After a rough summer, there’s a bit of good news for the California National Guard.
An Army report has cleared the California National Guard of allegations that it spied on citizens, accusations that triggered an ongoing state Senate investigation.
The California Guard’s acting adjutant general, Brigadier Gen. John R. Alexander, said Monday that the Army’s inspector general determined in the confidential report that a Guard intelligence unit did nothing wrong.
“There was never the intent, desire or decision to ever collect intelligence information on any U.S. citizen,” Alexander said in a written release. “Any statement to the contrary is flat wrong.”
State Sen. Joseph Dunn launched an investigation after a series of e-mails and actions suggested the unit had resorted to the same type of civilian monitoring seen during Vietnam War-era protests. In the 1960s and 1970s, the military collected information on more than 100,000 Americans.
The Guard and the state attorney general say the unit merely tries to assess threats to bridges, buildings and other structures and does no spying.
A sister unit monitored a Mother’s Day anti-war demonstration at the state Capitol, but the Guard said that amounted to reviewing media accounts.
The spying allegations are far from over, at least at the state level.
Dunn was skeptical of the report’s conclusions, in part because he believes the terminology used in Alexander’s announcement could be used to hide indirect surveillance activity and record-keeping by the Guard.
“I’m concerned that the Guard has been playing a game with us on this issue,” the lawmaker said Monday.
As for the inspector general’s conclusion, “This is a little bit like the fox saying there aren’t any hens in the hen house — at least not anymore,” Dunn said.
I know little of California’s in-state politics, but I’ve been suspicious of Dunn’s motivations since this story first broke and I was compelled to write the following:
Dunn demands hearings. Guard cancels an interview because of those hearings. Dunn claims Guard is shutting up and casts a shadow on the military. Listen, Dunn, the Guard is not hiding from you; rather, they’re heeding your beck and call. Must you smear them with suspicion and questions of perception before they even sit before you at your hearing?
I stand by my initial reaction that Dunn is driven by a distrust of the military. That, or he opportunistically sees an chance to make a name for himself on the Cali political stage at the expense of those in uniform. You know, big game hunter goes after big, bad military and all that rot.
Still, after a summer of silly complaints at home and serious allegations for those deployed, the California Guard has to welcome today’s exoneration by the Army.