Pentagon Spying on Anti-War groups

This is almost unbelievable. According to NBC, the Pentagon has been collecting infomation on anti-war activists, and spying on anti-war demonstrations [link].

This, sadly, is only the latest in a long string of abuses commited by this administration:

1. They are not shy about the use of propaganda, domestically as well as internationally, such as bribing Iraqi [link] and American [link] journalists , producing video news releases that are supposed to be mistaken for real news [link], and a new $300 million dollar Department of Defense program to spread disinformation to foreign media outlets [Link], which seems to be essentially a renewal of programs under the Office of Strategic Influence [link], a comprehensive program aimed at misleading foreign media in favor of US policies.

2. They have set up a network of secret prisons throughout Europe and the Middle East in countries which have less strict laws regarding torture [link], and President Bush has threatened to use his first presidential veto against legislation sponsored by John McCain, which passed the senate by a vote of 90-9, against cruel and degrading treatment of prisoners [link]. He threatened to veto the bill unless it included a provision making the CIA exempt. Bush gave in, but only under intense public pressure.

3. They leaked the name of an undercover CIA agent in retribution against the main who exposed their justification for war as a fabrication [link].

4. They have held two US citizens for years in a military brig without access to a lawyer [link]. Yasser Hamdi was accused of fighting alongside the Taliban, and held for three years in solitary confinement, until he was released without charges, under the condition that he agree not to sue the US government over his imprisonment [link]. Jose Padilla was accused of plotting to attack the United States with a radioactive "dirty bomb," and held him in a Navy brig for three and a half years without charging him. He was transfered to the criminal justice system only recently, on charges completely unrelated to the original accusations [link].


This is getting ridiculous.