KGET17
Thursday, November 23, 2006

BAKERSFIELD - The leader of an anti-war protest group in Sacramento accused the federal government of withholding surveillance information of his group.

The Pentagon issued a report on its surveillance following a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The report confirms the National Security Agency collected information on the Sacramento chapter of Veterans for Peace for five months in 2005.

The information was collected in an anti-terrorist database called Talon.

“They gleaned everything they could from public information and I don’t know about any, if there was any, surveillance by any physical agents and humans, but I can’t speak to that because I haven’t seen the full release,” said Veterans for Peace President George Main.

Main believes his phone was tapped by the NSA because of what he describes as a tell-tale echo on his cell phone while the protests were underway.

The Pentagon said it has since deleted information on the anti-war group protests from its Talon database.