Before Attorney General Mukasey even made the new FBI guidelines public, DDF engaged in a grassroots campaign and behind the scenes advocacy to forestall the worst provisions. Our main concerns were that the new guidelines would allow agents to investigate people based on their First Amendment activities and open the door to racial profiling. Unfortunately the new guidelines, which take affect on December 1, allow FBI agents to investigate individuals and groups for whom they have no factual basis to suspect of wrongdoing. The guidelines explicitly allow agents to infiltrate peaceful groups in advance of demonstrations, and do not prohibit agents from investigating people based on their race, religion or ethnicity.

The guidelines cannot be allowed to stand, and it will be a top priority of DDF in the coming year to ensure that they are changed. We are exploring different strategies with our coalition partners, including working with the Obama administration on quick fixes to the guidelines, a thorough review of the guidelines and current FBI practices, and possibly a legislative charter for the FBI (remember that Attorney General Levy wrote the original guidelines in 1976 to preclude congressional action).

Please visit the DDF website for more details about the problems with the guidelines, a link to the guidelines, and advocacy resources.

We fought this battle all year long, with a courageous and tireless band of advocates. In the end, we lost when Congress passed the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. The law grants the executive broad new powers to listen in on Americans without warrants, and gave immunity to the telecommunication companies that enabled illegal wiretaps.

Senator Arlen Spector (R-PA), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, offered a glimmer of hope for the future in an interview on MSNBC on November 19: "This business of wiretapping is not in order in accordance with Constitutional rights and where you have the immunity granted to the telephone companies, that is still a festering wound and some speculation as to whether that will be asserted by a new administration."

In 2009 we’ll aggressively push Congress to thoroughly investigate domestic intelligence activities and to restore Fourth Amendment protections legislatively. DDF has also called upon President Obama to announce that his administration will adhere to FISA’s judicial warrant requirements when engaging in surveillance in the United States and direct the Attorney General to withdraw the government’s motion to dismiss pending privacy litigation brought against telecommunications carriers for assisting with unlawful warrantless surveillance.

For activists at the receiving end of tear gas canisters, rubber bullets, mass arrests, police spying and other abuses, it sure looks like local and state police departments have run amok.

In August 2008, it was revealed that Maryland State Police had been spying on peaceful anti-war activists for over a year, infiltrating groups and entering activists’ names into a terrorist database. DDF immediately joined with those activists in demanding full accountability and a thorough investigation into the illegal police spying, as well as legislation to prohibit police spying on First Amendment activities. We have helped to launch a local DC Bill of Rights group to educate activists about their rights; educate the public about the importance of the right to dissent in a democracy and threats to that right; and to pressure the Maryland State Legislature and the U.S. Congress to fully investigate the scandal.

Police actions at the Democratic and Republican Conventions in Denver and St. Paul were regarded by many activists to have reached a new level of abuse and repression of political dissent. Massive police presence, use of percussion grenades, tear gas, mass arrests, preemptive arrests and other tactics created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation for people who came to either city to engage in First Amendment protected activities. In St. Paul, the local police chief admitted that his officers had been spying on activists for a year before the convention, including following them to meetings around the country. Eight of those activists have been arrested and charged under Minnesota’s Patriot Act with “conspiracy to commit riot in the second degree in furtherance of terrorism”.

DDF is leading a loose coalition of activists calling for congressional hearings to examine the police actions during the conventions, and to investigate the role of federal law enforcement, Joint Terrorism Task Forces in each city, and state fusion centers. We are also working with members of Congress to pass legislation to strengthen demonstration rights in convention cities, using DC’s Demonstration Rights law as a model.

Building on our history of coalition work, in early 2008, DDF initiated an ad hoc working group to oppose the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Act which focused on restricting ‘radical’ political and religious beliefs and affiliations rather than criminal activity. More than 30 organizations participate in the working group, organized to exchange information and develop and coordinate strategies.

Although we were successful in stopping the bill, we have not yet succeeded in stopping the ideas behind the bill. In spite of our work, the Chair and Ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Senators Lieberman (I-CT) and Collins (R-ME), issued a dangerous report titled Violent Islamist Extremism, the Internet, and the Homegrown Terrorist Threat. The report calls the internet “a virtual terrorist training camp”, and restricts its examination of homegrown terrorism to Islamist ideology, ignoring potential criminal activity among adherents of other religions and ideologies. Senator Lieberman went on to use the report to justify his attempts to censor the internet, asking YouTube to take down videos produced by those he termed “Islamist terrorist groups”.

Since Senator Lieberman has retained his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee, we can expect more to come on this issue.

A U.S. District Court Judge has ordered the release of 5 Guantanamo detainees. Judge Leon, a Bush appointee, was unimpressed when he heard the secret evidence the government had against the five Algerians, calling it a “thin reed”, ordered the men released and implored the government not to appeal the decision. This is the first ruling on detainee rights since the Boumedienne Supreme Court decision.

There are still about 250 detainees at Guantanamo, and although President-elect Obama has promised to close the prison and condemned military commissions, he has not detailed his plans for those still in custody. Detainees accused of involvement in terrorism should be tried in existing federal courts and others should be released immediately.

