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Spying Uncovered: Documents Show State Police Monitored Peace and Anti-Death Penalty Groups
BALTIMORE - Undercover Maryland State Police officers repeatedly spied on peace activists and anti-death penalty groups in recent years and entered the names of some in a law-enforcement database of people thought to be terrorists or drug traffickers, newly released documents show.
The files, made public yesterday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, depict a pattern of infiltration of the activists' organizations in 2005 and 2006. The activists contend that the authorities were trying to determine whether they posed a security threat to the United States. But none of the 43 pages of summaries and computer logs - some with agents' names and whole paragraphs blacked out - mention criminal or even potentially criminal acts, the legal standard for initiating such surveillance.
State police officials said they did not curtail the protesters' freedoms.
The spying, detailed in logs of at least 288 hours of surveillance over a 14-month period, recalls similar infiltration by FBI agents of civil rights and anti-war groups decades ago, particularly under the administration of President Richard M. Nixon.
David Rocah, a staff attorney for the ACLU in Baltimore, said at a news conference yesterday that he found it "stupefying" that more than 30 years later, the government is still targeting people who do nothing more than express dissent.
"Everything noted in these logs is a lawful, First Amendment activity," Rocah said. "For undercover police officers to spend hundreds of hours entering information about lawful political protest activities into a criminal database is an unconscionable waste of taxpayer dollars and does nothing to make us safer from actual terrorists or drug dealers."
The ACLU obtained the documents from the state attorney general's office through a Maryland Public Information Act lawsuit.
Col. Terrence B. Sheridan, superintendent of the Maryland State Police, said in a statement yesterday that the department "does not inappropriately curtail the expression or demonstration of the civil liberties of protesters or organizations acting lawfully."
"No illegal actions by state police have ever been taken against any citizens or groups who have exercised their right to free speech and assembly in a lawful manner," Sheridan said. "Only when information regarding criminal activity is alleged will police continue to investigate leads to ensure the public safety."
Nothing in the documents indicates criminal activity or intent on the part of the protesters, ACLU officials said.
Nonetheless, the state police's Homeland Security and Intelligence Division sent covert agents to infiltrate the Baltimore Pledge of Resistance, a peace group; the Baltimore Coalition Against the Death Penalty; and the Committee to Save Vernon Evans, a death row inmate.
Using a fake e-mail address and an alias, an undercover agent joined the e-mail list of the death penalty group, the documents say. Agents also monitored the group's organizational meetings, public forums and events in churches, as well as rallies on Lawyers Mall in Annapolis and in Baltimore outside the Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center, known as "SuperMax."
Most of the spies' reports were innocuous. After an Aug. 24, 2005, gathering of the Evans group, an undercover officer wrote in a log: "The meeting concluded with members talking about trying to get the man running for Baltimore County State's Attorney to commit to his plans regarding the death penalty in the county."
Baltimore County was responsible for more capital punishment cases than any other Maryland jurisdiction at the time.
Another entry about the Evans group revealed that agents had spent 50 hours of "investigative time" shadowing its members in March, April and May 2005. The entry mentioned that a May 25, 2005, meeting of the group was attended by Max Obuszewski, a former Peace Corps member and longtime activist who moved to Baltimore in 1983, and Terry Fitzgerald, who heads the anti-death penalty coalition and established the Evans group.
Both attended yesterday's news conference.
State police appeared to have been specifically tracking Obuszewski's activities. His name, the documents show, was entered into the Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area database, even though there was "not a scintilla of evidence" that he deserved to be listed, said Rocah, the ACLU attorney.
"Mr. Obuszewski has devoted his entire life to peace," Rocah said. "If there is anyone in the world who is further from a terrorist, it is hard for me to imagine."
Obuszewski agreed. "You cannot get more insulting than to call me a terrorist," he said. Besides, he went on, the groups he belongs to hold open meetings and publicize their schedules. "Why would someone come to those meetings and pretend to be someone else? Why are government agencies targeting pacifists?"
One reason, he theorized, is that local police agencies need funds from the federal government, and surveillance of supposed "terrorists" might be a good way to keep getting the money. No matter the reason, the news that the Bush administration keeps about 1 million names on a terrorist watch-list is disheartening, Obuszewski said, since so many people cannot possibly warrant inclusion.
