The following is a press release issued by the
ACLU
today.

FBI Document Labels Michigan
Affirmative Action and Peace Groups as Terrorists

August 29, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: [email protected]

NEW YORK — The American Civil Liberties Union today released an FBI
document that designates a Michigan-based peace group and an affirmative
action advocacy group as potentially “involved in terrorist activities.” The
file was obtained through an ongoing nationwide ACLU effort seeking
information on the FBI’s use of Joint Terrorism Task Forces to engage in
political surveillance.

“This document confirms our fears that federal and state counterterrorism
officers have turned their attention to groups and individuals engaged in
peaceful protest activities,” said Ben Wizner, an ACLU staff attorney and
counsel in a lawsuit seeking the release of additional FBI records. “When
the FBI and local law enforcement identify affirmative action advocates as
potential terrorists, every American has cause for concern.”

The document released today is an FBI report labeled, “Domestic Terrorism
Symposium,” and describes a meeting that was intended to “keep the local,
state and federal law enforcement agencies apprised of the activities of the
various groups and individuals within the state of Michigan who are thought
to be involved in terrorist activities.”

Among the groups mentioned are Direct Action, an anti-war group, and BAMN
(By Any Means Necessary), a national organization dedicated to defending
affirmative action, integration, and other gains of the civil rights
movement of the 1960s. The FBI acknowledges in the report that the Michigan
State Police has information that BAMN has been peaceful in the past.

“Labeling political advocacy as ‘terrorist activity’ is a threat to
legitimate dissent which has never been considered a crime in this country,”
said Kary Moss, Executive Director of the ACLU of Michigan. “Spying on
people who simply disagree with our government’s policies is a tremendous
waste of police resources.”

The FBI report was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
request filed by the ACLU of Michigan on behalf of nine local organizations
and individuals, including Direct Action. ACLU affiliates in 15 additional
states have filed similar requests on behalf of more than 100 groups and
individuals.

“We’re disturbed and dismayed that the FBI is misusing its power by
spying on anti-war groups and monitoring political dissent to target
activist groups,” said 23-year-old Sarah McDonald, a member of Direct Action
and recent graduate of Michigan State University. “We’ve protested the war,
racial discrimination and the military recruitment of the high school
students, but we’re certainly not a terrorist group.”

In addition to the state FOIAs, the ACLU filed a lawsuit in federal court
to expedite its request for FBI surveillance files on its own organization
as well as other national groups including Greenpeace, United for Peace and
Justice, Code Pink, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Muslim Public Affairs
Council. In response to the lawsuit, the FBI has revealed that it has
thousands of pages of documents that mention those groups.

The ACLU launched its nationwide effort last year in response to
widespread complaints from students and political activists who said they
were questioned by FBI agents in the months leading up to the 2004 political
conventions. The FOIAs seek two kinds of information: 1) the actual FBI
files of groups and individuals targeted for speaking out or practicing
their faith; and, 2) information about how the practices and funding
structure of the task forces, known as JTTFs, may be encouraging rampant and
unwarranted spying.

Documents previously obtained by the ACLU in response to the FOIAs
include an FBI memo on Food Not Bombs, a Colorado group that provides free
vegetarian food to hungry people and protests war and poverty, and a report
on United for Peace and Justice, a national peace organization that
coordinates non-violent protests.

That’s right. Instead of targeting actual terrorists, the FBI spends valuable
resources following the activities of peace groups. This is a gross negligence
of duty and I hope justice prevails in this case.