Liberty Beat

Is the Obama Administration Serious about Anti-Muslim Demonization in Law Enforcement?

2011-08-05T14:50:00.014-04:00

On August 4, 2011, the White House released a new strategy to counter violent extremism. The Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC) expressed support for the plan, Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States, which must be seen as a rejection of the Senator Joe Lieberman’s (I-CT) and Rep. Peter King’s (R-NY) narrow focus on Islamic-inspired terrorism as the

John Guandolo: Another Counterterrorism Expert Exposed

2011-07-22T14:02:00.005-04:00

PRA’s groundbreaking exposé of how tax dollars fund anti-Muslim trainings for police and counterterrorism personnel won the attention of news outlets and policy makers at its release this spring. We’ve been keeping the pressure on the Department of Homeland Security to stop funding flawed and bigoted training courses and in the last week our efforts have gotten a boost from CNN and National

FBI Using Next Generation of Big Brother to Cajole States into Targeting Immigrants?

2011-07-08T18:43:00.003-04:00

Post-9/11 congressional mandates for better interagency information sharing have often been taken in a direction that undermines community safety and threatens personal privacy. According to new government records released to the public on July 6, 2011, the FBI is using its clout to cajole state and local law enforcement agencies into participating in the Secure Communities

FBI Raids Reveal Repressive Apparatus Run Amok

2010-10-01T10:09:00.004-04:00

A recent Inspector General’s report on the FBI’s investigations of certain domestic advocacy groups from 2002-2006 found that the agency considered routine civil-disobedience violations, such as trespassing or vandalism, potential terrorism. For example, the Bureau determined that spilling human blood on walls, an American flag, and pictures were “forceful acts” sufficient to trigger inclusion

The FBI is Seeking Extended Powers to Snoop into our Electronic Communications

2010-08-16T13:45:00.002-04:00

It’s well known that the FBI has historically abused its power to investigate non-criminal Americans—in the 1960s, the FBI relied on informants and undercover agents to burglarize the offices of the Socialist Workers Party and other movement organizations to steal membership lists, bank accounts, and other sensitive data. Now, a proposed amendment to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act

‘Little Guantanamos’

2010-08-04T11:14:00.002-04:00

As Guantanamo is in the agonizingly slow process of shutting its doors, another kind of facility seems poised take its place on U.S. soil. Communication Management Units (CMUs), special divisions within American prisons nicknamed ‘Little Guantanamos,’ house political and terrorism convicts who are denied the basic services provided to prisoners in the United States. These inmates are not

Behavior Profiling: Ineffective and Expensive Security Theater

2010-07-29T10:54:00.003-04:00

Behavioral profiling, the latest trend in pre-emptive policing, has been used in America’s airport terminals since 2003 when the Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) program was implemented by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) across the United States. This past May, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GOA) issued a report assessing the program’s

FBI JTTF Agent Hands Private Data Over to Corporate Security Guards

2010-07-20T17:43:00.002-04:00

A Texas City police officer, Cpl. Tom Robison, detained freelance photographer Lance Rosenfield during the first week of July 2010 for taking pictures of public signs. The law enforcement harassment of Mr. Rosenfield resembles hundreds of similar acts around the country, where taking pictures on public land in the bright of day is mistaken for “surveillance.” The Coast Guard and BP have

Ban All Racial Profiling Without Exception

2010-07-14T13:59:00.003-04:00

On Monday this week, the New York Times announced that its investigation of NYPD “stop and frisk” practices from 2006 through 2010 found police stopped 52,000 people in a small eight-block predominantly black neighborhood called Brownsville. That’s one stop per year for every one of the neighborhood’s 14,000 residents. Police claim that almost half of those stops were prompted by “furtive

Praying as Suspicious Behavior in the Henderson 7 Case

2010-07-07T16:41:00.000-04:00

Since 9/11, practicing Islam has been unfairly viewed as suspicious in some circles, including among many in law enforcement. On December 20, 2009, in Henderson, Nevada, a concerned caller notified police that seven Muslim men were praying in a gas-station parking lot. The men had been traveling through the area and had stopped to perform one of the five daily prayers required in their religion.

