An undercover Maryland State Police trooper infiltrated nonviolent groups and labeled dozens of people as terrorists.
By Bob Drogin
December 7, 2008
Reporting from Takoma Park,
Md. —
To friends in the protest movement, Lucy was an eager 20-something who
attended their events and sent encouraging e-mails to support their
causes.
Only one thing seemed strange.
"At
one demonstration, I remember her showing up with a laptop computer and
typing away," said Mike Stark, who helped lead the anti-death-penalty
march in Baltimore that day. "We all thought that was odd."
Not
really. The woman was an undercover Maryland State Police trooper who
between 2005 and 2007 infiltrated more than two dozen rallies and
meetings of nonviolent groups.
Maryland officials now concede
that, based on information gathered by "Lucy" and others, state police
wrongly listed at least 53 Americans as terrorists in a criminal
intelligence database -- and shared some information about them with
half a dozen state and federal agencies, including the National
Security Agency.
Among those labeled as terrorists: two Catholic
nuns, a former Democratic congressional candidate, a lifelong pacifist
and a registered lobbyist. One suspect's file warned that she was
"involved in puppet making and allows anarchists to utilize her
property for meetings."
"There wasn't a scintilla of illegal
activity" going on, said David Rocah, an attorney for the American
Civil Liberties Union, which filed a lawsuit and in July obtained the
first surveillance files. State police have released other heavily
redacted documents.
Investigators, the files show, targeted
groups that advocated against abortion, global warming, nuclear arms,
military recruiting in high schools and biodefense research, among
other issues.
"It was unconscionable conduct," said Democratic
state Sen. Brian Frosh, who is backing legislation to ban similar
spying in Maryland unless the police superintendent can document a
"reasonable, articulable suspicion" of criminal activity.
The
case is the latest to emerge since the Sept. 11 attacks spurred a sharp
increase in state and federal surveillance of Americans. Critics say
such investigations violate constitutional guarantees of freedom of
speech and assembly, and serve to inhibit lawful dissent.
In the
largest known effort, the Pentagon monitored at least 186 lawful
protests and meetings -- including church services and silent vigils --
in California and other states.
The military also compiled more
than 2,800 reports on Americans in a database of supposed terrorist
threats. That program, known as TALON, was ordered closed in 2007 after
it was exposed in news reports.
The Maryland operation also has
ended, but critics still question why police spent hundreds of hours
spying on Quakers and other peace groups in a state that reported more
than 36,000 violent crimes last year.
Stephen Sachs, a former
state attorney general, investigated the scandal for Gov. Martin
O'Malley -- a Democrat elected in 2006. He concluded that state police
had violated federal regulations and "significantly overreached."
According
to Sachs' 93-page report and other documents, state police launched the
operation in March 2005 out of concern that the planned execution of a
convicted murderer might lead to violent protests.
They sent
Lucy to join local activists at Takoma Park's Electrik Maid, a funky
community center popular with punk rockers and slam poets. Ten people
attended the gathering, including a local representative from Amnesty
International.
"The meeting was primarily concerned with getting
people to put up fliers and getting information out to local businesses
and churches about the upcoming events," the undercover officer
reported later. "No other pertinent intelligence information was
obtained."
That proved true for all 29 meetings, rallies and
protests that Lucy ultimately attended. Most drew only a handful of
people, and none involved illegal or disruptive actions.
Using
the aliases Lucy Shoup and Lucy McDonald, she befriended activists. "I
want to get involved in different causes," she wrote in an e-mail,
citing her interest in "anti-death penalty, antiwar and pro-animal
actions!!!"
Max Obuszewski, a Baltimore pacifist who leads
antiwar protests, said Lucy asked about civil disobedience, but didn't
instigate any. "She never volunteered to do anything, not even hand out
leaflets," he said. "She was not an agent provocateur."
Greg Shipley, a state police spokesman, said that no one in the
department had been disciplined in connection with the spying program.
Lucy, who has not been publicly identified, would not consent to an
interview, he said.
The surveillance, Shipley said, was
inappropriate. And the listing of lawful activity as terrorism
"shouldn't have happened, and has been corrected."
Most of the
files list terrorism as a "primary crime" and a "secondary crime," then
add subgroups for designations such as antiwar protester.
Some contain errors and inconsistencies that are almost comical.
Nancy
Kricorian, 48, a novelist on the terrorist list, is coordinator for the
New York City chapter of CodePink, an antiwar group. She serves as
liaison with local police for group protests, and has never been
arrested.
"I have no idea why I made the list," she said.
"I've never been to the state of Maryland, except maybe to stop for gas
on the way to Washington."
Josh Tulkin, 27, a registered
lobbyist with the Virginia state Legislature, is cited under "terrorism
-- environmental extremists." Tulkin was deputy director of Chesapeake
Climate Action Network, an environmental group that claims 15,000
members and regularly meets with governors and members of Congress.
"If asking your elected officials a question about public policy is a crime, then I'm guilty," he said.
Barry
Kissin, 57, a lawyer who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2006, heads
the Frederick Progressive Action Coalition, a group that works "for
social, economic and environmental justice," according to his police
file. Their protests "are always peaceful," it added.
He was labeled "Terrorism -- Anti-Government."
Nadine Bloch, 47, runs workshops for protest groups that seek corporate
responsibility and builds huge papier-mache puppets often used in
street marches. Her terrorism file indicates she participated in a
Taking Action for Animals conference in Washington on July 16-18, 2005.
Animal
rights, Bloch said, is one of the few causes she doesn't actively
embrace. Besides, she was attending an educators conference in Hawaii
that week as a contractor for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration.
"This whole thing," she said, "is so absurd."
Drogin is a Times staff writer.