On July 27th, the ACLU Northern California released a new report, called State of Surveillance: Government Monitoring of Political Activity in Northern and Central California. It exposes the fact that federal, state and local agencies have infiltrated or monitored the political activity of Californians throughout central and northern California. From the stories of grandmothers opposing the war in Iraq to anti-war protestors at the Port of Oakland, the 35-page report tells the stories of individuals and groups that were targets of government surveillance because of their political activity. The report illustrates the lack of enforcement of current regulations and recommends specific policy reforms to safeguard Californians’ rights to privacy and free speech.

Peaceful protests were included in anti-terrorism bulletins and databases, and undercover officers have posed as activists to gather information and influence decisions in campus and local organizations, according to the report. Since September 11th, 2001, dozens of organizations' protests have been monitored by intelligence agencies. The report talks about the role of the California Anti-Terrorism Information Center in the brutal attack by Oakland Police on protesters at the docks in that city on April 7th, 2003. The government had made some sort of strange connections between protesting the war and sympathy for "terrorism," and used this to justify its surveillance of anti-war organizations and Muslim activities in Northern California. Following the incident at the docks, the CATIC was ordered to stop gathering information and issuing its misleading bulletins. However, the duties it had carried out were continued by the state Office of Homeland Security, and later the State Terrorism Threat Assessment Center, as well as other local, state and federal government organizations. Offenses by the Oakland police included infiltration of protest organizing-- undercover OPD officers were, in fact, assigned the task of planning an anti-war march route! Attorney General Lockyer issued guidelines in 2003 stating that police must suspect that a crime has been committed before collecting intelligence on activist groups. However, only 8 of 94 law enforcement agencies surveyed last year knew about these rules.

The ACLU makes several policy recommendations, including state legislation regulating the National Guard, the State Terrorism Threat Assessment Center, and the state Office of Homeland Security. It says that the California Attorney General should issue specific guidelines to local law enforcement agencies, and that state law should require regular reporting on surveillance activities to the Legislative Analyst’s Office. Dorothy Ehrlich, executive director of the ACLU-NC, said, "If history is any guide, the stories documented in this report represent only the tip of the iceberg.”

Santa Cruz IMC coverage of Santa Cruz Last Night DIY Parade spying scandal | Santa Cruz IMC coverage of pentagon and homeland security spying on UC activists

Indybay's past coverage: Oakland police cover-up and protest | Peace Groups Confront California National Guard for Spying on Activists | The Infiltration of Peace Fresno | CSU Fast About Student Civil Liberties | 2005 press conference denouncing police infiltration of Fresno anti-war groups | Coverage of CATIC and, CIB spying on groups like CodePink, UFPJ, and ADC