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Antiterrorism agents spied on activists opposing war { March 15 2006 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/03/15/documents_fbi_spied_on_pa_pacifists/http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/03/15/documents_fbi_spied_on_pa_pacifists/
Documents: FBI spied on Pa. pacifists
By Jonathan Barnes, Reuters | March 15, 2006
PITTSBURGH -- FBI antiterrorism agents spied on a US peace group simply because it opposed the Iraq war, part of an ''unprecedented campaign" to spy on innocent citizens, the American Civil Liberties Union said yesterday.
FBI documents acquired under the Freedom of Information Act and provided to reporters show that the FBI conducted surveillance of the Pittsburgh-based Thomas Merton Center for Peace & Justice during antiwar demonstrations and leaflet distributions in 2002 and 2003.
One document said the Pittsburgh Joint Terrorism Task Force had learned that ''The Thomas Merton Center . . . has been determined to be an organization which is opposed to the United States' war with Iraq."
A separate document said, ''One female leaflet distributor who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent inquired if (confidential source's name withheld) was an FBI agent. No other TMC participants appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent."
FBI officials in Pittsburgh said that the bureau was engaged in legitimate investigations and that in one case dropped the probe upon determining that someone photographed at one demonstration was not the person they were looking for. ''We had a legitimate purpose for being there," FBI special agent Bill Crowley said, referring to a November 2002 protest.
The ACLU said the spying fit a pattern of federal abuse following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. ''From the FBI to the Pentagon to the National Security Agency, this administration has embarked on an unprecedented campaign to spy on innocent Americans," Ann Beeson, associate legal director of the ACLU, said in a statement.
A November 2002 FBI memo said the Merton Center ''holds daily leaflet distribution activities in downtown Pittsburgh and is currently focused on its opposition to the potential war in Iraq." The war began in March 2003.
The memo called the Merton Center ''a left-wing organization advocating, among many political causes, pacifism."
The FBI acknowledged that the report sounded as if it were reporting on the activities of an antiwar group, but said ''such a characterization would be factually misleading."
The agent was pursuing leads ''from another source possibly establishing a link between an ongoing investigation and the group engaging in antiwar protests. Finding no such link, he terminated his surveillance," the FBI said in a statement.
Previously disclosed documents showed that the FBI was retaining files on antiwar groups, but the ACLU said the most recent documents were the first to show conclusively that the FBI targeted the Merton Center because of its pacifism.
''We know that this surveillance is about the political views of the Thomas Merton Center because that's what the documents say," said Mary Catherine Roper, a lawyer with the Pittsburgh ACLU.
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
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