Federal and state surveillance of nonviolent student groups, protest movements and mosques has increased markedly with the proliferation of “fusion centers,” where state and federal authorities can aggregate resources in a common area.
It’s part of a string of reports claiming that police are overreaching in their attempts to nab criminals and would-be terrorists. In one recent incident, The Washington Post reports that members of United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), a student organization, claims that an undercover officer illegally infiltrated their group, took photos and videos of their non-violent protests.
USAS is a national advocacy organization that supports workers’ rights and fair labor practices. Group members have previously organized demonstrations outside stores selling Nike, Adidas, Wal-Mart and the Gap products, as well as other companies that USAS says utilize sweatshop labor to produce goods.
Here are the alleged details of this case: The Washington Post reports earlier this month that a Washington D.C. police officer known as “Rizzy,” posing as an activist who supported the group, illegally infiltrated and monitored the group. USAS has filed a lawsuit claiming that the officer didn’t even have permission to be deployed in an undercover capacity.
“The allegation is not that the undercover officer took photos and videos of USAS, but that she should not have been deployed in an undercover capacity in the first place,” said Jeffrey Light, an attorney representing USAS, in a written statement to Mint Press News.
Light elaborated on this point in a statement to The Washington Post, claiming that the officer likely wasn’t given orders to attend rallies and keep tabs on the group.
“I cannot think of any legitimate reason for the police to be sending an undercover officer to those [protests],” Light said. “She was handing out fliers, asking to be put on email list and asking about future events. If the police wanted to know that, they could’ve checked the website.”
Student leaders were alerted to the officer’s activities when the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) contacted the groups with evidence of the officer’s surveillance. “This first came to our attention when we were holding protests at the GAP store in Washington D.C. Lawyers from NLG approached us with evidence showing that an undercover was monitoring us,” said Jan Von Tol, a national organizer for USAS, in a statement to Mint Press News.
The officer apparently posted suggestive tweets and online posts that USAS believes are evidence of the officer’s surveillance work. Rizzi, labeled an “agent provocateur” by Light, said he found tweets about how she dresses in civilian clothes to “blend in” and about having to work outside on a day when there was also a protest of the Keystone pipeline. The police claim that their work is sanctioned by law.
Is it a waste of police resources? Many analysts think that these types of incidents have increased markedly since Sept. 11, diverting resources while violating constitutionally protected liberties that bar authorities from carrying out unreasonable searches and seizures.
The Cato Institute, a Libertarian think tank in Washington cited several troubling incidents in a 2011 report called “We’re All Terrorists Now,” claiming, “The North Texas Fusion System labeled Muslim lobbyists as a potential threat; a DHS analyst in Wisconsin thought both pro- and anti-abortion activists were worrisome; a Pennsylvania homeland security contractor watched environmental activists, Tea Party groups and a Second Amendment rally; the Maryland State Police put anti-death penalty and anti-war activists in a federal terrorism database; a fusion center in Missouri thought that all third-party voters and Ron Paul supporters were a threat; and the Department of Homeland Security described half of the American political spectrum as ‘right-wing extremists.’”
Some members of the U.S. Senate have begun to question the effectiveness of the fusion centers as well.
“It’s troubling that the very ‘fusion’ centers that were designed to share information in a post-9/11 world have become part of the problem. Instead of strengthening our counterterrorism efforts, they have too often wasted money and stepped on Americans’ civil liberties,” said Senator Tom Coburn, Homeland Security and Public Affairs Subcommittee ranking member who initiated a two-year investigation into the centers.
ACLU Whats wrong with Fusion Centers:
https://www.aclu.org/national-security-technology-and-liberty/questions-ask-about-fusions-centers
The FBI will begin monitoring, interviewing Syrian Americans:
The FBI is beefing up its surveillance of Syrian Americans in anticipation of possible backlash if the United States chooses to intervene in Syria.
The FBI sent out a classified bulletin to all law enforcement agencies warning about possible fallout from the Syrian conflict. According to a senior FBI official, hundreds of Syrian Americans may be contacted for interviews with agents in the coming days.
This practice is nothing new for American intelligence agencies. During the 2011 campaign against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya, the FBI interviewed nearly 1,000 Libyan Americans. In 2003, the FBI conducted field interviews with Iraqi Americans about whether they had noticed any suspicious behavior or received information from relatives in Iraq that would be of value to American intelligence officials.
If you think interviewing American citizens for intelligence leads based on their ethnicity seems like a possible waste of time, you’re not alone. James W. McJunkin, a former top F.B.I. counterterrorism official, says the FBI’s interviews with Iraqi Americans in 2003 were largely unproductive.
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/politics/foreign-policy/war-terror/fbi-will-begin-monitoring-interviewing-syrian-americans#
http://massprivatei.blogspot.com/2013/09/fusion-centers-are-being-used-to-spy-on.html
If these fusion centers are good for them, they should be good for us too.
I think we should use them to keep theseptb Very busy 🙂
They like to use our money against us, it’s up to us to make the best use of our money, mho.