Spying on the Protesters (The Nation)

[NMMNG]

In the 1970s Senate and House investigations established what many antiwar protesters and campus activists had believed for several years: that they were being watched and sometimes targeted by the government, including the National Guard and the FBI. Scattered evidence accumulating around the country suggests that the domestic surveillance that occurred during the Vietnam War may be returning, involving a more coordinated federal effort through the National Guard as well as the Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs), teams of state and local police, and federal agents, led by the FBI.

So far there are few high-profile incidents and actions that can't be written off as excessive zeal by individuals, but the incidents look disturbingly familiar to people who investigated the earlier clandestine actions of the government. "Back in the late 1960s and early '70s the FBI, the military, local police and campus police had their own bailiwicks and limited powers," said Christopher Pyle, a former investigator for Senator Frank Church's Select Committee on Intelligence, in the 1970s, and currently a professor of politics at Mount Holyoke College. "But operating today through the JTTFs and the combined intelligence and fusion centers, which join military analysts with law enforcement specialists, they are all part of one big club, effectively destroying the Fourth Amendment against unlimited search and seizure."

Several months ago the Army's inspector general and the California State Senate launched investigations of a California National Guard intelligence unit that had "monitored" an antiwar demonstration at the state capitol this past Mother's Day, partly organized by Cindy Sheehan's Gold Star Families for Peace. A report not yet publicly released by the inspector general found that there were other cases of domestic intelligence activity by the California Guard. Democratic State Senator Joseph Dunn, whose budget subcommittee oversees funding for the California Guard and who is conducting the state investigation, said financial improprieties may have occurred, as state and federal laws forbid such activities. Dunn told The Nation that he is looking into reports that the Guard in some ten other states, including New York, Colorado, Arizona and Pennsylvania, may have set up its own intelligence units and conducted similar monitoring of antiwar groups. Such controversial directives could be coming from the Pentagon, he speculated.

<snip>

This past November, several days after George W. Bush's election, an FBI agent and plainclothes officers from the Raleigh, North Carolina, police department came to the residence of Brad Goodnight, a 21-year-old student majoring in computer science and psychology at North Carolina State University. He went with them to police headquarters, where he was asked about specific friends, about his role in Campus Greens, Food Not Bombs and other organizations, and whether he recognized photos of people in the audience at a local punk rock concert. His interrogation was apparently related to an earlier protest rally near Republican headquarters, where vandalism had occurred and three people were arrested. Goodnight said he was told, "We have paid informers and treat them well." He was warned that if he didn't agree to cooperate he would face continued scrutiny. He refused. He had not committed any crime, was not charged with any offense and was soon released. Besides interrogating Goodnight, the FBI knocked on dorm-room doors, and campus police increased their presence at peace vigils, all of which "definitely had a chilling effect," said Elena Everett, a recent NCSU graduate and chair of the North Carolina Green Party. "People, especially international students, didn't feel comfortable speaking out anymore."

<snip>

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[newswolf56]

1. Nixon only dreamed of creating imposing a secret police force...

on the United States. Bush has already done it -- and as his policies become ever more overtly fascist, the oppression will only get worse.

[NMMNG]

2. This story made me take particular notice given the upcoming protest in DC

I wonder how many of us will be harassed during and/or afterward...

[ClintonTyree]

3. Well, I'm sure to be on that shit list..............

and damned proud of it. I'm considered to be a main thorn in the side of bush apologists around here and have made some pretty fearsome enemies. Hey, someone has to do it!
All they're going to find is a pretty boring guy with severe GOP resentment that has the TIME to make a pain in the ass out of himself.

[leveymg]

4. Surveillance is only half of it. Beware provocateurs - those wild-eyed.

folks who try to incite you to smash store windows in the name of "smashing the state", commit arson to "light the torch of revolution", or play with guns or dynamite as part of an "elite peoples combat unit."

That person will likely appear on the scene while your group is planning an event. (S)he will offer something you really need at the time, have access to funds and materials that can't be easily explained, and will want to meet all your friends.

Don't break the law, particularly if it isn't your own idea.

[newswolf56]

5. Excellent advice well worth heeding!

Speaking as one who was in both the Civil Rights and Anti-Vietnam War movements -- also in the alternative press -- I cannot second Leveymg's advice too emphatically. The key to effectiveness is affinity groups -- people who have known one another for years, the longer the better: precisely one of the reasons capitalism so fears community and does everything in its power to destroy community or obstruct communities from evolving.

[bemildred]

6. Ditto that. Watch out for the local FBI plant.

Anybody that urges you to do something overtly illegal and
immoral (when all you really want to do is un-elect some of
these assholes) is NOT your friend.