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June 25, 2005

Stalking for recruits

The Department of Defense is trolling
for high school recruits to get them to join in the orgy of needless killing and dying for nothing the Armed Forces.

The Department of Defense began working [June 22] with a private marketing firm in Massachusetts to create a database of all US college students as well as high school students between ages 16 and 18, to help the military identify potential recruits in a time of dwindling enlistment in some branches.

The program is provoking a furor among privacy advocates. The database will include an array of personal information including birth dates, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, grade point averages, ethnicity, and what subjects the students are studying.

This isn't really news, since the No Child Left Behind Act ensures no kid is left behind in the war.

Sharon Shea-Keneally, principal of Mount Anthony Union High School in Bennington, Vermont, was shocked when she received a letter in May from military recruiters demanding a list of all her students, including names, addresses, and phone numbers. The school invites recruiters to participate in career days and job fairs, but like most school districts, it keeps student information strictly confidential. "We don't give out a list of names of our kids to anybody," says Shea-Keneally, "not to colleges, churches, employers -- nobody."

But when Shea-Keneally insisted on an explanation, she was in for an even bigger surprise: The recruiters cited the No Child Left Behind Act, President Bush's sweeping new education law passed earlier this year. There, buried deep within the law's 670 pages, is a provision requiring public secondary schools to provide military recruiters not only with access to facilities, but also with contact information for every student -- or face a cutoff of all federal aid.

The new plan goes much farther than getting people's names and contact information, which is bad enough. It gets every bit of information out there on these kids.

Under the new system, additional data will be collected from commercial data brokers, state drivers' license records, and other sources, including information already held by the military.

''Using multiple sources allows the compilation of a more complete list of eligible candidates to join the military," according to statements provided by Pentagon spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Ellen Krenke in response to questions. ''This program is important because it helps bolster the effectiveness of all the services' recruiting and retention efforts."

The Pentagon's statements added that anyone can ''opt out" of the system by providing detailed personal information that will be kept in a separate ''suppression file." That file will be matched with the full database regularly to ensure that those who do not wish to be contacted are not, according to the Pentagon.

You know, fellas, I've got some names for you if you're in need of some recruits.

Posted by at June 25, 2005 03:29 PM