list because generally we don't get the recognition we deserve," Mr. Sonnenfeld said. "On the other hand, it doesn't surprise me because our own university has been spying on us since our group was founded. This nation has a history of spying on political dissenters."
The April protest, at the sunny campus long known for surfing, mountain biking and leftist political activity, drew about 300 of the university's 15,000 students, organizers said. (Students surmise that, these days, they are out-agitating their famed anti-establishment peers at the University of California, Berkeley, campus, 65 miles northwest of here.)
"This is the war at home," said Jennifer Low, 20, a member of the antiwar group. "So many of us were so discouraged and demoralized by the war, a lot of us said this is the way we can stop it."
A Department of Defense spokesman said that while the Pentagon maintained a database of potential threats to military installations, military personnel and national security, he could not confirm that the information released by MSNBC was from the database. The spokesman, who said he was not authorized to be quoted by name, said he could not answer questions about whether the government was or had been spying on Santa Cruz students.
California lawmakers have demanded an explanation from the government. Representative Sam Farr, a Democrat whose district includes Santa Cruz, was one of several who sent letters to the Bush administration. "This is a joke," Mr. Farr said in an interview. "There is a protest du jour at Santa Cruz."
"Santa Cruz is not a terrorist town," he added. "It's an activist town. It's essentially Berkeley on the coast."
The university's chancellor, Denice D. Denton, said, "We would like to know how this information was gathered and understand better what's going on here."
"Is this something that happens under the guise of the new Patriot Act?" Ms. Denton asked.
As to the students' insistence that the university is monitoring their activities, Ms. Denton said that she had checked with campus police and other university offices and that "there is absolutely no spying going on."
The antiwar group is working closely with the California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which plans to file a public records request with the federal government on the students' behalf, A.C.L.U. officials said. (personal comment: the request made under the FOIA, could take a couple years before records are available)
rest of the article
Pentagon grilled over databse on war critics"
Since the fall "gay kiss-in" was connected to the counter-recruitment of the military, and since the Pentagon spied on Students against War again (the UCSC anti-war group) in an April counter-recruitment protest before, would it really be all that surprising if they were spying again?