Fergie's Tech Blog

California Anti-Terrorism Agency Denies Tracking Political Rallies

In a follow-up to a story from yesterday, an AP newswire article by Laura Kutzman, via The Mercury News, reports that:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's anti-terror office said Saturday that it has never monitored the activities of political groups in California, in response to a newspaper report that it had tracked rallies and protests.

Matthew Bettenhausen, director of the state Office of Homeland Security, did not dispute a report in the Los Angeles Times that two security briefings had included details about upcoming political events.

But he said they were draft memos produced by consultants at SRA International who were developing the daily briefings. Bettenhausen said the consultants were told to stop including the information about political events.

"It's not our policy," Bettenhausen said in an interview Saturday. "It's not part of our values to engage in the violation of civil rights and civil liberties."

The newspaper did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

posted by Fergie @ 7/02/2006 04:06:00 PM