Suspicious Activity Reporting Expands to LAX and Amtrak: A Recipe for Racial Profiling

2010-07-07T16:36:00.002-04:00

In an expansion of the national Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative (SAR), law enforcement and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials recently tied both Amtrak and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) into the initiative. Unfortunately, although SAR is meant to help intelligence analysts “connect the dots,” it has a major flaw: it encourages police to gather and share

Don’t give the President an “Internet Kill Switch”

2010-07-01T16:05:00.006-04:00

On June 10, 2010, Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and his cosponsors Senator Thomas Carper (D-DE) and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act. This bill, which would give the president power to restrict or shut down the Internet during emergencies, threatens civil liberties, including the right to free speech. The unprecedented bill is Congress’s

Suspicious Activity Reporting To Be Linked Nationwide

2010-05-03T15:44:00.004-04:00

Warning flags abound in recent report on pilot program PRA says nationwide deployment is premature and invites civil liberties violationsThe Department of Justice has quietly released the final report on a two-year pilot program on “Suspicious Activity Reporting.”This program, the latest product of the domestic security overhaul following September 11, 2001 is cause for alarm, according to a

Pre-Emptive Prosecutions - Forum Explores Provocation to Get Terrorism Convictions

2010-04-16T11:14:00.009-04:00

On March 25, 2010, a forum at NYU School of Law explored the role of agents provocateurs in several high-profile terrorism cases. Powerful testimony from the families and lawyers for defendants in several cases, raised an important question about each of the cases: would there have been a criminal act or plan if the FBI had not paid agent provocateurs to become involved? Was the FBI involved

Muslims Feel Targeted by FBI, Question Contact on Campus

2010-04-15T14:43:00.007-04:00

According to students at the University of Texas-Dallas, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation approached them on campus and at work to inquire about their beliefs and affiliations. Without a reasonable suspicion that individuals were involved in illegal activity, such tracking is not only unconstitutional, but ultimately counterproductive.In an April 11, 2010 article in the UTD

TIPS Reduce: LAPD to expand iWatch Program

2010-04-09T15:06:00.004-04:00

The Los Angeles Police Department encourages the public to spy on neighbors and file suspicious activity reports about innocent (non-criminal) activities that seem out of place through its "iWatch" program. A new report by Political Research Associates explains how such programs practically invite racial, ethnic, and religious profiling that not only harms individuals who get singled out, but is

Recipe for Profiling: Boston Transit Police Study the "Legal Wing of Jihad in America"

2010-03-25T15:23:00.006-04:00

Why are Boston Transit Police Studying Islam?While reading the February/March 2010 issue of the industry magazine Counter Terrorist (a publication of Security Solutions International), I came across a troubling advertisement.On May 10-12, 2010, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is sponsoring a three-day seminar in Florida that takes participants through the “formative phases of the

Misplaced Priorities in U.S. Counter-terror Strategy

2010-01-15T11:57:00.003-05:00

The recent attempted bombing of NWA Flight 253 in Detroit underscores the fact that the main terrorist threat to U.S. persons is from foreign terrorists linked to Al Qaeda. Every official review of U.S. intelligence failures that led to the 9/11 attack concluded that bureaucratic cultures at the CIA and FBI impeded effective information sharing and analysis. Here again, U.S.

Public Accountability for Fusion Centers

2009-10-29T17:29:00.004-04:00

Amidst widespread concerns about the far-reaching surveillance capacities of intelligence fusion centers, citizens groups are moving forward with demands for public oversight and privacy protections. The Department of Homeland Security pushed and funded the establishment of 72 “information-sharing, collection, and analysis” centers around the country. Unfortunately, officials erected this risky

Activists Sue Denver Over Civil Liberties Violations

2009-08-24T14:22:00.008-04:00

Since the successful street demonstrations against the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle in 1999, police and federal agencies have relied on aggressive and unconstitutional tactics to disperse, disrupt, and dissuade popular protest. Last week, the ACLU of Colorado, and attorneys from the NLG People's Law Project, filed suit on behalf of bystanders, activists, and legal observers to hold

Napolitano Embraces Her Inner Cheney

2009-08-03T21:18:00.016-04:00

Last week, Janet Napolitano reaffirmed America's unfocused approach to domestic intelligence and counterterrorism in her July 29, 2009 speech to the Council on Foreign Relations. The Secretary of Homeland Security embraced the word "terror," a word missing from her February address to Congress, as the Right was quick to point out.Is this a sign of the Right's tightening grip on the Obama

Army Civilian Employee Spied on Peace Activists

2009-07-27T13:30:00.007-04:00

The discovery this month that anarchist "John Jacob," an activist in anti-militarist organizing in the Pacific Northwest, is really civilian Army intelligence analyst John Towery II, shows that those concerned about civil liberties must remain vigilant in the Obama era. The gathering of domestic intelligence by Army agents highlights real dangers for civil liberties.Portland Indymedia reports

Can Extreme Surveillance Keep Us Safe?

