In a letter released yesterday by Senator Carl Levin of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the results of an internal (not independent) audit instigated at the request of the Senate, revealed that the Defense Department's post-9/11 Counterintelligence Field Activity unit, and its domestic spying unit--Threat and Local Activity Notice (TALON)--had been investigating and improperly keeping non-terrorist information about the following groups:

those involved in anti-war campus protests across America;

those involved in protests against the military's "don't ask-don't tell" policies;

those who handed out peanut putter and jelly sandwiches at a recent protest rally outside of Halliburton's offices in Houston; and

demonstrators who held up a "Bush Lied" sign outside a military recruiting office in Florida.

These are the persons identified by reporters who have seen leaked copies of some of the TALON records, one noting that the total list of investigations targets of this type were over 1000.

A number of lawsuits have now been filed on Freedom of Information Act reqests related to this program as to which the government refuses to comply. I wonder what new atrocities will come to light in the months to come?

What on earth is going on?
This story appears to be getting very little coverage, with the press concentrating on the President's domestic spying program...but shouldn't we be just as, if not more frightened, that there is a military domestic spying program whose existence and abuses only came to light through whistleblowers going to Congress and the press?

I'm virtually at a loss for words.

Wishing a fond hello to whoever in our government is now monitoring this blog, I stand and scream into the ether...'I'm mad as hell, but what the hell do I do with all this anger?'