The New York Times‘ Charlie Savage and Scott Shane report on instances of the Dept. of Homeland Security submitting internal “threat assessment” reports about people and groups in the U.S. that pose no threats. The Intelligence Oversight Board, supposed to a be an executive branch watchdog for DHS and other intelligence agencies, has collected examples of DHS spying on pro-choice and pro-life groups as well as the Nation of Islam.

This is bad. But the revelations are, in the great scheme of things, pretty antiseptic — apparently the most dubious reports were quickly destroyed. This demonstrates that when it comes to “war on terror” outrages, it’s key to not lose focus on the obvious victims: mostly foreigners who have experienced rendition and torture. Compared to such abuses, acts like sloppy DHS intelligence gathering and even FBI Patriot Act snooping lead to the mere raised eyebrow.

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