Maryland tries going all KGB on its citizens
Maryland Police Play Spies–And Look Like Fools
For years, the Maryland State Police, eager to play anti-terrorist surveillance agents just like the big boys on TV, spied on suburban peace activists who may have been loud, but never posed the slightest threat to the nation or the state.
So what did Maryland taxpayers get for their investment in the state police’s investigations of 53 people, including lawyers, a candidate for Congress, a leader of an effort to curb military recruiting in Montgomery County high schools, and a sportswriter?
Have a look for yourself–it’s pitiful.
Here’s Pat Elder’s file, mostly blacked out by police censors who perhaps have a bit more to hide than they’ve admitted to thus far. Elder is a regular on the Montgomery County protest scene; he’s an anti-Iraq war activist who became a leader of the drive to limit the military’s ability to push its recruiters on unsuspecting high school students. In 2006, the state police “obtained” information that Elder was leading a protest against a defense contractor in Bethesda, Lockheed Martin Corp. So they worked up a dossier on Elder. The information available between the blacked-out portions contains not a thing that you and I couldn’t have found in about four minutes of Googling.
Well, not quite. The state police’s Homeland Security and Intelligence Division–just think about how much you’re paying for those words–did pick up one new fact: Elder, 53, has no criminal record. Whew.
The state police categorized Anne Havemann of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network–a group so secretive that you can wander through its web site here or “obtain” their financial reports here–as an “environmental extremist” and “terrorist.” In the very same five-page report, the police called Havemann the group’s “executive director” and its “executive assistant.” In fact, she is neither; she’s the communications director, which means she gives out information about the group, something she’d surely have been happy to do for the police if they’d just given her a call.</em>
