Cointelpro all over again

Salon.com (sorry, you have to wade through annoying ads to read the article if you’re not a subscriber) has a stunning piece up today about the ways in which the Joint Terrorism Task Force (part of the federal government’s attempts to fight terrorism) has been deliberately infiltrating (meaning: sending police officers under assumed identities) a variety of peace groups to keep track of what they’re doing. Somehow I can’t help feeling that such time and effort could more effectively be spent elsewhere!

Michelle Goldberg reports: “No one knows the extent of the political spying and profiling currently being carried out against critics of the Bush administration and American foreign policy — which may be the most disturbing thing about the entire phenomenon. “Presumably if they’re doing their jobs well, we’ll never know,” says Fogel. Activists have also been unsuccessful at finding out why they’re being watched, and under whose authority.”“What we do know, though, is that several of the police departments that have been accused of spying on protesters — including the Aurora, Colo., Police Department, where Hurley works — are part of Joint Terrorism Task Forces. These are programs in which local police are assigned to work full-time with FBI agents and other federal agents “to investigate and prevent acts of terrorism,” as the FBI’s Web site says. According to the FBI, such JTTFs have been around since 1980, but the total number has almost doubled since Sept. 11, 2001, to 66.”

The Patriot Act is providing cover for a number of activities that are curtailing the very definition of what it means to be a patriotic American (the right to dissent and open information being an essential part of that definition). Now might be a good time to check in with the American Civil Liberties Union.