http://www.inthesetimes.com/web2521/hoffman2521.html
TO THE EXTREME
FBI testimony provokes fear of new Cointelpro
By Hank Hoffman
Is the FBI back in the business of trying to squelch
political dissent?
An obscure paragraph in congressional testimony this
past spring by
departing FBI Director Louis Freeh has fanned fears that
the agency is
planning a surveillance and disruption effort against
anti-globalization
groups similar to Cointelpro, which focused on the
anti-war and Black
Power movements in the '60s and '70s.
Freeh delivered his testimony on the "Threat of
Terrorism to the United
States" before the Senate Appropriations committee on
May 10. In the
section on "domestic terrorism," Freeh identified
"right-wing extremist
groups," such as the World Church of the Creator and
Aryan Nation, as
"representing a continuing terrorism threat." One of the
two paragraphs
dealing with "special-interest extremists" focused on
the eco-sabotage of
the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front.
In contrast,
extreme anti-abortion groups, with their record of
murder and clinic
bombings, merited only a passing mention.
But it was the final paragraph in Freeh's assessment of
"left-wing
extremist groups" that raised eyebrows among
anti-globalization
activists: "Anarchist and extremist socialist
groups--many of which, such
as the Workers World Party, Reclaim the Streets and
Carnival Against
Capitalism--have an international presence and, at
times, also represent
a potential threat in the United States," Freeh said.
"For example,
anarchists, operating individually and in groups, caused
much of the
damage during the 1999 World Trade Organization
ministerial meeting in
Seattle."
"These are extremely dangerous and inappropriate
comments," says Mara
Verheyden-Hilliard, co-founder of the Washington-based
Partnership for
Civil Justice. Verheyden-Hilliard is the lead attorney
on a lawsuit
against the FBI and other police agencies for civil
rights violations
during the April 2000 protests at the Washington meeting
of the
International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Noting that
Freeh's remarks
were made in the context of an appropriations hearing,
she says that he
"may be trying to legitimate funding for a
government-sponsored war
against the social justice movement."
Freeh's comments do provoke serious concerns. No
justification is offered
for the naming of Workers World Party, a Marxist group,
and Reclaim the
Streets, a network founded in London in 1995 that merges
protests and
raves, as representing potential threats. Freeh
seemingly criminalizes
all anarchists based on vandalism during the Seattle WTO
protests. "By
demonizing this movement and suggesting these folks pose
a threat," says
Verheyden-Hilliard, "they justify declaring some form of
martial law
[during large demonstrations]."
Verheyden-Hilliard notes that protests in Philadelphia,
Los Angeles and
Washington have been met with excessive police response:
illegal arrests,
intrusive surveillance, pepper spray and the employment
of agents
provocateur. Washington police traveled to Philadelphia,
Quebec and Genoa
to observe protests, while local and state police are
cooperating with
the FBI on "joint anti-terrorism task forces." She adds:
"It appears
there's been substantial funding, sending people all
around the country."
According to Jon Weiss of New York Reclaim the Streets,
activists'
initial response to Freeh's testimony was fear "because
the phrase
'domestic terrorism' is usually just a packaging tool
for the mass
suspension of civil liberties."
Weiss suspects the FBI cribbed the terrorist tag from
Scotland Yard,
based on actions that devolved into riots. Reclaim the
Streets' actions
in Britain had been nonviolent since the network's
founding in 1995, but
that changed on June 18, 1999. As part of an
international "global street
party" to protest the G8 meeting in Cologne, Germany,
10,000 gathered in
London's financial district. What started as a street
party ended in the
trashing of several businesses, including a McDonald's
and a bank.
Chuck Munson, an anarchist and co-editor of Alternative
Press Review,
says the feds are grasping at "broad terms to tar and
feather" the
movement and dismisses as "demonization" the
"insinuation that all
anarchists are violent." The real violence, Munson
argues, is perpetrated
by the police. "They're the ones who bring guns,
bullets, gas, dogs and
water cannons to protests," he says, "and they use
them."
FBI spokesman Steven Berry would not elaborate on
Freeh's reasons for
targeting anarchists, Workers World and Reclaim the
Streets beyond
drawing attention to Seattle. But their inclusion wasn't
random. "There
are a lot of groups in the anti-globalization movement
who have exhibited
some potential to commit a terrorist incident," Berry
insists.
Asked whether these groups or others are under
investigation or subject
to counterintelligence operations, Berry says, "We don't
comment on
specific investigations." Berry denies that Freeh's
comments were a
politically motivated smear. "We recognize that every
group has the right
to assemble, the right to meet, has the right to exist
no matter how
abhorrent their message is," Berry says. "The FBI only
gets involved when
there is a violation of federal law."
Says Weiss, "If blocking a road or having a party
constitutes a terrorist
act these days, I suppose we're guilty. The FBI is
trying to get their
mind around the concept that there is a global democracy
movement, and
they don't quite understand it yet."
*************************************************
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PO Box 4660 - Arlington, VA 22204
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Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
www.anarchymag.org/
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