2009-07-21T10:23:00.010-04:00

Eridiana Rodriguez vanished during her shift cleaning the office building at 2 Rector Street in Lower Manhattan's Financial District on Tuesday night, July 7. After four days, one hundred police scoured the building and discovered the body of this mother of three the following Saturday, bound with tape and stuffed into an air duct on the 12th floor, which was under construction and had

Connecticut State Police Keep Tabs on Greens

2009-06-15T14:01:00.006-04:00

Connecticut state troopers' surveillance of Green Party activists serves as the latest warning of whether we should allow government to conduct political intelligence and engage in "preventive" policing. A May 31, 2009 article in the Hartford Courant describes how political intelligence likely led to the pre-emptive arrest of the Greens' campaign director at a public event for merely

FBI Secret Surveillance and Secret Policies

2009-06-15T12:53:00.006-04:00

If history is any guide, lax oversight and secrecy are a recipe for abusive political intelligence gathering by the FBI. Pervasive official secrecy continues to threaten our national values under the Obama administration, in spite of a declared willingness to increase transparency. In a recent article by the new director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Shahid Buttar discusses the

Provocation Masquerading as Anti-Terror Policy?

2009-05-22T14:04:00.011-04:00

A word of advice to activists and people praying at mosques. If a guy offers you a free stinger missile, he's probably an informer. If he offers you free IEDs, he's probably an informer. If he asks you to pledge an oath to his foreign terrorist organization, he's also probably a government spy.On May 20, 2009, the FBI arrested four Newburgh, NY ex-cons in a plot to attack U.S. military aircraft

More Informants, More Fear

2009-05-19T13:08:00.010-04:00

On May 17, the Des Moines Register reported that the FBI planted an informant in an Iowa City "anarchist collective" planning to "disrupt the Republican convention." Those advocating undercover surveillance say the government should spy upon political activists to prevent future crime. But the protective potential of such efforts is vastly outweighed by the negative effect on organizing for

Defending Convention Dissent in St. Paul

2009-05-18T20:59:00.010-04:00

On May 15, 2009, Judge Wilson of the Ramsey County District Court granted RNC defendant Sean McCoy's motion for a new trial. So far, St. Paul has prosecuted ten defendants on 34 charges without a single conviction involving arrests during the Republican Convention last summer. Many defendants in Denver similarly defeated unfounded charges that arose from mass arrests. Thanks to lawyers like

Homeland's Lexicon of "Extremism"

2009-05-18T18:08:00.008-04:00

In May 2009, Homeland Security released -- and quickly retracted -- a "Domestic Extremism Lexicon," one in a series of reference aids designed to provide operational and intelligence advice to state, local, and regional fusion centers. This Lexicon is likely to increase suspicion and surveillance of activists from the right and left.During facilitated workshops, Homeland Security (DHS)

Boston Police Snoop at Celebs - Who's Next?

2009-05-12T10:58:00.006-04:00

So Boston police troll the Criminal Record Information system to find personal information about local movie stars and sports heroes. We know that from a state audit released on May 6, 2009. Today, ACLU Massachusetts director Carol Rose and Michael German correctly point out that misuse of law enforcement databases doesn't stop with the stars. "Unmonitored access to poorly regulated databases

Government Sets Sights on Extremists

2009-04-16T14:42:00.014-04:00

Hot Air Leads to Violence? Homeland Security apparently thinks so. The Department of Homeland Security recently warned law enforcement that disenchanted, angry Americans are like kernels of corn under heat, ready to pop at any time. Both threats and instances of Right-wing violence has definitely increased in response to the election of Barack Obama, but Homeland Security's report is

Thought Police Patrol Virginia

2009-04-13T22:40:00.011-04:00

If the Virginia Fusion Center (VFC) isn't careful, people might think its intelligence analysts are America's thought police. Take a look at its 2009 Threat Assessment, which talks about "subversive thought" as a marker for violent terrorism and identifies "university based student groups as a radicalization node for almost every type of extremist group." (pp. 9, 17). From anarchists to white

