ICLU Files Freedom of Information Act Against FBI
Iowa Civil Liberties Union
ACLU Launches Nationwide Effort to Expose Illegal FBI Spying on Political and Religious Groups
In Iowa, ICLU seeks disclosure of surveillance records of both federal and state law enforcement
DES MOINES
– Citing evidence that the FBI and local police are illegally spying on
political, environmental and faith-based groups, the American Civil
Liberties Union and its affiliates today filed multiple Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) requests around the country to uncover who is
being investigated and why.
“The FBI
is wasting its time and our tax dollars spying on groups that criticize
the government, like the Quakers in Colorado or Catholic Peace
Ministries in Iowa,” said ACLU Associate Legal Director Ann Beeson. “Do
Americans really want to return to the days when peaceful critics
become the subject of government investigations?”
Ben
Stone, executive director of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, which is
among the state affiliates participating in the effort, said that the
ICLU is involved because of what the U.S. Attorney's office did to Des
Moines peace activists in February of this year.
“Ten
months ago, citizens subpoenaed by the government courageously stood in
the public square in an effort to convey to the world that they would
not be intimidated,” Stone said. “In the face of their
resistance, the U.S. Attorney backed down. The ICLU's filing today of
FOIA, privacy act, and open records requests on behalf of our clients
represents the next step in our struggle to defend the right of free
speech against government intimidation,” he added.
The
requests were filed by the national ACLU as well as its affiliates in
Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Oregon. The national ACLU
FOIA names the central FBI agency as well as bureaus in New York,
Washington, D.C., California, Michigan, Virginia, and Massachusetts.
Additional ACLU affiliates are expected to file another round of FOIA
requests in early 2005.
As
a first step, the groups today filed Freedom of Information Act
requests in 10 states and the District of Columbia seeking information
about the FBI's use of Joint Terrorism Task Forces and local police to
engage in political surveillance. The FOIAs seek two kinds of
information: 1) the actual FBI files of groups and individuals
targeted for speaking out or practicing their faith; 2) information
about how the practices and funding structure of the task forces, known
as JTTFs, are encouraging rampant and unwarranted spying.
JTTFs
are legal partnerships between the FBI and local police, in which local
officers are “deputized” as federal agents and work in coordination
with the FBI to identify and monitor individuals and groups. While
their purpose is to investigate terrorism, they have targeted peaceful
political and religious groups with no connection to terrorism.
The
ACLU's clients comprise a Who's Who of national and local advocates for
well-known causes, including the environment, animal rights, labor,
religion, Native American rights, fair trade, grassroots politics,
peace, social justice, nuclear disarmament, human rights and civil
liberties. Requests were also filed on behalf of numerous
individuals, including an organizer for Service Employees International
Union, a former Catholic priest, and student activists.
In Iowa,
the clients include Brian Terrell, Elton Davis, Frank Cordaro, Wendy
Vasquez, and Sally Frank, as well as the Drake Chapter of the National
Lawyers Guild (NLG), the Des Moines Catholic Workers, and the Catholic
Peace Ministry.
Among
these clients, peace activists Terrell, Davis and Vasquez were
individually served with subpoenas in February, while the Drake Chapter
of the National Lawyers Guild was the subject of a subpoena served on
Drake University. Sally Frank, a professor of law at Drake Law
School, advises the NLG chapter there. Cordaro, a former Catholic
priest, is a well-known anti-war activist with a long history of
nonviolent, civil disobedience.
Over the
past few years, ACLU attorneys around the country have provided direct
representation to many individuals and organizations targeted for
exercising their First Amendment right to criticize the government,
including people who participated in numerous rallies and marches to
protest the war in Iraq, who were excluded from meaningful
participation at public presidential speeches, and who protested at the
2004 Republican and Democratic National Conventions.
“We all
want law enforcement to protect us from real criminals and terrorists,”
Beeson said. “But resources and funds established to fight
terrorism should not be misused to target innocent Americans who have
done nothing more than speak out or practice their faith.
Investigations should be based on actual evidence of wrongdoing.”
In its
FOIA requests, the ACLU points to many documented examples of JTTF
involvement in the investigation of environmental activists, anti-war
protesters, and others who are clearly not terrorists nor involved in
terrorist activities, including:
… tracking down parents of student peace activists
… downloading anti-war action alerts from Catholic Peace Ministries
… infiltrating student groups
… sending undercover agents to National Lawyers Guild meetings
… aggressively questioning Muslims and Arabs on the basis of religion or national origin rather than suspicion of wrongdoing
These
activities are not the only evidence that the FBI is building files on
activists. A classified FBI intelligence memorandum disclosed publicly
last November revealed that the FBI has actually directed police to
target and monitor lawful political demonstrations under the rubric of fighting terrorism.
For
details and legal papers regarding the FOIA requests filed yesterday by
ACLU affiliates around the country, including a list of clients, go to www.aclu.org/spyfiles
For background info and documents regarding the Drake protesters subpoena story, including a leaked FBI memo from Oct 2003 instructing local law enforcement to monitor peace groups, go to the ICLU's website at: http://www.iowaclu.org. (Click
on “Documents” at the top of the page; also a narrative story of what
happened in February can be found in the “Our Newsletter” section – Feb
2004 edition.)
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