Maryland troopers spied on activist groups: Protesters added to database of terrorist suspects

Shaun Waterman
UPI
Saturday, Aug 9, 2008

Undercover Maryland state troopers infiltrated three groups advocating peace and protesting the death penalty — attending meetings and sending reports on their activities to U.S. intelligence and military agencies, according to documents released Thursday.

The documents show the activities occurred from at least March 2005 to May 2006 and that officers used false names, which the documents referred to as “covert identities” – to open e-mail accounts to receive messages from the groups.

Also included in the 46 pages of documents, obtained by the Maryland chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, is an account of an activist’s name being entered into a federally funded database designed to share information among state, local and federal law-enforcement agencies on terrorist and drug trafficking suspects.

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ACLU attorney David Rocah said state police violated federal laws prohibiting departments that receive federal funds from maintaining databases with information about political activities and affiliations.

The activist was identified as Max Obuszewski. His “primary crime” was entered into the database as “terrorism – anti govern(ment).” His “secondary crime” was listed as “terrorism – anti-war protestors.” The database is known as the Washington-Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, or HIDTA.

“This is not supposed to happen in America,” said Mr. Rocah. “In a free society, which relies on the engagement of citizens in debate and protest and political activity to maintain that freedom … you should be able to attend a meeting about an issue you care about without having to worry that government spies are entering your name into a database used to track alleged terrorists and drug traffickers.”

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8 Responses to “Maryland troopers spied on activist groups: Protesters added to database of terrorist suspects”

1. Mike Says:
   August 9th, 2008 at 5:45 am

   “The technetronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by tradional vslues. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to date complere files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by autorities”

   Quoted from the book: Between Two Ages by Zbigniew Brzezinski

2. MAR Says:
   August 9th, 2008 at 6:20 am

   In AmeriKKKa if you say no now you are a terrorist…? Nice place Americaca…

3. MAR Says:
   August 9th, 2008 at 6:25 am

   WHAT? If you are against war you are a terrorist? Good night America! You’re cooked! You live in a worse place than China or Russia…you’re a bunch of F’en fools.

4. Mister Jimmy Says:
   August 9th, 2008 at 8:48 am

   These people couldn’t spot a cop sitting right in their midst?

5. Aaron Says:
   August 9th, 2008 at 5:45 pm

   MAR, where do you live? Because such condescension is based upon the assumption pf superiority.

   Here is a clue, nowhere is free from the grasp of the internationalist bankers. Nowhere on earth is free from tyranny.

   So what planet are you on?

6. Braveheart Says:
   August 9th, 2008 at 9:43 pm

   It just never stops does it? Damn these anti- humans all to hell.

7. Jen Says:
   August 10th, 2008 at 10:27 am

   This is truly a blessing in disguise. When “NORMAL” Americans are AFFECTED by this crap it’s a GOOD THING. Nothing is going to wake people up other than having THEIR LIVES disrupted. Maryland forces vaccines too…gee you’d think the people in that state would get a clue. But hey, when the AVERAGE American has hassles because of this, I’m hopeful that the outrage will finally spark into a wildfire.

8. Giant Shadows Says:
   August 11th, 2008 at 8:25 am

   Dont accept what is going on-
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V5iCUBEUx4
   GS