Military Launches Probe of National Guard Unit

U.S. military authorities Wednesday began investigating whether a California National Guard unit was established to spy on U.S. citizens, as about 30 demonstrators outside Guard headquarters confronted officials backed by armed soldiers.

The federal inquiry into the country’s largest National Guard force involves the Army’s inspector general, the federal National Guard Bureau’s inspector general and the National Guard Bureau’s legal division.

The unit has raised concern among peace activists that the Guard is resorting to the type of civilian monitoring that characterized Vietnam War-era protests, when the military collected information on more than 100,000 Americans during the 1960s and ‘70s.

Under scrutiny is a California National Guard unit with a tongue-twisting name -- the Information Synchronization, Knowledge Management and Intelligence Fusion program. It was created last year and came to light after a recent story in the San Jose Mercury News.

Investigators are also looking into the Guard’s monitoring of a Mother’s Day antiwar demonstration at the state Capitol that was organized by several peace groups. The activities were documented in an e-mail chain originating in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s press office and made public by the newspaper.

That monitoring was by a second unit, the Guard’s Domestic Watch Center. Both units were under the command of Col. Jeff Davis, who has since retired.

Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Doug Hart said monitoring activities merely meant tracking media coverage of the protest.

The protesters spoke Wednesday in a suburban Sacramento office park and engaged in a verbal confrontation with Guard officials as soldiers carrying M-16 rifles stood in the background.

California National Guard officials defended the unit. “We do not spy on people,” Hart said.