From my book, Organized Gang Stalking New Torture Tactic to Neutralize Citizens?
COINTELPRO Today
Edward Levi was the Attorney General during the Church Committee hearings. It was he, a former professor of constitutional law, who was responsible for setting up the first Guidelines for the FBI to make sure their activities didn’t violate the constitution. In December 2008, the Attorney General under President Bush, Michael Mukasey, set forth new Guidelines for the FBI allowing the FBI “to conduct ‘assessments’ of suspects without requiring any factual basis for suspicion.”
Now the FBI could use physical surveillance, conduct an interview with a target’s neighbors or landlord or colleague or friend. It could even engage informants to infiltrate a political or other meeting to spy on the proceedings. It could get personal information from commercial databases. And it could do this without suspicion the target had done anything wrong. Moreover, any information the FBI collects could be kept forever.
Senator Russ Feingold, Senator Dick Durbin, and Senator Ted Kennedy sent a letter to Attorney General Mukasey saying the authority he enabled could result in the FBI conducting a “long-term physical surveillance of an innocent American citizen.” Their concern was that such a physical surveillance could be initiated based on the exercise of first amendment rights or race or ethnicity or national origin or religion. Organizations concerned with civil liberties and religious freedom also protested to Attorney General Mukasey.
The information so collected might be shared with fusion centers which all the states now have. The new criteria for the FBI or a fusion center to conduct reviews was the possibility a crime might be committed. The result has been that many peaceful protest groups and political action groups are being monitored. The Fourth Amendment safeguard of issuing warrants on probable cause is sidestepped. The Fifth Amendment safeguard on not compelling a person to witness against himself is sidestepped as unsuspecting participants in religious or political meetings are monitored.
Now the government is allowed to spy, to disrupt, to infiltrate again. And that puts our rights to exercise free speech and our right to assemble at risk. People aware Big Brother may be watching them become reluctant to speak their mind. As was done in the old COINTELPRO program, agent provocateurs can even urge groups to use violence. When members see these people advocate violence, it could cause them to drop out from groups they would otherwise support.
The FBI’s “Domestic Investigations and Operations Guidelines” which implement the Attorney General’s Guidelines for the FBI are available online. However, the FBI deleted a large portion of Section 5 of the document which pertains to how they conduct assessments along with almost all of Section 16 which “governs ‘undisclosed participation’ by FBI agents and informants in political and civic organizations.” Why? What are they trying to hide?
The FBI exerts control over local police officers through membership in the Joint Terrorism Task Force where federal and local police cooperate under the direction of the FBI. The Bill of Rights Defense Committee contends JTTFs “have also violated First Amendment rights by investigating people engaging in free speech and association.” Agencies like the CIA and military intelligence working within a JTTF are not subject to FBI Guidelines. “A JTTF criminal intelligence investigation may last indefinitely,” the Bill of Rights Defense Committee wrote. “The JTTF is also permitted to attend any public event or go to any public place for the purpose of surveillance without being required to articulate suspicion of a crime,” they further wrote.
On a local level JTTF members can come from members of the police or sheriff or fire departments. You don’t need counterterrorism experience to be a member. The Bill of Rights Defense Committee wrote, “The FBI has increasingly used the JTTFs to investigate political, religious, and environmental and animal rights activities. In an echo of the FBI COINTELPRO investigations of the 1950’s and 1960’s, JTTF members have infiltrated non-violent antiwar groups and Muslim groups. The Department of Education also encourages public universities to assign officers to international student groups and to ally themselves with their local JTTF.”
The Bill of Rights Defense Committee told the story of Aaron Kilner who was a Fresno, California sheriff’s deputy who was part of a JTTF. He infiltrated a group called Peace Fresno who were peacefully protesting the Iraq War. He pretended to be a member using the name Aaron Stokes. The peace group found out who he really was when he died in a motorcycle accident and his picture and real name were printed in a newspaper. The Bill of Rights Defense Committee wrote, “Although this type of surveillance is illegal in California, the JTTF used federal law to justify its action.” The Bill of Rights Defense Committee has explained how “as many as 150 organizations- including Greenpeace, a Catholic Workers Group, and various Muslim charities- have been monitored in recent years without any evidence of criminal activity. The ‘war on terror’ they have said, in effect, criminalized dissent.”