Brings back memories of J Edgar Hoover doing warrantless wiretaps on Martin Luther Kind and anti war groups and wanting to arrest 15,000 people. M

Published on Friday, July 18, 2008 by the Baltimore Sun
Spying Uncovered: Documents Show State Police Monitored Peace and Anti-Death Penalty Groups

by Nick Madigan

BALTIMORE - Undercover Maryland State Police officers repeatedly spied on peace activists and anti-death penalty groups in recent years and entered the names of some in a law-enforcement database of people thought to be terrorists or drug traffickers, newly released documents show.

The files, made public yesterday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, depict a pattern of infiltration of the activists’ organizations in 2005 and 2006. The activists contend that the authorities were trying to determine whether they posed a security threat to the United States. But none of the 43 pages of summaries and computer logs - some with agents’ names and whole paragraphs blacked out - mention criminal or even potentially criminal acts, the legal standard for initiating such surveillance.

State police officials said they did not curtail the protesters’ freedoms.

The spying, detailed in logs of at least 288 hours of surveillance over a 14-month period, recalls similar infiltration by FBI agents of civil rights and anti-war groups decades ago, particularly under the administration of President Richard M. Nixon.

David Rocah, a staff attorney for the ACLU in Baltimore, said at a news conference yesterday that he found it “stupefying” that more than 30 years later, the government is still targeting people who do nothing more than express dissent.

Spying uncovered -- baltimoresun.com

URL to article: Spying Uncovered: Documents Show State Police Monitored Peace and Anti-Death Penalty Groups - CommonDreams.org

All that will prove to be worthless when real criminal activity takes place and they haven't been monitoring that.

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"I find no black men appealing, they look like giant monkeys." -LilithIshtar (some member of another forum I used to be part of)

Exactly. Something major will happen, and they'll have been too busy harassing hippes for 0.5 ounces of pot.

But, hey, they've got reams of data on PETA and WTO protesters, so, yeah, they've got their priorities in order.....

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"All those in favor of referring a study of leadership feasibility to the political viability subcommittee to consider forming a task group, signify by saying aye!" -- Congress

But was it warrantless wiretaps? It didn't come right out and say this. My bet is no warrant was issue, and you need "probably cause" rationale for the warrant. Free speech is not rationale for surveillance. Whoever were the management or administrative guys are the approved of this operation need to be fired.

When the police are militarised and become tools of government this is going to happen.