National Security
Agency will "neither confirm nor deny" surveillance of
LGBT groups

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)