Pentagon Shut Down TALON Spying Database Antiwar Students Talks About Listed Credible Threat

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/06/1412250


As Pentagon Prepares to Shut Down TALON Spying Database, Antiwar Students Group Talks About Being Listed as "Credible Threat"

Listen to Segment

The Pentagon is preparing to shut down its controversial domestic spying database later this month. The database, named TALON, includes scores of reports on nonviolent demonstrations and antiwar rallies. We speak with Kot Hordynski a member of Students Against War that was a TALON surveillance target.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Pentagon is preparing to shut down its controversial domestic spying database later this month. The database, named TALON, includes scores of reports on nonviolent demonstrations and antiwar rallies. Targets included Quaker and church groups; organizers of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" protests and student activists mobilizing against the Iraq war. One of those groups was Students Against War, based out of the nearby U.C. Santa Cruz.

Kot Hordynski, a Santa Cruz senior and member of Students Against War. He found out his group was spied on after MSNBC revealed TALON's activities in late 2005.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RUSH TRANSCRIPT
This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
Donate - $25, $50, $100, more...

AMY GOODMAN: As we wrap up today, we go to an issue that -- well, at the Aurora Forum last night, I met a young man afterwards who reminded me of this story, and interestingly, our guest yesterday, Anthony Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU, devoted a number of pages in his book to this issue: the Pentagon preparing to shut down its controversial domestic spying database later this month. The database, named TALON, includes scores of reports on nonviolent demonstrations and antiwar rallies. Targets included Quaker and church groups, organizers of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” protests and student activists mobilizing against the Iraq war. One of those groups was Students Against War, based out of the nearby UC Santa Cruz campus.

Kot Hordynski is a Santa Cruz senior and member of Students Against War. He found out his group was spied on after MSNBC revealed TALON’s activities in late 2005. Kot joins us here in the Stanford studio. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Kot.

KOT HORDYNSKI: Thank you for having me.

AMY GOODMAN: Tell us what happened.

KOT HORDYNSKI: Well, in April of 2005, Students Against War at the UCSC campus, our group, we organized a protest, a counter-recruitment rally that was a 100% peaceful rally in the center of campus that marched to a recruitment fair that was happening on campus. And we later, fast-forwarding to later in that year to December of 2005, we read a report on the internet, as you mentioned, by an MSNBC report that listed our -- that listed a number of different events that were organized by antiwar groups in a document in the TALON database, and our protest, our April 5 event, was listed as a credible threat.

AMY GOODMAN: A credible threat, your group.

KOT HORDYNSKI: Indeed.

AMY GOODMAN: Credible threat to…?

KOT HORDYNSKI: To, well, I suppose, military installations, I suppose. That’s what the TALON database monitors.

AMY GOODMAN: And so, you started to try to seek information.

KOT HORDYNSKI: Uh-huh. Yes, of course. I mean, you know, it was a pretty startling notion to realize that our peaceful protest made it onto a government database. But we realized that we had to do something about it, and so we organized, and we started speaking with the ACLU and basically trying to get to the bottom of how our group made it onto that list.

AMY GOODMAN: And what did you find out?

KOT HORDYNSKI: Well, you know, not very many conclusive things so far. The government has, of course, come out now and said that the TALON database will be closed. They’ve also in the past have said that all of those groups that made it onto the list that were peaceful groups that didn't belong there were put there on by mistake. But, you know, I think in many ways, as much as the TALON closure is a really good thing, I think that in many ways it’s too little, too late, because I think, you know, in many ways the damage has been done. And I think --