Catholic Worker Movement Subject of Unjustifiable FBI Anti-terrorism Surveillance

international | anti-war / imperialism | press release

Tuesday September 21, 2010 08:18

by C.W.

U.S. Department of Justice Report

FBI domestic terrorism investigations of Catholic Worker-led protests
in Ithaca, New York; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Norfolk, Virigina; and
Omaha, Nebraska were opened without cause and extended with weak or
nonexistent factual evidence, according to a wide-ranging critical
report released Monday by the Department of Justice´s Investigator
General.
http://www.justice.gov/oig/special/s1009r.pdf

In the case of protests at Offut´s Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska
led by the Des Moines and Omaha Catholic Worker communities, the FBI
¨violated its own policies¨ and put nonviolent pacifists on domestic
terrorism watch lists.

According to CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/20/national/main...shtml):

The Catholic Worker: Beginning in 2003 domestic terrorism
investigations were opened against members of the religious group
following vandalism and trespass incidents at military recruiting
offices in Milwaukee; Ithaca, N.Y.; Norfolk, Va.; and Offutt Air Force
Base.

FBI agents also monitored rallies, or in advance of FBI-designated
"special events" where protests or acts of civil disobedience might be
expected; and recorded and retained data about Catholic Worker members
obtained from other agencies.

The FBI classified "peaceful trespass on a military facility" and acts
of vandalism, including the spilling of purported human blood, as
potential acts of terrorism.

According to the Atlantic Magazine
(http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/09/oig...3276/)

¨In a case of domestic surveillance of individuals associated with The
Catholic Worker http://www.catholicworker.org/, a group which states
it is committed to "nonviolence, voluntary poverty, prayer and
hospitality for the homeless, the OIG report concluded that the FBI
inappropriately characterized" certain "nonviolent civil disobedience"
as terrorism-related. "The information the FBI collected in one case,"
the OIG report indicates, "had no relationship to any 'violent
activities' much less to terrorism."

According to ABC News
(http://abcnews.go.com/News/Blotter/fbi-spied-peta-green...82844):

¨The IG found there was ¨little or no basis¨ for the terror
investigations, and that they were ¨unreasonable and inconsistent with
FBI policy.¨ At least two of the investigations resulted in innocent
people being placed on the domestic terror watch list for years, and
one resulted in FBI Director Robert Mueller providing Congress with
¨inaccurate and misleading information,¨ according to the report.¨