Lawmaker Demands DHS Cease Monitoring of Blogs, Social Media

Wondering what other forums are targeted...Ahem...

Excerpt:

Speaking at a Homeland Security subcommittee hearing, the California lawmaker said she was “outraged” that the agency has hired a contractor to review a variety of social networking sites, including Facebook and Twitter, and that General Dynamics is being tasked with reviewing news sources, blogs and their bylines for all types of articles, including those containing anti-American sentiment and reaction to policy proposals.

Speier said she found it particularly egregious that the department was analyzing the authors behind the online words.

“I find that outrageous,” she said during the 90-minute hearing of the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. She said the agency should amend its $11 million contract with General Dynamics “to prevent that type of information from being collected.”

The monitoring largely came to light in January after the Electronic Privacy Information Center sued the DHS to obtain information about the little-known program. Some of the sites on its watchlist included Wikileaks, Drudge Report and, among others, Wired’s Threat Level and Danger Room blogs.

This little tid-bit is quite interesting - the president has a private little spying agency to the tune of $11 million.

The documents showed that, in 2009, the DHS monitored residents’ reaction to an Obama administration proposal, now scuttled, to transfer detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to a prison in Standish, Michigan.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/02/dhs-media-monitorin...