F.B.I. Scrutinizes Antiwar Rallies
New York Times
November 23, 2003
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/23/national/23FBI.html?hp
WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 - The Federal Bureau of Investigation has collected
extensive information on the tactics, training and organization of
antiwar demonstrators and has advised local law enforcement officials to
report any suspicious activity at protests to its counterterrorism
squads, according to interviews and a confidential bureau memorandum.
The memorandum, which the bureau sent to local law enforcement agencies
last month in advance of antiwar demonstrations in Washington and San
Francisco, detailed how protesters have sometimes used "training camps"
to rehearse for demonstrations, the Internet to raise money and gas
masks to defend against tear gas. The memorandum analyzed lawful
activities like recruiting demonstrators, as well as illegal activities
like using fake documentation to get into a secured site.
F.B.I. officials said in interviews that the intelligence-gathering
effort was aimed at identifying anarchists and "extremist elements"
plotting violence, not at monitoring the political speech of law-abiding
protesters.
The initiative has won the support of some local police, who view it as
a critical way to maintain order at large-scale demonstrations. Indeed,
some law enforcement officials said they believed the F.B.I.'s approach
had helped to ensure that nationwide antiwar demonstrations in recent
months, drawing hundreds of thousands of protesters, remained largely
free of violence and disruption.
But some civil rights advocates and legal scholars said the monitoring
program could signal a return to the abuses of the 1960's and 1970's,
when J. Edgar Hoover was the F.B.I. director and agents routinely spied
on political protesters like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
"The F.B.I. is dangerously targeting Americans who are engaged in
nothing more than lawful protest and dissent," said Anthony Romero,
executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. "The line
between terrorism and legitimate civil disobedience is blurred, and I
have a serious concern about whether we're going back to the days of
Hoover."
Herman Schwartz, a constitutional law professor at American University
who has written about F.B.I. history, said collecting intelligence at
demonstrations is probably legal.
But he added: "As a matter of principle, it has a very serious chilling
effect on peaceful demonstration. If you go around telling people,
`We're going to ferret out information on demonstrations,' that deters
people. People don't want their names and pictures in F.B.I. files."
The abuses of the Hoover era, which included efforts by the F.B.I. to
harass and discredit Hoover's political enemies under a program known as
Cointelpro, led to tight restrictions on F.B.I. investigations of
political activities.
Those restrictions were relaxed significantly last year, when Attorney
General John Ashcroft issued guidelines giving agents authority to
attend political rallies, mosques and any event "open to the public."
Mr. Ashcroft said the Sept. 11 attacks made it essential that the F.B.I.
be allowed to investigate terrorism more aggressively. The bureau's
recent strategy in policing demonstrations is an outgrowth of that
policy, officials said.
"We're not concerned with individuals who are exercising their
constitutional rights," one F.B.I. official said. "But it's obvious that
there are individuals capable of violence at these events. We know that
there are anarchists that are actively involved in trying to sabotage
and commit acts of violence at these different events, and we also know
that these large gatherings would be a prime target for terrorist
groups."
Civil rights advocates, relying largely on anecdotal evidence, have
complained for months that federal officials have surreptitiously sought
to suppress the First Amendment rights of antiwar demonstrators.
Critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policy, for instance, have
sued the government to learn how their names ended up on a "no fly" list
used to stop suspected terrorists from boarding planes. Civil rights
advocates have accused federal and local authorities in Denver and
Fresno, Calif., of spying on antiwar demonstrators or infiltrating
planning meetings. And the New York Police Department this year
questioned many of those arrested at demonstrations about their
political affiliations, before halting the practice and expunging the
data in the face of public criticism.
The F.B.I. memorandum, however, appears to offer the first corroboration
of a coordinated, nationwide effort to collect intelligence regarding
demonstrations.
The memorandum, circulated on Oct. 15 - just 10 days before many
thousands gathered in Washington and San Francisco to protest the
American occupation of Iraq - noted that the bureau "possesses no
information indicating that violent or terrorist activities are being
planned as part of these protests" and that "most protests are peaceful
events."
But it pointed to violence at protests against the International
Monetary Fund and the World Bank as evidence of potential disruption.
Law enforcement officials said in interviews that they had become
particularly concerned about the ability of antigovernment groups to
exploit demonstrations and promote a violent agenda.
"What a great opportunity for an act of terrorism, when all your
resources are dedicated to some big event and you let your guard down,"
a law enforcement official involved in securing recent demonstrations
said. "What would the public say if we didn't look for criminal activity
and intelligence at these events?"
The memorandum urged local law enforcement officials "to be alert to
these possible indicators of protest activity and report any potentially
illegal acts" to counterterrorism task forces run by the F.B.I. It
warned about an array of threats, including homemade bombs and the
formation of human chains.
The memorandum discussed demonstrators' "innovative strategies," like
the videotaping of arrests as a means of "intimidation" against the
police. And it noted that protesters "often use the Internet to recruit,
raise funds and coordinate their activities prior to demonstrations."
"Activists may also make use of training camps to rehearse tactics and
counter-strategies for dealing with the police and to resolve any
logistical issues," the memorandum continued. It also noted that
protesters may raise money to help pay for lawyers for those arrested.
F.B.I. counterterrorism officials developed the intelligence cited in
the memorandum through firsthand observation, informants, public sources
like the Internet and other methods, officials said.
Officials said the F.B.I. treats demonstrations no differently than
other large-scale and vulnerable gatherings. The aim, they said, was not
to monitor protesters but to gather intelligence.
Critics said they remained worried. "What the F.B.I. regards as
potential terrorism," Mr. Romero of the A.C.L.U. said, "strikes me as
civil disobedience."
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