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http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3399/printmode/true

Chill of Govt. Surveillance Grips Activists, Muslims

by Jessica Pupovac

 

July 11 -- During the buildup to the 2004 Republican and

Democratic national conventions, Coloradoan Sarah Bardwell

was one of several activists around the country to be paid a

visit from federal and other law-enforcement agents. She was

in her garage fixing bikes with members of a local bicycle

collective, she recalls, when " two FBI agents, two guys in

SWAT gear and two members of the Denver Police Department

showed up " and started asking questions about her intentions

with regard to the events coming up in Boston and New York City.

 

" No one [at the house] was even planning on going " to the

political conventions, Bardwell recently recounted, " We were

all much more focused on community organizing. " Although it

was the first and last visit, and their questions led

nowhere, she told The NewStandard last week that " it

definitely left a residue of fear -- even to this day --

among people who had that experience. "

 

With revelations surrounding government spying now regular

fare in the media, government agencies -- including the FBI,

the National Security Agency, the Department of Defense and

local police departments -- are coming under increased

scrutiny for both the scope and the legality of their

tactics in the so-called " war on terror. "

 

Bardwell is among a growing number of critics charging that

the government's targeting of religious institutions and

nonviolent activist organizations for spying is not just

unnecessary and unconstitutional but may be ushering in a

new era of timidity among potential dissidents.

 

Since January of this year, it has been discovered through

leaked memos and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests

that anti-war groups, including Veterans for Peace, United

for Peace and Justice, the Truth Project and others, have

been or are being monitored by the Department of Defense.

 

Michael McConnell, Great Lakes regional director of the

American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) said he suspects

the heightened level of government monitoring will affect

activist efforts. " If people's fears are artificially raised

to be suspicious of a broader range of groups and

individuals -- which right now includes grandmothers and

Quakers -- then it is reasonable that they would be

dissuaded from contacting us because of this irrational

fear, " he told TNS.

 

" We get caught up in that net, " McConnell added, " and it is

very likely to hinder what we do. " The AFSC is a Quaker

" peace and social justice " organization with offices across

the country and has been active in the anti-war movement.

 

AFSC has been in a legal battle with the Chicago Police

Department since a public audit, released in 2004, revealed

that the Quaker activists' local meetings were infiltrated

by undercover police interested in their plans to protest an

upcoming meeting of European and North American corporate

leaders called the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialog in

November 2002.

 

" There was some press when the infiltration broke, "

McConnell recalled, " and people called to say 'Does this

mean that I should try to get my FBI files or that this

phone conversation is being taped?' We definitely were

worried about how people would react to us. "

 

A case filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf

of AFSC accuses the Chicago Police Department (CPD) of

publicly identifying the Quaker group as the target of a

police investigation, thereby interfering with the

activists' First Amendment right to organize.

 

CPD lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the case, but federal

Judge Joan B. Gottschall maintained in March that the AFSC's

claim had legal precedent. She cited a precedent in which

the judge decided that " the mere anticipation of the

practical consequences of joining or remaining with " an

activist group under scrutiny of law enforcement " may well

dissuade some individuals from becoming members, or may

persuade others to resign their membership. "

 

ACLU spokesperson Ed Yohnka remarked of the case, " Revealing

this publicly creates a sense that the AFSC, a peaceful

group with a long history of peaceful activities, has been

linked to criminal activity or is dangerous. "

 

The CPD is not alone, as more and more local law-enforcement

agencies are joining the spy act. Agencies sometimes work

alone to secretly surveil activist groups, but they also

operate as part of coalitions of local, state and federal

law-enforcement agencies known as Joint Terrorism Task

Forces (JTTFs).

 

Professor Alasdair S. Roberts, government transparency

expert, has employed FOIA requests to obtain so-called

" Memorandums of Understanding, " documents used by the

Justice Department to describe the relationship between the

FBI and police departments across the country. Roberts told

TNS: " The rules of the game are that the local police force

that is a part of a JTTF is not allowed to relay information

about the activity of the task force without the approval of

the FBI. This is pitched as a partnership, but information

about what the group is doing is very much in the hands of

the FBI. "

 

With most of their activity classified, Roberts said, there

is great potential for violations to occur under the radar

of watchdogs. Roberts is the author of Blacked Out:

Government Secrecy in the Information Age.

 

There were only 35 JTTFs around the country before 9/11.

Today, that number has nearly tripled, according to the

FBI's website.

 

Nevertheless, FBI spokesperson Bill Carter told TNS that the

Bureau's " overriding priority is to prevent, disrupt and

defeat criminal or terrorist operations before they occur. "

He added, " We don't monitor political activity. "

 

Yet a growing number of people across the country say they

have evidence to the contrary.

