A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of itself, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Greenpeace, United for Peace and Justice, Code Pink, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, and 150 other groups has revealed that the FBI has been keeping extensive records on political groups. While the FBI has argued that it needs more time to process FOIA request due to the volume of records existing on the groups and the FBI’s usage of its “Joint Terrorism Task Forces” (JTTF) to investigate political dissidents (some 3,500 pages are believed to exist on political groups), the ACLU has already begun releasing some documents.
Among those released is a September 4, 2003 report filed by the FBI summarizing publicly announced plans posted by United for Peace and Justice and RNC Not Welcome to hold demonstrations outside of the 2004 Republican National Convention and outlining the possibility of “disruptive” protests. The information was forwarded on to “counterterrorism” agents. The ACLU has also published a document detailing the August 2, 2004 questioning of an activist in Denver, Colorado about possible disruptions at the RNC. The activist, a member of the American Friends Service Committee, Food Not Bombs, and the Derailer Bicycle Collective, was interviewed by the FBI’s JTTF, one of many who have been interviewed by Denver's JTTF, which has a long history of monitoring activist groups. The ACLU has been particularly concerned that JTTFs are being used nationwide to conduct surveillance of political groups after a October 15, 2003 memo circulated by the FBI to law enforcement offices around the country in advance of nationwide protests against the Iraq war. The memo describes the potential for “elements of the activist community” to engage in “violent, destructive, or disruptive acts” and outlines common direct action tactics employed demonstrators and urges that law enforcement agencies “be alert to these possible indicators of protest activity” and report any such activity to their local Joint Terrorism Task Force.
