Spying on pacifists, environmentalists and nuns

[n2doc]

Max Obuszewski talks about being one of the targets of spying by the Maryland State Police. Obuszewski is one of 53 activists wrongly added to a database of suspected terrorists.
An undercover Maryland State Police trooper infiltrated nonviolent groups and labeled dozens of people as terrorists.
By Bob Drogin
December 7, 2008

Reporting from Takoma Park, Md. -- To friends in the protest movement, Lucy was an eager 20-something who attended their events and sent encouraging e-mails to support their causes.

Only one thing seemed strange.

"At one demonstration, I remember her showing up with a laptop computer and typing away," said Mike Stark, who helped lead the anti-death-penalty march in Baltimore that day. "We all thought that was odd."

Not really. The woman was an undercover Maryland State Police trooper who between 2005 and 2007 infiltrated more than two dozen rallies and meetings of nonviolent groups.

Maryland officials now concede that, based on information gathered by "Lucy" and others, state police wrongly listed at least 53 Americans as terrorists in a criminal intelligence database -- and shared some information about them with half a dozen state and federal agencies, including the National Security Agency.

Among those labeled as terrorists: two Catholic nuns, a former Democratic congressional candidate, a lifelong pacifist and a registered lobbyist. One suspect's file warned that she was "involved in puppet making and allows anarchists to utilize her property for meetings."

"There wasn't a scintilla of illegal activity" going on, said David Rocah, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a lawsuit and in July obtained the first surveillance files. State police have released other heavily redacted documents.

Investigators, the files show, targeted groups that advocated against abortion, global warming, nuclear arms, military recruiting in high schools and biodefense research, among other issues.

"It was unconscionable conduct," said Democratic state Sen. Brian Frosh, who is backing legislation to ban similar spying in Maryland unless the police superintendent can document a "reasonable, articulable suspicion" of criminal activity.

The case is the latest to emerge since the Sept. 11 attacks spurred a sharp increase in state and federal surveillance of Americans. Critics say such investigations violate constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and assembly, and serve to inhibit lawful dissent.

In the largest known effort, the Pentagon monitored at least 186 lawful protests and meetings -- including church services and silent vigils -- in California and other states.

The military also compiled more than 2,800 reports on Americans in a database of supposed terrorist threats. That program, known as TALON, was ordered closed in 2007 after it was exposed in news reports.

more:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-na-cop-spy7-2008dec07,0,1237214.story

[Taverner]

1. I'd love to see Kopbusters investigate this kind of shit

[Peace Patriot]

2. Puppetmaking, my God! You mean these terrorists made Bush?!

"Among those labeled as terrorists: two Catholic nuns, a former Democratic congressional candidate, a lifelong pacifist and a registered lobbyist. One suspect's file warned that she was 'involved in puppet making and allows anarchists to utilize her property for meetings.'"

:rofl: if it weren't such a shredding of the Constitution, and potential preliminary to bullets through the head, or chainsawing of the body parts and throwing them into mass graves, like Bush's pals in Colombia do.

But, hey, :rofl: anyway. You gotta laugh sometimes. Puppetmaking! Holding meetings! Really, what will the citizens of the United States of America think of next!