In February 2006, the national ACLU and its affiliates filed multiple federal Freedom of Information requests seeking records of Pentagon surveillance of anti-war groups around the country. Using information from a secret Pentagon database, NBC News reported that a unit of the Department of Defense had been accumulating intelligence about domestic organizations and their protest activities as part of a mission to track "potential terrorist threats."
"It serves no security purpose to infiltrate peaceful groups," said Michael German, a former FBI agent who specialized in counter-terrorism and who joined the ACLU two years ago as policy counsel in its Washington legislative office. "It completely misuses law enforcement resources."
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, German said, the government has "actively encouraged" local police agencies to become intelligence gatherers and to compile information that does not necessarily have a connection to criminal activity.
Despite the fact that the Maryland infiltrators' reports consistently said the activists acted lawfully, agents continued to recommend that the spying continue. Reports of the surveillance were sent to at least seven federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, including the National Security Agency, the police departments of Baltimore, Baltimore County, Annapolis and Anne Arundel County, and the state General Services police.
The documents released yesterday show the kind of information they were trading. Among other things, Obuszewski and fellow activists arranged a meeting with then-Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin in 2005 in which they asked him to support a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.
Susan Goering, executive director of the ACLU of Maryland, said she feared that the documents released so far "may be only the tip of the proverbial iceberg."
In a letter sent yesterday to Gov. Martin O'Malley, Goering wrote that the state police had "recorded extensive information about specific individuals and groups, including describing their political outlook, whether they were articulate, what political activities they are engaged in, and attended private planning meetings in a covert capacity."
The only potentially unlawful activity mentioned anywhere in the documents, she said, were two instances of nonviolent civil disobedience. In one, activists refused to leave a guard station during a protest at the National Security Agency after bringing cookies and drinks for the guards, and in the other, they hatched a plan to place photographs of soldiers who died in Iraq on the fence surrounding the White House.
"Maryland residents should feel free to join a peaceful protest without fear that their names will wind up in police files," Goering wrote. "They should feel free to engage in nonviolent dissent without fear of being branded as 'terrorists' or 'security threat groups' in shared law-enforcement databases."
Copyright © 2008, The Baltimore Sun
78 Comments so far
Show Allany state or local authorities who aid federal agencies in constitutionally illegal spying on INNOCENT american citizens are TRAITORS and CRIMINALS and they deserve full prosecution and to be sentenced to long terms in jail, up and down the line of command. to posture lawful american citizens as anti-war "terrorists" is to brand 1/2 of americans terrorists. anyone who gives an order to spy on americans against our constitutional freedoms is a SCUMBAG, and anyone who follows an order to rob america and americans of their freedoms is a scumbag and terrorist.
unlike COINTELPRO, this time the american people arent going to let the criminals walk away. lawenforcement and politics are NOT above the law. THIS TIME THE LAWBREAKING SCUM ARE GOING TO JAIL, and they'll be needing large concentration camp type facilities to hold all the traitors in lawenforcement/politics who thought it was fun to ignore the law and harrass americans.
A friend of mine lives in the neighborhood where "recreate-68", a group organizing protests for the Dem Convention, holds their weekly meetings.
Last night, just like most other Thursday nights, if you walk through the neighborhood you'll see a car parked with the engine running with one or two men sitting inside. The car is always parked where they can see the door of the coffee shop where the meetings are held. And it always sits there until about the time the meeting would end, then it leaves.
Welcome to freedom and democracy in America!
(Its just a guess, but my guess is that if I found out where the Young Republicans meet I wouldn't see plainsclothes cops sitting outside of those meetings.)
Terrorists with tin badges. Will they give us another Kent State in November? It's odd how Right-To-Life Peace Officers are against Peace and Anti-Death Penalty Groups.
When our local secret police watched us vigil every week they always drove a late-model American car and always with a particular "School's Out" bumper sticker that no one else had.
Our Founding Fathers can roll over in their graves as much as they want.
Way to go Maryland, the Gestapo reports for duty, Oh wait, they voted for a "D" executive right? It's all about safety - the need for more fascism in troubled times. Keep this in mind people, whatever state you are in, you start to make noise that authority doesn't appreciate, they have lots of ways to make things more miserable for you.
