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Anti-war group infilitrated...

They said their First Amendment rights were violated. I think it's a lot of whining because they were so easily infilitrated....

Quote:

Anti-war groups claim Army civilian infiltrated
BY WILLIAM YARDLEY - The New York Times
Published: Sun, Aug. 02, 2009 02:00AM

SEATTLE -- The Army says it has opened an inquiry into a claim that one of its civilian employees spent more than two years infiltrating anti-war groups active near one of the nation's largest military bases.

The groups say the employee infiltrated their activities under an assumed name and gained access to their plans as well as names and e-mail addresses of some members.

The man, John J. Towery, a civilian employee at Fort Lewis, south of Tacoma, Wash., works as a criminal intelligence analyst for the post's Force Protection Division, according to Fort Lewis officials. The Army would not discuss the nature of the investigation or the claim that Towery had shared information about civilians. It also said Towery was not available for comment.

Brendan Maslauskas Dunn said he met Towery in 2007, when Maslauskas Dunn became involved with Port Militarization Resistance, a group that has tried to disrupt military shipments in Olympia, Tacoma and other ports. Maslauskas Dunn said Towery had identified himself as John Jacob, using his middle name as his last.

Maslauskas Dunn and another member of the group, Drew Hendricks, said Towery had been among a handful of people who maintained e-mail lists for some of the groups and that this had given him access to names and addresses.

"A lot of information he did give us was easily accessible online," Maslauskas Dunn said. "You just had to do a little research."

Hendricks and Maslauskas Dunn said Towery's identity was discovered inadvertently after a public records request made with the city of Olympia. The request yielded an e-mail message Towery had sent to another person with a military address relating to the protesters' activities.

Maslauskas Dunn said Towery told him and another group member that he was not reporting information to Fort Lewis, and that he genuinely wanted to join "the peace movement" but was under pressure to share information about protesters with local law enforcement.

"What he said is that the world isn't just in black and white, that there are areas of gray and that it's in those areas of gray that he lives his life," Maslauskas Dunn said.

http://www.newsobserver.com/nation_w...y/1630858.html

You know this is an interesting case, it was discussed on Foxnews today and they brought up posse comitatus and my first question was does posse comitatus apply to a civilain DoD employee? He is clearly not a member of the US military which is what posse comitatus was created for, but the act says any part of the Army or Air Force.

According to title 18 Chapter 67 1385,

Quote:

Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

With as vague as the law is, it will be interesting to see where this goes, I have to say I'd like to know more about why they were being investigated (but I'm sure we won't ever get the full story). If there was probable cause to believe they were a threat, I don't have a problem with them being infiltrated what so ever, however if there was not PC to believe they were a threat I'm a little uncomfortable with the gov doing this kind of thing as it has pretty chilling implications on the 1st amendment, and even as much as I hate the anti-war nut jobs they have a right to express their opinion.

I wonder why they didn't choose to use a civilian CID agent as opposed to a DoD civilian, I would think the federal LE agent status would have prevented the posse comitatus argument from even coming up.

On the other side of the equation I'm all for protecting the troops and have been on the Military LE and antiterrorism side of things and protecting the troops is much easier to do with accurate current intel.

Like I said it will be interesting to see where this goes.

I do not believe that he could legally do this on behalf of the Federal government.

The military has been prohibited by law from collecting intel on civilians since the issues of the 60s.

If he wants to join, that is his business, but his reporting on their activities would be restricted.

If someone in the miltiary asked him to do this, they are going to be hung out to dry.

TR

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brush Okie (Post 279641)

However it came down I am sure the media will be fair and unbiased in their reporting. :rolleyes:

As always.

TR