Homeland insecurity: Speaking your mind in Pennsylvania is not a threat
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Gov. Ed Rendell said he was "appalled" and called it "extraordinarily embarrassing" that a state contractor tracked legitimate protest groups and privately distributed information about their activities around the state.
He denounced the work Tuesday -- as well he should -- and said the one-year $125,000 contract with the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response will not be renewed when it expires at the end of October. What the governor did not do was fire anyone.
We think he should reconsider.
The contract is between the institute and the state Office of Homeland Security, headed by James Powers. Mr. Rendell said the office's director "thought he was carrying out the federal mandate" to inform local police and emergency officials of security concerns and potential threats to infrastructure. But, the governor said, Mr. Powers "was wrong. He made a significant mistake."
And he's not even suspended?
The Philadelphia-based contractor, which describes itself as "the pre-eminent Israeli/American security firm," specializes in "facing and overcoming domestic forms of terrorism like environmental, ecological, anti-abortion, anti-government and 'home-grown' religious extremism."
Among the activities it reported in "intelligence bulletins" to law enforcement agencies and various businesses were: a recent Pittsburgh City Council meeting on Marcellus Shale gas drilling, municipal zoning hearings on drilling, a state Capitol anti-tax rally featuring a giant inflatable pink pig, a gay and lesbian pride day in Philadelphia, an animal rights protest at a Montgomery County rodeo, demonstrations by anti-war groups and an education rally.
It's hard to see where the security threats lurk in that litany. Mr. Rendell said as much, calling the bulletin items "absolutely ludicrous" and saying that giving the information to gas-drilling companies "was against the guidelines set up for this program."
That raises several questions that must be answered by the Rendell administration:
• Who oversaw the contract?
• How was it awarded?
• What is the public to make of a recent e-mail from Mr. Powers about the bulletins? The state's homeland security director wrote, "We want to continue providing this support to the Marcellus Shale Formation natural gas stakeholders while not feeding those groups fomenting dissent against those same companies."
Notwithstanding Mr. Rendell's desire for a gas severance tax, has the administration quietly picked sides in a statewide controversy that could have far-reaching ramifications for public health, environmental impact and business regulation?
The governor says he is appalled and embarrassed. What's more, he says, "protesting is not a real threat. Protesting is a God-given American right." If all that is true, then someone should pay.
First Published September 16, 2010 12:00 am
