WASHINGTON: The US Department of Defence may be routinely spying on US anti-war organisations to determine whether their planned activities could endanger military bases or recruitment drives, according to a document made public late Tuesday.

The eight-page Pentagon calendar, first obtained by NBC News and then released to the public, lists demonstrations, vigils and sit-ins plann-ed by American peace acti-vists outside military installations around the country.

But while peace groups usually release such information well in advance of their events, remarks on the margin of the document, which covers a period from November 2004 to May 2005, indicate the Pentagon may be relying on confidential sources within the movement to assess the threat to its interests.

The most recent event listed in the calendar was an anti-war rally scheduled for May 7 at the Pentagon’s recruitment station in San Francisco.

Having learned about the protest two days in advance, an intelligence analyst qualified it as “a threat,” but deemed the source of the information “not credible.”

“No additional info received,” said a brief anonymous remark in the margins, adding that the upcoming event would be “probably peaceful.”

In early April, the military apparently got wind of two counter-recruitment groups from the state of Georgia studying two new models for conducting protests.

This time, the document classified the source of information as “credible” and said the training session was a “threat.”

“This information is from the same source as previous Internet-based articles regarding counter-recruitment activity,” said a mysterious note on the calendar’s margin.

The Department of Defence (DoD) learned from yet another “credible” source one day in advance that a meeting of anti-war activists slated for November 14, 2004, in Lake Worth, Florida, would feature a “discussion of surveillance against DoD recruiters.”

A different entry chastises the source for providing “wrong” timing in a report about a peace rally scheduled for March 19 of this year in Hollywood.

The released document, however, represented only a tiny portion of the classified 400-page manuscript obtained by NBC News, which the network said listed more than 1,500 “suspicious incidents” that took place across the country over a 10-month period.

Asked to comment on the disclosure, the Pentagon issued no formal denial.

Instead, a DoD spokesperson, who insisted on anonymity, told AFP that the department “uses counterintelligence and law enforcement information properly collected by law enforcement agencies.”

“The use of this information is subject to strict limitations - particularly the information must be related to missions relating to protection of DoD installations, interests and personnel,” the spokesperson said.

The official also said the Pentagon’s internal directives, as well as federal law, strictly limit its “collection, use and storage of this information.”

The disclosure follows reports of increased intelligence activity by the Pentagon in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that beside the World Trade Center in New York City struck the Pentagon building outside Washington. – AFP