<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114610040426937149.htm>
Neighborhood Watch Pentagon Steps Up Intelligence Efforts Inside U.S. Borders Post-9/11 Campaign Includes Tracking Antiwar Protests, Mining Large Databases 'Collecting' vs. 'Receiving'
By ROBERT BLOCK and JAY SOLOMON April 27, 2006; Page A1
AKRON, Ohio -- On March 19, 2005, about 200 mainly middle-aged peace marchers made their way through the streets of this city, stopping outside a Marine Corps recruiting center and a Federal Bureau of Investigation office to listen to speeches against the Iraq war. Close behind, police in unmarked cars followed them -- acting on a tip from the Pentagon.
For weeks prior to the demonstration, analysts at the Army's 902nd Military Intelligence Group in Fort Meade, Md., were downloading information from activist Web sites, intercepting emails and cross-referencing this with information in police databases.
The Army's conclusion, contained in an alert to Akron police: "Even though these demonstrations are advertised as 'peaceful,' they are assessed to present a potential force protection threat."
The Akron protest and seven others monitored by the Army that month turned out to be nonviolent. Pentagon officials later issued an apology, admitting that some of the information in military databases shouldn't have been there. But they called that a minor slip in a critical program to protect Americans. [Iraq war protesters carry a fake casket down East Market Street in Akron, Ohio, on March 19, 2005.] Iraq war protesters carry a fake casket down East Market Street in Akron, Ohio, on March 19, 2005.
The government's monitoring of the protests is one example of how the 9/11 terror attacks have sparked a broad effort by the Pentagon to gather intelligence within U.S. borders. Its goals are both to protect military facilities and keep an eye out for any threat on American soil.
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