Using the Freedom of Information Act, activists have obtained records of illegal spying carried out by the FBI across the United States. Many individuals' records can be seen at the FBI's Public Reading Room. (http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex.) This web site, has about 3,000 pages of spying activity carried out on the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) across the country, over the course of many years.
There are also other links to other Black organizations, such as the NAACP, in which the FBI conducted an illegal program called COINTELPRO. This program spied on San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, and Austin, SNCC members. Records on the site reveal spying on many meetings, conferences, and attempted interviews of SNCC members that occurred across the country. There are indications that mail was illegally opened, telephones illegally tapped, and a host of informants used to spy on SNCC workers. Some of the informants included local police and individuals that pretended to be SNCC workers. Attempts were made to discredit SNCC workers through anonymous letters sent to local papers that faked their identity. FBI agents pretended to be ordinary citizens by writing letters to editorial columns in the Express-News and other papers.
Recently, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) reported that current spying activity rivals that of the COINTELPRO days of the 1960s in that, under the Bush administration, there is the same type of widespread abuse of power. Of some 30 files released this past week, the ACLU contends that this current round of constitutional abuse by the FBI is “not only irresponsible,” but also “it has a chilling effect on the vibrant tradition of political dissent in this country.”
The ACLU says that the FBI disagreed with their argument that the FBI was monitoring legitimate political activities. But the ACLU contends that the FBI is targeting individuals and organizations for investigations for their political beliefs. According to the released files, the ACLU is correct as some of the information targets individuals that oppose the war in Iraq. Based on the spying that the FBI conducted under the leadership of J. Edgar “High Heels” Hoover in the past, there is enough evidence to indicate a resumption of what occurred during the Civil Rights era is happening again.
The FBI is apparently trying to create a database of those who oppose the war in Iraq or criticize the Bush administration. This type of illegal activity is cloaked by phony “terrorism” investigations that are clearly unconstitutional. Congress should investigate.
The ACLU, and other civil rights organizations, believe that the Bush administration is engaged in a broad pattern of attempts to violate the rule of law by using the Patriot Act and the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force to get around the U.S. Constitution. These attempts are being aimed at peaceful organizations that have nothing to do with Bush buzzword of “terrorism.”
If this is the case, then those involved should be investigated for possible civil rights violations. How many peaceful individuals and organizations in San Antonio and other Texas cities are being targeted again with these constitutional violations? Time will tell as the Bush administration continues to spin out of control.
