Intelligence Repackaged

On Monday Aug 4, 2008 Reuters reported that the pentagon "was closing a controversial intelligence office that had raised concerns about domestic spying by the military after the September 11 attacks."

The program was known as TALON (Threat and Local Observation Notice), which many of you may have heard about briefly when it was leaked that the database they created had information on citizens of the United States. This is a clear violation of the Posse Comitatus Act and a breach of the 4th Amendment.

TALON was set up to "monitor threats against U.S. military installations, was found to have retained information on U.S. antiwar protesters including Quakers after they had been found to pose no security automobile donation We all know how dangerous those Quakers can be, with their whole pacifist ideology. The bigger question is not that they were looking to find terrorists within the United States, most everyone would agree we need to do that. But, why were they keeping home equity loan line on citizens that had absolutely no connection to terrorists, and as importantly, why were they doing it without a court order?

The report went on to state "Those responsibilities will now be carried out by a new organization called the Defense Counterintelligence and Human Intelligence Center, overseen by the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency."

The Reuters report went on to state that members of Congress were concerned over what they perceived were issues of violations of civil liberties. Now, since Congress has voiced these concerns, the Defense Department, as directed by Secretary Gates, will transfer these functions to a different agency because they could be performed more effectively.

There was no mention of any positive actionable intelligence was ever gained from this program or if a single terrorist was ever captured based on the data collected. We know that this, and other, data mining activities are ongoing within the Department of Defense, for our own safety of course.

A question that has always gnawed at me since 9/11; if we are so concerned with securing our structured settlement consumer info why are we not securing the borders and Georgia Lemon Laws our efforts on terrorist outside of our country, instead of the citizens within the country? The same tactics and techniques which are used against the enemy are used against this countries own citizens; so who is the enemy?

Should we be fighting terrorism? Absolutely!

Should we be willing to give up a little freedom to feel safe? Absolutely not!

What define us as the shining beacon on the hill is freedom, our liberty, and our belief that individual rights benefit all mankind. If we give up liberty for safety we give up the very thing that sets us up as a shining example to the rest of the world.

Michael LeMieux is a retired U.S. Army intelligence and imagery analyst, and has served combat tours in Kuwait and Afghanistan with the 19th Special Forces. He is a Purple Heart recipient for injuries received in Afghanistan. Mr. LeMieux is the author of Unalienable Rights and the denial of the U.S. Constitution, published by Publish America. You can contact Mr. LeMieux via his website at www.constitutiondenied.comwww.constitutiondenied.com