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Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Another "terrorist" organization under surveillance by the Bush Administration
Posted by Jill | 3:28 PM

I'm so lad that the Bush Administration's surveillance is focused on Al Qaeda instead of on peaceful dissenting groups exercising their right to speak out.

Except that it isn't:

The National Security Agency has been spying on a Baltimore anti-war group, according to documents released during litigation, going so far as to document the inflating of protesters' balloons, and intended to deploy units trained to detect weapons of mass destruction, RAW STORY has learned.

According to the documents, the Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore, a Quaker-linked peace group, has been monitored by the NSA working with the Baltimore Intelligence Unit of the Baltimore City Police Department.

The Baltimore Pledge of Resistance is part of the national Iraq Pledge of Resistance, which works with the Baltimore Emergency Response Network and the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) -- part of a national group committed to nonviolent civil resistance to stop the war in Iraq. The Pledge lobbies Maryland congressmembers via letters, phone calls, faxes, emails and face-to-face meetings; members of the group are periodically arrested for peaceable protests.

Documents turned over by the NSA indicate that the group was closely monitored. In one instance, the agency filed reports approximately every 15 minutes from 9:30 AM to 3:18 PM on the day of a demonstration at the National Vigilance Airplane Memorial on the NSA Campus in Maryland.

According to an NSA email dated July 4, 2004, the agency collected license numbers and descriptions and the number of people in each car and filed a report about them gathering in a church parking lot for the demonstration. NSA agents also logged their travel to the demonstration, including stopping as a gas station along the way. A canine dog unit was used to search a minivan when it was stopped on the way to the demonstration - nothing was found.

NSA officials even reported on the balloons being inflated for the demonstration and the content of their signs.

An entry made at 1300 hours on July 4. reads, "The Soc. was advised the protestors were proceeding to the airplane memorial with three helium balloons attached to a banner that stated, 'Those Who Exchange Freedom for Security Deserve Neither, Will Ultimately Lose Both.'"

On the day of the demonstration three protesters were cited for "disturbances on government property" and released. A federal judge eventually dismissed the case before trial.


THIS is why Bush's belief that he is above the law and that we should just trust him because he is the president falls apart. Bush is not in the least interested in protecting this country from terrorists. After all, terrorism has been very, very good to him and to his Administration. Terrorism boosted his approval ratings back when there was talk of his presidency being over before its first year was out. Terrorism allowed him to have the war against Iraq he's always wanted. Terrorism cowed the opposition party and the press into meek submission.

Bush wants this authority in order to squelch his political enemies. Period. Securing the country has nothing to do with it. And that is why he cannot be allowed to be above the law. Mr. Alito, take note.
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