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COINTELPRO
Today
Edward
Levi was the Attorney General during the Church Committee hearings. It was he, a former professor of
constitutional law, who was responsible for setting up the first Guidelines for
the FBI to make sure their activities didn’t violate the constitution. In
December 2008, the Attorney General under President Bush, Michael Mukasey, set forth new Guidelines for the FBI
allowing the FBI “to conduct ‘assessments’ of suspects without requiring any
factual basis for suspicion.” Now
the FBI could use physical surveillance, conduct an interview with a target’s
neighbors or landlord or colleague or friend. It could even engage informants to infiltrate a political or
other meeting to spy on the proceedings.
It could get personal information from commercial databases. And it
could do this without suspicion the target had done anything wrong. Moreover, any information the FBI
collects could be kept forever.
Senator Russ Feingold, Senator Dick Durbin, and
Senator Ted Kennedy sent a letter to Attorney General Mukasey saying the
authority he enabled could result in the FBI conducting a “long-term physical
surveillance of an innocent American citizen.” Their concern was that such a physical surveillance could be
initiated based on the exercise of first amendment rights or race or ethnicity
or national origin or religion.
Organizations concerned with civil liberties and religious freedom also
protested to Attorney General Mukasey.
The information so collected might be shared with
fusion centers which all the states now have. The new criteria for the FBI or a fusion center to conduct
reviews was the possibility a crime might be committed. The result has been that many peaceful
protest groups and political action groups are being monitored. The Fourth Amendment safeguard of
issuing warrants on probable cause is sidestepped. The Fifth Amendment safeguard on not compelling a person to
witness against himself is sidestepped as unsuspecting participants in
religious or political meetings are monitored.
Now the government is allowed to spy, to disrupt, to
infiltrate again. And that puts
our rights to exercise free speech and our right to assemble at risk. People aware Big Brother may be
watching them become reluctant to speak their mind. As was done in the old COINTELPRO program, agent
provocateurs can even urge groups to use violence. When members see these people advocate violence, it could
cause them to drop out from groups they would otherwise support.
The FBI’s “Domestic Investigations and Operations
Guidelines” which implement the Attorney General’s Guidelines for the FBI are
available online. However, the FBI
deleted a large portion of Section 5 of the document which pertains to how they
conduct assessments along with almost all of Section 16 which “governs
‘undisclosed participation’ by FBI agents and informants in political and civic
organizations.” Why? What are they
trying to hide?
The
FBI exerts control over local police officers through membership in the Joint
Terrorism Task Force where federal and local police cooperate under the
direction of the FBI. The Bill of
Rights Defense Committee contends JTTFs “have also violated First Amendment
rights by investigating people engaging in free speech and association.” Agencies like the CIA and military
intelligence working within a JTTF are not subject to FBI Guidelines. “A JTTF criminal intelligence
investigation may last indefinitely,” the Bill of Rights Defense Committee
wrote. “The JTTF is also permitted
to attend any public event or go to any public place for the purpose of
surveillance without being required to articulate suspicion of a crime,” they
further wrote.
On a local level JTTF members can come from members of
the police or sheriff or fire departments. You don’t need counterterrorism experience to be a
member. The Bill of Rights Defense
Committee wrote, “The FBI has increasingly used the JTTFs to investigate political,
religious, and environmental and animal rights activities. In an echo of the FBI COINTELPRO
investigations of the 1950’s and 1960’s, JTTF members have infiltrated
non-violent antiwar groups and Muslim groups. The Department of Education also encourages public
universities to assign officers to international student groups and to ally
themselves with their local JTTF.”
The Bill of Rights Defense Committee told the story of
Aaron Kilner who was a Fresno, California sheriff’s deputy who was part of a
JTTF. He infiltrated a group called Peace Fresno who were
peacefully protesting the Iraq War.
He pretended to be a member using the name Aaron Stokes. The peace group found out who he really
was when he died in a motorcycle accident and his picture and real name were
printed in a newspaper. The Bill
of Rights Defense Committee wrote, “Although this type of surveillance is
illegal in California, the JTTF used federal law to justify its action.” The
Bill of Rights Defense Committee has explained how “as many as 150
organizations- including Greenpeace, a Catholic Workers Group, and various
Muslim charities- have been monitored in recent years without any evidence of
criminal activity. The ‘war on
terror’ they have said, in effect, criminalized dissent.”
If
you go to the ACLU web site at http://www.trackedinamerica.org,
you will find political surveillance and infiltration have long been part of
American history.
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