The American Civil Liberties Union
sent me mail (Larry) today indicating the following:
As you know,
in spring 2006 the ACLU submitted FOIA requests to the various
intelligence units of the U.S. Department of Defense, to see if there were
any records indicating domestic spying on eleven peace and anti-war groups
from Washington. This letter reports on what we found.
The Defense
Department originally stated that we would, in effect, have to get in line
and wait for documents (perhaps a year or more). The ACLU of Washington
joined with other ACLU affiliates to bring a lawsuit in Philadelphia to
force the Pentagon to move faster. As a result...relevant documents
trickled in. Some of you have received...copies.
The good news is
that we received no...Department of Defense spying on any peace groups in
our state.
...ACLU will continue to be vigilant against unjustified
law enforcement activities that burden political rights of free speech and
assembly. The bad news is...President Bush had issued a signing statement
...retaining the right to open citizen's mail without a warrant, even
though Congress had passed a law saying otherwise. The ACLU promptly
issued a new round of FOIA requests regarding warrantless opening of U.S.
mail since 2001. More information on that request is available at:
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/spyfiles/28091prs20070122.html.
Here in Washington (state), we will be sure to contact
you if we learn of any surveillance or spying on any of your groups in
Washington (state). ...long-term change comes when people use the
information we have gathered through the FOIA process to persuade their
elected representatives to exercise proper oversight of law enforcement
agencies.
Domestic spying on anti-war groups forces ACLU
into action
Tuesday, March 21,
2006
By MIKE BARBER P-I
REPORTER
Monica Zucker and three other members of Seattle's Raging
Grannies, a peace group of older women who dress in outrageous hats and
sing protest songs, lifted up their voices in response Tuesday to recent
Seattle P-I disclosures that they were in federal anti-terrorism
files.
"Oh, we're a gaggle of grannies, urging you off of your
fannies," they sang at a news conference in the downtown Seattle offices
of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington.
Acting on behalf of the Raging Grannies and 10 other peace
groups across the state, the ACLU of Washington is demanding to know
whether and why federal government anti-terrorism units are spending time
and money spying on peace organizations.
The local ACLU is using the Freedom of Information Act to
seek information on any surveillance from the Defense Department, the FBI
and the Seattle Joint Terrorism Task Force. The move was sparked by
disclosures in the Seattle P-I last month. The newspaper documented
government surveillance on a longtime Quaker peace activist Glen Milner,
of Shoreline, and other anti-war activists during U.S. Navy fleet
participation in the annual Seafair festival in recent years.
"The government should not spy on groups engaging in
peaceful political protest. The FBI should focus its efforts on actual
threats and not target people because of their political views," said
Kathleen Taylor, state ACLU executive director.
To those who say domestic spying is a price they are
willing to pay for security, Taylor echoed critics, in and out of
government, who say too much useless information gums up anti-terrorism
intelligence rather than helping it.
"You can't find a needle in the haystack by adding more
hay," she said.
The ACLU filed the request on its own behalf, Seattle
Raging Grannies and other nonviolent religious and political anti-war
groups statewide:
The American Friends Service Committee; Peace and Justice
Action League of Spokane; People for Peace, Justice, and Healing; Pierce
County Truth in Recruiting; Seattle Peace Chorus; Sound Nonviolent
Opponents of War; United for Peace of Pierce County; Vancouver For Peace;
Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation; and the Yakima Valley
Peace Advocates Network.
Several, including the Raging Grannies, were mentioned in
federal law enforcement documents acquired by the P-I. Law enforcement
wanted to monitor anti-war protest activities surrounding Seafair in 2003
and 2004.
Barry Steinhardt, who directs the ACLU's technology and
liberty project, is pessimistic that the request will yield much. "Not
only is the government resisting current (requests) but it is taking steps
to put more limits upon them." Meanwhile, domestic information gathering
is increasing.
Still, it's important to try, he said. Aside from the
chilling effect on political dissent, information finding its way some or
all of the glut of new a government information-gathering systems has the
potential for misinterpretation, resulting in possible harassment, arrest
– even being flagged for airport no-fly lists, he said.
Representatives from local peace organizations mentioned
in federal law enforcement files said it raises other concerns for
them.
"In a time of war, when we are told it will be endless
war, for my government to be spending to investigate the Peace Chorus is
stunning, an incredible waste of money," said Martha Baskin, a member of
the Seattle Peace Chorus.
Mike Barber can be reached at 206-448-8018 or
michaelbarber@seattlepi.com.