Getting the Facts on Guantanamo Detainees

2009-04-06T15:27:00.009-04:00

According to a Rasmussen Reports poll released on April 3, 2009, 75 percent of voters say that safety is more important than fairness in determining what countries the US government sends freed Guantanamo inmates. While some element of N.I.M.B.Y. thinking is likely at work, this figure reflects misinformation about detainees at Guantanamo and the high degree of indiscriminate fear drummed up by

Texas Fusion Center Casts Wide Net

2009-03-25T13:00:00.004-04:00

The North Central Texas Fusion Center (NCTFC) recently issued a Prevention Awareness Bulletin alerting law enforcement to beware of "significant" threats posed by a Muslim civil rights group, the antiwar organization ANSWER, and International Action Center. When an intelligence fusion center puts forward analysis based on right-wing Web sites prone to conspiracy-mongering, it raises questions

Remembering Giuseppe Conlon on St. Pat's Day

2009-03-16T21:59:00.017-04:00

All I need to know about the war on terror I learned from "In the Name of the Father," the story of the Guilford Four. After a pub bombing south of London in 1974, British police rounded up three men from Belfast and a young Englishwoman. Under a 1973 anti-terror law, authorities held Gerry Conlon, Paddy Armstrong, Paul Hill, and Carole Richardson for several days without charges or access to

FBI: Preventing Violence or Provoking It?

2009-03-13T12:52:00.003-04:00

On March 16, David McKay goes on trial for a second time. The jury must decide whether an FBI informant named Brandon Darby induced McKay to make Molotov cocktails on the eve of the Republican National Convention. The FBI’s use of informants in domestic intelligence operations raises critical questions – are we giving to much leeway to the FBI? What are the implications for civil liberties

Fusion Centers: Just Part of the Problem

2009-03-13T11:21:00.010-04:00

Props go to The Muckracker, a blog of the Center for Investigative Reporting for drawing attention to Obama's $260 million budget request for fusion centers. Its critique of the reality show "Homeland Security USA" is also prescient, well-deserved, and spot on.At Political Research Associates, we particularly appreciate the Muckracker's shoutout to Frank Donner, author of the Age of Surveillance

$260 Million for Fusion Center Analysts

2009-03-12T16:08:00.013-04:00

Obama wants to hire thousands of intelligence analysts for state fusion centers to the tune of $260 million. Liberty Beat thinks there are better ways to fight terrorism than sifting through commercial databases, "suspicious activity" reports, insurance claims, and court records, which is what these analysts will do in fusion centers. The core philosophy of fusion centers is that our protectors

Levi Come Back, We Just Can't Live Without You*

2009-02-27T13:44:00.018-05:00

Here is another item for President Obama's to do list: reinstate curbs on the FBI's spying power. Attorney General Edward Levi established guidelines limiting the Bureau to American targets "engaged in or believe to be about to engage in criminal activity." Levi imposed this sensible limit in 1976 in the wake of a tsunami of abuses by Hoover's agency. In 2008, Attorney General Muskasey

Homeland Security Helped Maryland Spy on Activists

2009-02-25T12:13:00.009-05:00

We've know since the Summer of 2008 that the Maryland State Police spied on activists and their lawful political activities from 2005 to 2007. Troopers entered citizens into a database in which they labeled 53 individuals as "terrorists." Now we know that federal agencies assisted state police in spying.Since the investigation into this outrageous misconduct began, law enforcement has insisted

Race-Based Roundup Revealed

2009-02-19T11:19:00.020-05:00

Immigration advocates have long asserted that ICE raids at workplaces and in neighborhoods sweep people up based on race, rather than facts about individuals violating immigration laws. ICE's internal investigation of a Baltimore sweep now reveals that a supervisor instructed his team to arrest as many immigrants as possible, regardless of where or how, in order to meet a quota.In the frigid

About Author, Thomas Cincotta

2009-02-19T10:10:00.000-05:00

Thomas Cincotta (project director) heads PRA's nationwide investigation of regional counterintelligence strategies. A criminal defense lawyer, he led the Denver chapter of the National Lawyers Guild [www.nlg.org] (NLG) in support of peace groups and others during the 2008 Democratic National Convention, and connected progressive lawyers with other community efforts around sentencing reform,