Want peace on earth?
Prefer peace to war?
Against death penalty?
Wow, you're a very dangerous person then,
according to the present leadership of the U.S.
The Rethuglicans aren't called the WAR party for nothing. If you don't love death and war, you're considered to be a spy and an enemy of the U.S.
Samson,
What do you think are the chances that spies have already infiltrated your group and in provocateur fashion, some would like to see violence?
Wouldn't Rush and the neocons find that their needed Trojan Horse?
In the last 7 and 1/2 years, those who so suffered repression, death and destruction at the hands of the Nazis have come to, under the banner of a (false) war on terror, and a false flag attack on this country by Mossad,
practice the same tactics and policies so criticized of the Nazis. Chertoff and Mukasey are at the top of this power structure now, supported by Addington and Zelikow. Outside of government, there are Frum, Wurmser, Kristol, Krauthammer, Perle, Miller, Safire....and on and on. Soon, there will be more and more of the "thought police", more censorship, and the loss of freedom of expression on the internet. Just ask Foxman....it is coming. The current set back to all of this is the recent ruling of the Supreme Court on the 2nd amendment. They will have to disarm us to win. But, they still try and try, like Schumer, Feinstein, Boxer and on and on......
And you thought Bush's spying activities were actually conducted against FOREIGN "terrorists"? LOL.... there's this bridge in San Francisco I would like to sell you if you believe that.
That the police and FBI inflitrate peace and social justice groups is not news.
The REAL news here is that the police are defending the spying by saying that it is perfectly OK to spy, as long as they aren't physically stopping someone from speaking! There used to be word for this - "unmitigated gall" or "chutzpah", but now, I suspect the cops following SOP in our new, modern, post-enlightemnent world.
Civil liberties? Freedom from unreasonable search and seizures without probable cause? Oh, that's, like, soooo 18th century dude, like, do we still buy powdered wigs at the mall?
In the Sixties, the joke was that you could always pick out the FBI infiltrators because they wore wing-tips.
It's an old, but sad and exasperating, story-- undercover cops and agents harassing and busting on bona-fide peace organizations.
"Fahrenheit 9/11" featured some typical examples of this. It's really an perpetuation of the police-state tactics consistently resorted to by government to repress dissent; whether The Enemy Within are fifth-columnists, Red anarchists, Nazi saboteurs, Japanese spies, Communist fellow-travelers, or Terrorists, one can always count on undercover goons and pigs conducting their perpetual witch-hunts and Inquisitions, and accomplishing nothing except punishing the innocent.
"Violence can not tolerate the presence of non-violence."---Rene Girard
An avid policy of violence such as in this administration will find an excuse to outlaw any peaceful organization.
Yeah,
I grew up with cold War spying goin on all around me...
After the cold War , the spying didn't stop it just had to increase it's targets to the point where they are so overloaded with extraneous info that it is all so secret that They aren't even allowed to see it.
In the old days at least you could face them...now like always if you can't stop them just watch them do their thing till they get exhausted and give up.
Just remember they are looking for threats to them so don't cop an attitude and you will get through many a jams in the works.
Peace and Love is what I Dig.
The old saying from the sixties that I know is that you can always spot the FBI agent because he's the one trying to incite people to do something illegal.
At the risk of becoming repetitious, it is important to understand that capitalist establishment priorities have undergone a significant shift since the dissolution of the "evil empire" and its "commie threat" to their peace of mind and imperial ambitions.
The potential for civil unrest and popular rebellion have always occupied a prominent place on their "worry list", but it has moved much nearer to the top of the scale as their various class warfare strategies have become more blatant in recent times.
Gee - wonder how the "terrorist watch list" now contains nearly half-a-million Americans...
"One of them (names on the TWL) is that of former Assistant US Attorney General Jim Robinson, whose top security clearances are current. Every time Mr. Robinson flies away on business, he is delayed by a totally incompetent "terrorist" protection racket that cannot tell a person named Jim Robinson, who served in the highest echelons of the US government, from a Muslim terrorist." (Paul Craig Roberts.)
Samson, "The old saying from the sixties that I know is that you can always spot the FBI agent because he's the one trying to incite people to do something illegal."