Peace advocates being
targeted? By JANE GARGAS YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
GORDON KING/Yakima
Herald-Republic
The core
group of the Yakima Valley Peace Advocates Network stands at
the Millennium Plaza in Yakima, where they've held many
vigils. They are (front row) Richard Gaulke, left, Gail
Pearlman and Larry Breer; (back row) Mike Collins, left, Gene
Rupel, Dale Johnson and Jim Leonard.
They don't seem all
that threatening. They're parents and grandparents. Some,
great-grandparents even. Years ago, many went off to war. They quietly
served their country, came back home and settled down to raise families.
Most went to college, got jobs, paid taxes, did volunteer work.
Many are retired.
Nonetheless, members of the Yakima Valley Peace Advocates Network might
be on the U.S. government's surveillance list.
"It's possible," said Larry Breer, a leader of the group that meets
monthly in a local church. It was organized here several years ago to
protest American war activity.
About a week ago, Breer received a phone call from the American Civil
Liberties Union of Washington, asking if the local group would agree to be
included in a Freedom of Information Act inquiry.
The ACLU is planning to file the inquiry with the federal government to
see if anti-war groups around the state have been watched by government
agents.
The ACLU's proposed action follows news last month that peace groups in
the Seattle area have been under government surveillance.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported in late February that FBI files
showed that local police and federal agents watched Seattle-area activist
groups planning protests during a Seafair celebration several years ago.
The files, recently disclosed through an earlier ACLU Freedom of
Information Act request, established that agents were looking for evidence
of civil disobedience during protests when Navy ships arrived at the
annual festival.
One Seattle organization they watched is the Raging Grannies, older
women who express opposition to war by singing.
After discovering that anti-war groups had been spied on in the Seattle
area, the ACLU thought there might be more information of interest.
"In wake of that (documents outlining surveillance of the Seattle-area
groups), we wondered if there was current surveillance of other peace
groups," said Doug Honig, communications director of the ACLU of
Washington.
That's where the Yakima Peace Advocates come in.
Breer polled members of his group and received permission for the ACLU
to include them in their inquiry.
It has yet to be determined from which federal agencies the group will
seek information, but the ACLU's Honig did say that obtaining documents
can be a lengthy process.
Here in Yakima, the prospect that a group of about a dozen men and
women, with an average age of 55, may have piqued government interest
seems a little far-fetched, said Breer, who is 70.
"Frankly, I don't see how you could look at us as traitor material," he
said. "Our group is just very concerned about civil liberties and war
prevention."
A sergeant in the Air Force from 1956 to 1976, Breer described the
peace advocates as a group that "doesn't do loud stuff."
"Our thing isn't being boisterous," he added. "When you yell, you can't
get anyone on your side."
So the peace advocates hold peaceful marches and vigils.
Not exactly the stuff that warrants domestic spying to protect the
country, Breer presumes.
Yet, surveillance of the Yakima group can't be totally discounted, said
Dale Johnson, a peace advocate member and an infantryman during World War
II.
"Oh, yes, I think it's possible (we've been watched)," he said. "When
we held a candlelight vigil at Millennium Plaza, there was a man in a
black suit furiously taking photos of us."
That vigil was held a month after the war in Iraq began in April 2003;
the group also led a 300-person march before the war, hoping to dissuade
the president from invading Iraq.
Breer remembers "a pretty heavy surveillance by police" at the march.
Member Bev Luby Bartz, who is 67 and has 28 grandchildren, can't
imagine that anyone in the group has anything nefarious to hide.
She also doesn't think it's likely the government would spend much time
spying here.
"We're such a small town and so insignificant, I just don't think so,"
she said.
Still, Bartz said the group does try to impart a powerful message:
"War is a sign of failure, and we've just made such a mess of things in
Iraq," she said.
Breer agreed.
"War is so outrageously impractical in this age," he said. "I have no
idea why we're in Iraq. I have no idea why we've let 2,000 of our citizens
be killed. I have no idea why some 80,000 Iraqis have been killed.
"What is this for?"
Are those the kind of sentiments that possibly raise the suspicion of
government agencies?
Breer doesn't like to think so.
"In my mind, they shouldn't be watching peace groups; they should be
watching war groups instead."
In light of the revelation earlier this year that the National Security
Agency has been spying on Americans for four years, Breer believes
Americans' civil liberties are in jeopardy.
"This is unprecedented. It's almost like the public is seen as a
criminal element," he said.
But even if Breer's group has been spied upon, it won't discourage
members from partaking in events around the third anniversary of the
beginning of the Iraq war later this month.
Locally, the peace advocates network is holding a March 18 peace rally,
starting at 1 p.m. at Millennium Plaza on Third Street and Walnut Avenue.
The group will walk to First Street, then reconvene in the plaza for
speeches.
