Baltimore // Current

Victims of Maryland's police infiltration speak out

In classified reports compiled by the Maryland State Police and the Department of Homeland Security, I am "Dave Z." This nickname was given by an undercover agent known to us as "Lucy." She sat in our meetings of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, smiling and engaged, taking copious notes about actions deemed threatening by the Governor of Maryland, Robert Ehrlich. Our seditious crimes, as Lucy reported, involved such acts as planning to set up a table at the local farmer's market and writing up a petition. Adding a dash of farce to this outrage, she was monitoring us in the liberal enclave of Takoma Park, Maryland, a place known more for vegans than violence, more for tie-dying than terrorism..

Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act and the ACLU, we now know that "Lucy" was only one part of a vast, insidious project. The Maryland State Police's Department of Homeland Security devoted near 300 hours and thousands of taxpayer dollars from 2005 and 2006 to harassing people whose only crime was dissenting on the question of the war in Iraq and Maryland's use of death row.

My dear friend Mike Stark, a board member of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty is at times referred to in "Lucy's" report as a "socialist" and an "anarchist." One can only assume this is the pathetic time-honored tradition of reducing people to simple caricatures, all the better to garner Homeland Security grant money.

Veteran peace activist in Baltimore, Max Obuszewski, who initiated the suit, was as well consistently shadowed as he walked down the streets. His "primary crime" (their lingo) was entered into the homeland security 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. Yes, a respected peace organizer of many decades standing is checked as a terrorist, his actions listed as criminal, for doing nothing more than exercising his rights. It boggles the mind.

Former police superintendent Tim Hutchins defended these totalitarian practices by saying, "You do what you think is best to protect the general populace of the state." (The article mentioned that Hutchins is now a federal defense contractor. I guess The Global War on Terror is just the gift that keeps on giving for the Hutchins family.)

But "protect the general populace" from what? The surveillance continued even after it was determined that we were planning nothing more dangerous that carrying clipboards in a public place. Hutchins and the Ehrlich administration have undertaken an ugly violation of our civil rights, manipulating fears of terrorism to stamp out dissent. In classified reports compiled by the Maryland State Police and the Department of Homeland Security, I am "Dave Z." This nickname was ... more

Mulcahey

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20 hours ago

Baltimore DJ K-Swift Dies In Swimming Pool Accident

Khia "K-Swift" Edgertonone, of Baltimore, Maryland's most popular DJ, died early today (July 21) after a pool accident in her home.
The 29-year-old, whose cause of death is to be determined pending an autopsy, had been hosting a party at her house Sunday evening into early this morning, according to the Baltimore Sun. Police believe that she may have been drinking.
Reports say that during the party, the DJ jumped into her above-ground pool (which was four or five feet deep) with several other people
Khia "K-Swift" Edgertonone, of Baltimore, Maryland's most popular DJ, died early today (July 21) after a pool accident in her home. ... more

TravG73

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6 hours ago

112-year-old artist still going strong

Alabama artist Frank Calloway has spent half his life in a mental health centre, but his works will now be part of an exhibit at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.

Amazingly at 112 his art, which mostly depicts rural scenes from the early 20th century, is attracting a lot of attention: according to an official at the Kentuck Museum in Alabama, their appeal is that they "speak to a time gone by."

Carers at the hospital where Frank lives say that he spends 7 to 9 hours painting each day, sitting at a table by the window: "It's what he loves to do." Alabama artist Frank Calloway has spent half his life in a mental health centre, but his works will now be part of an exhibit at the A... more

rwylie

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13 hours ago

Maryland troopers spied on activist groups

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.

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."

Mr. Rocah called the surveillance "Kafka-esque insanity."

State police Chief Col. Terrence B. Sheridan said the agency "does not inappropriately curtail the expression or demonstration of the civil liberties of protesters or organizations acting lawfully."

The surveillance of Mr. Obuszewski, of Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore, and another person came to light during his trial for trespassing and disorderly conduct in a 2004 protest outside the National Security Agency's headquarters in Fort Meade, Md.

Documents released by the prosecution revealed that the protesters had been under surveillance by an entity called the Baltimore Intelligence Unit.

