The National
Security Agency announced Monday that it will "neither
confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence" of any
information that may have been obtained through agency
surveillance of LGBT groups. The announcement was made
in a letter to counsel for Servicemembers Legal
Defense Network, an organization dedicated to ending
discrimination and harassment of gay U.S. military
personnel. The group had filed a Freedom of
Information Act request after reports surfaced earlier this
year that the NSA had surveilled several LGBT groups,
including those that may oppose "don't ask, don't tell."
SLDN executive director C. Dixon Osburn issued a
statement saying, "2006 is the new 1984. The federal
government's Orwellian surveillance programs of
ordinary, law-abiding citizens violates our right to
privacy under current law. The government's refusal to
disclose its surveillance programs erodes the public trust."
In January the Department of Defense
acknowledged that it had "inappropriately" conducted
surveillance on student protesters at numerous
universities, which Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has
said was "no big deal." (The Advocate)
