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Sunday, July 20, 2008 |
Dave Zirin: COINTELPRO Comes to My Town: My First-Hand Experience With Government Spies Finally, at long last, I have something in common with Muhammad Ali.
No, I'm not the heavyweight champion of the world, and haven't been named spokesperson for Raid bug spray. Like "the Greatest" - not to mention far too many others -- I have been a target of state police surveillance for activities -- in my case against the death penalty -- that were legal, non-violent, and, so we assumed, constitutionally protected. In classified reports compiled by the Maryland State Police and the Department of Homeland Security, I am "Dave Z." This nickname was given by an undercover agent known to us as "Lucy." She sat in our meetings of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, smiling and engaged, taking copious notes about actions deemed threatening by the Governor of Maryland, Robert Ehrlich. Our seditious crimes, as Lucy reported, involved such acts as planning to set up a table at the local farmer's market and writing up a petition. Adding a dash of farce to this outrage, she was monitoring us in the liberal enclave of Takoma Park, Maryland, a place known more for vegans than violence, more for tie-dying than terrorism.
Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act and the ACLU, we now know that "Lucy" was only one part of a vast, insidious project. The Maryland State Police's Department of Homeland Security devoted near 300 hours and thousands of taxpayer dollars from 2005 and 2006 to harassing people whose only crime was dissenting on the question of the war in Iraq and Maryland's use of death row.
My dear friend Mike Stark, a board member of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty is at times referred to in "Lucy's" report as a "socialist" and an "anarchist." One can only assume this is the pathetic time honored tradition of reducing people to simple caricatures, all the better to garner Homeland Security grant money.
Veteran peace activist in Baltimore, Max Obuszewski, who initiated the suit, was as well consistently shadowed as he walked down the streets. His "primary crime" (their lingo) was entered into the homeland security database as "terrorism - anti govern(ment)." His "secondary crime" was listed as "terrorism -- anti-war protesters." The database is known as the Washington-Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, or
HIDTA. Yes, a respected peace organizer of many decades standing is checked as a terrorist, his actions listed as criminal, for doing nothing more than exercising his rights. It boggles the mind.
Former police superintendent Tim Hutchins defended these totalitarian practices by saying, "You do what you think is best to protect the general populace of the state." (The article mentioned that Hutchins is now a federal defense contractor. I guess The Global War on Terror is just the gift that keeps on giving for the Hutchins family.)
But "protect the general populace" from what? The surveillance continued even after it was determined that we were planning nothing more dangerous that carrying clipboards in a public place. Hutchins and the Ehrlich administration have undertaken an ugly violation of our civil rights, manipulating fears of terrorism to stamp out dissent.
This is COINTELPRO pure and simple. Like the infamous counter-intelligence program whose heyday many assume was a relic the 1950s and 1960s, it's an effort to harass the innocent and breed paranoia, all for daring to question power.
Governor Ehrlich and Tim Hutchins stand in the legacy of those who hounded Martin Luther King, and facilitated the death of Malcolm X. They stand in the tradition of those who drove the great actor, college football superstar, and activist Paul Robeson toward The mental breakdown that claimed his life. When Robeson's files were opened under the Freedom of Information Act, the results were terrifying.
As his son, Paul Robeson Jr. has written, "From the files I received, it was obvious that there were agents who did nothing but follow every public event of my father, or even of me.... It took on a life of its own.... Over time, even for someone as powerful and with as many resources as my
dad had...the attrition got to him."
Now Robeson is on a postage stamp. The moral midgets who destroyed him went unpunished. That's what has to change. The ACLU, to their credit, is going on the offensive.
As ACLU lawyer David Rocah said at a news conference in Baltimore on Thursday, "To invest this many hours investigating the most all-American of activities without any scintilla of evidence there is anything criminal going on is shocking. It's Kafkaesque."
Unfortunately for people like Gov. Ehrlich, it is also "the most All
American of activities" to take the constitution and use it as their personal hand wipe.
As the great political philosopher Ice T wrote, "Freedom of Speech.... just watch what you say." Well, now is exactly the time not to watch what we say. I'm angry. I'm angry for my friends, who trusted "Lucy" and others. I'm angry that my tax dollars went to paying the salaries of people who spy and intimidate those exercising their rights. I'm angry that Barack Obama just voted to increase the power of the Federal government to disrupt people's lives. And I'm angry enough that I'm joining a lawsuit initiated by the ACLU. "Homeland Security" picked on the wrong sports writer. They also picked on the wrong group of activists. We will not be silenced.
