The office then passed that information on to large groups of people, including law enforcement and members of the private sector.
In doing so, Rendell said, the Homeland Security Office had distorted and made a mockery of the state's responsibility to protect "critical infrastructure," and collect and share credible plots to harm it.
"Let me make this as clear as I can make it," the governor said at news conference Tuesday night, pounding his fist on the podium. "Protesting against an idea, a principle, a process, is not a real threat against infrastructure. Protesting is a God-given American right, a right that is in our Constitution, a right that is fundamental to all we believe in as Americans."
Rendell said that he will not fire or discipline anyone in the Office of Homeland Security, headed by director James F. Powers Jr., for the lapse. But he said he ordered the office to terminate its contract with Philadelphia-based Institute of Terrorism and Research Response, which he said has been paid $125,000 in the last year to gather data about possible security threats.
Instead, the governor said, the company passed on alerts about legitimate protests - and the state Homeland Security Office then disseminated them in an intelligence bulletin that it publishes three times a week.
The bulletin included information about a PrideFest by gays and lesbians; a rally that supported his administration's education policy; and an anti-BP candlelight vigil.
"Tell me, what critical infrastructure does the gay and lesbian PrideFest threaten?" Rendell asked. "How in the Lord's name can we consider them to be terrorists?"
Reached last night for comment, Mike Perelman, the institute's codirector, said he "respects the confidentiality of our clients," and does not discuss them.
