WASHINGTON, April 21 (UPI) -- The Pentagon and Justice Department have agreed to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request from a gay rights group about its domestic surveillance.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., reported in court papers filed Thursday, the Defense Intelligence Agency will respond by April 27 to a FOIA request filed by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network on January 5.
SLDN filed the lawsuit after NBC News reported in December 2005 the Defense Department had collected information about war protestors and civil rights groups it deemed a threat under the "TALON". The anti-terror database, begun in May 2003, is meant to catalog raw information about suspicious incidents near military bases.
Apparently included in the data base is information collected on gay rights organizations who were protesting military recruiting because of the ban on homosexuals openly serving in the armed forces.
The SLDN requests specifically asks for information on protests and demonstrations at New York University and the University of California-Santa Cruz.
Other Defense Department agencies, including the National Security Agency, are to provide the requested documents and videos by May 4. The Justice Department is to reply with a list of what document searches have been completed by May 11.
The SLDN FOIA request demands "any and all documents" concerning meetings and communications within and between lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations, including SLDN. The filing includes a request for "reports, video recordings, audio recording and photographs" obtained through Pentagon domestic surveillance.
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed similar FOIA requests.