Yep. At some green party meetings one agent was trying to incite people to go out and burn SUV's and break stuff.
We Quakers are kinda into peace, as the FBI already knows.
They are welcome to come to Meeting any time. They might learn something. Like peace.
This is nothing new and goes back to the founding of the country. Jefferson talked about the people getting rid of the government when it is no longer responsive to popular will. This is why. Centralized power, private or governmental, tries to hold onto power and to block any fundamental change. We shouldn't expect anything else. I've always gone into activist groups, especially those with a radical bent to them, knowing that in all likelihood someone is there spying.
Howard Zinn wrote about how activists in the 1960's broke into the FBI's office and stole some files. Turns out that not only were they actively involved with murder and endless constitutional offenses (worse than what Nixon was tried for against the other elite party here) against innocent civilians but the surveillance was widespread. The FBI at the time, and I'm sure it hasn't changed, spent more money on political monitoring and intimidation than anything else. A small fraction was done against rightist groups but the majority was against groups on the left. It was revealed in the 1970's that the CIA had been extensively involved with domestic propaganda as well, paying of at least 400 journalists to spread government propaganda.
If the left, especially the pacifist left, is so irrational and loony then why should the elites in government worry? They worry because they can't logically refute most of what is said and so they have to expend constant and endless energy on propaganda and infiltration to hold onto power.
If anyone wants a good idea on the elite mindset, which was on full display in the "other" party during the primaries (remember when countless Democrats talked about the "Super Delegets" being there to make sure the "right" choices were made? Think of what they were really saying), here's the Trilateral Commission's (Zbigniew Brzezinski , one of Obama's advisors, someone Obama said he has learned a great deal from, was one of the founders of the TLC by the way) 1975 report "The Crisis of Democracy". In it they state how participatory government was in excess and that elites had to regain control from basically the general public, which is us:
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1442950
The crisis of democracy was first publicly outlined in a book-length report entitled (conveniently) The Crisis of Democracy written by Michel Crozier, Samuel Huntington, and Joji Watanuki in 1975. The title of the original, commisioned report was Report on the Governability of Democracies to the Trilateral Commission. The "problem" thus illuminated is how an "excess of democracy" can negatively impact the rightful government of industrialized societies by and for the wealthy.
According to the report, a crisis of democracy can occur when the populace becomes too well-informed about the true goals and motivations of its rulers and begins to demand that those in power shift their focus from self-aggrandizement to providing for the people's common needs.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Rep. John Lewis of Atlanta says a mix up on a terrorist watch list is still wreaking havoc on his air travel five years after the problem arose.
The 11-term Democratic congressman wrote to the House Homeland Security Committee this week that he's still subjected to repeated airport searches and required to present multiple forms of identification. The problem persists even though Homeland Security recently gave him a letter to show airlines that was supposed to clear things up.
If it's still happening to a congressman, he wrote, ``you can only imagine what the average American suffers.''
And I'll bet he really 'feels' our pain, damn Sadist-In-Chief!
"Only when information regarding criminal activity is alleged will police continue to investigate leads to ensure the public safety."
I have information that the Maryland state police are engaging in criminal activity. Now go stand in front of the mirror for a while.
Like QuakerDave says, maybe a couple of Maryland State Cops will be having a beer after work one night with Fox on the TV, and having listened to their assigned peace group for weeks and weeks will suddenly see through the Fox bomb, bomb, bomb propaganda.
Paul K so right about unmarked cars. They had these dumbass rearview mirrors, on the sides of the car, the circle inside a circle magnification thing, no chrome. When we had our SDS meetings, Quaker Dave, it was at a Friend's Meeting House still around the way. Little Brother, always the shoes. Not just because they were wingtips[my da wore them until his death]but where do you think the slang, 'Gumshoe' came from? nice and quiet, actually squeaky.
Cold war shit, I hated that. We all know that duck and cover is the sure fire way to protect yourself from an A-Bomb!
Infiltrating peace groups sounds like the cushy job I'd like to have!
Where do I sign up?
