http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Undercover Maryland State Police officers conducted surveillance on war protesters and death penalty opponents, including some in Takoma Park, for more than a year while Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. was governor, documents released yesterday show.
Detailed intelligence reports logged by at least two agents in the police department's Homeland Security and Intelligence Division reveal close monitoring of the movements as the Iraq war and capital punishment were heatedly debated in 2005 and 2006.
Organizational meetings, public forums, prison vigils, rallies outside the State House in Annapolis and e-mail group lists were infiltrated by police posing as peace activists and death penalty opponents, the records show. The surveillance continued even though the logs contained no reports of illegal activity and consistently indicated that the activists were not planning violent protests.
Of course we are all aware of recent abuses of government power in the wake of the Bush Administration's radical right-wing culture of fear and the Patriot Act
But historically, left and center-left groups have been infiltrated and spied on illegally before. Some have been violent revolutionaries, but most have been peaceful activist groups.
Major Problems In American History Since 1945
According to the initiating letter, the counterintelligence program's [COINTELPRO] purpose was to "expose, disrupt, and otherwise neutralize" the activities of the various New Left organizations, their leadership, and adherents, with particular attention to Key Activists, "the moving forces behind the New Left."
What we see is a continuation of these same practices by State and Local governments, and undoubtedly by our National government as well.
Back in the '60s and '70s governmental agencies such as the FBI used the violent revolutionary groups as an excuse to invade other progressive-left peaceful groups, often anti-war activists.
I'm not sure why I'm posting this diary, as this is not really new news. The sad thing is, is that I don't think any of you will be surprised to read of the Maryland State Police's abuse of power in infiltrating and spying on a progressive group.
"Lucy" and at least one other agent recorded minutes of every meeting they attended: dates for meetings of "activist" events planned by Amnesty International and the Human Rights Letter Writing Campaign; war protests in Takoma Park; and a ceremony at Johns Hopkins University to commemorate the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki during World War II.
"The ceremony at the gazebo lasted approximately 161/27 hours with poetry readings and songs," reads the entry for that event.
In another log, an activist from Takoma Park is noted as a "socialist" and an "anarchist."
"We nonviolence types are so dangerous, aren't we?" joked Jane Henderson, executive director of Maryland Citizens Against State Executions, which is fighting to repeal the death penalty.
The agents appear to have come to the same conclusion, the documents show. They expressed concern over possible tensions at antiwar and anti-death penalty rallies but noted repeatedly that they led to no violence and minimal disruptions.
We really do need change.