That effort coincides with a larger peace march in Seattle on the same
day. People will gather at 1 p.m. at Seattle's federal building on Second
and Marion streets.
Then, on March 19, the local Veterans for Peace group will hold a noon
peace vigil at Nob Hill Boulevard and 16th Avenue.
"There could be no better time to have a vigil," said Johnson, a
retired entomologist, who is a member of both peace groups.
Breer finds it a bit unsettling to think that the group may have been
monitored by the government. But he emphasized that the best outcome for
everyone would be if it turns out to be untrue.
"People might think we're hoping the feds did watch us because we'd get
some notoriety then," he said. "But that's not so. It would be better to
know it didn't happen."
Authorities keep tabs on
non-violent Seattle activists in hunt for al-Qaida
Wednesday, February 22,
2006
By MIKE BARBER AND PAUL
SHUKOVSKY P-I REPORTERS
In the post-9/11 world, some unlikely figures have attracted
the attention of local police and federal agents: the Raging Grannies, known for
musical satire, and Quaker peace activists, known for non-violence.
Recently disclosed FBI files show that in Seattle in recent
years, federal agents and local police looked for signs of civil disobedience
among activists preparing to protest Navy ships arriving for Seafair:
Local anti-war groups such as the Raging Grannies, Not in Our Name and
Ground Zero were watched for intent to disrupt Navy ships through civil
disobedience such as chaining themselves to ships. It never happened.
A Navy criminal investigator traveled to Eugene, Ore., to find out if
anarchists blamed for violence at Seattle's 1999 World Trade Organization
conference might return to protest the fleet. They never did.
A law enforcement agent conducted surveillance as two small, Peace-Fleet
boats were launched in West Seattle.
Authorities argue that they had a duty to protect Navy ships. They don't want
to happen in Puget Sound what happened six years ago in Yemen when a small
suicide boat blew a hole in a Navy destroyer, killing 17 sailors.
As the Bush administration and Congress argue about how far domestic spying
to protect the nation should go, Seattle-area peace activists and constitutional
watchdogs are concerned that programs intended to thwart al-Qaida could become a
witch-hunt against American political dissenters. Concerns are heightened by the
storage of massive amounts of raw information in government databases that have
proliferated since 9/11.
One key Pentagon database was piloted here, the Joint Protection Enterprise
Network. Its purpose is to share intelligence to safeguard military bases,
including seven around Puget Sound. It's controlled by the Pentagon's secretive
Counterintelligence Field Activity office. The Pentagon did not return numerous
calls for an explanation about the database.
'Threat assessments'
"Surveillance of actual threats might be warranted. Surveillance of known,
non-violent activists is not warranted and has a chilling affect on protest or
demonstrations against our government," says Glen Milner, 53, an electrician
from Shoreline.
Milner, a Quaker peace activist, was watched by local and federal law
enforcement who feared his peace fleet protest boats could interfere with Navy
ships at Seafair -- or worse be a Trojan horse for terrorists. The Coast Guard
charged Milner with intruding into security zones around the Navy ships during
the 2004 peace fleet demonstrations. Milner denies it.
Milner's name and those of local peace organizations appear throughout 18
pages of documents about government "threat assessments" of the 2003 and 2004
peace fleet demonstration. The papers were acquired through the Freedom of
Information Act by the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington last year on
Milner's behalf.
"This is part of a troubling pattern by the government of spying on peaceful
groups," said Kathleen Taylor, executive director of the ACLU of Washington.
Keeping watch on "groups like Raging Grannies doesn't make us safer," she
said. "And it interferes with people's right to protest government policies.
When government believes that advocacy of peace is a threat, we are going in the
wrong direction. The government needs to focus on real threats to public safety
rather than to presume that anyone who objects to government action is a safety
threat."
Duke University law professor Scott Silliman, executive director of the
Center on Law, Ethics and National Security, sees no legal problem with the
actions of Seattle-area police and federal agents surrounding Seafair. The
retired Air Force lawyer said agents watching protesters in a public place is
not against the law. "It's the same thing as a bunch of cops watching," Silliman
said. "It may be intimidating, but it's nothing illegal."
In the wake of 9/11, the Bush administration responded to its failure to
detect the attacks by broadening the rules for the FBI to open a national
security investigation.
The old guidelines required that a crime had been committed or was being
planned. The new guidelines create a category called "threat assessment," and no
crime has to be committed or planned to perform a threat assessment.
Under a threat assessment, a federal criminal justice source said, agents can
attend public meetings without identifying themselves and conduct such simple
surveillance as watching a protest march.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the FBI acknowledged that their
agencies collect and disseminate information on U.S. political activists. But
the agencies say that they only gather information on those who either break
laws or plan to do so.
