Documents Obtained by ACLU Expose FBI and Police Targeting of Political Groups
ACLU Files Eastern Missouri FOIA Requests to Uncover More Files
May 18, 2005: ST. LOUIS – The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri (ACLU-EM) charged today that the FBI and local police are engaging in intimidation based on political association and are improperly investigating law-abiding human rights and advocacy groups, according to documents obtained through a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. ACLU-EM is one of 10 ACLU affiliates that filed FOIA requests today seeking similar documents.
“Civil liberties are being violated, and it is happening in Missouri,” said Brenda L. Jones, executive director, ACLU of Eastern Missouri. “We believe that the FBI is working with local law enforcement agencies through so-called ‘Joint Terrorism Task Forces’ (JTTFs) to spy on individuals and groups engaged in lawful, constitutionally protected activity. We are filing the FOIA requests because we want to know who is being watched and how extensively. We also want to know more about the workings of JTTF’s and why resources allotted to fighting terrorism are being diverted to watch and intimidate people and groups who have nothing to do with terrorism.”
The FOIA requests filed today include requests from individuals and groups in Missouri, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. The FOIAs seek two kinds of information: the actual FBI files of groups and individuals targeted for speaking out; and information about how the practices and funding structure of the task forces, known as JTTFs, may be encouraging rampant and unwarranted spying.
The ACLU’s clients comprise a Who’s Who of advocates for well-known causes, including "organizations" that work on issues like the environment, labor, religion, fair trade, grassroots politics, peace, social justice, nuclear disarmament, human rights and civil liberties. Requests also were filed on behalf of numerous "individuals." Click here to learn more about the ACLU FOIA Request-Organizational Clients and ACLU FOIA Request-Individuals
In response to widespread complaints from students and political activists who said they were questioned by FBI agents in the months leading up to last summer’s political conventions - including nationally publicized incidents from Missouri (see U.S. v. Scheets et al.) - the ACLU filed FOIA requests in six states and the District of Columbia in December 2004 on behalf of more than 100 groups and individuals. To date, the ACLU has received fewer than 20 pages in response to the FOIAs.
The ACLU charged that the FBI is wrongfully withholding thousands of pages of documents, and today filed a lawsuit in federal court to compel the FBI to comply with the FOIA requests. The complaint seeks files kept by the FBI on the ACLU, as well as Greenpeace, United for Peace and Justice, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
The ACLU said that the few documents received to date through the December FOIA requests shed light on the FBI’s misuse of Joint Terrorism Task Forces to engage in political surveillance. In Colorado, one memo indicates an ongoing federal interest in Food Not Bombs, a group that provides free vegetarian food to hungry people and protests war and poverty.
The ACLU was founded by Roger Baldwin, Crystal Eastman, Albert DeSilver and others in 1920. We are nonprofit and nonpartisan and have grown from a roomful of civil liberties activists to an organization of more than 400,000 members and supporters. We handle nearly 6,000 court cases annually from our offices in almost every state.
The ACLU has maintained the position that civil liberties must be respected, even in times of national emergency. The ACLU is supported by annual dues and contributions from its members plus grants from private foundations and individuals. We do not receive any government funding. Learn more about how to Support the ACLU
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