Pennsylvania made national news in September for all the wrong reasons.
The Patriot-News reported that Pennsylvanias Office of Homeland Security
had been tracking groups engaged in lawful, peaceful protests, including groups opposed to natural gas drilling, peace activists and gay rights groups. An embarrassed Gov. Ed Rendell, who said that he had been unaware of the program until he read the newspaper, issued an immediate order to halt it.
It turns out the homeland security office or its private consultant were doing more than just monitoring law-abiding citizens.
They were comparing environmental activists to Al-Qaeda.
They were tracking down protesters and grilling their parents.
They were seeking a network of citizen spies to combat the security threats they saw in virtually any legal political activity.
And they were feeding their suspicions not only to law enforcement, but to dozens of private businesses from natural gas drillers to The Hershey Co.
Internal e-mails from the Homeland Security office reveal a determined effort to recruit local people receiving its intelligence bulletins municipal police chiefs, county sheriffs, local emergency management personnel into its network of citizen spies.
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