There is a disturbing
article in the Baltimore Sun today which talks about how the NSA used governmental police, including Baltimore city police, to spy on a peace group's protests. Specifically they monitored a peace group with a known history of nonviolent civil disobedience.
My friend, her name is Marilyn, was arrested at one of these recent protests at the NSA, and she is mentioned at the end of the article. Who is she? She's a grandmother, belongs to a Unitarian church, is very involved with community service. She sounds just like the type of patriotic American the Bush administration likes to claim they're protecting. However, Marilyn is also a liberal, which apparently is a Bad Thing. She recycles quite stringently, she composts organic waste, she belongs to an organic farm co-op, and she's actively against the War in Iraq. In fact, she's against any kind of violence, so much so that she's willing to demonstrate against it and get herself arrested.
More below the flip.
I remember awhile back when Marilyn was describing one of these protests, she told us how they had planned the protest entirely via emails and phone calls to specific members of her group. The dates or locations weren't publicized. However, they were surprised when police and other law enforcement showed up at the protests, ready to arrest them. That could only have happened if one of the members contacted the authorities, or if their phone calls and emails were baing monitored. After the events of the past two months, we understand the latter is most probably the case.
Here are some quotes from the article.
The National Security Agency used law enforcement agencies, including the Baltimore Police Department, to track members of a city anti-war group as they prepared for protests outside the sprawling Fort Meade facility, internal NSA documents show.
The target of the clandestine surveillance was the Baltimore Pledge of Resistance, a group loosely affiliated with the local chapter of the American Friends Service Committee, whose members include many veteran city peace activists with a history of nonviolent civil disobedience.
What is their nonviolent civil disobedience? It's basically
peacefully getting arrested, sometimes trespassing onto government property. Marilyn looks at her number of arrests almost as a badge of honor. She'll go somewhere, for example onto the steps of the City Hall in Baltimore, and visibly protest. When the police ask her to leave, she'll refuse, get threatened with arrest, refuse again, and then peacefully allow herself to get arrested.
She was also just arrested recently in front of the White House, along with Cindy Sheehan.
Occasionally someone will get arrested perhaps not-quite-as-peacefully. For example, try to visibly trespass onto government buildings, or not offer their wrists up to the police officer voluntarily to allow him to put on the handcuffs. Sounds like a real tough situation, doesn't it?
So, it seems like this administration apparently has alot to fear from this group. So much so that they need to waste NSA, governmental police, and Baltimore City resources to track and arrest them. Bush claims he's a tough guy, but he's apparently scared of a nonviolent grandmother peacefully standing on government property.
Here's some of the minute-by-minute updating the NSA did on the group. It's amusing, but also very disturbing, that the NSA can't even get the facts right in its reporting of the events. Eg, they screwed up the banner on the van.
An internal NSA e-mail, posted on two Internet sites this week, shows how operatives with the "Baltimore Intel Unit" provided a minute-by-minute account of Pledge of Resistances' preparations for a July 3, 2004, protest at Fort Meade. An attorney for the demonstrators said he obtained the document through the discovery process from NSA.
"****UPDATE: 11:55 HRS. S/A V------- ADVISED THE PROTESTORS LEFT 4600 YORK ROAD EN ROUTE TO THE NSA CAMPUS ... S/A V----- REPORTED FIVE OR SIX PEOPLE IN A BLUE VAN WITH BLACK BALLOONS, ANTI-WAR SIGNS AND A POSSIBLE HELIUM TANK," reported an internal NSA e-mail.
Later, those shadowing the peace group reported on their arrival at the NSA's Fort Meade headquarters.
"****UPDATE: 1300 HRS. 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 IT, NEITHER WILL ULTIMATELY LOSE BOTH," the NSA's somewhat garbled account of the event reported.
Like I said, it sounds like this group was considered enough of a threat to waste governmental resources spying on them. Pretty scary, though. So next time you plan an anti-war protest, or even a candle-light vigil, just remember that
it's quite likely YOU ARE BEING WATCHED!
Finally, some good did come from the arrests, because it forced the NSA to disclose certain documents about their spying activities.
Max J. Obuszewski, a veteran Baltimore anti-war activist who works for the American Friends Service Committee, said protesters have been trying to publicize the two documents since they were released in Federal District Court in August 2004.
The NSA July 2004 e-mail and the NSA's "Action Plan" for the October 2003 protest were finally publicized this week by Kevin B. Zeese, a candidate for the U.S. Senate from Maryland, on the Web sites "rawstory.com" and "democracyrising.us."
The NSA disclosed them as part of the discovery process in the prosecution of two Baltimore Pledge of Resistance members, Cynthia H. Farquhar and Marilyn Carlisle. Both were detained during the October 2003 protest and convicted of failing to obey a police officer's orders. They were fined $250, according to federal court records.