“Red-baiting”-- that old, tired, political tactic of accusing your opponent of being either a part of, or sympathetic to, “socialism”, “communism” or some other “ism” -- may be on its death bed. The most recent spectacle of Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin spitting out various red-baiting allegations and slanders in their last-ditch attempt to defeat the Obama-Biden ticket and the Democratic Congressional under card is but the latest indication that the potency of red-baiting has waned drastically. Gone apparently are the days when the mere allegation of “red” or “pinko” sympathies would end a career or campaign in its tracks.

From my ringside seat here in Washington, D.C. it was obvious that the Republican red-baiting assault this election cycle was deliberate – as it always is -- and much more widespread than just the McCain-Palin campaign. Stoked on a daily basis by the Republican operatives who pose as talk radio personalities and bloggers, and repeated over and over by Republican candidates and promoters, the red-baiting was approaching fever-pitch towards the end of the recent campaign. Joe McCarthy would have approved of this fine effort by his contemporary followers, although he would have been quite disappointed with the final results. The red-baiting grenades were flying, but few exploded.

The just-concluded red-baiting frenzy undoubtedly did shake up some voters, possible changing their minds. That was, after all, one of the desired effects. There were certainly individuals and groups who were motivated by this fearful smear job, and who ramped-up their activism in dread fear of the “terrorists”, “communists”, or plain “socialists” who were about to seize control at the ballot box. Fortunately for the rest of us, this tactic just did not catch on and grab hold as it has in past generations. My favorite episode in this saga was the House of Representatives floor rantings by a Republican member of Congress (from Texas) who quoted Soviet communist leader Lenin as he made his personal case against the first Bush bailout package. I found it ironic – even comical -- to watch as the Republican campaign machinery unleashed the red-baiting dogs to first go after Obama, and in the end seeing this boomerang return and be aimed at President Bush himself. Only in America!

The exact cause for the weakened virulence of the red-baiting virus is probably best left for experts to decide. In my view as a lifelong trade unionist, this is due in part to the contemporary inability of growing numbers of people to understand or comprehend the intent of the tactic itself. There is a case to be made that in today’s population the practitioners of red-baiting might tend to inadvertently discredit themselves by raising such incomprehensible allegations. Growing numbers of young people have no living memory of the Cold War epoch and its stifling anti-communist political environment, and they largely lack any historical context in which to measure such charges. And in a nation not known for its political sophistication or scholarship, this sort of tactic may be doomed by its implicit demand that the recipient at least possess a minimum context with which to assess what they are hearing and therefore be able to come to the intended conclusion.

I strongly suspect that the recent failure of the McCain-Palin campaign to red-bait its way into the White House is at least confirmation that this gutter tactic is on the way out, hopefully forever. It is likely premature to pronounce red-baiting as “dead”, but it is not too soon to recognize that as a useful terror tactic it has lost much of its destructive momentum and effect. Red-baiting may be expiring not so much as a result of an overt defeat as much as it is withering and dying a natural death, but we’ll take it as progress no matter. The many, many victims of the several red-baiting eras in U.S. history would appreciate this moment in our history, as we all should.

Chris Townsend is the Political Action Director of the United Electrical Workers Union (UE) in Washington, D.C. and sits on the Board of Directors of DDF

Change happens ~ change happens because the American people demand it, because they rise up
and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time.
America, this is one of those moments.
~ Barack Obama
November 4, 2008

One of the most wonderful things about the Defending Dissent Foundation is the people who are or have been a part of our work. We have a rich history of courageous supporters and fellow-travelers, and many of you are still a part of our organization. I am sure many of you felt the same sense of loss and sorrow that I felt when I hear the news of Studs Terkel’s death. He was our guy. He told our stories. Like many of you, he was blacklisted and lost his job. And, like many of you, he never stopped fighting. Studs was a strong supporter of our sister organization, the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights, where I had the tremendous honor of working with him. We will miss him and his voice and his “underdogism”.

In Solidarity,

Sue Udry

Here are two easy actions you can take to stand up for political dissidents, but there isn’t much time. Each action must be taken by November 9.

Petition for the RNC8
In our Convention Issue, we reported that 8 activists in St. Paul were arrested and charged with “conspiracy to commit riot in the second degree in furtherance of terrorism” under Minnesota’s version of the Patriot Act. This potentially sets a horrible precedent; imagine the chilling effect to dissent when organizers of political protests are charge with conspiracy to further terrorism. We are advocating that the charges be dropped, and encourage you to sign and forward the online petition. Right now a probable cause hearing is set for November 10. The defense team is looking at how evidence was gathered, including the use of confidential informants, and they are questioning what the role of the FBI was in the case.

You can sign an online petition at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/tell-a-friend/2133884, or download a copy of the petition from our website to circulate in hard copy (or call our office at 202-529-4225 and we will be happy to send you a copy).

