F.B.I. Scrutinizes Antiwar Rallies

By ERIC LICHTBLAU

<http://nytimes.com/2003/11/23/natio...>

WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 - The Federal Bureau of
Investigation has collected extensive information on the
tactics, training and organization of antiwar
demonstrators and has advised local law enforcement
officials to report any suspicious activity at protests
to its counterterrorism squads, according to interviews
and a confidential bureau memorandum.

The memorandum, which the bureau sent to local law
enforcement agencies last month in advance of antiwar
demonstrations in Washington and San Francisco, detailed
how protesters have sometimes used "training camps" to
rehearse for demonstrations, the Internet to raise money
and gas masks to defend against tear gas. The memorandum
analyzed lawful activities like recruiting
demonstrators, as well as illegal activities like using
fake documentation to get into a secured site.

F.B.I. officials said in interviews that the
intelligence-gathering effort was aimed at identifying
anarchists and "extremist elements" plotting violence,
not at monitoring the political speech of law-abiding
protesters.

The initiative has won the support of some local police,
who view it as a critical way to maintain order at
large-scale demonstrations. Indeed, some law enforcement
officials said they believed the F.B.I.’s approach had
helped to ensure that nationwide antiwar demonstrations
in recent months, drawing hundreds of thousands of
protesters, remained largely free of violence and
disruption.

But some civil rights advocates and legal scholars said
the monitoring program could signal a return to the
abuses of the 1960’s and 1970’s, when J. Edgar Hoover
was the F.B.I. director and agents routinely spied on
political protesters like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr.

"The F.B.I. is dangerously targeting Americans who are
engaged in nothing more than lawful protest and
dissent," said Anthony Romero, executive director of the
American Civil Liberties Union. "The line between
terrorism and legitimate civil disobedience is blurred,
and I have a serious concern about whether we’re going
back to the days of Hoover."

Herman Schwartz, a constitutional law professor at
American University who has written about F.B.I.
history, said collecting intelligence at demonstrations
is probably legal.

But he added: "As a matter of principle, it has a very
serious chilling effect on peaceful demonstration. If
you go around telling people, ’We’re going to ferret out
information on demonstrations,’ that deters people.
People don’t want their names and pictures in F.B.I.
files."

The abuses of the Hoover era, which included efforts by
the F.B.I. to harass and discredit Hoover’s political
enemies under a program known as Cointelpro, led to
tight restrictions on F.B.I. investigations of political
activities.

Those restrictions were relaxed significantly last year,
when Attorney General John Ashcroft issued guidelines
giving agents authority to attend political rallies,
mosques and any event "open to the public."

Mr. Ashcroft said the Sept. 11 attacks made it essential
that the F.B.I. be allowed to investigate terrorism more
aggressively. The bureau’s recent strategy in policing
demonstrations is an outgrowth of that policy, officials
said.

"We’re not concerned with individuals who are exercising
their constitutional rights," one F.B.I. official said.
"But it’s obvious that there are individuals capable of
violence at these events. We know that there are
anarchists that are actively involved in trying to
sabotage and commit acts of violence at these different
events, and we also know that these large gatherings
would be a prime target for terrorist groups."

Civil rights advocates, relying largely on anecdotal
evidence, have complained for months that federal
officials have surreptitiously sought to suppress the
First Amendment rights of antiwar demonstrators.

Critics of the Bush administration’s Iraq policy, for
instance, have sued the government to learn how their
names ended up on a "no fly" list used to stop suspected
terrorists from boarding planes. Civil rights advocates
have accused federal and local authorities in Denver and
Fresno, Calif., of spying on antiwar demonstrators or
infiltrating planning meetings. And the New York Police
Department this year questioned many of those arrested
at demonstrations about their political affiliations,
before halting the practice and expunging the data in
the face of public criticism.

The F.B.I. memorandum, however, appears to offer the
first corroboration of a coordinated, nationwide effort
to collect intelligence regarding demonstrations.

The memorandum, circulated on Oct. 15 - just 10 days
before many thousands gathered in Washington and San
Francisco to protest the American occupation of Iraq -
noted that the bureau "possesses no information
indicating that violent or terrorist activities are
being planned as part of these protests" and that "most
protests are peaceful events."

But it pointed to violence at protests against the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank as
evidence of potential disruption. Law enforcement
officials said in interviews that they had become
particularly concerned about the ability of
antigovernment groups to exploit demonstrations and
promote a violent agenda.

"What a great opportunity for an act of terrorism, when
all your resources are dedicated to some big event and
you let your guard down," a law enforcement official
involved in securing recent demonstrations said. "What
would the public say if we didn’t look for criminal
activity and intelligence at these events?"

The memorandum urged local law enforcement officials "to
be alert to these possible indicators of protest
activity and report any potentially illegal acts" to
counterterrorism task forces run by the F.B.I. It warned
about an array of threats, including homemade bombs and
the formation of human chains.

The memorandum discussed demonstrators’ "innovative
strategies," like the videotaping of arrests as a means
of "intimidation" against the police. And it noted that
protesters "often use the Internet to recruit, raise
funds and coordinate their activities prior to
demonstrations."

"Activists may also make use of training camps to
rehearse tactics and counter-strategies for dealing with
the police and to resolve any logistical issues," the
memorandum continued. It also noted that protesters may
raise money to help pay for lawyers for those arrested.

F.B.I. counterterrorism officials developed the
intelligence cited in the memorandum through firsthand
observation, informants, public sources like the
Internet and other methods, officials said.

Officials said the F.B.I. treats demonstrations no
differently than other large-scale and vulnerable
gatherings. The aim, they said, was not to monitor
protesters but to gather intelligence.

Critics said they remained worried. "What the F.B.I.
regards as potential terrorism," Mr. Romero of the
A.C.L.U. said, "strikes me as civil disobedience."