Pentagon 'monitoring anti-Iraq war citizens'

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has a secret database that indicates the US military may be collecting information on Americans who oppose the Iraq war, and may also be monitoring peace demonstrations, NBC reports.

The database lists 1500 "suspicious incidents" across the US over a 10-month period and includes four dozen anti-war meetings or protests, some aimed at military recruiting.

NBC said a briefing document it had obtained was the first look at how the Pentagon had stepped up intelligence collection in the US since the September 11 attacks of 2001.

The secret document concluded: "We have noted increased communication between protest groups using the internet", but not a "significant connection" between incidents.

Americans have been wary of any monitoring of anti-war activities since the Vietnam era, when the Pentagon spied on anti-war and civil rights groups and individuals.

A Pentagon spokesman declined to comment on the television network's report, but said the Defence Department "uses counter-intelligence and law enforcement information properly collected by law enforcement agencies".

"The use of this information is subject to strict limitations."

The Pentagon has already acknowledged the existence of a counter-intelligence scheme known as the "Threat and Local Observation Notice".

This system, the Pentagon said, was designed to gather "non-validated threat information and security anomalies indicative of possible terrorist pre-attack activity".

- REUTERS