Petition for Iraq Vet Nick Morgan
On October 15, Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) led a march of about 400 demonstrators to the campus of Hofstra University, the site of the final presidential debate. Police allowed the veterans to cross one police line, but stopped them when they approached the building where the debate was to be held. When the veterans started to cross the second line, several were immediately arrested without incident. However, mounted police and police in riot gear then began to push against the remaining veterans and the rest of the protestors until they were on the sidewalk, and even then continued to push on them. Several protestors fell down and were injured, and Nick Morgan, a member of IVAW was trampled by one of the horses, knocked unconscious and his cheekbone was broken. Adding insult to injury, Nick was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. In total, ten veterans and five supporters were arrested.

The veterans who crossed the second police line knew that they risked arrest, but the police were unnecessarily brutal in their conduct toward the protestors who did not even attempt to cross the police line, and the arrest of a peaceful protestor trampled by a police horse is unacceptable. DDF is supporting an online petition drive demanding that charges against Nick Morgan be dropped. The petition will be delivered on November 10th.
You can find a link to the petition on our homepage, www.defendingdissent.org

Maryland State Police “Spygate”
We will soon find out what information Maryland State Police (MSP) collected about the 53 political activists they spied on and wrongfully labeled “terrorist”. Police had originally told us that the activists would only be allowed to read their files at police headquarters and would not be allowed to have a lawyer present. DDF worked with many of the activists, as well as the Maryland ACLU to organize two protests, a media campaign and other pressure tactics to force the police to provide copies of the files to the activists. Police have relented and activists have begun to request their files. (weblink: DDF press release)

The fact of the police designation of 53 political activists as terrorists came to light as part of what we call “Spygate”. MSP admitted to a 14 month long spy operation that began when they were worried that an anti-death penalty protest might get violent. They had no grounds for that concern, but they infiltrated one group, which then led them to another, and another and another. An investigation that started with anti-death penalty activists soon morphed into a wide-ranging investigation of anybody who was active: peace, environmental, and to be equal opportunity, neo-nazis. One peace activist included on the list has never even been to the state of Maryland! We believe we have just discovered the tip of the iceberg, and the files will provide a wealth of information about the unconstitutional police spying.

As we await the release of the files, we continue to build momentum for legislation to prohibit police spying, and for a full investigation into “spygate”. This scandal has galvanized activists in Maryland and it will not end without accountability and an assurance that it will not happen again. The police are so clearly wrong in this case that is it a good opportunity to educate the public on the full range of surveillance issues, from fusion centers to warrantless wiretapping, to the new FBI guidelines.

Capitol Police Connection to “Spygate”
Last spring, peace activists secretly planned a theatrical action in the gallery of the U.S. Senate they called Ghosts of War. On March 12, each of the ten, heads wrapped in white gauze, stood up individually and announced to the Senate “I am a ghost from the Iraq War. While I died needlessly, I am here to demand an end to the funding of the war so that others do not have to die.” All were removed from the gallery, arrested and charged with unlawful conduct.

On October 20, a jury trial began and documents came to light indicating that the Capitol police knew ahead of time about the secretly-planned action. Upon further discovery, a document revealed that the Capitol police had a copy of a private email that one of the organizers, Max Obuszewski, had sent to a select list of activists. Max is one of the central targets of the MSP spying, and the MSP has stated that they have a close working relationship with the Capitol Police. When the trial resumes in early November activists will have the opportunity to ask Capitol Police how they got copies of private emails. In reviewing the list he sent the original email to, Max has isolated one email that could potentially belong to a police infiltrator. This is important to the “spygate” case because the date of the email and action were both after the date that police claim their spy operation ended.

eGuardian
The FBI recently sent out a chilling press release about their new eGuardian system, which they say will help them connect the dots and find terrorists. In the release they provided an example of how this wonderful system will work. An NYPD detective receives an email: a photo of two ‘suspicious’ men who appear to be ‘casing’ the Brooklyn Bridge. She uploads the picture into eGuardian, along with other information. Presto, a positive hit comes back! Those same two men were taking pictures of the Washington Monument a mere two days before and were wanted for questioning. The NYPD detective sends this information to the local Fusion Center, who shares it with the NY Joint Terrorism Task Force, who then shares it with the D.C. police.
This is the actual scenario the FBI used to promote their new system! There is no indication that the ‘suspicious’ men were engaged or about to engage in any wrongdoing, but personal information about them was entered into a national database and shared widely. The system will allow state and local police to enter data that can be shared throughout the country through a system of Fusion Centers and Joint Terrorism Task Forces. Given the brilliant example of the Maryland State Police labeling 53 peaceful activists “terrorists”, we’re more than a little worried about what kind of information about whom, will end up being broadcast across the country.

Read the press release yourself: http://www.fbi.gov/page2/sept08/eguardian_091908.html

Public Or “Classified”?
There was one good provision in the horrible FISA Amendments Act that passed Congress this summer. The bill required that the Inspectors General of the intelligence agencies had to investigate and issue a public report on the warrantless wiretapping. Well, the first interim report has come out and the IG stamped it classified. So the public cannot read the public report.

Civil libertarians and some members of Congress are outraged and demanding that the IG make the interim report public. The interim report only defines the scope of the full report; there is no reason that it should be classified. Defending Dissent Foundation has sent a letter to the author of the report, CIA inspector general John Helgerson, asking that it be made available to the public immediately.