[People who want to express their outrage can contact the office of the current Governor Martin O'Malley. We should demand a full investigation of the MSP, public release of all documents obtained through this illegal activity, and a specific commitment that the
anti-death penalty and anti-war movement will not be targeted. Call the office of the governor at 1-800-811-8336, or submit a comment online at http://www.governor.maryland.gov/mail/]
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<img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=052645a570b1a6f3d3987d84bafabba2"; style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> - Dave Zirin [The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com]
4:43:04 PM 
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Harry Shearer: Intel Goes Down the Memory Hole Again Verbs are important. The Bush Administration has gone from saying we "know" something--as in, "we know Saddam has nuclear weapons"--to we "believe" something. Which is fair warning, for a faith-based foreign policy. (No longer a Feith-based one)
Nonetheless, Sunday morning on Fox News Sunday, Joint Chief of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen said he "believes" Iran is moving towards acquiring nuclear weapons. Interrogator Chris Wallace didn't ask him upon what that belief was based. Nor did he ask Mullen whether that belief represented a disagreement with the publicly expressed consensus view of the intelligence community, released last December in a National Intelligence Estimate, that Iran had halted such a program four years ago.
As I recall, the 2002 NIE, the public version of which (minus the privately expressed caviats and dissents) was used to support the push for war in Iraq, was often brandished by media questioners and war supporters to silence those who opposed the invasion. It's no surprise this latest NIE has fallen down the Administration's memory hole, but what excuse do those in the media have for sipping the amnesia juice?
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<img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=799dfe75955a9842adf8d4d3a4790139"; style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> - Harry Shearer [The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com]
9:38:55 AM
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Adele Stan: Afghan Ambassador Likes Barack Plan, Too? A few hours into his journey to the two key lands occupied by American troops, Barack Obama is feeling the love. Indeed, it seems as if leaders in both Iraq and Afghanistan are looking for some change they can believe in.
As I reported for The Media Consortium, on the eve of Obama's senatorial fact-finding mission to Afghanistan and Iraq, the Afghan ambassador to the U.S. issued a plea for more U.S. troops in his country. Ambassador Said Jawad's request, delivered with a sense of urgency in a Washington, D.C., forum, vindicated Obama's long-held contention that the U.S. invasion of Iraq served only to divert attention and resources from the true front lines in the fight against terrorism, which the Democratic presidential candidate locates in Afghanistan. Last week, Obama published an op-ed in the New York Times advocating the redeployment of troops from Iraq to Afghanistan.
The current capacity of U.S. forces is inadequate, Jawad asserted, noting the recent attack by the Taliban on a U.S. Army outpost that left nine Americans dead. As for our European allies, Jawad said, "The NATO forces are not fighting as hard as they should."
The concern of most Afghans, Jawad said, was not that the U.S. was on their land, but whether the U.S. would stay long enough for the nation to build institutions capable of serving and protecting the people. Implicit in his statement was the belief of many Afghans that the U.S. will abandon their nation once again at our earliest convenience, just as we did after the Afghans effectively fought -- and won -- the final battle of the Cold War.
Jawad and his wife, Shamim, are of the same generation of Obama and his wife, Michelle, and strike me as a couple possessing certain affinities with the Obamas. They're cross-cultural, keenly intelligent, lean and attractive. In an Obama administration, the public diplomacy as regards Afghanistan promises something photogenic.
Although John McCain has, of late, jumped onto the Afghaniband-wagon, my HuffPo colleague Jon Stolz unearthed some 2003 video of McCain speaking rather dismissively of Afghanistan, essentially saying it would fine for the U.S. to "muddle through" there.
Today's big news was the apparent endorsement of Iraq President Nouri al-Maliki for Obama's 16-month draw-down plan. Somebody must have just reminded the Iraqi leader that Obama isn't yet president; just hours after they were reported, Maliki's spokesperson began back-pedaling his comments.
All this before Obama has met with either Maliki or Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.
<img alt="" style="border: 0; height:1px; width:1px;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?i=1c40446106d7a6c9f19d1575ff82203d"; height="1" width="1"/>
<img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=1c40446106d7a6c9f19d1575ff82203d"; style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> - Adele Stan [The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com]
8:15:18 AM
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General Petraeus: Al Qaida May Be Shifting Focus Back To Afghanistan From Iraq BAGHDAD — After intense U.S. assaults, al-Qaida may be considering shifting focus to its original home base in Afghanistan, where American casualties are running higher than in Iraq, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said Saturday.
