USA: Defense Department Personnel Policy Regards Lawful Pr=?ISO-8859-1?Q?otests_As_=93Low?=-=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Level_Terrorism=94?=

ACLU Challenges Defense Department Personnel Policy To Regard Lawful Protests
As "Low-Level Terrorism" (6/10/2009)
<http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/39822prs20090610.html>
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: 202.675.2312 or media@dcaclu.org

Anti-terrorism training materials currently being used by the Department of
Defense (DoD) teach its personnel that free expression in the form of public
protests should be regarded as "low level terrorism." ACLU attorneys are
calling the approach "an egregious insult to constitutional values" and have
sent a letter to the Department of Defense demanding that the offending
materials be changed and that the DoD send corrective information to all DoD
employees who received the erroneous training.

"DoD employees cannot fully protect our nation and its values unless they
understand that a core American value is the constitutional right to criticize
our government through protest activities," said ACLU of Northern California
attorney Ann Brick. "It is fundamentally wrong to equate activism with terrorism."

Among the multiple-choice questions included in its Level 1 Antiterrorism
Awareness training course, the DoD asks the following: "Which of the following
is an example of low-level terrorist activity?"  To answer correctly, the
examinee must select "protests."  

The ACLU sent a letter today to Gail McGinn, Acting Under-Secretary of Defense
for Personnel and Readiness, asking that the materials be corrected
immediately. The ACLU points out that the misinterpretation of First Amendment
freedoms is particularly disturbing when viewed in the context of a larger,
long-term pattern of domestic security initiatives by the government that have
attempted to treat lawful dissent as terrorism. Examples of this shameful
pattern can be seen in the Pentagon's monitoring of at least 186 anti-military
protests, the FBI's surveillance of potential protesters at the Republican
National Convention, the Fresno County Sheriff Anti-Terrorism Unit's
infiltration and surveillance of Peace Fresno, a community peace and social
justice organization and the covert surveillance by the Maryland State Police
of local peace and anti-death penalty groups.

"Teaching employees that dissent on issues of public concern is something to
be feared, rather than respected, is a dangerously counterproductive use of
scarce security resources, making us less safe and less democratic," said
Michael German, ACLU National Security Policy Counsel and former FBI Special
Agent, who co-signed the letter with Brick.  

The Level 1 Antiterrorism Awareness training course is an annual training
requirement for all DoD personnel that is fulfilled through web-based instruction.

To read the ACLU's letter to the DoD, go to:
<http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/39820leg20090610.html>