This is why the FISA laws are so important. The executive branch of government is only one third of the power in Washington for precisely the reason that it can be bent to political purposes (and, as Scott McClellan recently pointed out, HAS been under the Bush administration). FISA ensures that a neutral, unelected THIRD branch of government be consulted before Americans are spied upon.
And both Republicans and Democrats have just pee'd on that provision. SHAME ON THEM BOTH!!
Read about operation Gladio. A Cia\italian joint effort in Italy during the 60's and 70's.
This involved elements in the Government planting bombs staging kidnappings and committing assassinations in order to blame it on the Red brigades and communists.
Alexander haig is alleged to have sat in their meetings and helped plan such events, the group committing the crimes all fascists left over from Mussolinis Government.
The wonder is not that Governments are the one behind most of the terrorism we see in the world today , but that people will STILL claim that any that believe such are somehow looney.
Thank you Quaker Dave.
so this then is a universal-logic, when applied by intelligence agencies to spy on americans: if you organize for peace you are a potential terrorist ("hey", they say, "we'll just use state police because it gets around the constitution's ban on fedspying on americans, and they can then forward the info to us, heh.") is it? well do they monitor common dreams via the same logic? here, they can find a conspiracy of peace and wellbeing among airheaded internet-oddtypes basically showing a normal crossection of america that would indeed make their job cushhhhh and keep fed budget-grants flowing. and it gets the site more site hits too (the spys have to hit it).. and we have the chance to legally and directly say: "buttheads, find real terrorists to spy on pls, if there are any in our neighborhoods, which there arent", directly to them.. and they would feel like their operation had been compromised and make more files on us all, until finally everyone in america could make a nice living working for the intelligence community, spying in comfort on each other in.. well.. utopia. heil!
Prediceted, expected and now confirmed: These powers will be used against Americans who opposed the government in any way. Welcome to authoritarianism. If you have nothing to hide you won't mind that camera in y
Prediceted, expected and now confirmed: These powers will be used against Americans who opposed the government in any way. Welcome to authoritarianism. If you have nothing to hide you won't mind that camera in your living room.
http://www.infowars.com/?p=3437
I just read this regarding the Madrid train bombings once attributed to Al Qaeda.
The Spanish Supreme court has overturned a number of convictionns against what was labled as "Al Qaeda linked terrorists".
Indeed the only convictions to stand right now are of Government informants involved in the bombing.
In other words, this once again more then likely a black ops event.
do any of you bloggers even give a care if your on camera or not?
I agree. It's totally whack man. Go peace! Now can I just get all of your political affiliations, and, hey, anyone thinkin' about goin' to protest soon? I'd be so down for that. Just give me all the details.
They have had 7 years under WAR to build their natzi,stasi police spy network.
MILLIONS OF AMERICANS SPYING ON MILLIONS OF AMERICANS.
Short of ending they WAR, taking immunity away from the 4th amendment law breakers, and locking people up for warrant less spying at the community level these bastards are here to stay.
Its terrorist Gang Stalking, its been growing in America for the last 15 years. And the WAR has almost made it justifiable by looking for terrorists.
As long as law enforcement uses the word terrorist in the same sentence as surveillance they are golden.
The Bush/Cheney Royal Imperial Dictatorship has done its damage using the DHS, FBI and CIA. They have grown and become very powerful. Cross this bunch is dangerous.
One would think that they care not about constitutional rights.
Our government is allowing the torture of innocent Americans by sanctioning slander and warrant less surveillance.
Its torture when they go out of there way to let you know they are following you 24/7.
Trust me , 17 months and still counting.It will screw you up, ruin your focus, steal your serenity and sense of safety and leave you feeling alone and helpless.AFRAID to leave your home.
That's torture, that's what my community has done to me. I am an innocent American and have no due process of law against these bastards because they operate covertly, using gang stalking,natzi,stasi tactics.
Since we are at WAR, are these not WAR crimes.
Saying that people are enemy's of our country, slander, surveillance.
IF MEMORY SERVES ME CORRECTLY, DID NOT HITLER USE THESE VERY SAME TACTICS TO GAIN CONTROL OF HIS COUNTRY, CONQUER EUROPE AND MURDER 5 MILLION JEWS.
HAVE WE FORGOTTEN THE HOLOCAUST ??????????
WHO ARE THE REAL TERRORISTS IF 9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB????