 

Among them is Christy Pardew, spokesperson for School of the

Americas (SOA) Watch, an organization nonviolently

campaigning to close down the US Army training academy now

called the Western Hemispheric Institute for Security

Cooperation. SOA Watch staff obtained the group's FBI file

earlier this year through a FOIA request.

 

In the 53 pages released to the group, FBI notes repeatedly

characterize the group as " peaceful, " emphasizing the

leadership's commitment to nonviolent means of social

change. Yet the Bureau's surveillance level jumped from

" routine " to " priority " in 2001, with the paperwork from

that point forward going through the counterterrorism division.

 

When asked about why SOA Watch might spark the interest of

the FBI's domestic counterterrorism division, FBI Spokesman

Carter told TNS: " If we have an indication that a group is

planning on breaking into a military base and causing

destruction, that would be of interest to the FBI. Even

though that group espouses peace and all that, they might be

involved in other criminal activities that would be violent

and would warrant investigation. "

 

SOA Watch has never been charged with involvement in violent

activities or crimes not committed in public.

 

Carter said the FBI divides terrorism into two spheres:

domestic and international. " Domestic terrorism is homegrown

groups, including such groups as white supremacists, black

separatists, animal rights, environmental terrorists,

anarchists, anti-abortion extremists and self-styled militia

groups, " he said. In addition, the Bureau responds to leads

about groups that are planning violent activity, Carter

said, adding, " We don't launch fishing expeditions. "

 

Muslim-rights activist Munira Syeda sees things differently.

She told TNS she believes that " religious affiliation itself

has become a basis for suspicion and that is unacceptable

and unconstitutional. "

 

However, she said, " it's gotten much better over the past

five years or so, and our relationship with law enforcement

has improved a lot, but it's a process. " Syeda is

communications coordinator of the Southern California

chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations

(CAIR–SC), the country's largest Muslim advocacy group and

civil-rights watchdog.

 

In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks,

law-enforcement agents rounded up Muslim immigrants en

masse, shuttered several Islamic charities and imposed what

was perceived as a general state of intimidation on the

American Muslim community.

 

To improve relations, CAIR–SC has been working with local

FBI and other law-enforcement agencies, organizing

" diversity trainings " and even a Town Hall meeting following

allegations published in the local press that the FBI was

monitoring Muslim student groups at University of Southern

California and UC–Irvine. " It caused a wave of concern,

skepticism, some anger and some frustration, " Syeda said.

 

" We have members of the community who have reacted

defensively and avoid activism or going to their local

mosque, or publicly practicing their faith because they fear

they might be wrongly associated with extremism, " she added.

 

While concrete instances of surveillance abound, it is

difficult to measure how much of the chilling effect can be

attributed directly to covert government actions affecting

individuals and how much of it is due to simple fear of

affiliation. And for every group that knows it is being

directly and specifically spied on, no one outside federal

intelligence circles knows how many peaceful groups' phones

are tapped, or how many people are " flagged " in the NSA's

telephone-record database for having called an activist or

Islamic group.

 

The impact on public attitudes toward groups that are even

suspected of having drawn the attention of government snoops

cannot be measured, of course. But of the dozen activists

from myriad groups around the country interviewed for this

story, a perceived " chilling effect " of the apparent upsurge

in surveillance was a standard concern.

 

" Computers crash and people wonder why, " said Ann Mauney,

coordinator of the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition,

mentioned in a Department of Defense database obtained and

published by MSNBC earlier this year. " It is a pervasive

atmosphere of awareness that whatever we say could be

accessed, or at least that's the perception. "

 

The Thomas Merton Center, a peace organization in

Pittsburgh, has also been targeted by FBI surveillance,

according to documents obtained by the ACLU through a

Freedom of Information Act request. Those documents show

agents were monitoring and photographing the group's

anti-war leafleting activities and documenting the

involvement of activists who looked like they were of Middle

Eastern descent.

 

Jeremy Shenk, a member of the Thomas Merton Center, told

TNS: " Every year in Pittsburgh, we do a march on the

anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. This year the amount

of law enforcement and people taking pictures on roofs was

unprecedented. As an organization, we are still getting very

good numbers and we're not going to be deterred, but I think

that might be the point of overt surveillance. "

 

From Georgia, Mauney echoed Shenk's sentiments. " As for all

of those potential activists out there who don't come

forward, " she said, " it's hard to say, because we never get

to know them. But the feeling among those who are most

active is determination. We feel increased responsibility. "

 

 

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