(Host) Senator Patrick Leahy has some questions for the Pentagon about reports that the military monitored anti-war protesters in Vermont.
Leahy has asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to provide details of the apparent domestic spying operation.
VPR’s John Dillon reports:
(Dillon) Vermont peace activist Joseph Gainza doesn’t consider himself a threat to military installations.
Gainza works for the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization. It’s a group with a long tradition of non-violent protest against war.
Last March, Gainza was involved in planning peace vigils at military recruiters’ offices. The demonstrations were planned to coincide with the anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
The protest turned up in a Department of Defense database. Gainza says he’s not terribly surprised that the Pentagon keeps tabs on the peace movement.
(Gainza) “What disturbed me was that it’s part of a larger pattern that this government seems to be doing what it pleases and hiding from the American people so much of its violations of law.”
(Dillon) Earlier this month, NBC News broke the story that the Pentagon has monitored anti-war protests as part of a stepped up intelligence collection effort.
Pentagon policy allows the government to take the legal steps necessary to protect military installations and personnel from potential violence.
But Senator Patrick Leahy questions whether this policy was followed.
(Leahy) “I want to know the extent of it. I want to know under what conceivable, conceivable legal justification they are doing it. And even if they could legally justify it, what dunderhead policy reason for doing it. And again, I’d like to know how much it cost. The Department of Defense says we don’t have enough money to get the kind of armor and protection our troops need in Iraq, but we’ve got money to go around and spy on Quaker meetings?”
(Dillon) Leahy says Vermont has a long tradition of political protest.
(Leahy) “Besides I told the Department of Defense if they really want to hear Vermonters speak out against the war, they don’t have to send a camera crew to snoop around Vermont, just turn on C-SPAN. I do it on the Senate floor all the time.”
(Dillon) Joseph Gainza says the Pentagon spying could have a chilling effect on the public’s constitutional right to challenge the government.
(Gainza) “People don’t want to have their names on files somewhere as doing something which the government doesn’t approve of. People are very concerned about that.”
(Dillon) Leahy has asked the Pentagon to give details of the surveillance in Vermont. He wants the answers by January 15th.
For Vermont Public Radio, I’m John Dillon in Montpelier.