NSA spied on peace groups

[Dan Scanlan <coolhanduke@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

National Security Agency mounted massive spy op on Baltimore peace
group, documents show
Kevin Zeese
Published: January 10, 2006

The National Security Agency has been spying on a Baltimore anti-war
group, according to documents released during litigation, going so
far as to document the inflating of protesters' balloons, and
intended to deploy units trained to detect weapons of mass
destruction, RAW STORY has learned.

According to the documents, the Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore, a
Quaker-linked peace group, has been monitored by the NSA working with
the Baltimore Intelligence Unit of the Baltimore City Police Department.

The documents came as a result of litigation in the August 2003 trial
of Marilyn Carlisle and Cindy Farquhar. An NSA security official
provided the defendants with a redacted Action Plan and a redacted
copy of a Joint Terrorism Task Force email about the activities of
the Pledge of Resistance activities.

The NSA, established in 1952 by President Truman, is the largest and
most secret of U.S. intelligence agencies. Headquartered between
Baltimore and Washington, DC, the agency has two principal functions:
to protect U.S. government communications and intercept foreign
transmissions. However, the NSA's United States Signals Intelligence
Directive 18 strictly prohibits the interception or collection of
information about "U.S. persons, entities, corporations or
organizations" without explicit written permission from the Attorney
General.

The revelation that a Baltimore peace group was spied upon comes in
the wake of a news reports that the agency has also been
eavesdropping on Americans' international calls and raises new
questions about the legality of NSA activities. The agency did not
immediately return a request for comment.

The Baltimore Pledge of Resistance is part of the national Iraq
Pledge of Resistance, which works with the Baltimore Emergency
Response Network and the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) --
part of a national group committed to nonviolent civil resistance to
stop the war in Iraq. The Pledge lobbies Maryland congressmembers via
letters, phone calls, faxes, emails and face-to-face meetings;
members of the group are periodically arrested for peaceable protests.

Documents turned over by the NSA indicate that the group was closely
monitored. In one instance, the agency filed reports approximately
every 15 minutes from 9:30 AM to 3:18 PM on the day of a
demonstration at the National Vigilance Airplane Memorial on the NSA
Campus in Maryland.

According to an NSA email dated July 4, 2004, the agency collected
license numbers and descriptions and the number of people in each car
and filed a report about them gathering in a church parking lot for
the demonstration. NSA agents also logged their travel to the
demonstration, including stopping as a gas station along the way. A
canine dog unit was used to search a minivan when it was stopped on
the way to the demonstration - nothing was found.

NSA officials even reported on the balloons being inflated for the
demonstration and the content of their signs.

An entry made at 1300 hours on July 4. reads, "The Soc. was advised
the protestors were proceeding to the airplane memorial with three
helium balloons attached to a banner that stated, 'Those Who Exchange
Freedom for Security Deserve Neither, Will Ultimately Lose Both.'"

On the day of the demonstration three protesters were cited for
"disturbances on government property" and released. A federal judge
eventually dismissed the case before trial.

Two of those demonstrators, Max Obuszewiski and Ellen Barfield, are
still scheduled for trial in Baltimore federal court Jan. 25. The
defendants have filed a motion for discovery and included the letter
from the NSA acknowledging spying on the Pledge. The prosecutor has
refused to release this information as part of discovery. The
defendants plan to argue that the information is necessary for their
defense.

"The NSA confirmed, because of a FOIA request I filed, that indeed it
has files on peace and justice groups," Obuszewiski said. "However,
the Agency is refusing to release the information unless I pay
$1,915. What might be in these files?"

A second NSA document on the letterhead of the National Security
Agency Police and authored by NSA Police Major Michael E. Talbert is
dated Oct. 3, 2004. It is an action plan for the "threat of a
demonstration hosted by a group known as Pledge of Resistance -
Baltimore." They note the demonstration is part of the "Keep Space
for Peace Week." The NSA action plan includes plans for four days,
but six activities being planned by the NSA before the day of the
demonstration have been redacted.

Extensive plans are described for the day of the Oct. 4, 2004
demonstration. The letter shows that the NSA planned to have their
Weapons of Mass Destruction Rapid Response Team on site, an officer
with a shotgun, an increase in the number of officers, mobile units
monitoring the highway and parking lot, roving patrols on bicycles in
various areas, four K9 handlers, agents to provide counter-
surveillance, aerial observations by the Anne Arundel, Maryland
police and photography/video surveillance of the activities.

"The NSA Weapons of Mass Destruction Rapid Response Team will have a
limited staffing on hand to support the event," Talbert's memo reads.
"...Anne Arundel County Police will be requested to provide aerial
observations."

"Shocking appalling and unnecessary," is how the Chair of the DC
Chapter of the National Lawyer's Guild Demonstration Support
Committee Mark Goldstone describes the NSA actions. Goldstone, who
often represents activists who engage in non-violent civil
disobedience, is not counsel in this litigation. "This surveillance
is completely unrelated to even an expansive definition of 'national
security.'"

Maria Allwine, a protester arrested Oct. 4, 2004, recently described
the events in an interview on Democracy Rising.

"The NSA must be spying on us from the federal post office right
across a small street from the AFSC," Allwine said. "It's the only
place that gives them enough of a view to see our cars/license plate
numbers."

Allwine also discussed how the Pledge has been infiltrated. She
described a March 20, 2003 demonstration in downtown Baltimore where
"a provocateur (whom we had identified at our planning meeting the
previous night) joined us. We'd never seen him before. . . during the
die-in at the federal courthouse, he was taunting the police in a
violent manner. We had to quiet him down, he then disappeared and we
never saw him again - and, of course, he wasn't arrested with the
other 49 of us."

The monitoring is ongoing. Allwine says that at demonstrations the
police "have had cookies and drinks set up for us (we don't partake!)
and tell us they knew we were coming."

Goldstone says the impact of NSA surveillance is worrisome.

"People should not be afraid to speak out, and unfortunately evidence
of domestic spying tends to chill people's interest in speaking out-
thus chilling and limiting our precious First Amendment rights," he
told RAW STORY. "Nothing that the Pledge does, either by their public
advocacy against the war or their non-violent civil disobedience/
resistance to war can be plausibly seen as a threat to United States
national security, as the group is pledged to non-violence and non-
property destruction guidelines."

David Rocah, a staff attorney with the Maryland ACLU, adds, "There is
obviously a well-founded concern of law enforcement monitoring of
First Amendment activities. The ACLU and others have exposed such
activities all over the country resulting in law suits."

Goldstone says Congress must rein in the NSA.

"Congress must investigate this, and get a handle on the issue of
domestic spying by the NSA and other agencies against people
exercising political speech," he said.

#

Kevin Zeese is director of Democracy Rising and a candidate for the
U.S. Senate in Maryland.