BORNFREEMEN
Hollow point said: "do any of you bloggers even give a care if your on camera or not?"
It's not the opinion of the spyee that matters. Its the opinion of the spyer. Once recorded, information is there and can be used at the leisure of the holder of that information for whatever purposes, fair or foul.
Hasn't the history of FOX news taught you anything?
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING...
LET'S KEEP HIM ENTERTAINED
Comply or Resist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M37bsoRYV8
There are some nice Trilateralist quotes in this 10 min. clip
And lets not forget about Obomba's speech in Colorado Springs earlier this month where he called for a "Civilian Natural Security Force" larger than the COMBINED Military Forces of the U.S.
Oh yipee a Hitler Youth group in our own back yard.
This does not surprize me, before the US provided the world its "Shock and Awe" attack on Iraq, in Denver, at Civic Center Park, there was an overnight Protest about the impending War and about 20 of us from various peace groups came to hold an overnight vigil, at about 12:30am Denver Police came and told us we could not stay in the Park but must leave to the sidewalk outside of the Park, they left, then several Black SUV's drove through, Parked a fellow or two got out took pictures of the members of the group and the signs that remained. I knew then that the days of absolute freedom of expression was over in this country, and it would only get worse. Well, now after the FISA bill another proof is laid before my doorstep, Big Brother is alive and well in the Heartland!!! Sad and a little terrifying at the same time!!!
again, why is the Pentagon and Dept of Defense involved in internal surveillance. I believe that is outside their scope of duties and laws against it, but of course, there are lots of laws that continually get trashed by this government these days.
Just like 1968!! If you are for peace (imagine that!) you get the old COINTELPRO treatment. Its second nature for law enforcement to react in this way and that great Marylander Spiro Agnew would be proud.
maybe we should ask the govt to clearly define what THEY believe the word terrorist means to them... that way at least we'll have an opportunity to know if we're all law breakers or not?
because if the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorist Prevention Act of 2007 passes through the senate... it will be legal for any law official to arrest anyone based on any kind of inference of wrong doing by our govt. If these govt thugs have their way, people like ron paul and denis kucinich will be labeled a terrorist.
and whats so scary is how LITTLE this bill… thats about to get passed… is NOT being talked about by ANYONE!!! not even the liberal media is touching this bad boy!
***HR 1955 Oct 23, 2007 5:06 PM Final Vote (House) Passed 404-6, 22 not voting (2/3 required)
currently this bill is sitting in the senate (S 1959)
**** Last Action: Oct 24, 2007: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
maybe the folks that are trying to get S. 576: Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007 will get something accomplished... who knows... (especially since it seems nothing is happening with this particular bill)
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-576
but either way... since bush and friends have come into power (appointed by our "esteemed" supreme court in 2000) we've all be f***ed we just didnt realize it until 2006 when our democratic congress was voted in to affect change... and since then... all we've gotten is a bunch of finger pointing and FISA passing (along with other bills that strip us all of our rights and freedoms)
in the declaration of independence… is states:
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security
if this administration and congress doesn't fall into this realm… then I don't know what does… and both sides of the isle are doing a fine job of conveniently forgetting exactly what they were elected (well some where elected) into office to do…
but then again... how do you go about getting something like this acocmplished with a govt that has entrenched themselves in the entire worlds psyche as here to stay?
so does this mean then that we try our best to curtail as much of their power mad quest as possible and suffer the rest... or should we all just bend over and kiss our liberties goodbye?
if this bill passes.... just mentioning the declaration of independence (much less talking about peace or protesting the death penalty) will have ppl being labeled a terrorist... isnt that a hoot... our tax dollars at work here folks! i mean seriously… we're PAYING them to do this to us!!! is it just me or is this totally insane?
protest our corrupt... immoral and criminal govt... stay home on 9/11!!!
I feel safer knowing someone is protecting us from these peacemongers.
Thank God for the ACLU.
Seems to me that we need an organization devoted to protecting the American Citizen from its government.
Years ago I sent a letter with $100.00 check for a protest bus trip to DC, to an internet organizer. the letter never arrived to the organizer, I got it back too late for the bus trip, OPENED! Check still in it.
Think tha we all arn't being spyied on.
