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Documents Indicate FBI Scrutiny of Maine Peace Group
MCLU Joins Nationwide ACLU Effort to Uncover Details of Pentagon Domestic Spying Program

Portland - The Maine Civil Liberties Union announced that it has uncovered evidence of FBI surveillance of the Maine Coalition for Peace and Justice.

The FBI responded to a June records request from the MCLU with revelations that it has intercepted and collected past communications from members of the Maine Coalition for Peace and Justice, a statewide organization of individual citizens and Maine group representatives working collectively and nonviolently for social equality, economic justice, direct democracy, and regenerative environmental policies.

"Knowing that the government is spying without probable cause on innocent Mainers sends a chilling message to all of us that our conversations are not our own," said Shenna Bellows, Executive Director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union. "Spying on peace activists exercising their First Amendment rights does nothing to make this country safer, but it does make us less free."

In a related matter, the MCLU last week filed a federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on behalf of local peace activists, protest groups and civil libertarians whose lawful activities may have been monitored by the Pentagon. The move is part of a national ACLU effort to reveal the extent and purpose of Pentagon spying.

The MCLU filed its FOIA request on behalf of the American Friends Service Committee: Maine Program on Youth and Militarism, the Maine Coalition for Peace and Justice, and the MCLU itself. The MCLU is seeking the disclosure of all documents maintained by the Department of Defense on the individuals and groups, as well as information on whether the records have been shared with other government agencies.

The national ACLU filed a similar FOIA request on behalf of the American Friends Service Committee, Veterans for Peace, United for Peace and Justice and Greenpeace. Other ACLU affiliates are seeking Pentagon files on local groups in Georgia, Rhode Island, Florida, Pennsylvania and California.

Similar activist groups across the country learned through news reports in December that they are listed in the Pentagon's Threat and Local Observation Notice (TALON) database. The TALON program was initiated by former Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz in 2003 to track groups and individuals with possible links to terrorism, but the Pentagon has been collecting information on peaceful activists and monitoring anti-war and anti-military recruiting protests throughout the United States. Following public outcry over the domestic spying program, current Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England issued a memorandum on January 13 directing intelligence personnel to receive "refresher training on the policies for collection, retention, dissemination and use of information related to U.S. persons."

Documents requested by the national ACLU under previous FOIA requests have revealed that the FBI is using its Joint Terrorism Task Forces to gather extensive information about peaceful organizations such as Greenpeace and Food Not Bombs. Earlier this month, the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of journalists, scholars and attorneys against the National Security Agency for illegally intercepting vast quantities of the international telephone and Internet communications of Americans without court approval.
For details and documents regarding the FOIA requests filed today by the ACLU around the country, including a list of clients, go to www.aclu.org/spyfiles or www.mclu.org.

Rep. Tom Allen: "Revelation of FBI Surveillance of Mainers Is Evidence of an Alarming Assault on Our Most Basic Liberties"

Calls for investigation to determine extent of government surveillance of Mainers

Portland, Maine---U.S. Representative Tom Allen today expressed outrage at the revelation of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) monitoring of the activities of the Maine Coalition for Peace and Justice. He called for an immediate investigation to determine the extent of efforts by the FBI and federal agencies to scrutinize the activities of Maine individuals and organizations.

"Revelation of FBI surveillance of Mainers is evidence of an alarming assault on our most basic liberties," Representative Allen said. "The right to disagree with the decisions our elected officials make and to speak freely and openly in opposition is one of the fundamental rights guaranteed to all Americans by the Constitution. I am today writing to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to request release of all files the FBI has amassed on Maine peace groups and an investigation of the extent of federal government surveillance of Maine organizations."

"I am concerned that recent revelations reflect a pattern of threats to basic liberties that Americans have long taken for granted. We discovered the abuses of domestic spying during Watergate and thought those incursions on civil liberty to be permanently curtailed. To see them repeated again is chilling and seems to indicate that we have learned nothing from history."

Representative Allen made his remarks following an article in the Portland Press Herald that reported a Maine Civil Liberties Union inquiry under the Freedom of Information Act had revealed the FBI has been "targeting groups for surveillance because they have been critical of the government."