The FBI "has no interest in investigating individuals engaged in the exercise
of their constitutional rights," said Laura Laughlin, special agent-in-charge of
the FBI's Seattle office. "We are interested in individuals or groups who are
actively conspiring to commit criminal acts. Our investigations are
intelligence-driven and predicated on specific information about potential
criminal acts."
Scott Jacobs, former special agent in charge of the Naval Criminal
Investigative Service in Bremerton, agreed. "If I were a citizen protester, I
wouldn't want people reporting on me, and we don't. ... Ground Zero has had a
regular protest activity at the Bangor (submarine base) front gate. We don't
collect on any one of those individuals out there. They are exercising their
rights and are peaceful demonstrators," said Jacobs, now chief of anti-terrorism
activities at Naval Criminal Investigative Service headquarters in Washington,
D.C.
But Jacobs drew a bright line between protesting at the base front gate and
launching peace vessels to protest Navy warships.
"If you get within 500 yards of a naval vessel, you're breaking the law,"
Jacobs said. "If we have information that folks are going to disrupt that
flotilla, we would collect information on that specifically. We don't know who
is on those demonstrators' boats. They could be a terrorist group trying to get
closer to our vessels under the guise of a protest activity."
Getting in the database
It's unclear whether information about local political activists has been
collected in the database intended for military installations to use to share
intelligence. The Pentagon did not make itself available to answer the
question.
The database is fed raw, unclassified information from another government
database, said a federal criminal justice source. That second database often
contains unverified information about possible threats to military
installations. If you get off the wrong exit on Interstate 5, pull up to the
Fort Lewis gate, then turn around and leave, guards might enter your license and
vehicle description in that database.
In general, "civil disobedience on a federal reservation," such as a military
base, could be enough to prompt collecting intelligence on an individual or
activist group, said Dave Gomez, the FBI assistant special agent in charge in
Seattle.
"We don't investigate people's exercise of First Amendment rights. We
investigate criminal activity and the potential for criminal activity."
One of the documents in Milner's FBI file, says the Naval Criminal
Investigative Service, mindful of Seattle's violent World Trade Organization
confrontations, sent an agent to Eugene, Ore., in July 2000 to gauge anarchists'
intentions.
Milner said the peace fleet protests at Seafair have been held since 2000
without incident until 2004 when he was charged with violating the security zone
around the Navy ships in his small boat. He believes flawed intelligence was
exaggerated and created a confrontational climate that led to the charge.
"Personally, I tend to be one of those people who feels that if you aren't
doing anything wrong, you should have nothing to fear. In this case their
intelligence was faulty and used against me," he said.
A year earlier, a memo apparently from a police member of the FBI's
Washington Joint Analytic Center says: "The Snohomish County Peace Action of
Edmonds is a merge between the Lynnwood SNOW and Peace Action of Snohomish
County. They support the anti-war, anti-Bush, anti-nuclear, anti-weapons
movements."
The memo from an unknown local police agency to the FBI says Milner was the
speaker at a May 2003 potluck attended by the Raging Grannies, older women who
dress outlandishly and oppose war through humorous song.
Raging Granny Shirley Morrison, 83, of Seattle says it was a Mother's Day
potluck. She's not surprised to find that the Grannies are mentioned in FBI
files. "Frankly, we've been expecting to be in a database," Morrison said.
"We're all going to be investigated under this administration."
An FBI memo dated a few days later says its domestic terrorism squad had
opened a "special events investigation" into possible civil disobedience during
Seafair's public tours of Navy ships. Other memos from various federal and local
agencies in the bureau files discuss demonstration plans of local peace groups
including Ground Zero, Not In Our Name and Peace Action of Snohomish County.
Most information in the police and federal investigative agency memos about
the 2003 Peace Fleet demonstrations appears to have been gleaned from activist
Web sites.
But on July 30, 2003, Peace Fleet activists were watched as they launched
their small vessels.
"Yesterday (redacted) conducted surveillance at the boat launch on
Alki Beach," said one memo in FBI files. "Two 16-18 foot boats launched at
approximately 11:00 a.m. Each boat had three individuals aboard, and each boat
was flying a blue flag with 'NO WAR IN IRAQ.' "
The memo cited "uncorroborated information" indicating plans for a sit-in
during public tours of the Navy ships, perhaps by an "attempt to secure
themselves (via handcuffs or other means) inside the vessels."
It was the FBI, however, that counseled against violating protesters' civil
liberties.
"It may be advisable to allow the activist groups to conduct as much exercise
of their First Amendment rights as possible and avoid confrontation, only
becoming involved in issues of safety and national security," the FBI said.