Police Spied on Activists In Md.

[struggle4progress]

Source: Washington Post

Officers Infiltrated Groups During Ehrlich Years
By Lisa Rein
<Staff Writer>
Friday, July 18, 2008; Page A01

Undercover Maryland State Police officers conducted surveillance on war protesters and death penalty opponents, including some in Takoma Park, for more than a year while Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. was governor, documents released yesterday show.

Detailed intelligence reports logged by at least two agents in the police department's Homeland Security and Intelligence Division reveal close monitoring of the movements as the Iraq war and capital punishment were heatedly debated in 2005 and 2006.

Organizational meetings, public forums, prison vigils, rallies outside the State House in Annapolis and e-mail group lists were infiltrated by police posing as peace activists and death penalty opponents, the records show. The surveillance continued even though the logs contained no reports of illegal activity and consistently indicated that the activists were not planning violent protest ...

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/07/17/ST2008071702080.html

---

File under: Rethugs.

[slay]

1. Big Brother is indeed watching - and he's an ASSHOLE

Peace.. ending state sponsored murder.. yeah that sounds like "terrorism" to me.. HOW LONG DO WE HAVE TO ENDURE THE LOSS OF OUR PRIVACY?!?! The surveillance state in this country is uncalled for, and illegal. I hope to hell some of the activists take the cops to court over this crap. :grr: :grr:

[populistdriven]

2. Be Warned, Any Supporter of Peace is an Enemy of this State.

I hope these thugs are proud of them selves on their death beds.

[gratuitous]

8. The HIgh Church of Redemptive Violence worships a very jealous God

Not to mention vengeful. Dedicated peace activists are quite aware of this, and it's instructive to remember that the more successful an advocate is for peace, the better that person's chance of being assassinated.

[Indenturedebtor]

3. Yet another sign of the times.

Well done Pukes well done.

[struggle4progress]

4. Spying worried groups (Baltimore Sun)

Protesters often wondered about surveillance of gatherings

By Gus G. Sentementes | Sun reporter
July 18, 2008

Max Obuszewski is a graying veteran of war protests. In his life, he estimated yesterday, he's been arrested about 70 times for struggling to make a point about critical issues, including the Vietnam War, homelessness in Baltimore and the war in Iraq ...

Documents that he and others obtained through the Maryland Public Information Act erased any doubt, the activists declared yesterday.

Over a 14-month period, the Maryland State Police had been "covertly monitoring" a group of peaceful anti-death penalty advocates, according to the documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued the state to gain access to files that documented the tracking of death penalty opponents and others.

Obuszewski is a fixture in a group of middle-aged men and women who have spent all or part of their lives passionately protesting issues and defending their right to organize peacefully without the fear of being spied upon by the government. They look more likely to frequent Baltimore's farmers' markets than behave as fanatical plotters of terrorist acts ...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.groups18jul18,0,6708890.story

[tanyev]

5. So much Homeland Security money being wasted on total BS.

Quite a nice little federal money funnel they dreamed up.

[OneBlueSky]

6. every activist group in the U.S. should assume that they are being watched . . .

in fact, every individual who has ever posted on a liberal message board, signed a petition criticizing the president or the government, marched in a demonstration, or purchased a "left wing" book online should assume that they are being watched . . .

it's a surveillance society, and we're all in the cross-hairs . . .

[struggle4progress]

7. Records show police spied on activist groups (Maryland Daily Record)

DANNY JACOBS
Daily Record Legal Affairs Writer
July 17, 2008 6:51 PM

... The ACLU sent a letter to Gov. Martin O’Malley asking for a full investigation of the MSP’s practices, <David R. Rocah, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Maryland> said. Further legal action will depend on how the state responds, he added ...

The reports read like meeting minutes, with attendance figures and recaps of events held by groups including the Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore, the Baltimore Coalition to End the Death Penalty, the Committee to Save Vernon Evans (who was granted a stay of execution by the Maryland Court of Appeals in February 2006), the D.C. Anti-War Network and International Socialist Organization ...

“This isn’t just that local and state police have it. It’s accessible by the national intelligence community,” said Michael German, a policy counsel with the national ACLU based in Washington and a former domestic terrorism official with the Federal Bureau of Investigation ...

“It breeds distrust from within, which is exactly the point,” <Rocah> said ...

http://www.mddailyrecord.com/article.cfm?id=6001&type=UTTM

[yellowcanine]

9. And the Maryland State Police decided to do that all on their own, didn't they?

Sorry but I have to believe there was some political involvement to undertake something this controversial.

[TZ]

11. I'm sure it was a directive from Governor Ehrlich.

That was his style in office. A real rupuke scumbag.

[yellowcanine]

12. I think so too but Hutchins (MSP Super at the time) says no.

Maybe his memory would change a little if he was under oath?

[TZ]

10. Doesn't surprise me

This was Ehrlich's typical behavior in office--from Day one he went around firing people who were democrats EVEN IN NON-POLITICAL positions. Hmm wonder who he learned THAT from. He's gone now, thank god.

[underpants]

13. *ppst* the "readers" aren't the problem

write that down, if you can

:eyes:

We read up on this. We tried to tell you all how this was going to turn out.