The Department of
Defense released documents confirming that the
U.S. government conducted surveillance on gay groups,
the military advocacy group Servicemembers Legal
Defense Network announced Tuesday.
The surveillance
documents, called TALON reports, were released in
response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by
SLDN in January and revealed that the Pentagon
carried out surveillance of gay and lesbian groups
that conducted protests at New York University, the
University of California, Berkeley, and the University of
California, Santa Cruz. The campus protests denounced
the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which
bars gay, lesbian, and bisexual military personnel
from serving openly.
The Department of
Defense admitted it "inappropriately" collected
information on protesters in a letter to the Senate Armed
Services Committee, according to a February report
from United Press International.
"That
[inappropriate] information should be destroyed, and no
similar surveillance should be authorized in the
future," Osburn said. "Free expression is not a threat
to our national security."
The TALON reports
may not represent a complete list of gay groups spied
on by the Pentagon, according to SLDN. (The
Advocate)