(Anyone else here beginning to see a pattern? What do the "Activist Judges call that? Is it "...a repeated pattern of abuse?")
Posted on Thu, Dec. 29, 2005
By Becky Bartindale
Mercury News
A University of California chancellor called Wednesday on Bay Area congressional representatives to investigate the government's reported spying at college campus protests, including one in April at UC-Santa Cruz.
"We are greatly concerned about the Pentagon's investigation of a UCSC campus protest of military recruiting last spring," UCSC Chancellor Denice Denton wrote in a campus e-mail. "MSNBC reports that this protest was classified as a `credible threat' by the Department of Defense."
She called the government's investigation of the campus protest "a questionable use of military resources," adding, "It is especially disquieting that political dissent would be considered threatening." "As a nation, we must be vigilant and careful in balancing the competing needs of national security and the fundamental rights and values of individuals in a free and democratic society," Denton wrote.
Calls and e-mails on Denton's behalf went out Wednesday to the offices of U.S. Reps. Sam Farr, D-Salinas; Mike Honda, D-Campbell; Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto; Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose; and Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. "We registered our concern with them, however, almost everyone is away" for the holiday, said university spokeswoman Elizabeth Irwin. "We expressed interest in supporting them to ensure oversight for protection of constitutional rights."
Farr already has denounced the Pentagon spying, which came to light earlier this month after NBC News obtained a secret 400-page Defense Department document listing more than 1,500 "suspicious incidents" across the country over 10 months.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/13506607.htm?source=rss&channel=mercurynews_politics>
(more at link above)