"We do think that there is some assessment ongoing as to the continued viability of al-Qaida's fight in Iraq," Gen. David Petraeus told The Associated Press in an interview at his office at the U.S. Embassy.
Whatever the result, Petraeus said no one should expect al-Qaida to give up entirely in Iraq.
"They're not going to abandon Iraq. They're not going to write it off. None of that," he said. "But what they certainly may do is start to provide some of those resources that would have come to Iraq to Pakistan, possibly Afghanistan."
He said there are signs that foreign fighters recruited by al-Qaida to do battle in Iraq are being diverted to the largely ungoverned areas in Pakistan from which the fighters can cross into Afghanistan. U.S. officials have pressed Pakistan for more than a year to halt the cross-border infiltration. It remains a major worry not only for the war in Afghanistan but also for Pakistan's stability.
Discussing al-Qaida in cautious terms, Petraeus said he is not certain of the reliability of the intelligence information about the terrorist network's latest thinking. He was adamant, however, that until now al-Qaida has seen Iraq as its best opportunity for establishing a militant Islamic state closer to the Persian Gulf.
"That could be under review," Petraeus said. "We do think they are considering what should be the main effort."
He offered a mostly upbeat assessment of conditions in Iraq just weeks before he is to make a recommendation on whether to further reduce U.S. troop levels. Petraeus said the country is showing fresh signs of promise not only on the security front, where insurgent attacks are down sharply, but also politically.
He applauded the latest evidence of movement toward reconciliation by Sunnis and Shiites _ the announcement Saturday that Iraq's largest Sunni Arab political bloc had ended a nearly yearlong boycott of the Shiite-led government.
"It's a very important step forward," Petraeus said after an aide interrupted the AP interview to deliver the news. The general flashed a wide smile and instructed the aide to pass along his congratulations to top government officials, who have come under enormous pressure from U.S. officials to reconcile.
Petraeus declined to say what he might recommend to President Bush regarding further U.S. troops reductions. The assessment, he said, is based on a range of factors, including the prospects for Iraqi government approval of legislation required before provincial elections can be held this fall.
He would not talk about specific troop levels later this year. But the enthusiasm of Petraeus's description of security, political and even economic progress in 2008 gave the impression he may be inclined to tell Bush that fewer than the current 15 combat brigades will be needed by year's end.
Petraeus said he was encouraged at the possibility of al-Qaida reconsidering Iraq as its highest priority war front.
"There is some intelligence that has picked this up," he said, adding, "It's not solid gold intelligence.
This information, while unconfirmed, parallels reports that fewer foreign fighters are joining the insurgency in Iraq.
"We do know the foreign fighter flow into Iraq has been reduced very substantially," he said. From a peak of 80 to 100 foreign fighters entering Iraq each month, the total has dropped as low as 20 per month, he said.
He attributed the decline to a combination of factors. They include the intense U.S. and Iraqi military operations against al-Qaida in Baghdad, Mosul and elsewhere, and stronger actions by neighboring countries to prevent militants from crossing into Iraqi territory. He mentioned Saudi Arabia as an example.
The other main source of violence in Iraq over the past year _ Shiite militia extremists _ also has been curbed. Petraeus said that whether leaders of those Shiite groups, who fled in many cases to Iran, end up returning to fight for control of such Baghdad sections as Sadr City will be a critical bellwether.
"This will be very important because it will be an indicator of whether Iran intends to start a new chapter in its relationship with Iraq, or not," he said.
Petraeus said Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, got an encouraging response when he traveled recently to Tehran to express concern about the role of Iranian-supported Shiite extremists in Iraq.
Al-Maliki "received assurances from the highest levels that Tehran wants nothing but constructive relations."
Petraeus is due to leave his post in Baghdad in September to head U.S. Central Command, with responsibility for U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan as well as Iraq. He is to be replaced in Baghdad by Gen. Raymond Odierno, who until February had served as the No. 2 commander in Iraq.
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<img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=1506cd11e357edc4f9782ba908f43d95"; style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> - The Huffington Post News Editors [The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com]
7:45:46 AM
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© Copyright 2008 Patricia Thurston.
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