May 18, 2005: The American Civil Liberties Union 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. These charges were determined based on documents that were obtained through a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. ACLU affiliates today filed FOIA requests seeking similar documents in ten states.

After hearing 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, the ACLU filed FOIA requests in several states and the District of Columbia in December of 2004 on behalf of over 100 groups and individuals. The ACLU has so far only received fewer than 20 pages in response to the FOIAs. The ACLU charges 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. A memo that the ACLU has obtained indicates that the feds have been watching a Food Not Bombs chapter in Colorado for some time. Read more

A classified FBI intelligence memorandum disclosed publicly in November 2003 revealed that the FBI has directed police to target and monitor lawful political demonstrations under the rubric of fighting terrorism. This memo is available online. For details and legal papers regarding the FOIA requests filed this week by ACLU affiliates around the country, including a list of clients, go to the ACLU's FBI Spy Files page.

These activists were not the only ones who were targeted by the FBI in 2004- animal rights activists' homes were invaded, Indymedia server hard drives were confiscated, and people of Arab and Muslim descent in part under the October Plan, as well as Native Americans on reservations, were harassed all year, often a result of collusion betwen local police and the FBI. "Preempt the FBI" and what to do if the FBI comes to your house.

Intimidation against DNC Activists | Account from one of the Denver activists | FBI visits Lawrence, Kansas activists | Anti-Media Terrorism at the DNC | 7/22 statement from Kansas Mutual Aid Legal Collective | Anarchist Report from the RNC, including analysis of FBI "intelligence" efforts