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Indybay Feature

CodePink, Raging Grannies, Quakers under Surveillance

by Ruth Robertson (peninsula_raging_grannies [at] yahoo.com)
California peace groups including CodePink, Raging Grannies, War Resisters League, Quakers. Food Not Bombs and more have been under government surveillance. See photos by Jackie Thomason and links here, and the full text of Dec 21 press release from ACLU California affiliates seeking information about government spying.
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In good news, the National Guard has quietly disbanded a spy unit that monitored activities of CodePink, Raging Grannies, Veterans for Peace and others. As reported in the San Jose Mercury News on December 2, Guard spokesmen admitted to the illegality of the Spy Unit ("Under Pressure, Guard Dismantles Alleged Spy Unit", Edwin Garcia, San Jose Mercury):

``Effective immediately,'' Maj. Gen. Wade stated in a three-paragraph Guard memo, ``I have discontinued the Civil Support Division -- to include its functions of Domestic Watch Center, Information Synchronization Center and Combined Intel Fusion Group.''

Dismantling the division ``was the right thing to do,'' said Guard spokesman Col. David Baldwin, director of Plans and Operations for the California National Guard. ``The Civil Support Division was not formed in accordance with military doctrine, and it was an organization that did not have the approval of the Legislature in the governors' budget.''

See photos here of Raging Grannies and CodePink as they confront Guard Brass last July at Sacramento headquarters. CodePink member Natalie Wormeli, who sits on the board of the Northern California ACLU, is seen here being interviewed at the Guard HQ (seated) and members of the Raging Grannies meet with Guard Brass to discuss their concerns about Guard "monitoring" of peaceful demonstrators.

Matthew Rothschid, editor of The Progessive magazine wrote extensively about this case in his online column "McCarthyism Watch". He follows up with a report on Pentagon spying on peace groups in this Dec 16 article "Rumsfeld Spies on Quakers, Grannies":

http://progressive.org/mag_mc121605

Meanwhile on December 21, California affiliates of the ACLU issued the following press release about their quest for more information on surveillance of California peace groups.


ACLU California Affiliates Seek Information about Government Spying
For a copy of the Public Records Act request visit http://www.aclunc.org
http://www.aclunc.org/

SAN FRANCISCO - Only a day after wide-spread reports that the FBI is monitoring and infiltrating political organizations, the three California affiliates of the ACLU are seeking information about the intelligence gathering efforts of law enforcement agencies in this state. The Public Records Act request is being sent to Attorney General Bill Lockyer and focuses on the California Anti-Terrorism Information Center ("CATIC") and information that it may have received from the FBI.


"The broad based federal surveillance programs are disturbing and reflect an unhealthy suspicion of dissenting political activity," said Mark Schlosberg, Police Practices Policy Director of the ACLU of Northern California. "Over the past several years, we have seen local law enforcement resources used to infiltrate peace groups and monitor protest activities. We are concerned that questionable federal policies are affecting local practices. That is why we are filing the Public Records Act request."

On Tuesday, the national ACLU released FBI documents that were
obtained after the organization filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to find out whether the FBI's partnerships with local law enforcement in Joint Terrorism Task Forces has resulted in increased surveillance of political and religious activity. The documents released on Greenpeace, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) showed the FBI expanding the definition of "domestic terrorism" to include citizens and groups that participate in lawful protests or civil disobedience.

In the Public Records Act request, the ACLU thanked Attorney General Lockyer for issuing guidelines two years ago protecting privacy rights under the California constitution but cautioned: "with the growing use of state and local law enforcement officials on Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF) run by the FBI there still exists the possibility of entanglement of local law enforcement in federal activities that exceed the scope of their authority under California law."

The ACLU is seeking records held by CATIC and the CIB on the ACLU California affiliates and chapters, Greenpeace, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, United for Peace and Justice, Food not Bombs, Code Pink, UC Santa Cruz Students Against the War, Fresno State Campus Peace and Civil Liberties Coalition, Peace Fresno, War Resisters League West, College Not Combat, and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee as well as a number of police documents. Under the California Public Records Act, the agencies have 10 days to respond.
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CodePink's Natalie is interviewed at National Guard HQ last July. CodePink's Ellen helped shock Guard Brass with her neon pink wig. All photos by Jackie Thomason of CCCO/CodePink
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Alert Grannies spotted this anti Islam poster at National Guard HQ when they visited and Jackie T of CodePink snapped it. For more on this poster, which the Guard quickly removed when the San Jose Mercury called them on it, go to http://www.PeninsulaRagingGrannies.org
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