I'm a granny, too old to mention, natural born citizen, believing that I serve my God to point out the errors of war, but willing to be that I'm also on a terriorist list.
I remember McCarthyism, I was a communist on that list.
angel2shine said: "I'm a granny, too old to mention, natural born citizen, believing that I serve my God to point out the errors of war, but willing to be that I'm also on a terriorist list. I remember McCarthyism, I was a communist on that list."
I've got a feeling that once you're on the list, you're always on the list. It'll be that way until the listmakers start facing serious jail time rather than implicit 'attaboys' from our citizens on the right.
Blowback has begun! These poor "revolutionaries" out in Maryland really got what they deserve from the State Police on this one. Gee, I guess these Quakers and all are such a big threat that we have to throw more finite law enforcement resources at them! Meanwhile, we seem incapable of winning a war that the people that they are spying on want to end. So by this I guess we are to believe that the state police, FBI, and others see a STOPPAGE of the war as a bigger threat than the CONTINUANCE of the war. Makes you wonder whose side they are really on--War Party is my guess. Problem is that law enforcement must choose between defending the War on Terrorism--made up by politicians--and real crime, including the criminals who happen to be terrorists who, believe it, are not active in peace groups!
To my fellow contributers, a penny for your thoughts and thank you,
I've read most of the entries above me. Some, like the letter from "biwee" at 7-8--08 230pm I do not understand. I literally do not understand what is being communicated.
I refused to contribute to the ACLU this year due to being out of work, having used up my savings, in poor health and I do not forsee any future improvements in my situation. The caller from the ACLU donor platoon three months ago was not calling from one of those high pressure tele-advertizer type "boiler rooms" but rather sounded like a real, conscientious and conscious guy calling from his home in behalf of an organization he cared for. I liked him. But I denied sending my usual $50.00.
My take on the emotional tenor of the letters written in rsponse to the article by Nick Madigan is that most people are AFRAID - AFRAID - AFRAID-. SO MUCH FEAR of being identified by the "authorities" for what you feel and believe to be right.
I urge all of you to do what I have been doing for three years now. Write a "CONFESSIONAL LETTER" to the FBI and the CIA explaining your concerns about yourself. Confess to having uncontrollable fantasies of seeing Dick Cheney standing by the road side with a gas container in his hand, thumbing for a ride to the nearest gas station and instead of stopping to help him, in your fantasy, you purposefully run him over and feel great joy in seeing his blood and a piece of his left hand splatter over your windshield. Or that you have uncontrollable fantacies of watching TV and seeing a demonstration in front of the White House that goes out of control and the demonstrators, after being brutalized by the constabulary, break through the police lines, enter the sacred halls of the White House and drag George Bush outside where they quickly castrate him, hang him and disemowel him on the pristine, white, steps of the holy White House. You wish that you did not have these thoughts but each day the information you see on Fox News, the news to be trusted, this information seems to incite these thoughts unbidden by you. Ask for their advice. Ask if you should go to jail for having these fantacies.
If the CIA/FBI and other Federal fascistic departments want to get the s--t on you, then load them up. Don't make them hunt for it, load them up with the crap they seek and let them sink into insignificance from the weight of the dross that they want. For God's sake help these poor devils. That is how I look at it.
The civil service wardens of our prison are more easily influenced than our congression members because they have lower maintenance needs.
Sisyphus
---"Despite the fact that the Maryland infiltrators' reports consistently said the activists acted lawfully, agents continued to recommend that the spying continue."-------
It seems to me, that the only reason the government agents took this approach to the peace activists was because the government wants to keep tabs on anyone who does not agree with its policies, which makes this country we live in, far from being a Democracy.
Samson -
What the watchers absolutely hate is for someone wearing painter outfit, carrying a ladder and loosely covered can(s) of paint to walk from behind and 'accidentally' spill paint on the windshield. When it happens more than once and they can't prove intent on the 'clumsy' worker, sometimes, they understand, kinda.
Arvy - Yes
Why Do They Rub Shit On Police Cars?
soblindpeoplecahatethemtoo
P ussy
O fficers
L earning
I ntensive
C itation
E nforcement
Oh my, it's 4:20, wanna hit officer? This hits for you CD.