According
to the Pennsylvania-based Patriot News publication, the state’s
Homeland Security office has been involved in surveillance of law
abiding citizen groups and may have overstepped the allowable bounds
authorized for US law enforcement and intelligence-gathering. Criticism
of the Pennsylvania Office of Homeland Security has been intensified by
the report that the government officials involved in this activity, as
well as their private-sector colleagues, had justified their activities
by comparing the environmental advocacy of law abiding citizen activists
to the terrorist attacks committed by Al Qaeda. This detail has been
used, both by news commentators and political figures, as a means for
questioning the overall basis of the Pennsylvania Office of Homeland
Security’s domestic surveillance program. As such, the State’s Governor,
Ed Rendell, has ordered an end to Department of Homeland monitoring of
the law abiding citizen populace of Pennsylvania.
Criticism
of how the State Department of Homeland Security watched and monitored
law abiding citizen activists within the state has also been fed to the
reports that the office had shared concerns with the private business
sector. According to documents released from internal Pennsylvania
Office of Homeland Security proceedings, the Office had a broad
definition of possible threats to the “critical infrastructure” of the
state, pertaining to all forms of political allegiance and activities.
Moreover, the Office was also noted for attempting to build up a “law
abiding citizen” informant network. In the future, the government has
announced that these activities will be relegated more to the
Pennsylvania State Police.