The Maryland ACLU sued last month, claiming the state police refused to release public documents about the surveillance of peace activists.

The documents, which include intelligence reports and printouts from the database, show that several undercover officers from the state police's Homeland Security and Intelligence Division attended meetings of three groups: Mr. Obuszewski's group; the Coalition to End the Death Penalty; and the Committee to Save Vernon Evans, a convicted murderer who was slated for execution.

The documents show at least 288 hours of surveillance over the 14-month period. The undercover officers attended at least 20 organizing meetings at community halls and churches and a dozen rallies against the death penalty, including several at the state's SuperMax jail in Baltimore.

Included in the documents are references to a proposed sit-in at the offices of Baltimore County State's Attorney SandraA. O'Connor. However, they show no trooper reports of violence or threats of violence. Organizers repeatedly stressed the importance of peaceful and orderly demonstrations, the documents show.

***Article continues, click link to read*** Undercover Maryland state troopers infiltrated three groups advocating peace and protesting the death penalty — attending meetings and... more

goldenways

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1 hour ago

Maryland Lawsuit Uncovers State Police Spying Against Peace and Anti-Death Penalty...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu-md.org

BALTIMORE – The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland today made public what it called "shocking" documents obtained through a Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) lawsuit, revealing that the Maryland State Police (MSP) engaged in covert surveillance of local peace and anti-death penalty groups for over a year from 2005-2006. The organization expressed alarm at the incomprehensible spying revealed in 43 pages of summaries and computer logs, none of which refer to criminal or even potentially criminal acts, other than a few isolated references to plans for completely nonviolent civil disobedience.

ACLU of Maryland Executive Director Susan Goering blasted the program as "Un-American," and said, "I fear that the documents released today, which the MSP wrongfully withheld for almost two years, may be only the tip of the proverbial iceberg."

Goering continued: "The documents show that the MSP engaged in surveillance operations against peaceful activists similar to those abandoned in the 1970s with the end of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's infamous COINTELPRO program. The ACLU will soon file additional requests under the Maryland Public Information Act to assess other activities and targets of the MSP's ‘Homeland Security and Intelligence Division' and will seek legislative reforms to ensure this kind of improper spying never happens again."

"In our America, 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," said David Rocah, Staff Attorney for the ACLU of Maryland. "Americans have the right to peaceably assemble with others of a like mind and speak out about what they believe in. For undercover police officers to spend hundreds of hours entering information about lawful political protest activities into a criminal database is an unconscionable waste of taxpayer dollars and does nothing to make us safer from actual terrorists or drug dealers."

The documents obtained in the MPIA lawsuit reveal that for 14 months, MSP's Homeland Security and Intelligence Division sent covert agents to infiltrate the Baltimore Pledge of Resistance, a peace group, the Coalition to End the Death Penalty (CEDP), and the Committee to Save Vernon Evans. The agents collectively spent at least 288 hours on their surveillance over the 14-month period. An agent also joined the electronic listserv of the CEDP under an alias using a spoof email address. Agents from the Division monitored private organizing meetings, public forums and events held in several churches, as well as anti-death penalty rallies outside the state's SuperMax facility in Baltimore and in Lawyer's Mall in Annapolis.

In 1976, following revelations of the FBI's COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program), the Federal Bureau agreed to limit its spying to situations in which criminal conduct was suspected. But after 9/11, Attorney General John Ashcroft rewrote the guidelines so that "for the purpose of detecting or preventing terrorist activities, the FBI is authorized to visit any place and attend any event that is open to the public, on the same terms and conditions as members of the public generally." Yet even under those draconian rules, much of the spying apparently conducted by the MSP would have been forbidden. In addition, the Ashcroft rules cautioned that "no information obtained from such visits shall be retained unless it relates to potential criminal or terrorist activity." Clearly information has been retained by the MSP that does not relate to any unlawful acts.

[continued in link] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: media@aclu-md.org ... more

Octoguy

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1 day ago

Ólafur Arnalds covers Ace of Bass and Frou Frou

Ólafur Arnalds is a classical composer from Iceland and recently visited the US.