As the annual push to close the U.S. Army School of the Americas nears, with a vote expected in Congress the week of June 20th, an underexamined issue remains the extent of government spying on the protest movement SOA Watch. Since the American Civil Liberties Union released declassified FBI files in May 2006, (1) a subsequent ACLU inquiry with the Department of Defense turned up nothing (2)—even though for years, former school instructor Ken LaPlante ran a counterintelligence operation against SOA Watch while working as a subcontractor for the Department of the Army.

LaPlante’s activities—and those of William Willoughby, a civilian aide to the Secretary of the Army who says he reported to LaPlante—raise questions about the use of contractors and the infrastructure of the Army to spy on protesters against the School of the Americas, and possible ties to the White House. This comes as the U.S. Senate considers legislation reauthorizing intelligence gathering.

As reported by the New York Times on June 1st, the Senate Intelligence Committee issued a report that “criticized the intelligence agencies’ ballooning use of contractors.” (3)  Buried in the report accompanying the legislation is an admission that the U.S. government effectively has no oversight over spying, because auditors cannot obtain information from contractors. (4)