National Security Agency mounted massive spy op on Baltimore peace group

[sabra]

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/National_Security_Agency_spied_on_Baltimore_0110.html

National Security Agency mounted massive spy op on Baltimore peace group, documents show



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.

...

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.

[leftchick]

1. oh fucking right, a peace group with WMD?

:argh:

On the upside this will put bush in deep doodoo. Impeachment time!!

[ecoalex]

16. The media harps on the overseas wiretaps,almost ignoring

The outrageous Domestic infiltration, and spying on Quaker peace groups.They are assigned a "threat" designation.

Thx for the smoke screen MSM what a service you are to shrubco !

[buddysmellgood]

2. Whew! That was a close one. Thank god Dubya and the NSA are protecting

us in our war on terror. Anyone who is against the war on terror is not for us. They are against us. We are fighting terror in Iraq. It is central to the War on terror. If you are against the war in Iraq you are against the war on terror. Terra Terra Terra. We need to tap the phones of anyone who says the word "peace."

[shance]

3. So if they spied on a non-descript peace group in Baltimore, how

much more of our taxdollars and how many more illegal invasive information gathering is going to spying on bigger groups and of course individual activists like ourselves here at DU?

[elehhhhna]

4. unauthorized search w/no warrant? oy.

[JerseygirlCT]

5. Oh yes, we're definitely in danger from all those scary Quakers. nt

[CTD]

6. Actually...

Reading through those docs, the group was planning to protest on the grounds of the NSA, a very sensitive area. They were allowed to. These docs pertain to actions taken by the NSA Police Dept, not NSA "spies". The actions taken were all to ensure that, should the group actually intend harm, that the situation was properly managed.

I actually see nothing to get worked up about here. I know the area and I sure as hell wouldn't go there to protest for fear of winding up in Gitmo. Seriously, it just sounds like any police plan for managing a protest in a sensitive area.

I want to impeach the motherfucker as much (if not more) than most of you guys. But to claim that this was anything more than what it is makes us all look like "looney left-wing conspiracy theorists".

[Broadslidin]

7. The Bush Government Secret Police Will Be Very Busy On January 31st.

http://www.worldcantwait.net

I will be one of many,
on the evening of January 31st,
attending the Fourth and Main street insurgency
in Royal Oak, Michigan
who will be tolling bells and demanding the
Immediate Impeachment of Bush and his cronies.

[TacticalPeek]

8. Rate this joker up.

An entry made at 1300 hours on July 4. reads, "The Soc. was advised the protesters 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.'"

Man alive, you can sure see why many NSA employees felt uncomfortable and went to the press.

The only way to stop this abuse of the Constitution is to put the miscreants in the slammer as a clear warning to the other mini-Alitos crawling around in the ashes of our republic.

[ladjf]

9. Better keep an eye on those damn Quakers. You know they

have a reputation for violence.

[OKNancy]

10. pdf of protest database ( NSA)

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/DODAntiWarProtestDatabaseTracker.pdf

[HuffleClaw]

11. "The defendants have filed a motion for discovery and included...

...the letter from the NSA acknowledging spying on the Pledge. The prosecutor has refused to release this information as part of discovery."

and let me guess, they'll claim NATIONAL SECURITY as their excuse.

ok, this exposes a FAR larger problem. if they were spying on these folks? they were most certainly spying on a LOT of other folks too. 'yer with us or yer against us!' is the motto of this administration, so naturally they perceive a LOT of 'enemies'. tip of the iceberg folks.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

12. Does any DUer still believe they're NOT under surveillance?

[marylanddem]

13. This is so fucking outrageous - and shameful.

So disgusting that they feel they have nothing better to do with our tax dollars than this krap. I hate them!

[Festivito]

14. Duplicate DU:GD thread asks why the big deal?

Monitoring NSA protesters on NSA campus would be reasonable?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=97897&mesg_id=98569
crispini (1000+ posts) Tue Jan-10-06 12:55 PM
Response to Original message
11. Well now that I've read the documents,
I don't think this is AS big of a deal. It doesn't say that the peace protesters were spied on in their homes, nor that their phones were tapped. Most of it was a plan for a protest which was ON THE NSA campus. I have to admit, if I worked for the NSA and I knew protestors were coming to visit, I'd have a plan to keep an eye on them.

Maybe someone else will explain to me why this is a big deal.

ON EDIT: Include DU:GD in this LBN post title.

[DELUSIONAL]

15. bushie = Nixon, who spied on every group imaginable

Women's liberation, peace groups, Vets against the war -- etc etc etc etc.

Anyone who opposed Nixon was the enemy -- and eventually that included the majority of Americans.

[dave29]

17. Quakers of Mass Destruction

If only we could stop those Quakers, we might finally live in Utopia